Undaunted

Undaunted

Dear Friends,
I am astonished that it is now the month of August, and as always, my good intentions of keeping you all up to date with the happenings in Estonia have failed yet again. However, I have disciplined myself to leave everything else in the 'to do' basket, until I have written to you all.
I think I have to go back to the month of May, which saw the beginning of our activities for your Youth Mission Team. I think I told you that as part of our Territorial Programme for Youth and Children's Year, we developed a group of young people as a Mission Team - which for those of us over 50 means a Corps Cadet Brigade. The group consisted of 4 young people from Finland and 16 from Estonia. Led by the Corps Officers in Estonia, we had monthly 'training week-ends' which actually began with our Regional Winter Youth Camp in January. Members of the group are assigned to monthly mission programmes throughout Finland. This includes visits to Corps and to Children's Day Centres and summer camps for children. It includes open-air meetings, joy-hour style activities with the children and meeting leadership. Apart from the benefits that come to the Corps/Centres, the whole experience is really developing our own young people and has been a great 'bonding' experience for them. It has brought our Russian and Estonian youngsters together to become one team and that has been lovely to observe. Unless you know the dynamics of that relationship in Estonia it is not easy for you to recognise what is achieved in this alone. Now 10 of our young people (4 Finnish and 6 Estonian) will represent the territory at the European Youth Congress in Prage this week. I know that this will be a great opportunity for our youngsters to see more of the wider Army. That experience will be further enlarged when we take them to Finland in September for our Terr. Congress with the General and then again in October when we have our Ten Year Celebrations here in Estonia. We are anticipating a very exciting time on that occasion and I will have much more to tell you about that at a later date.
Then in May we had a second visit from the International Health Facilitation Team from IHQ to do a review of the work in Narva. There is so much potential for developing such a meaningful work in Narva amongst the community - both infected and infection free. The mother of our first HIV+ baby got married to her partner at the end of May. She and her partner (now husband) are both living a clean life from drugs and are involved in Corps life in a very positive manner. I know that all those in recovery are always very vulnerable and fragile, but we thank the Lord for His Grace which can truly be seen in 'saving' both individuals from certain death, and saving a family in relationship with each other. However, not every situation has such a happy ending. During this month, Capt. Anya conducted the funeral of a young lady who lived with her Grandmother. She was a lovely girl, although had a limited understanding and experience of life. She was lured into a relationship with an HIV+ man in the same building, and paid the ultimate price. I had the opportunity to visit the Grandmother during the Team Visit. Also in May, Capt. Daniel travelled with the IFT Team to Geneva and met with many of the UN and NGOs who support HIV Programmes with funding. We are hopeful of some good outcomes of these meetings. Meanwhile, in Tallinn, we have engaged very positively with the Director of the Global Fund and other members of the Estonian Institute of Health - all of whom are engaged in the 'sociology' of the disease. They are all anxious that the Salvation Army should lead the way as we are the only organisation among a number who actually engage with the people, and not just run programmes of needle exchange or condom supplies etc. We also have a lot of support from the Government, and Derek & I have both been received by a very influential MP at Government House.
Another development that Derek has achieved is the establishment of a Salvation Army Advisory Board in Estonia. This consists of an MP (same as mentioned before), the British Ambassador, the General Manager of Radisson SAS Hotel in Tallinn, a representative from the American Embassy, a business man (professor of architecture) and the Tallinn Corps Officer. Already they have been very helpful in suggesting ways of raising the profile of the Army in Estonia as well as giving practical assistance in ways such as developing (and paying for) a Web Page. So when we have that ready, we will be able to give you more up to day information than I do with this letter!
Also in May, I had my Regional Women's Rally, which this year we held in Narva. Up to now, everything regional has happened in Tallinn, but I felt that we should start spreading these events across the region and incorporating a wider availability of people. Amazingly, of some of the ladies who travelled by coach to Narva, some had never been to Narva - so it was quite an adventure for some. It was a very enjoyable day. In the afternoon we had Craft Activities and American Officer friends sent me enough material for cross-stitch and bead-craft. The ladies had a lovely time. I had a Guest Speaker who spoke on the subject "Women are Value!" and highlighted the influence of women across the generations of family. Then 'yours truly' led the meetings and gave the Bible Message. It was actually a 'Home and Family' Day so we also had a Children's Programme which was run by the Men Officers and a couple of older girls who helped with child care. Capts. Daniel & Anya provided a lovely environment with morning tea and snacks on arrival and a superb hot meal at lunch time from almost no facilities - certainly no kitchen - only somewhere to boil a kettle!!!
After a very important meeting in Tallinn with the Institute of Health, Captains Daniel and Anya and their family left for USA for three months 'homeland furlough'. The Captains were very tired by the time they left us as their Corps is very 'energy intensive' and time demanding. Also Anya had her newest baby who is now seven months - along with the other four children. So they were very ready for a rest. Although my experience is that furlough (especially homeland) is not necessarily a 'rest'.
After all that - we had a week's holiday to go home to Norwich for our daughter Lorna's wedding. We arrived home on 22nd May and spent the week leading up to the wedding with her enjoying all the 'last minute' preparations - including the girlie things that Mums can do with their daughters only on special occasions. It was a very busy time as there is more to do than you realise - especially since we had not been able to be with Lorna in any of the earlier preparation. But all her plans went like clock-work. The 'dress' and the bridesmaids dresses all arrived on time. The men's outfits (with just a little panic) were ready and all Lorna's plans and timings with the florist and the cars and the photographers were excellent and went without a hitch. The only thing she couldn't know about was the weather - and it was 32 degrees that day. Lorna's nightmare, but she handled it all perfectly and while everyone else was wilting, she just glowed with happiness. It was such a lovely day and it was so good to have so many of our family and friends together again. The setting for the reception was just perfect with a large balcony to 'cool down' on at regular times throughout the evening. If you would like to see some of her photos, you can find them on www.christaylor.photo.co.uk and follow the links to 'recent weddings' and you will find Lorna's photos there. I conducted the service while a proud Dad accompanied his daughter down the aisle, and then we changed places so that he could perform the marraige ceremony - which was what his daughter wanted. In good Army style, Lorna was married in Norwich Citadel and the music was a small brass ensemble from the Army Band (thanks to MD Percy Sommerville). It was all so good. This time 'The Aunties' from Glasgow were with us after missing Alan's wedding the previous year when Aunt Louise had to have heart surgergy following a second heart attack.
In June we had a lovely time when Jan & Ian, Hazel & Percy - friends from Norwich came to Tallinn. This was a nice follow on from the visit that we had from Paul and Elaine Jarrett in April. Both Paul & Elaine and the Norwich friends have done a lot to raise awareness of our work in Estonia and through them we will be able to support some of our programmes. Norwich Songsters have pledged the amount raised at their Carol Service this year and Bedford Congress Hall are supporting our programmes with young people.
Also in June, we had the visit of a Salvation Army Rock Group from Iceland. In Estonia, there is the equivalent celebrations of Christmas for 'Mid-Summer'. With the group we were able to do outdoor kids events in Tallinn and for the general public in Loksa and Tartu. In Tallinn with the CO we targetted the 'Lines' area which is an area of great poverty, where the CO has plans to develop a community presence in the Autumn. We made some very significant contacts there. The group have since said that they want to make a new CD and they will donate the proceeds for the work in this area. We also had a great opportunity in Tartu where we had an open-air meeting in the Town Square - standing in sweltering sunshine only comparable to Australia!!! Then we had an evening concert in one of the concert halls in Tartu. It was a very successfull campaign and finished with the week-end meetings and Sunday open-air meeting in Tallinn. Meanwhile our own youngsters of the Mission Team had been to Finland and conducted a very exhaustive campaign over 5 days. Everyone was very tired at the end of all this activity.
During this time, we were very grateful to have the help of a Salvationist from St. Petersburg - Nina Davydovich - who was running Narva Corps for the first month of the Henderson's absence. Unfortunately, neither THQ nor our own efforts from the UK was able to find holiday cover for the Corps, so it has placed an added burden on the shoulders of the Clarks at Tartu and ourselves. Between us we have managed to keep things going also during July, when the COs from Tallinn also went home to USA for furlough. So there were only two sets of officers running all the Corps and of course all the camps during July.
The end of June saw Derek & I travel to Oslo for the Norwegian Congress. This was an enjoyable taste of 'Army' for us, but a very exhausting occasion as many of the Officer activities started very early in the day and open-airs and march of witness etc. was in blazing sun with temps 32+ deg. One of the 'late-night meetings' didn't finish until 11.30pm - but it was fantastic!! We did have four hours free one morning and some officer friends took us a little sight-seeing which was lovely. We came back home on Monday 4th July and went straigh to Loksa for our Junior Soldiers Preparation and Youth Music Camp for the whole week. This was very successful with 8 new decisions among the youngsters to become Junior Soldiers. We also achieved our first real Youth Band with our little group of 5 players learning and performing a little march. If anyone reading this has any 'redundant' music from the early Triumph Series or Small Bands range, then we would be very grateful. We have plans to develop our brass activities and have had an e-mail from Col. Lincoln Parkhouse in the UK who represents the Leslie Condon Fund for promoting brass learning among young people. So we are excited about that. We are hoping that our little band will be able to play out again at the Ten Year Celebration.
After Camp, I was home for three days before I had to leave again to go to India for an Internation HIV Consultation, representing Europe. Fortunately, I had to travel to London a day early to arrange my visa, so I got to spend a day ( or half a day) with Alan and Pam. Also, Lorna drove up to London on the Friday evening, so we had a great evening together before I left for Chennai on Saturday morning.
The experience in India was challenging and really interesting - but certainly no holiday. Each day started at 8am and finished in the evening. My colleague from Finland and I arrived one day early, so we had a chance to have a look around and we saw some of the areas of the tsunami and also some of the temporary housing that the relief agencies have provided. It is a challenging country to live and work in, I guess, but to have to cope with the natural disasters that often befall poor communities make it even harder. We spent one day visiting local families in a village setting which was very rural. The concept of the HIV support programme is by engaging with individuals and families in the setting of their own home and community. This village had a SA Corps right in the centre and the hall was gifted by the UK Territory. We spent a lot of time speaking to the villagers, entertaining the children with choruses and games and then visiting individual families. But in the Indian village there is no such thing as a private visit. As soon as you reach someone's simple mud-brick and thatch home, you are surrounded by half of the neighbourhood. We spoke with a woman abandoned by her husband when she discovered she was HIV+; we visited a lady who was very sick in the clutches of the full-blown disease; we spoke with the young people (mostly young men) in the village about their concerns in the community and for themselves. It was a challenging experience to see how such communities find the resources from within themselves to respond to their situation. We were accompanied by the CO and we soon discovered that even he had a total misunderstanding of the disease. When he was told that one lady had a positive result back from her check, he thought that meant she was ok.
It was a tiring event, but really inspiring to meet up with colleagues from Africa - including Rwanda, Latin-America (I met up with a friend from Training College), Papua New Guinea, North America, Indonesia, Australia and of course India and other countries of Europe. By the time I got home my head was buzzing, however I had no time to stop and ponder since the very next day I had to go straight to do our Mothers & Toddlers camp. I have to say, I was not at all ready for it either mentally or physically and my only other officer helper was unwell with flu throughout the week. She was running the children's part of the programme which was too energy-draining when she was struggling, consequently the mum's part of the programme was somewhat over-run by kids all the time. Never mind, we got the the end the everyone seemed to enjoy it. I gave them needlework and card-making crafts, this time using my own materials. To say they cleaned me out is something of an understatement. But each lady (there were 11 mums) went home with at least 7-8 nice hand-crafted cards. I have to say that some of them made some lovely creations.
During the last week we have received into the Region our first Estonian officer who has been appointed to a new opening in Voru. In preparation for her coming we have been travelling back and forward so many times (a 7hour return journey) in finding quarters and then negotiating the purchase; creating links with the city government; acquiring a place which will become the Army Hall; contacting other churches and Christians who have already formed the nucleus of a small volunteer work force. All this has taken so much time and work over the last months - bearing in mind that everything needs translation and that often causes its own problems. The legal application of making changes in the Army here is huge as it has to go through management boards and committees as well as all the THQ paraphanalia. The gift of 'patient endurance' comes to mind.
Well, now July is over, I have been back in the office for two days and tried to catch up with all the back-log. I have now just embarked on the last two modules of my study course for my degree that I have been working on for about six years and we are now making plans to visit Australia for my graduation next May.
But a much much more exciting occasion lies just round the corner with the arrival of our new grandchild.
Alan & Pam are now in the last weeks of waiting. Pam has been fantastic all throughout her pregnancy and it has been a joy to share their excitement. The baby is due on 15th August and we plan to be home in the UK by 25th.
When we come back in September, we have Congress in Finland, and then our Ten Year Celebrations in October.
Well friends, now you know why I have to phsych myself up to do the blog newsletter. Don't try to print it off or you will loose all your paper, but please pass it on to as many of our friends that you can link up with.
We think of you often with great joy and not a few laughs!! And you are all very precious in so many ways.
Remember us and our officers in your prayers as that and your friendship is our greatest sustenance.
Our love to you all
Derek and Helen