Here is a picture of the first group of Estonian pastors that we met with last week.  (An interesting note, the young man with dark hair on the far right works with college students in Tartu. Matt Saar and his brother Peep Saar lead what is probably the largest congregation in Estonia and the average age is 23!)

I think perhaps the highlight of our first conference was our drive to Meiuste prayer house.  This is a 93 year old building in the middle of a forest — devoted to prayer.  We sat by candlelight and worshipped God. We sang, Bill Ankerberg, a good friend and pastor from Whittier Community Church shared a message, then we prayed together in groups of two. Following this we laid hands on Eirki, the General Secretary of the Union of Evangelical Churches and prayed over him.  As we prayed, the tears and sobs came unhindered from his eyes and mouth.  Next we prayed over Matt Saar (Peep’s brother) who is in charge of the youth work for the Union.  The meeting closed with Eirki praying for America on this day, 9/11. He prayed that God would comfort those who had lost loved ones and those who had grieving hearts.

It was an incredible evening, meeting in this place where generations of people have prayed for Estonia.  God was pleased.  I appreciate your prayers as we start conference #2 on Sunday evening.

I spoke this morning to a group of pastors about “building a church without wall.” Great group of guys, all but one of them are bivocational, all but one of them have congregations totaling less than 50 people.  In most cases the average make-up of their congregation is over 60.  These pastors love God, love their people and like us want to see their cities reached for Christ, but they work hard against great odds.  In fact according to the website www.nationmaster.com — looking at all church attendance (Catholic, Mainline, Evangelical, Charismatic) — only 4% of Estonians are in church on any given weekend.  That’s third from last, just above Japan and Russia.  The United States ranks #11.  Nigeria ranks #1.  In addition

Calvary has been taking groups to Estonia for the last 7 or 8 years.  In fact, Lynn and I came with our whole family a few years ago.  In Estonia, we partner with 3 different congregations in three different communities.  You can’t believe what an encouragement it is to these Estonian pastors to know that they are not alone in their desire to reach their country for Christ.

Their heart is an encouragement to me.

Being on sabbatical, I’ve had the opportunity to watch more election coverage than probably any year since college and seminary! It’s been a fascinating few months. The drama between the Clintons and Obama. An acceptance speech in a stadium from the first African-American to ever be nominated as a presidential candidate, and then a day later, the first woman to be nominated as a vice-presidential candidate by the republican party. One way or another — come November — history will be made.

Setting aside the issues and looking at the people: As a preacher/communicator, I love to listen to Barack Obama. He is a great communicator and he has hit upon a message that people are hungry to hear — there is hope. When it comes to John McCain, his service for his country and his “maverick” status shape a compelling story. Joe Biden is known as a blunt, straightforward politician but he has dealt with and overcome great grief in the loss of his family. Grief shapes us. And then there is Sarah Palin, fresh on the scene, surprise choice for vp. An athlete, leader of her chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes in high school, loves hunting and fishing, a mother of five — including a son with Down Syndrome, there seem to be some very courageous, elements to her story.

It’s going to be a fascinating 60+ days. But here are some of my political thoughts.

1) Jesus was neither democrat nor republican — Read more…

Well, not exactly, but close. I’m with my family this week in Orlando and today it rained, so we headed to the outlets. Of course everyone headed to the outlet mall, so it was hard to find a parking spot. Finally found a parking spot and then we walked halfway around the mall before we could find an entrance. Along the way, we debated whether a definition of hell might be “getting to the outlet mall but not finding a way in” or just “getting to the outlet mall.” I’ll let you guess which side I was on.

But anyway we finally got in the mall, I went with the boys, Lynn went with the girls… the guys headed to the Nike outlet store. The place was packed…but what was really interesting was walking around trying to decipher all the languages and countries represented in this one store. French, Egyptian, Japanese, English, I think German, and Spanish…and perhaps a handful of other Asian countries that I couldn’t identify. Everywhere I turned I saw another nationality and heard another language. It was like a mini-olympics.

You know where else that happens? You don’t have to go to Iraq to meet an Iraqi. You don’t have to go to Thailand to meet a Thai. You don’t have to go to Korea to meet a Korean. You don’t even have to go to Orlando. All you have to do is hangout at PSU…or even better yet…

1) Help out at the garage give-away being held at Calvary for International students. People are needed Thursday, Friday and Saturday to help set-up and good useful household items that you are willing to donate are needed as well. Contact Bill Saxton at wjs9@psu.edu if you can help.

2) Attend the International Welcome Picnic on Sunday August 17th from 4-8pm at Penn State’s Findlay Commons (East Halls). You will have the opportunity to meet and share with a variety of international students. Who know what God might do through them for you…or perhaps even through you for them.

R.O.I. That’s return-on-investment. You remember a few months ago, a terrible cyclone battered the country where we support some orphanages. (I would rather not use the name — as even leaders in that country can google and I would rather they not read my blog! But if you are from Calvary, you know.) So anyway at Calvary we collected over $20,000 for relief help…in addition our national network of churches collected another $5000 and gave to us to distribute. I just want to give you a small report of how those funds are being put to use.

The funds are being sent to the orphanage and school leaders with whom we work. They in turn are using the funds to buy food, building supplies, seed for new rice crops, and farming machinery. They have been working (and continue to work — months later there is still so much to do and so much suffering to relieve) primarily in two different areas…one area contains seven villages, the second area contains three villages. In area one — extensive work has been done to help the villages plant new rice crops, 4 plowing machines were bought and a very important bridge was built. Without this bridge the people would have been unable to get the plowing machines to the rice fields. This fields required plowing machines to replant the rice because the land has been so contaminated by salt water and dead bodies. The building of this bridge brought out all the people, young and old from the seven villages. The village ruler said, “I’ve never seen all my villagers come together like that in such a great crowd filled with great joy and happiness.” The bridge was dedicated last weekend and one of the orphanage leaders had the chance to tell all the villagers that there is a bridge (Christ) that no storm will ever break.

Teams continue to go into the hard hit areas bringing food, burying bodies, and telling people about Jesus. That offering that we took — the largest single offering we have ever given — is being used in incredible ways…and I know that God is pleased. This is what it means to be a church without walls.
One of the leaders said this in recent e-mails…

I do not know how to thank you all. I could not express my thanks by this letter. However, let me say,” THANKS AND THANKS TO YOU ALL”. Please pass our thanks to those who participate for this projects. Your prayers, Love, Heart and especially the offer you make, you have helped us make the people’s life change from hopeless to great hope and lots of people come to believe Jesus. I praise God that the Lord Himself puts you in the best place for our ministry. I am very proud of you for He uses you to help our people in their most needy time. You save lots of live not only spiritually but also in physical. Please extend my thanks to everyone who support our ministry through you for this special time.

So I know gas costs too much…and oil is going higher as the stock market goes lower…and we wonder if the economy is going in recession, but the bottom line is that we have so much for which to be thankful — not least of which is the opportunities that God gives us to give away, what he has already given us.