Small steps – big deeds

Thanks for dropping in again on us –I’d like to share a couple of exciting project updates with you this week.

Introducing Ljuba - the project manager

This week marked the launch of a new project in northern Tallinn. We were recently approached by the north Tallinn council who asked if we would help them with a project to support some of the neediest families in the north of the city. The partnership project is called ‘Small steps – big deeds’ (their choice of name) and offers families the opportunity to choose toys and clothes for their children. The council have been collecting items but discovered that they were legally unable to implement this programme themselves. We have a good relationship with them – so they turned to us and asked us to partner with them. The council provided a small facility which will act as the distribution point and we identified a project manager. 

Ljuba, a young Salvationist and member of the Kopli corps, has agreed to manage the distribution. A few display racks have been gathered and the clothes have been sorted and laid out. Families are referred to the project by social workers. They come to the centre and Ljuba helps them choose whatever items might be helpful to them. The project officially opened on Wednesday and around 35 families received help in the first couple of days. 

The project is only planned to run until Christmas but we are watching progress carefully to assess whether this might form the basis for our first Thrift store after the partnership programme concludes.

Regular readers of this blog might remember my ‘Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire(wood)’ posting of a few weeks ago. Well, the great news is that a Norwegian businessman helped set up links for us with the National forestry commission (RMK). This has resulted in RMK offering

The wood splitter in action

us a contract for a regular and reliable supply of wood. This will be at a fixed price – and with a small credit facility so that we do not have to pay for the materials ‘up front’.  A locally-based British businessman has even offered to cover the first 2-months invoices as a loan to help us with our cash flow as we build up a good stock of firewood for sale. So our prayers for a wood supply have been answered and we give thanks to God for friends who have come alongside to help. Additionally, the wood splitting machine that was not working has been repaired and is helping us as we ramp up our capacity. The wood yard has been hindered by not having its own electricity supply. Well, after months of hassling the electricity company, work has started this week on laying electricity cables along the main road. We hope this might mean we finally have our own electrical supply installed very soon! Further discussions are taking place with our Norwegian friend this week on how we might make other improvements to this project so we pray for further progress.

This week we look forward to our first ‘Ready for Mission’ officer and centre leader meeting. we gather together at Tartu on Wednesday. I’ll tell you how it goes next week. Thanks for your continued prayers and support.