What are we doing?

Since we arrived here last April from having Elaina we have had one thing that we have constantly been praying about. What is God's plan for us here? When we first arrived we were very excited and ready to get started. The question was how and when. We thought at first that we would not need to learn Estonian immediately but quickly realized that was needed. So we enrolled in language school again. We still were very eager to get started but still no real direction so we continued to pray.

We had heard from a friend at the church we were attending that there was an Estonian church planter who may be interested in working with us. We continued to pray. Justin was invited by another church planter here to attend the church planter meetings that many of the church planters in this area attend to discuss with one another the happenings and their ministries. He began to go to these regularly usually once a month. The person who invited him was the church planter we had been told about before that possibly would want to work with us. So the more Justin got to know him they decided to meet and discuss the opportunities for us to work together.

He has a church in the Lasnamäe region of Estonia. This region has about 112,000 people living in it. The church they have is four years old and has been having home groups, children's club and youth outreaches. It is called the Lasnamäe Lootuse Kogudus (Lasnamäe Hope Church). They have a handful of members. They are very eager to reach their people for Christ. They need more workers. They had asked us what our plans were. We really had no answer other than we want to do God's will and help them in any way that we can. We do not want to take over or do our own thing. That to us would defeat the purpose of us being here. After all we believe that the goal of missions is for the native people to be able to effectively be able to reach their own people. The people at the church seem open minded and happy to work together. One of the ladies said "We can be a team then that is great!".

I feel as if I need to be honest with you. We have had many times here where we have felt as if may be we made a mistake in coming here. We feel at times as if we can not be used here. We have been down at times. I feel that you need to know this because I need to be real with you. I know we are not the only missionaries in the world, or people in the world, that have had doubts about God's calling on their life. Sometimes we feel like our lives would be easier and better for the kids in America. I struggle with homeschooling and feel that I do not do as good of a job as a certified teacher would. It is something I am having to really work on. So we have a choice to make daily. Either we submit our lives to God and be transparent to our needs and desires in order for Him to show us His will for us, or we can be defeated and depressed and unused. So we choose to submit daily to God. It is not always easy but He blesses it every time. He loves us and wants what is best for us. We just have to learn to listen and that is what I am personally working on at this time in my life. So I am sorry if this was a little too real for you to get a real glimpse into our lives but I feel it is necessary. I am not perfect but God is and where I am weak He is strong!!

We feel God has led us to this church for a reason. We do not know fully what our role will be there but we are committed to do God's will and be available to do whatever He asks us to. We are excited to be able to start working alongside the Estonian people for Christ. Please pray that we will continue to seek God and His guidance daily. Pray for the planning of the camps this summer as we have a team coming in July. Pray for the church to be able to find a more permanent meeting place that is available to them all week. We are helping look for a place now and we need God's guidance to find the right place for the church.

Thank you for all of the prayers and support. We love you all and would love to hear from you!

Elaina's first birthday

We went to America unexpectedly on the 24 of January. We went to be with my family due to my grandma being very ill from her cancer. She passed away while we were on our flight there. It was a very hard time for me and my family. She had lived with us since I was a baby. It was especially hard for my mom, aunts, and sisters. She is in Heaven now and pain and cancer free praise God. I had a wonderful time with my family and really did not want to leave. Being there made me see how much I had missed the past two years. It made me feel guilty for not being there to help my mom as she went through this for the past two years. I know that my mom and grandma both understand why we are here. I know that they do not harbor any hard feelings for us being here. I miss them though in a very real way. So not getting to say goodbye to memaw was very hard, but I will see her again in Heaven and I can not wait! The time with my family I will cherish we shared many good time over the two weeks we were there.



While we were in America we were able to celebrate Elaina's first birthday a little early. It was a huge blessing to share her first birthday with our family because we do not get to do that often. It was a little last minute planning but everyone was able to come except one of my sisters and her family. We missed them and wished we could have seen more of them but with a busy family it is hard and we understood. Over all we had a very good visit. We are glad we went home to be with my family. Thank you Jim and Joyce for letting us invade your home yet again.

Praying for direction!

Christmas eve. We always open one gift. These are from Gran!
Elaina snacking on paper. Fiber is always good! lol




Christmas morning!


Our beautiful gifts!Us!
The kids sledding in the new snow gear from Grandma and Peepaw!


Well it seems like the past month has flew by at times and has went slow at times. The holidays especially Christmas is a difficult time for me to be away from our extended family. We have been very blessed this year though and I am very grateful for the wonderful family God has allowed me to have.
In mid December we had a minor automobile accident. It was our first wreck in a foreign country. It was our fault as well. They have these big circles here instead of stop signs and they have two lanes we were in the outside lane of the circle. In order to continue to go around the circle you have to be in the inside lane but we didn't know that. The inside lane can also go straight. So as we were going around the circle the lady in the inside lane went straight and bumped us on our side. It really only scratched the car. We did not know what the process here was for a wreck so Justin got out of the car and went to talk to the lady. I would usually be frustrated int his situation and be asking God "why me?", but instead I was overwhelmingly grateful that no one was hurt and was praising God for everything even what was going on outside which I had no idea of till later. You see Justin was talking to the lady outside and she was smiling and very kind. We ended up being there for about one and a half hours, the whole time Justin was out talking with the lady. You see we had got out that day because Justin felt that we needed to explore this area of town that he felt God may be leading us to work. He wanted to do a survey but we didn't know how or how it would be perceived. So we went out to a mall in this area and left without doing the survey. Then this accident happened within minutes of leaving the mall. While getting everything taken care of for the wreck Justin was able to speak to this lady and do the survey. She is not a believer but comes from a Lutheran background. She is interested and seeking God. She also would be interested in coming to a bible study if there were one in her area. As we were leaving she told Justin she was sad that this had happened but she was glad it did otherwise we may have never met. Wow what a way for God to speak to you!

Also in December we thought it would be nice to make cookies for the neighborhood and make cards with a verse about Jesus' birth on it and give them out before Christmas. So me and the kids made sugar cookies with m&m's in them and Justin and I made cards in English, Russian and Estonian saying Merry Christmas and with Luke 2:10-11 on them. We have 25 houses in our neighborhood so we passed them out as a family by hand. If the neighbors were not home we left them on there mailbox. We did not know how this would be perceived by them but we felt what could hurt. To our surprise many of them were very grateful and even gave us a gift in return! It was much more than we had hoped for because we had been told that things such as that could be perceived as rude here. More and more we see that God is trying to show us that the people here are more relational than we have thought.

The day after we passed out the cookies we were heading into town for groceries and had another accident. This time it was more serious and the roads were icy and another car swerved into our lane and as to avoid being hit we moved and when we did we began to spin and ended up flipping our car over in the ditch. Thank God no one was hurt. We were all shaken up though. The kids were scared and hanging by there seat belts. Poor Elaina didn't know what was going on. Some kind people stopped to help us out of the back of the car. The other vehicle did not stop. A lady who lived across the street from the accident let me and the kids come into her house while everything was sorted out. They were so kind to us. Then the news was out there as we were needing to leave so embarrassing we made our Estonian news premiere. After everything was said and done Justin and I couldn't help but think that that accident was a direct result from what we had done passing out cookies and part of the Gospel to our neighborhood the day before. Our thinking is that the devil is very unhappy that God is using us here in Estonia.

Well after having two wrecks in two weeks I would be lying if I said we were not just a little discouraged. We have to keep things in perspective though and know that God knows all things and with Him anything is possible. We have a great church family here who took wonderful care of us the week after the second wreck. We are very grateful for them.

We are still praying for God to reveal to us where He needs us here in Estonia and what He would like to do through us here. It is difficult at times to not know what you are to do or where to do it but God is using this time to build us and bring us closer to Him. Please pray with us. Pray for God's will to be done here in Estonia, pray for our safety here, pray for us to continue to have the strength to seek and follow through with God's will. Pray for God to provide us with a team to work with us here. To God be the glory!

We thank you for all of the prayers and support. Without it we would not be here.

We had a very good Christmas. The kids had a good time. We took them sledding on Christmas. We have about three feet of snow right now. I have never seen so much snow in my life. Elaina is toddling around now and has taken four steps on her own. Man she is growing fast. She has eight teeth now and Kayla has lost eight teeth now. And Braeden well he is still Braeden!

We are looking forward to a new year here in Estonia. Hoping each of you has a blessed new year as well. We love and miss you all.

Elaina's first steps

Kayla is seven now!!

Yes it is true Kayla turned seven on October 30th. I can not believe how big she has gotten. It really seems like yesterday she was born. Where did the time go? We celebrated her birthday at a indoor playground here in Tallinn with friends that we have here. Ten kids came and they had a blast. I am very thankful for the many friends we have made here with the other missionaries serving here.
Braeden is still doing great. He is your typical active little boy. He loves to sing and loves to play cars and wrestling.
Elaina is growing fast. She cannot wait to catch up to Kayla and Braeden. She loves her walker and can get anywhere in it in a split second! She has brown eyes. She is almost crawling and can sit well on her own. She is eating meat veggies and fruits. Boy how time flies!!
Justin and I are still in language school. He is doing very well at learning Estonian, which is no surprise to me. I am learning more each day. I am able to understand better now with only having to have things repeated one time instead of five. lol!
We recently had about 5 inches of snow and built a snowman. It was so beautiful to see all of the snow and reminded me of how Jesus' blood cleansed us as white as snow. How wonderful to know that we are truly forgiven and have a place in Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ alone. We miss everyone and love you all. Thank you so much for the prayers and support.

Pictures from the last few months

My two princesses!
Buddy and Ellie.
One of daddy's girls
Elaina in a dress that my memaw gave her.
The beautiful plants my family sent me for my birthday!
Sweet Elaina!
Braeden Kayla and Avalanche the dog we adopted.
Hi!
Kayla and Braeden at the park here in Estonia.

Elaina 4 weeks old.
Braeden's fourth birthday!
His cake
My family
Kayla and Braeden in Otepää, a town in southern Estonia
Crafts at the missions week in Otepää

Long needed update

Well it has been a long time since I have posted a blog. Who knew how busy life would be with just one more additional blessing aka Elaina. Well, we will start back in February and work our way to now.

On February 15 at 2:12pm Elaina Grace Owens was born! She was 8#10oz and 20 inches long. To our surprise she had a ton of black hair!! Kayla and Braeden were both bald lol! We were in America at the time and stayed there until April 1st. Thank you to Peepaw and Grandma, aka Justin's dad and step mom, for letting us stay with them for three months. We had a great time welcoming the newest addition into our lives and enjoying time as a family.

On April 1st we arrived back in Tallinn Estonia. Note to self do not take anything as carry on baggage when you have three little ones with you (not to mention one that is only six weeks old) unless it is just a small backpack. Elaina did well on the flight we had three stops on the way and with the 19 hour flight and 8 hour time difference all of the kids did well. When we arrived back here in Tallinn we began getting accustomed to life here and life with Elaina.

Since we have been back we have been praying for God's guidance and what He would have us do here. He has opened the door for Justin to be able to teach an evangelism course called share Jesus without fear. It is a practical and easy way to share your faith on a daily basis. He has taught the course at the church we attend and at a missions trip we went on in August to southern Estonia. We feel that as missionaries our job is not to come in and take over, but to rather help in any way that God wills us to do and our goal is to have the Estonian people reaching there own people.

In May Franklin Graham came here to Tallinn and thousands accepted Christ as their Savior. it was amazing to see all of the people come to the alter! To God be the glory!! Justin has been involved in an American football team here and plans on continuing with that next year. Justin took an intensive language course in July for three weeks and learned a lot of Estonian. While he was at school I went to the park with the kids and met a new neighbor each day! Our neighborhood is full of young families like us so we naturally have something in common.

We went on a missions trip to southern Estonia in August for a week and were able to see how they do their camps and help as needed. The kids attended the children's camp each morning and had fun.

I have started language school recently to learn Estonian. We both started with a private tutor in September. The good thing about the Estonian language is it uses the English alphabet with a few extra letters. It is a very vowelular language so for me a southern girl it is difficult to make all of the sounds. With God's help I will be able to learn though.

Kayla is in first grade now. We are homeschooling and it is going well. She is a very intelligent peaceful child and she loves to learn.She has made a few friends that come to the house often to see her. Braeden is just now starting to learn preschool books. He wants to do school work so badly, he says, but his attention span is still very small. We will probably have to do his lessons running in circles lol. Elaina is now seven months old. She is eating baby food and she enjoys it. She has four teeth coming in two have already broke through and the others will soon. She enjoys babbling and has said "Da Da" on many occasions. Anytime I ask her to say ma ma she just grins and laughs. She is rolling and scooting everywhere and can't wait to catch up to Kayla and Braeden.

I am enjoying being able to spend time with my family and little ones during these precious moments of their lives. I have been missing nursing however because it was such a big part of my life. I recently found out about a possible medical outreach that I may be able to be involved in though and am praying for that.

Pretty much that is it in a nut shell. I will try to update this about once a month. We are just ordinary people who have followed God's call for our lives which for us is to be in Estonia. We are not worthy by any means but we allow God to use us for His will and let others see His love shine through us so that they may come to know Him as their Father some day. Thank you for your prayers and support. I will post pictures next. Bear with me this is new to me this whole blog thing lol!

Christmas in Tallinn

We went to the Town Hall Square the other night. They have a big Christmas tree and a Christmas market where vendors set up in the square and sell clothes and knicknacks. We won't be here in Tallinn for Christmas because we will be in America, but we decided to put up our Christmas tree anyway. Last night we took the kids' pictures in front of it after church. We will be leaving on Friday to fly back to Kiev for a few days and then on Monday we will fly to America for Christmas. We will be in America for 3 months so that the baby can be born and then we hope to be back in Estonia by April 1st.