Wise women from the East

Cndidate Arina and the Johvi 'women in prayer'

A few kilometres have been covered this week as Lyn and I journeyed as far east as it's possible to go within Estonia on a 2-day visit to Johvi and Narva.  With all our corps 2.5 hours or more from Regional Headquarters, visits can sometimes be a little bit 'hit and run'. But with special invitations from the women leaders, Candidate Arina Danilova and Captain Ludmila Baglai, for Lyn to visit their respective Ladies meetings we scheduled a longer trip. And I am so glad we did! We enjoyed special fellowship with our corps leaders and opportunity to meet new church members and volunteers.

At Johvi corps, Arina has started a new Thursday activity - 'Women in prayer'. It was lovely to meet with 4 ladies who have recently started attending the corps. Interestingly, the women don't live in Johvi but travel 10kms from the area of Kohtla-Jarva. As the group sat together around the table Arina led them in a short Bible study and then a lovely time of prayer. The women clearly enjoy coming and feel the costly bus journey is worth while. A small  but very significant foundation has been planted and we pray that others might join in coming weeks.

From Johvi we headed further east to Narva - right on the border with Russia. The town has a very different

Ludmila translates as Lyn shares at Narva

feel about it to Tallinn, where we live. The language is almost exclusively Russian and the design of the buildings very Soviet in style. Having moved into a new corps building  earlier this year, the corps programme is really developing and expanding. The Friday Ladies fellowship meeting revolves around food -as does much of the corps programme here in Estonia. After enjoying sandwiches and drinks in the downstairs dining room the group of around 40 ladies moved upstairs to the worship hall. Lyn had prepared a short presentation of introduction but before she took part Captain Ludmila invited the ladies to share any personal thoughts. One by one they stood to  share readings or testimonies that they had prepared in advance and brought to share. From start to finish it really was a time of rich 'fellowship'.

Lyn even learned how to make a 'snowflake' Christmas decoration from one of the youngsters who had come along with her grandma.

This weekend, as I write this blog, news from home includes reports that the first female Anglican Bishop (in the UK and Ireland) is being installed in Ireland. We pray God's blessing on the Rev Pat Storey as she makes history. How thankful we are that our Salvation Army Founders recognised the significant place of women leaders in our church. This week we have seen first hand evidence of the wise leadership and fruitful ministry of our women leaders in the 'east'. We give thanks to God for them.

Next Friday I will be returning to Johvi again to participate in a special ceremony for a new and exciting partnership activity. I'll report it in next week's blog.