Boy, we had a roadtrip to Narva

Yesterday I gathered a group to come with me in my family-car to Narva. One Russian guy had sent an e-mail and made a call straight to the lions cave, i.e. the GU office. One youth conference was on its way.

As I like to hunt young leaders I didn’t want to let go of this opportunity.

There is 400 000 Russian speaking people in Estonia. And most of Estonian churches don’t cooperate with the Russian congregations. Like two faces with one heart for God in this land Estonia.

So we played music, for all its worth Mozart and sometimes with opened windows. It was fun. Got to live out all energy. At Peipsi (biggest lake in Estonia) we draw yellow hearts.

Jõhvi was full of holes, but the car survived. And at Narva sad-looking trucks were standing in a long row (have you read the news?). I got reminded of uncle Pets and his little life.

Finally, when we got to Narva, one question came up: where is this conference? Nobody answered the phone either. Wifi didn’t work. And Elion was also breaking... finally we still got to “uulitsa” (“street” in Russian), Tiimani 3D and “Slovo Bolshe” church. A free-church. A place where people are lifting hands.

“Here are so many boys,” our ppl said. But having said that, the band played their last verses (with 5-6 guitars) and we found out that the conference is over for this time. Youth that had come together from over the whole of Estonia headed back home.

The local youth pastor Anatoli spoke in English that he doesn’t know anyone in Narva who knows Estonian. 93 % speak Russian. 2 % speak Estonian. 5 % are from somewhere else.

But Anatoli shook hands and said that what-ever time they are waiting us back. For making youth-night happen for example. We just need to bring a russian speaking person with us.

So we played koroona with our guys and headed back to home. Narva was marked by us overall.

One more joyful word I got from one of the men, Ragnar: “It was cool. We could do something like it in future as well.”

We will meet, Anatoli!