Brent and Colleen Weaver for Global Legacy Missionaries Report

Speaker: Brent & Colleen Weaver, ONE MISSION SOCIETY - ESTONIA

Brent & Colleen Weaver: Hi there we are, Brent and Colleen Weaver. And we work and live in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. A tiny little country, up near Russia, Finland, Scandinavia, one of the three Baltic states near the Baltic Sea. And, we work there with a mission organisation called One Mission Society. And the mission statement for our organisation is "Engaging the one to reach the many", multiplying disciples, churches, leaders and missionaries. So in some aspects, some ways we are involved in doing all of those for different aspects of our mission.

Brent & Colleen Weaver: So what do we have to celebrate from the past year? Many, many things Praise the Lord. I'm going to let Brent start sharing. So we've obviously had a big move from having worked in Ukraine and then time spent in the US. So now we're in Estonia in Tallinn and just rejoicing in all the different ways that God has provided for us to be here. An apartment. We have five year residency, just some of the connections that we're making with people. So we've been able to meet some key leaders from churches around the country, and in different denominations, had opportunities to share. Both of us have had classes that we've taught at the Baltic Methodist Seminary in this past semester, and it's been great to get to know the students and for them to get to know us. Colleen's had a couple of opportunities to preach in churches, and we've been had a chance to visit different groups, different home groups, just getting a sense of what the spiritual climate is like here, both in the country and in the church. And it's pretty exciting. What is what is happening here. We're actually forming into part of a team. We already had, two people from our mission organisation living here for many years and many. And for quite a few years I've worked with an Estonian couple. So we're we're forming this team of six of us and just seeking God for for what he has for us as a team. So that's pretty exciting, too. We evacuated, Kiev, Ukraine, in at the end of January 2022 and we were not able to return to our home for over a year. It just sat empty, as if time was standing still. But God was gracious. In September, we were allowed to go back. We went to our apartment. We had one last pizza fellowship with dear friends to say goodbye. We gave most of our things away to people who have lost their homes in the war, and it was a gift of God's mercy and grace for closure for us. We also kept ministering, though to Ukrainians online. Every Sunday we continued to meet with a group online on Zoom and one of the young women who was a refugee. She'd gone to Germany and she met a young German man who was a believer while she invited them to the online group. So when we first saw him, they were too separate faces on the screen. But something was going on because eventually they were both sitting together, side by side on the screen. So we got to watch them fall in love. They got married in January of this year, and next week we're going to go visit them in Germany. So it would be our first time to see him actually face to face. God allowed me to travel to Mexico with a group, a wonderful team in June, and we ministered to Mexican church leaders and different leaders in in churches just to have a time of renewal and refreshment and just revive their hearts and spirits. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and a great opportunity to meet these brothers and sisters in Mexico. We also got to travel to New Zealand. We hadn't been back in over five years because of covid and the war and the different things we've been going through. And it was just a great opportunity to to reconnect with you to fellowship together and just to enjoy the beauty of your great country. Yeah, one of the things that I've been involved in is over the years, actually is, teaching seminars in different places. And I shared when I was in New Zealand with you about, there's a group that I call our Power Ladies. So this is three ladies, one's 70, one's 80, one's 90 and, I just want to update you about them. In the last six months, they've led 15 people to the Lord through their work, visiting people and sharing in different Care Homes. One of them was 99 years old, physical years when she was born again. It's just wonderful to see what God's doing through ordinary believers. And this is a big part of my passion and desire is to be involved in more training, more development of ordinary believers to fulfil their calling and be reaching out and making disciples

Brent & Colleen Weaver: Well, let me tell you a quick story of a transformation that we've been able to see since arriving in Estonia Just a week after we got here. We went off on a retreat with the seminary and I was asked to teach a course on, walking with others in times of trauma. Well, it was one of the least prepared I'd ever been with all of our move and transition. But God have helped me to get ready each day to present the the lectures and the activities and the responses. And one day a woman came to me and she's been affected by the trauma and the crisis in this region. And she said, My heart cries, My heart cries. This is all just for me. And just several, maybe about 3 or 4 weeks ago, we heard her give a testimony and she said that was when the healing of her heart began. So we're just so thankful. We just never know. We just want to be ready to share a good news. A word of hope, because of Jesus

Brent & Colleen Weaver: Well, it's extremely diverse. There's different languages, there's different cultures, and that's a constant and a normal kind of thing. Everywhere we go, we hear Estonian or we might hear Russian. Those are the two most common languages that we hear, This is a capital city, so there's quite an international community as well. And at the seminary we teach in three languages, all the time, doesn't mean we speak them all. But there's translators. And so it's not just the different languages that make ministry here unique. It's the fact that those people groups that speak those languages, they're different cultures. They understand things differently. They do things differently than one another. They worship differently than one another. So it's a complex, ministry environment for us, but wonderful all at the same time. Yeah, so we're very aware that we're coming in from the outside and coming into this different cultural context with the Russian and Estonian context, and so we're aware that you can't really just come with an outside programme and say here we are. We're going to tell you exactly what to do. That's just not going to go over well. And so, yeah, we're focusing a lot of our time on trying to understand what's going on around us. Understanding speaking with people, meeting with leaders, meeting with believers, meeting Non-christian, lots of listening just to get a sense of what this place is and how we can best serve. We've come here to serve, not to lead and pull people here and there but to serve people. So knowing those different cultural contexts is going to be a big part of our ministry.

Brent & Colleen Weaver: What motivates us to love others? Well, the love of God, who first loved us. The love of Jesus, who gave his life for us. That's what motivates us to be here and to love people. And sometimes on the days when it's really hard, it's God's love for us is that keeps us going. And that's why I would encourage others to be on to go out in missions is sometimes when you are different, when people wonder, why would you come and live here? Then you have an open door to share testimony. Well, I'm here because God loves you and because God loves you. He's put his love in my heart, and I actually love you, too. And I'm here to learn about you and to share good things with you and, hopefully to bring God's blessing to your life. So that's what motivates me anyway. To love others is God's love for me. Yeah, we're motivated by Christ's command as well and obedience to Christ to make disciples. And so we're here in Europe in a particular context, especially, young people have really rejected formal religion. Formal Christian religion that's been part of European history. But that doesn't mean that they've given up on seeking some spiritual something in their life. And we see that evident in all kinds of ways. People are... mindfulness, they want success in life, they want happy families... Actually, they want all of the things that Jesus promises and offers to them. And so we're motivated to share that really Jesus IS the answer to the things that you are looking for in other things in work and family relationships and whatever in whichever way you're seeking. The answer is actually in relationship with Jesus and in the community of believers that forms as the gospel is spread and the kingdom grows. So those are kind of so you just wanna invite people into the Fellowship of the Body of Christ? I mean, just think of the times you've shared laughter and had fun and games, and it's just free. And that's something that other people don't necessarily ever get to experience outside the the Fellowship of the Church. And we wanna invite people into the family of God and into that fellowship and into that community where they are loved and they can love others.

Brent & Colleen Weaver: We really appreciate your prayers, and so we just want to highlight some of our top prayer needs at the moment. Now, the first one is is just relationships, building relationships. Both the ministry, connecting with, people that will open up doors for ministry or just to learn about Estonia and the culture here, but also friendship, social relationships. We want to build friendships and have our social needs met as well. The second thing would be, discipleship training, just wisdom and how to approach that? We we're called to be involved in making disciples, but also teaching those disciples how to make disciples themselves. So just all of the things needed for that, connections and seminars and all of those things. Just recently, James 31 has been impressed on my heart about the seriousness of our, task to teach. It's a sacred calling. I mean, we can prepare lectures, we understand pedagogy, but we need to take this very seriously the responsibility that we have to speak into lives to my what it means to looks like to follow Jesus to Minister in the name of Jesus to pray for us as we teach that we we will be worthy of that calling. Also pray for us as we learn Estonian. It's a difficult language, but we feel that God has called us here and that he will help us to learn the language. And then just personally, sometimes it's hard to be away from home. It's hard to miss our grandchildren and family. So, pray that God will minister to our hearts, give us good times of fellowship with one another and and show us how to take delight in the land where he has placed us.