Alyssa Laubach and Kate Elmore

Hello Fellow Bloggers!!!! For our last day in Estonia, we spent the day in Tallinn, the capital of this wonderful country. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and then proceeded to tour the city. We ate the finest food money could buy (McDonalds) and shopped for souvenirs for ourselves and loved ones. Don't worry Mom, I bought my brother a gift! :) We made sure to take plenty of pictures so you could see all the sights; the historic city was absolutely beautiful! Can't wait to see everyone at the airport: Delta Flight 173, lands at 5:15 PM, we are guessing that it will take us 1-2 hours to get through customs. P.S. Mom, I would love outback for dinner if you're wondering :) ha ha ha jkjkjk

Love you!!

Alyssa and Kate :)

The Amazing Race!

Our trip is sadly coming to a close and although many of us are excited to be heading home soon, our hearts are heavy with the thought of leaving Estonia. Last night we returned to our fabulous hotel in Rakvere and finally got a good night's sleep in a bed! This morning we headed to the church for a morning debrief with the Estonia leaders to talk about what went good and what could be improved for next years camp. After that we headed out to a yummy lunch and a little visit to the piercing salong (salon). A few of the girls with be returning home with some extra holes, 13 in total to be exact, including Angie's new nose ring! Then we headed back to the church to meet up with the youths and play a huge game of The Amazing Race all through the city! We divided up into 5 groups and raced through the city to complete tasks as a team. Sadly it decided to rain, but that didn't stop any of the teams. The tasks included playing the human knot game, racing up stairs and dressing up in a second hand shop. We all enjoyed a fierce fashion show from Kyle back at the church. After the winner was announced(the group with the ginger!) everyone enjoyed pizza, snacks, cake and unfortunately out last time with our new Estonian friends :( Now we are resting for the night and heading to Tallinn tomorrow for our last day!

Bye Bye English Camp

Today was the last day of English camp or fairwell to our new found friends. It means nights with more than 4 hours of sleep on something other than the floor. Also it means goodbye to horse flies that can carry off a horse. Despite the fact that we know are back in the guest house with comfort, I think all of us regret coming back because we are missing our small groups and our lil buddies. We had an oh-so wonderful picture session in the hallway of the school...and all the Estonian's wanted pictures with us even that ginger in our group Michael. I KID!! We said goodbye at the church and there were a few tears, but everyone seems excited for tomorrow when we can hangout. At dinner we saw Kaspar the friendly ghost, except he's not a ghost, and Sandar my lil fireball of a buddy. The cripple is hanging out with us and he got crutches actually made after WWI so we don't have to worry about him slipping everywhere. Well I want to play rooks and I'm can't think of anything cute or funny to say so I say GOOD DAY!

Josh Partridge aka ASIAN!!

Update to day seven!

This afternoon during free time we had a KILLER..(almost literally) Dodgeball game in the gym. There were a few scratches, floor burns, bruises and tears shed. Everyone is doing fine...except...Blake. During the game, he and Michael collided into each other causing Blake to twist his ankle and all the ladies went running :) To make sure he was alright.. a couple of Estonian leaders took him to the hospital to check everything out. Turns out that his foot was too swollen to find out what was wrong with it but doctors put a cast on it and he's back walking on it with crutches...with a very purple foot which is...NOT normal but he will be A.OK.
As for now.. its the boys turn in the SAUNA until 11 and then girls have it unitl 1.
Tomorrow is out last day at English camp:( We have made many new relationships with the Estonians and will be sad to leave. The leaders actually get to sleep in a little bit longer tomorrow morning which is good:) and then we will have breakfast, session, lunch, clean up and then we leave camp!
That's all for now:)

Day Seven. :)

T2na oli hea p2ev!! ( That's Estonian for..Today was a great day! )
All the leaders attended an early meeting at 8:15 this morning and we were all struggling to stay awake. It was a little cloudy outside but nothing to be worried about. We ate up a great breakfast and attended a session. All the Estonians were starting to really connected and open up within their small groups about their faith and their walks with god so that was really incredible to see! The English environment games like comics and the amazing race really allowed the kids and their leaders to grow a stronger relationships. free time was awesome too! half the camp played an game of dodge ball.......chris style (MUHAHAHAHA). but it was really fun! oh btw, in the previous bog we mentioned some illnesses....heres some details

Michael: has blood coming out of his nipples
Allie: fell over a rock and broke her wrist.....wow
Taylor: ran in to a pole and cracked his skull open and lost 3/4 of his blood supply
Alyssa: face us turning purple from a football to the head.
Kyle: has turned grren....so we call him the jolly green giant
Blake: broke his leg..

.....................NOT.

We are all having a great time!

Sick Bay Update

hey moms and dads - this is angie and i wanted to reassure you that all is well here in estonia. we've had a few students who've been sick but right now, 100% of the team are healthy and happy.

chris brock is our estonian leader and his wife lena is a doctor so we've had excellent care! most of the illness has been being over-tired, not drinking enough water and getting used to a new culture, new timezone and some new foods.

since i'm sure some of you want more specifics, there's been some nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and angry bellies. we've been "mandating" that they all drink 64 oz of water each day and also enforcing a decent bedtime. it seems like the worst of it is over and we are all LOVING our time in estonia!!

ps: i guess most of you will want to know if it was your son or daughter so here's who's been sick along the way: victoria, taylor, allie, josh p, michael. we would LOVE your prayers that we all stay healthy and strong.

stay tuned for more FUN updates from the students. for now, i'm off to be SILLY in the talent show!!!

Day 6

Today was the first full day at camp! This morning all the Americans woke up so they could attend a meeting where we learned all about what we were gonna do today. we started off with breakfast, which was porridge with jam! then we had our 2nd meeting and talked about how Adam and Eve brought sin in to the world. After that we had what we call English environments, its where Estonian's could play a lot of games while sharpening up their english. when everybody was hungry we headed to lunch! then out again to another english enviroment. sadly some american students have gotten really sick the past few days, so some of them had to sit out during the english enviroments. and so right now it is free time where everybody is enjoying football (both american and estonian), vollyball, nail painting, and just chillaxin'.

Day 5

Sunday we all woke up bright and early to pack for camp, and attend a local church a few blocks away. Olivia and Josh P. ( Asian ) gave their testimonies in front of the church while Kati translated. After, we went out to lunch with our small group partners. When we arrived back at the church we were all excited to see the Estonian students were waiting outside with a bag to go to camp. Before we knew it a huge double decker bus pulled up to take us to camp in Tartu, Estonia. The school house we are staying at is beautiful. Girls are upstairs and boys are downstairs. We played games and attended our first session with our small groups; however, we were SO excited at all the questions and curiousity the students had about God. After session, we went to Cafe where everyone enjoyed playing card games and eating Estonian snacks. Because of all the excitement, people had a hard time sleeping and almost everyone was up late playing basketball and talking to our new friends.

Day Tres! (Even Though Were Not in Mexico :)

So today started with the alarm going off, OH WAIT there is no alarm! Some woke up early and others slept until three minutes before having to meet in the lobby. Then we soon ventured off to the church that is connected to North Point and met with some of the Estonian leaders that we get to lead with at camp! They then took us to lunch were we chatted and got to know each other better. The culture here is so cool and kinda the same and kinda different compared to the common teenager lives back at home. We did find out that burping and farting are GROSS and inappropriate, haha. On the way home we all played on this jungle-gym next to the church, the coolest thing in Estonia, just kidding. Then we went back to the church for some more training about camp and stories that were going to be taught at camp. We were all pooped because we didn't have our daily nap/rest time to we then went back to the hotel for a two hour nap. PERFECT! By then, it was dinner time. They told us that we(the Americans) seem to be hungry or obsessed with food, kinda embarassing but so true. We went in groups to dinner which was good to get to know each other even better, even though we are all getting so close :). After that one group took a little longer so we just hung out until they got back! But all got together and prayed and talked about camp for the next week! Well were off to bed, because some of us are hanging were so tired!

Training and Exploring

After waking up to a bright and shining sun (which rose at about 4:00 in the morning), we ate breakfast and began training. Chris told us all about the Estonian culture and what a typical family in Estonia is like. After the training, everyone had a lot on their minds. For the Estonians, becoming a Christian is a HUGE decision, because Christianity is not usually accepted by their parents, friends, and peers. We are excited to lead small groups and connect with the Estonian students. After lunch, we went shopping at the small, which was very similar to American malls. We ate dinner at a fast food restaurant similar to Burger King. Our day ended with a peaceful rain and the excitement for camp to begin in one more day.

Passport Mania

The day started with the team meeting outside of the Delta terminal. We soon find out that our dear Ashley has left her passport at home. The conversation went as follows:
Angie:"Wait you are kidding right? You didn't bring your passport?"
Ashley:"It wasn't on the packing list!"
Good thing Ashley has AWESOME parents who brought her passport down to the airport. As we are on our way to security we realize that Julia has left her passport and boarding pass in the bathroom stall. She realizes this about 30 minutes after the fact. If you know Julia at all, frantic panic filled the air. Angie, surprisingly, was the one who was staying calm. They went from every lost and found, to the cleaning lady, to the poor people in the stall. It was about an hour and a half with the rest of the team at the terminal waiting and praying for it to show up that Julia and Angie were running all over the Atlanta airport. Sure enough it showed up at 5:04 with our flight leaving at 5:50. God is good!
Our flight lands in Prague and everyone is extremely excited to get off the plane. We use the bathrooms and find that the water is yellow. Yes! We go to board our next flight to Estonia and of course where are Julia and Taylor's passports? On our previous flight, which by the way was being boarded. Kyle to the rescue! He took off to get Taylor's passport and found not only one passport but two. Hmmm I wonder who's? It rymes with Ulia.
You could say it was an eventful day, but God prevailed and landed us safely in Estonia.

what's up with estonia?

yup, we're really going to estonia! most of us had NO idea where this country was before signing up for this mission trip so we'll share a few tidbits here.

... estonia is a small place; smaller than new hampshire & vermont combined. you can travel from one end of the country to the other in less than 5 hours - and that's not rushing at all.

... in 2008 there were 1.340 million people living in estonia; it has one of the lowest population densities in all of europe. (think wide open spaces!)

... estonian people have been living on it's baltic coast since as early as 3500 B.C. - and that's a good long time.

... from the 13th century until 1918, estonia was mostly invaded then ruled by a whole bunch of different countries like germany, sweden, denmark, poland and russia.

... in 1918 the estonians were finally free to declare themselves a republic and for almost 20 years, they were able to take pride in their own country.

... in 1939, the soviet union invaded and occupied estonia for over 50 years. in less than 6 years of soviet occupation, over 25% of the estonian population was lost to execution, imprisonment, deportation and escape.

... in 1991, estonians regained their independance as part of the "singing revolution", a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent and abusive occupation by the soviet union.

ps: you really should check out www.singingrevolution.com - watch the trailer!!

stay tuned for more as we get ready for our estonian adventure!!

Introducing Team Estonia '09!!

Here's Team Estonia '09 - what an awesome looking group!!! :)

Our trip is 7/22 - 8/2 and there's LOTS more to tell so stay tuned for our next post. For now, please keep praying for us. We have so much more to do in just a few days, including raising more support. If you'd like to give to our team, please follow the link below and on the last line, put Student in Need. Thanks!!

https://ssl.northpoint.org/ssl/globalx/giving.html