Grand Finale

I've been running around Tartu for the last two days. Now I'm back home and I can really call it a day. Over the two days we were able to sort out our huge shoe-box present pile and take 90 presents to the kids in need. My heart is filled with gratitude and amazement because we prayed and asked for 90 presents but in the end we got about 115. I have been reminded again that when God blesses, He doesn't fill half of the cup, He fills it so that the cup would overflow. Our cup truly overflows. 

As I saw the excitement and the joy of these little kids I knew instantly that our presents went to the right place. Those smiles and the thankfulness of their teachers made our effort well worth it. We're so going to do this again!

Now I have another problem. We need to figure out what to do with the extra 25 shoe-boxes. Oh, I wish I had more problems like this in my life right now!

The piles were truly impressive.

That's what blessing looks like.

With one of the piles. Great stuff.

Tuesday's Tune

I discovered The Staves this last spring. It's a band of three gorgeous sisters from Watford, UK. I really like their style. Apparently their name is getting bigger and more known, especially after they went on a tour together with Bon Iver (!!!) last year. I like many of their songs but I've chosen to share their Mexico, just because its video is so magical. So today's tune is The Staves and their Mexico.

We went berry picking today. My mom felt strong enough to come with us. Let's just say that the most ordinary activities seem very special to us these days when we get to do them together. Hard times make us appreciate the most simple things in a way we didn't even know it was possible. And we give thanks in all circumstances.

Another thing that made me really glad today was the realisation that I get to see Estonian autumn after three years of being away. It has always been the last week of August that I've gone to England. So this is the first time after my Newbold sage that I will experience autumn at home. I have no idea how many autumns I will see here in the future, but until my journey takes me to other places again I enjoy Estonia and its nature as much as possible.

So there was no chance I would have left my camera home today.

heather

dry

Mom, my hero.

red bilberry

We had a family reunion few days ago. Every time we get together with our family from my mom's side I realise again - we really are an extraordinary bunch of people. The family is quite big, my grandparents had five children (my mom, her sister and three brothers), plus their spouses, 16 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. My grandad and grandma are already resting in peace but the rest of the family is very much alive. So we get together for a day every August to celebrate life and family. I always look forward to these wonderful days.

This year we had quite a program. We started our reunion by having a tour in a famous Estonian observatory and space centre, one of my uncles has got a doctor's degree in physics and he has worked in that centre for decades so he knows people. They showed us a massive telescope Estonian astronomers use and a space centre where they built our first space rocket not long ago. Fascinating stuff, really. And then we had a big church booked in southern Estonia and we gave there an hour long classical concert - some of us are professional or semi-professional musicians and it has become our family tradition to make music when we meet each other. And then we went to one of my cousin's summer house and had a real feast with tons of delicious food and swim in a lake and sauna and all.

But it's always the people that fascinate me the most. I know my grandparents saw some tough times in their life but they always stayed faithful to God. And I keep wondering whether it's the blessing of their faithfulness that we, their descendants, have upon us. I don't know how else to explain the success and blessing that seems to be on our family. It's a bunch of extremely intelligent and at the same time humble and down to earth people who do well in life and who bless others around them. I love these people to bits and I'm impatiently looking forward to the time when Jesus has come back and when we once again sit around a long table and we invite Jesus to hang out with us and we have our family reunions again. With tons of delicious food and sauna and swim in a lake, of course. And without tears or sorrows, for the order of old things has passed away.

birches

Tuesday's Tune

I start working officially for the church from the beginning of September. That is less than two weeks from now. And as this time approaches, it gets more serious and bigger for me every day. When I think of the work I'll have to do and the road I'll have to walk down, I get these lyrics in my head:

I've got a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go
Said it's a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go
But I can't turn back,
My heart is fixed
My mind's made up,
I'll never stop
My faith will see, see me through

So today it's time to go back to old stuff. Jimmy Cliff and his Hard Road to Travel is my companion these days.

Shoebox Presents

Our first shoebox presents. They were worth taking a nice picture of them.

Sorting and packing. Location: my bed.

It was a few weeks ago when I got a phone call from a journalist who works for a big Estonian newspaper. She had noticed our Shoebox Presents' project somewhere and was interested in more detailed information. So I told her about how the idea came from Newbold and how I wanted to do a similar project here in Estonia. Two days later a very nice and positive article was published in that newspaper. And well, after that things got serious. Every single day for the last two weeks I've got emails and messages from people I don't know, wanting to join our project. Of course, come and join us, I tell them, let's make the first school day of these kids happier and better. Let's spread love.

The only bad thing is that I've completely lost control over what's happening and over the list of people who want to join us and who've already given their present. The pile of presents in Tartu's church seems to get bigger daily. But I'm not even worried about the mess, in a week's time we'll sit down with friends and count the presents and sort them out and praise God for His goodness. Yes. And we want to do it all over again next summer.