A chord of 3 strands.............

Having someone to share the ‘journey’ with is a huge blessing. I’m not talking about my wife - although I couldn’t manage without her J - but those partners and friends who provide help and support. This week has revolved around partnerships and has led to some interesting possibilities to help move our mission forward. 

 

When we arrived in Estonia our predecessors passed over to us a positive contact they had established with a Norwegian businessman, Tronde Brecke. With huge commercial enterprises in both Norway and Estonia, Tronde has a real admiration for the work of The Salvation Army and has been a great encouragement to us. Last year he helped set up a contract with the state forestry commission that guaranteed a regular supply of wood for our firewood project and a small line of credit to help pay for it.  

Lieutenant Alexey Burunov takes delivery of his new vehicle

This week we completed part 2 of his support for that project and picked up a new (2^nd hand) Ford Transit truck which will be used for delivering firewood to customers. Currently we have had to utilise our minibus by removing the seats each day after taking the guys to the wood yard. As this vehicle is also used to collect donated food this has been far from ideal. The new vehicle is large enough to carry firewood supplies but small enough to cope with the narrow city streets around Tallinn. Costing just over 20,000 Euros this is a most generous donation. So a big ‘thank you’ to Tronde!

 

 

The second half of the week was engaged in preparing for a potential mentoring project. The Harju

Economic and Development Centre (HEAK in Estonian) recently launched a Swedish funded training and mentoring project to help NGOs achieve greater economic independence and financial sustainability. The project will provide a series of training courses, but the key element of the programme is the link with a mentor who will meet regularly with the CEO, walking alongside to help them stayed focussed on objectives. After making our presentation and meeting with the project team we were delighted to be selected to participate. Our first mentoring meeting starts next week. Our goal is to develop trading programmes during the next 3-years aimed at solving our 500,000 Eur per year funding deficit. With so many other daily pressures and practical matters to attend to at Regional Headquarters it is easy for us to be distracted. The mentoring programme will help  us stay on track and the monthly trainings we attend during the next 6 months will provide practical learning and development. 

 

We thank God for partners – whether they are the prayer partners who regularly hold us before the Throne of grace or those secular partners who believe in the services we provide and stand alongside us in practical ways.  The word of Ecclesiastes 4:12 come to mind ‘A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken’.