Today (Monday) was a quiet day ... had a little reading/study time, did some laundry, made a pot of borsch (one of Kayli's favorites), shared a few hours with one of our girls from church and then headed out for our 'Beginning Estonian' lessons.

The three of us are enjoying studying our new language with a group of English speakers who live in Tartu and are struggling like we are to learn it. Some, however, are much farther along than the likes of me! Brandi has already completed a semester at the University and just feels like he needs some practice. You'd be impressed with him! Kayli continues to be the star of the show ... her pronunciation is great and she's soaking it up like a sponge. This old mom ... well ... she's not learning it quite so fast. If only everyone would speak in 'food' words, I'd be able to understand them.

Still it's enjoyable to share the task (and some laughter) with some other people who can understand our funny little phrases. You don't realize how many idioms we, as Americans, use until you try and explain them to a foreigner. Some of our classmates are from other places ... one is from Australia, one is from Ireland and a couple are from Great Britain. So sometimes, even they look at us pretty silly when we say things like ...'can you grab the door, please?'.

I don't know if we'll ever get this language down but we're having fun trying. Please continue praying for supernatural intervention!

God Bless, pj

Thank you all for visiting our online journal and for your kind thoughts. Some of you are having trouble leaving comments on this site. We are kind of new to this 'blog' technology so we've just realized that you cannot leave comments without being a 'member' of xanga. This is a protective measure to allow us to monitor our site and block anyone who might leave unseemly messages.  If you don't desire to 'join', you may click the 'email me' link and we'll receive your notes by email.

God Bless !!

Today marked the first day of our new 'summer format' at church. It was a small crowd but we had two visitors so that gave us an even dozen. It may be that the later time will not make a difference in our attendance through the summer, but it seemed appropriate to look for a way to reduce the summer lull we've been told to expect and have already seen evidence of.

Tonight we studied from Matthew 6 -- "Storing Up Treasures in Heaven". Many said they were challenged to look at their choices from a different perspective. We will be studying through the "Commands of Christ" this summer in our small-group setting. We pray that it will allow us a chance to share with them insight from the mind of Christ and allow them an opportunity to share their hearts as we study.

Please continue to pray that God will guide us and bless us with 'much more fruit' (John 15). Our sincere desire is to bring glory to God and see many added to the kingdom.

love you all,

penny

April / May 2005 ~ Newsletter

April and May have been busy and full. These past couple of months have brought with them days of joy and days of sadness … days of encouragement and days of discouragement. Still, we are so thankful that God, in His own wisdom, saw fit to bring us to this place as tools for His service and … we’re doing well.

We’ve been very anxious to see summer arrive, though that means something a little different here than where we come from. It seems spring never really arrived in Estonia in full force. Our days were cold and dreary, holding at about 40 degrees for most of the month of April and much of May. We have been blessed with a few lovely days of sunshine and even the rain has brought welcome blooms to our trees. Our Tartu streets are now lined with a gorgeous row of green and the fields are full of ‘butter flowers’ (dandelions). Even those are a beautiful sight to behold. Right now our days are more often cloudy than sunny and our temperatures average in the 60’s. So, we fully enjoy each sunny day when it comes and continue to pray that we will have many more before the long days of winter return.

Our little church is doing well. We are blessed with the fellowship of a great group of people and God continues to help us love them more each day. The spring and summer in this culture sends many folks to their country houses to relax, garden and make preparations for the winter ahead. Even those with full-time jobs receive a month of vacation time each year. This all means a slacking off of attendance in our Sunday morning meetings. In order to meet the people where they are and encourage them to remain faithful in their fellowship/worship, we’ve decided to go to a new format for the summer. We’re praying that a later meeting time and an extra effort to spend time with them on their ‘turf’ during the week, will bring us closer as a body instead of losing the valuable ground that has been gained so far.

Though things are looking positive, April was a difficult month for the body here. The church grieved deeply at the news of Gayla Hofschild’s sudden death. Gayla was part of the mission team we followed when we moved here. We were able to spend some wonderful fellowship time with Gayla and her husband Dennis, both on our survey trip and when they returned to the States. We gained great insight during our time with them and experienced so much of the heart that was shared with the people of Tartu. Gayla’s work is also evident here, in the hearts of the people that she taught and mothered with abundant love. She redeemed her time well (Colossians 4:5) and we are so honored to be continuing the seed-planting and watering that she and the rest of the team began before we arrived.

Penny’s regular ladies class has ended for the summer but plans are in the works for ‘Keepers of the Home’ activities and fellowship. Our young women are anxious to learn cooking, sewing and homemaking skills so we’re hoping to take advantage of some of their summer freedom to share in these areas. Brandi continues his one-on-one bible studies and his evening ‘Beginning English’ classes on Thursdays. It seems that this study has begun to bear some fruit, as several are moving from the desire to study English only to the desire to study the Bible. Along with these kinds of studies, we’ve been called on to do some counseling with a couple of families who are struggling with their marriages and relationships. We continue to seek God’s guidance as we try to meet the great need for building loving relationships, in a way that is most affective.

We have two major projects for the summer: Camp Bal-chy-oca (Baltic Christian Youth Camp) and our “Let’s Start Talking” project that is planned from July 11- August 22. Camp begins on July 3 and will include children from all over Estonia. This is an effort of all the churches of Christ in Estonia to evangelize those unfamiliar with Christ and to encourage those already committed to Him. We are thrilled to be working with our fellow missionaries in Tallinn and several who will be coming from the States to help us put on a great camp. “Let’s Start Talking” is a campaign designed to offer beginning English speakers the opportunity to practice their English while reading from the Bible. There will be a team of 5 coming in to carry out that campaign. Their goal while here will be to make contacts, introduce them to the scripture and prayerfully, connect them with the Body that is presently here. We will then follow-up with those interested in continuing their study. Please pray that God will bring us a fruitful harvest in both of these projects and that His imprint will be left on the hearts of those touched.

Brandi has finished this semester’s Estonian language class at the University. He passed with a ‘Tubli’ which we are told is like an A-. We think that’s a pretty good way to finish considering the difficulty of the language. We have been told that the Estonian language is the language of heaven … because it takes an eternity to learn it. We say ‘AMEN’!! We are all anxious to learn enough to gain our independence, though … and to share with those we meet, the love of Christ.

So many of you have written to ask about how our flat situation is coming together. Well … we guess we can say … The Saga of the Kendall Flat continues! Repairs in our living room and two bedrooms have been made and are awaiting decoration (after the dust settles). However, in mid-April we had a heavy rain that brought more water inside our flat. Thankfully, it was in the kitchen and not in an area already repaired. God is so good!! This halted repairs to determine and fix the problem, allow for drying time, take 7 vacations, etc.   With the more extensive damage caused by the newest leaks, we are probably looking at 6 weeks to 2 months more of repair time, once they begin again. We are promised that might be next week sometime. It seems that God feels we need more character-building projects, though Penny has been accused of being a ‘character’ already.

You’ve asked what we miss most about America. The answer to that question is … hands down … OUR FAMILY (and Wal-mart and Sonic, of course). Our whole crew seems to be in a transition in their own lives. We miss them terribly and truthfully find it difficult to believe it will be another year before seeing them again. Courtney and Adrian have finally been blessed with the full-time position that Adrian has been praying for with the FAA. This means they can stay in South Carolina and begin making more permanent plans for their future. Their sweet baby, Ty, is growing so fast. He’s already 7 months old and we’re getting to know him by way of web-camera very well. Amber’s husband, Joel, is in the mid-point of the application process for a fire department job in North Carolina. It’s a long process but they are very excited about the possibility. Amber is expecting her third baby in September ... hard to imagine not being there to hold that little one when it’s born. Lacey and Justin are still in Lubbock at SIBI and are planning to stay for the Advanced Mission’s school following their graduation in December. Right now, they are considering joining a team of 4-6 families to New Zealand. Lacey is also expecting baby number 3 … due date still unknown. We are thrilled to report that Dustin’s Army Reserve unit has been taken off of ‘alert’ status. For a while, it looked as if though he would be heading out to Iraq but God’s grace is abundant. For now he doesn’t have to go and his mom is very happy about that. Jared arrived in Kremenchuk, Ukraine on May 10. He’ll be working there for about 14 months as an apprentice missionary through the AIM program at Sunset. He is busy but seems to be happy. He says that he’s enjoying the food but not so much the lack of hot water.  Oh, sweet memories!

We have been working on the preliminary stages of a website for the work here but don’t expect that will be up and running for some time. In the meantime, we have put together a ‘blog’ site to share our thoughts with you and archive our newsletters. Kayli has also begun journaling on her own ‘blog’ and would be very encouraged if you visited her there. Please leave words of encouragement there … she has some very homesick days and it would thrill her greatly to hear from you. Visit her at www.xanga.com/kaylibug . Thanks so much.

Please continue to pray for our family and the fruitfulness of the work in Tartu. Please pray that God will bring us ‘kindred’ teammates. Please pray for God’s hedge of protection around our family … both the ones with us and the ones far way. We continue to covet your prayers and appreciate your notes of love and encouragement. Please don’t stop doing either. We love you all.                                                       

 Because He said ‘Go’!  ~ Brandi, Penny and Kayli

We are hoping to launch a new website of our work in Tartu in the next few months but thought this would be a good transition to share what's going on here.