On Thursday, April 16, I had made plans to make an exploratory trip to Estonia to investigate the possibility of SAC doing mission trips to this country. It’s been on my heart for about a year that SAC needs to expand to other areas and other areas within the former Soviet Union. A few months ago I looked into going to the Ukraine. However, the doors to possible contacts never seemed to materialize. In contrast, the doors seemed to be wide open for possibilities in Estonia. This trip seemed to come together easily and we were able to visit 7 different possible ministry sites in several cities, easily arranged transportation, translation, and people to connect with. We were also offered a place to stay at a church in Johvi, Estonia (pronounced “Ickvey”).
Milan, a long time friend and translator for SAC, and I took a bus from St. Petersburg to Estonia. It was a couple of hours before we began the process of crossing the border. Our passports and visas were checked on the Russian side before we passed to the Estonian side where our documents were checked again. The whole process for our bus took about an hour or more. The border crossing is right at a river where there are two opposing medieval castles on each side of the river. I would have loved to tour those castles, but it indicated to me that this has been a border for a long time.
Once we were across the border, it was a short drive to the town of Narva, Estonia. At the bus station, we were met by Salvation Army Captain Daniel Henderson. Daniel was happy to pick us up despite his busy schedule. We were fast friends and he took us to the first orphanage who was expecting us.
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