Have you ever seen one of those online neighborhood community pages? AJ is a church leader from California. Earlier this year, AJ’s wife was viewing a local community page for their area. She noticed that a concerned citizen had posted about a group of youth, claiming to be from the country of Estonia. They were selling books, door-to-door in a neighborhood of California, located near their home. Knowing that AJ had visited Estonia on multiple occasions, she quickly notified him of the situation.
Moments later, AJ and his family hopped in their car and drove up and down the streets of the nearby neighborhood, looking for the group of Estonians. After some time, scouring the streets, they found the group and pulled the car up to them. AJ asked the youth what they were doing and then shared with them that he had previously visited Estonia to serve with youth at different camps and churches. And, do you know what happened next? He and his family invited the group of Estonian youth over to their home, where the youth stayed with them for several days! The family was able to share the Gospel of Christ with them and love on them, as they generously hosted them in their home.
It gets even better… A few months later, I was on a video call with AJ and Keith, another California church leader, brainstorming ideas about their upcoming trip to Estonia. AJ told me the story and we decided that we should invite one of the Estonian youth they had hosted to our cooking group gathering in Tartu, Estonia, during the visit. The young woman actually lives in Tallinn (about a 2.5 hour train/bus ride from Tartu). Amazingly, she turned out to be visiting friends about a block away from our cooking group location that very same evening!
The young woman joined us (Keith, AJ, and other youth from our cooking group ministry), and we had a wonderful time together. We made spinach pasta from scratch, baked a chocolate chip brownie cake, and we shared a meal around the table. Most importantly, we prayed together and engaged in edifying conversation. Please continue to pray for her and for other youth that visit our cooking groups. Pray that they will be receptive to the Good News of Christ and choose to follow Him!
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”–Psalm 34:8 NIV
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Beth Ann Erickson
Converge Missionary | Tartu, Estonia
Edited by S. Staley