The Saar Family in Estonia

Summer

2010-06-28T16:00:00.005+03:00

We estonians like summer.

It is a time for eating, resting, recreating, hanging out. And of course watching the World Cup. Some random thoughts that i have in my mind right now:

English Camps are going on with 3 different local churches. You definitely can pray for the Koma, US and local church teams. And of course for the students.
Anna's pregnancy is going well but it is getting tougher for her as the time for delivery gets closer. 17th of August is right now the date for our second son to be born.
We have a baptism service this sunday and after that we will be meeting in a park through out the month of July. It will be a great opportunity to bring our friends to these celebrations.
There's a whole list of household chores that need to be done. Somehow the time seems to be slipping so fast out of the hands that it is hard to get to them...
This summer is a summer of weddings. I will be doing 5 weddings - 2 have been done and 3 are still ahead. Love it.
It is tons of fun to see the kids growing up. Here is a quick sample of Emma stylin'

Ordination

2009-03-30T16:01:00.003+03:00

Last Sunday was my ordination. It was a special day. Since Risttee is part of the baptist union then the president of the union, Meego Remmel (who is also the pastor in Salem church where i grew up) and Toivo (he is currently the other pastor in Risttee but he will be going to Salem to help Meego pastor that church since summer) did my ordination.

Many people have asked me "Do you feel different now?".
I think that i do. Its not that my role or responsibility has changed or increased. But I do feel more confident in working/living as a pastor. At the same time i feel so honored to be able to work in the calling of God among the wonderful people of Risttee.

Family photo shoot

2009-03-13T17:50:00.002+02:00

It is good to be have a family where there are 3 models. It takes the pressure off from the dad to look handsome ;)

Here you can see the pictures that our friend took this last weekend.
www.mustvalge.com/saared

Estonians least religious in the world

2009-02-25T10:35:00.005+02:00

I dont know if you happened to read this article about a study that was done among the countries of the world. It is definitely an interesting read. Here is the beginning of it.

------
Five EU members figure among the world's top 10 least religious countries, with Estonia leading the list, a new poll has shown.

Just 14 percent of Estonians answered positively to the question: "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" according to a poll released by Gallup earlier this week.

Estonia is followed by Nordic countries Sweden and Denmark, where 17 and 18 percent of those asked answered positively to the same question.

The survey was carried in 143 countries, with an average of eight people out of 10 saying religion was an important part of their lives.

You can find the rest of the article from here.

Family car

2009-02-04T16:34:00.003+02:00

We have had our old car Audi for 5 years now. I like it. I mean, i like it when it drives. Unfortunately last months it hasn't been that often. Just a week before Elliot was born and i hadn't been able to pass the car inspection twice (inspite of spending couple of thousand krones on fixing it), we understood that it is really time to start looking for a bit better car for the family.

Well, a week later we had found what we liked - more functional, reliable and comfortable car - Toyota Avensis Verso.

The market right now is in such a bad shape that we were able to get quite a good deal (more than 4,000USD off the original price!). Of course it was still expensive so that our family will be on a tighter budget for a while.

PS I dont think we will allow Porsche to ride along in this car. At least for a while.

Elliot Leevi

2009-02-04T16:22:00.004+02:00

27.01.2009 06:08AM Elliot Leevi was born.

The labour with Elliot was much easier than with Emma. Also when Emma was born we went to the hospital around 4am But the difference was that Emma was born 7pm while Elliot at 6am. Well, of course this time Anna knew much better what to expect and so we didn't hurry to the hospital too early but just in time. Also what was fun was that Elliot was born into the water.

The miracle of new life never gets old.

Elliot is so handsome and cute. He has at least one dimple. Maybe 2, but im not so sure about that. One difference we have been able to tell so far with baby boys and girls is that Elliot is almost every time able to pee himself all the way wet. It doesn't matter how well you put on the diaper, he still finds a way to do it.

So life is busy right now with family. Emma was also sick for a couple of days, so during that time she became a daddys girl while Elliot was mamas boy.
Anyways, it is a lot of fun. You should come and visit us.

Things you can do with the snow

2008-11-20T15:04:00.004+02:00

Today Emma had fun for the first time in her life playing with the snow.
According to her the best thing you can do with snow is:

Eat it
Chase the snowballs that daddy makes

Proud to be an Estonian

2008-08-21T15:52:00.013+03:00

Estonians dont have a lot of patriotism. At least it doesn't show most of the time. Except in song festivals when thousands of people get together to sing, and tens of thousands come to listen. Sometimes we sing for freedom. 20 years ago thats how we got our independance (Singing revolution).
Yesterday night we celebrated Estonian re-indpendance day. The key event for that was a night song festival, just like the ones 20 years ago. We couldn't miss it and drove up to Tallinn with a car full of people to joing the thousands of people singing once again for freedom. It was quite amazing night. There were more than 100,000 people gathered. Although there were also 5000 singers you really couldn't tell a difference between the choir and the audience. We were united, holding up hands and waving Estonian (and Georgian) flags.
It was 6:30 in the morning when we finally got back home. Proud to be an Estonian. But more than that I am thankful for the freedom that we have as a country. Thank you God!

PS You can find a really good post written by an american living in Estonia about the songfestival night here.

Here are some pictures of the night.

Our family is growing

2008-07-15T11:37:00.002+03:00

We have some very exciting personal news to share with you all, as proud and as pleased parents that we are, even more so are we to announce that the end of January Emma will be having a new baby brother or sister!!

Anna is 12+ weeks along in her pregnancy and feeling better everyday. She has had a whole new experience of some mild nausea with this baby that she didn't have with Emma. Emma is already giving mommy's tummy kisses and I am also very excited about becoming a dad again.

We had our 12 week Ultrasound today, so attached is a picture, even though it's quite hard to read anything out of it! We would appriciate your prayers and support during these next months, as the baby grows and develops and for more patience as parents to train Emma to be a loving and obiedient sister.

where are your eyes

2008-07-08T13:07:00.005+03:00

You have 2 options what to look at this picture:
1. My receding hairline
2. Our cutest daugther Emma

The picture is taken at Kuldar and Kristel wedding. Congrats my friends!

Rat Race 2008

2008-06-25T15:09:00.004+03:00

Here is Risttee Rat Race team in our catholic/high-church uniforms running for charity in the center of Tartu.

baptism

2008-06-12T10:41:00.003+03:00

Risttee church has only one mission - to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
This Sunday we had a big celebration as 7 young people gave a public confession that Jesus is their King and Saviour.

Click to see pictures.

that made me think

2008-06-12T10:37:00.002+03:00

"Die to the dream of being a success and live to be a blessing…”
(M.Barnett)

I am wired to setting goals and achieving them. Success is sth that is visible to many.
Being a blessing can be much more of a hidden thing.

Am I still attached to the idol of pride?

reflections from Soma

2008-05-20T14:10:00.005+03:00

Craig and I returned in the end of last week from Soma school in Tacoma, WA.
It was a great time. Definitely very stretching.

There were 11 international guys attending Soma School (+ around 10 americans)

Most lasting impression on me was left by Jeff Vanderstelt and his talks about the Gospel, what is church, and the identities of church/christian. It was specially powerful to me cause trying to understand the Gospel has been an area where God has working in my heart the most. I am convinced that the understanding of Gospel (and the full gospel) has to be the foundation of everything that we do, and everything we are.
I am still trying to process some of the things Jeff said about the gospel. For example the full gospel (means+purpose):
Means of Salvation (Gospel power): God-Sin-Jesus-Faith not works
Purpose of Salvation (Gospel story): Creation-Fall-Redemtion-Restoration

It was great to see how their church model worked. Instead of "come to us" (attractional model) they are definitely hard-core "lets go out to them" (missional model). They are really gospel based. people in their communities really get that the church is the people. And it was also interesting to observe their dialogical story-based teaching style. People in Soma really know the Story (their term for the bible, more specifically for the redemptive arc of bible stories).

Missional communities (small groups) are really on mission, that can be the specific neighborhood or target-group specific mission. Besides that very many people had their own personal mission projects. That was really great to see.

We are starting to process everything that we heard during that week to see what can we learn from it for our local context.

Seattle skyline

Appart from everything I learned there, it was hard to be away from Anna and Emma. But I have to tell you, NW seems to be a great place to go back to. I love the nature there. Totally my type! Maybe one day I can go riding the bikes in the mountains with my family there

Czech-Estonia-USA

2008-05-04T22:35:00.006+03:00

We just returned from spending a week with Josiah Venture family in Malenovice, Cz. It was a refreshing and a stimulating time. Starting with JV council meetings where we concentrated on what is needed in different countries to double the fruit in the next 3 years.
The theme for this years spring conference was spiritual warfare. So often we forget that we are soldiers in the battle field filled with unexpected attacks. Instead we have the mentality of retired bum who has got a free ticket to heaven and doesn't know what to do with his time.

JV council members

Emma loves two things above all other:
1. Animals (furry and moving)
2. Babies (not so furry but also moving)
She went hysterical in the conference when she saw another small kid.

We got back today evening.
At 3am i will catch a bus to Tallinn to fly to Seattle, USA. Craig and I will spend a week and couple of days in Soma school (church planters school that Acts29 network Soma school is organizing). I am really looking forward to that time. It will be great. But at the same time I really would want to go right now since I see that there are many strategic things that would need my attention here. And i dont want to leave Emma and Anna behind.

You can be praying for all the travels and that the time there would bear kingdom fruit in the years to come in Estonia.

These are some pictures from the JV spring conference

Protecting my head

2008-04-21T13:53:00.002+03:00

Last week I realized my long-time dream and bought a bicycle.
And a helmet to protect my head.

My calculations were, that
1) having a bike enables us to go for nice bikerides as a family on warm summer nights
2) I save money on gas by riding the bike to the office. That way Anna can use the car

Well, the truth probably will be that if we go on a bike ride once in 2 weeks then thats pretty good. And brief calculations also show that i wont save tons of money on gas. So financially it makes no sense to spend the money. Probably it is more feasible to rend a bike or sth.

I guess i spent the money on bike as an investment into emotions. Emotions of feeling good after working out. Emotions of spending an evening together with the family while emma is sitting behind me in a baby chair lauging. Emotions of feeling the wind and sund, or rain and cold while driving the bike through the city.

Selling emotions - thats where there is the most money.

Confessions of a pastor

2008-03-27T12:27:00.003+02:00

This Sunday we will start a new series in Risttee church called "Confessions of a pastor". Throughout 4 weeks I will be talking about the areas in my life where I am struggeling the most. There are of course more than 4 confessions that i could make but after choosing among them here are the ones that we will talk about:
- I can't stand of lot of Christians
- I have to fight hard to keep sexually pure
- I am a slave to time
- I worry all the time

On one hand i really look forward to these weeks cause i know that God wants to use these weeks to deal with a lot of stuff in our church. On the other hand i feel scared, cause being open like that wont be easy for me. I have never been good at showing my emotions, specially communicating them.

You can pray for me that God would give me the right words and courage to be open. And that the horizontal confessions (between me and the people) would turn into vertical confessions between God and everyone.

Fried brain

2008-03-15T23:19:00.003+02:00

I don't know if you have ever felt that your brain is so full of information, that it can not take any more. ALl the places that we have visited and things that i have heard have pushed me into this limit and now things are starting to mix up in my head.
Today was a great day that we spent around the Sea of Galilea - the center of Jesus' ministry on earth. While I am still processing everything in my head, i will share with you a picture of my friend from South Africa. Watching him dancing and singing makes me feel sad that i dont have any black peoples blood in me!

Strategy

2008-03-11T23:34:00.004+02:00

In Jerusalem you can see almost on every step the conflicts between Christianity jewish and muslim religions. That has been going on for centuries. One visible element of that is the fate of different building through centuries when they have switched sides. It is not uncommon for a church to become a mosque and then a church and then a mosque.

Golden gate is in the middle of the wall. Around and below that you can see the cemetary

One specially sneaky thing that the arabs have done is visible if you look from the Mountain of olives to the temple mount. There is a big sealed gate leading to the old city. It is called the Golden Gate. According to the jewish tradition (based on some bible texts) that is the gate from which Messiah will enter the city of Jerusalem. To prevent that from happening the muslims have sealed the gate and created a muslim graveyard in front of that gate. And of course no jew will step into the muslim cemetary. You can call that preventive strategy. Or cheap play.

Looking for my master to return as the King of Kings,
Peep

Life-changing contrast

2008-03-11T08:09:00.008+02:00

It hit me yesterday, looking up to the huge and massive archways of the Holy Sepulture church - the huge power of religion.
What has been done in the name of it. How many lives have been impacted for better or worse through out thousands of years. Were they jewish, muslim or christian. Intimidating and saddening.

The power of religion from one hand - and the Message and Way of Christ on the other hand. I wonder what would Jesus feel and do if he would come to nowadays Jerusalem. What would he feel and do if he would come to our church. If he would come to me?

Yeah, i cant forget the contrast between religion and the person and work of Jesus...

Holy Sepulture church - possible location where Jesus died (catholic and orthodox tradion)

Jews celebrating bar-mitzvahs by the western wall

Group of israeli soldiers (they are so young) in a bible-study group in the old city

Israeli driving

2008-03-09T22:36:00.005+02:00

I guess driving can be tricky even in the Holy Land.

pics

2008-03-08T22:50:00.010+02:00

The western wall. The golden dome is moslem temple called The Rock, locted in the Holy of holies of the jewish temple.

Travelling in the beduine way

Surnumere mudamees

Discipleship in action

THis is where David was running from king Saul

Beduine hospitality

In the wilderness

2008-03-08T17:27:00.002+02:00

Why was the Son of God, Jesus, led to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit right after he was baptized? I dont know. But we returned from the Judean desert where Jesus was tempted.
80% of the world's deserts are not sandy but rocky. And Judean desert is one of the rocky ones. Kilometres after kilometres hilly slopes and only yellow-white-brown stones everywhere. If you are not careful you can fall and cut yourself pretty bad.

I have to say that the Israel that we have seen so far is not like a well kept, nice and neat western country. It is strange to think that countries and nations have been fighting over this small and barren (50% is desert) land for thousands of years. I guess that is what can happen when God chooses a piece of land and declares it His own.

Conference is starting in half an hour so i'll get going. I will update the pictures in the evening.

Shalom

Palestinians in the sauna

2008-03-06T21:54:00.005+02:00

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

I am sitting in a nearby cafe shop with wireless internt to write the last couple of words before heading to bed.
Today people are still just flying in and so it was a free day to do whatever you wanted. We spent couple of hours in the center of the city, wandering around without any purpose and direction.
On thing that is really confusing for me is to figure out what religion or nationality are the native people that i meet on the streets - arabs, jews, orthodox greek or armenian. The only easy target to spot is american church tourist. And there are a lot of them.

I have a new head cover

Are thes jewish or palestinian guys - im not sure.

I just had one of the most memorable sauna experiences. After delicious dinner i decided to test out the spa in the hotel. I met 4 palestinian guys in the turkish sauna. They were middle aged and very hairy. They didnt speak a lot of english and i spoke none of the arab. But we had fun communicatin. After explaing me all their names (Suz means horse in hebrew and rabbit in arab for example) they rubbed eachother with sope and started massaging each other. After that we headed to the hot tub. It was a small hot tub and there were 5 of us. I also understood that you can not be a true arab if you dont have 12 kids. And then they talked about their different lives, but i could not figure out what they meant by that.
Tomorrow we have to get up at 6am. So time to walk through the warm and dark night back to the hotel.
Shalom.

Shalom

2008-03-06T13:52:00.004+02:00

After a smooth day of travelling we made it to our hotel at 4:20am. We were the first ones to arrive from the whole 200 people that will be here for the GYI summit the next 11 days. It was great to finally get some sleep in nice beds. We had a great time in the plane with Märt (director of Going UP and my brother) and Mihkel (director of Freedom youth movement) talking for hours about ministry in Estonia.

In Schiphol airport: Mihkel meditating in the meditation room (while the arabs were praying towards meka in the background)

View from my window

I have to say that although outside the hotel looks very fancy, inside it is in a typical mediterranian style, where everything is not in very tidy and fixed up. But thats the south.

The conference will start this evening and before that we had couple of hours to swing by the center of Jerusalem. It is hot and sunny - just like the middle of summer in Estonia (sometimes). Quite a differece from the snowy Estonia :)

I am really looking forward to the next days, as we will be following Jesus' footsteps in this holy land and city. Jesus on location - that is the theme for the days. My prayer is that the person and work of Jesus would become more real to me.

PS In the hotel internet access is so costly (230EEK per day) that i have to figure out some other ways to be connected every once in a while.

Shadow and sun

2008-02-28T11:31:00.004+02:00

We havent had a real winter this year in Estonia. Except the 3 days in the beginning of January when it was quite cold. But other than that it has felt like the gray-muddy-dark fall has been extended from 3 months to 6.
On some expetional days we can see the sun though. Here are some pictures of Estonian winter 2008:

Bright sun shining through the trees creating a light tunnel

This is the longest shadow i have ever had

Journey with the Message

2008-02-19T12:12:00.002+02:00

Both Anna and I started this year a journey through the Bible using the Message. It is the first time for me to read the Bible through in english.
For my simplified verbal english skills the Message "translation" is a great thing. I love the richness of the language.

One sentence that has been haunting me for a week now:
"..., for by this time the name of Jesus was on everyone’s lips." (Mark 6:14)

Wouldnt that be great! Thats what i desire for Tartu and Estonia.

The other great verse is from the Psalms 84
"And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel"

I love the missional foundation of that verse!

Brother Barry

2008-02-07T10:06:00.000+02:00

If you feel down or tired then you might want to listen Brother Barry preach!

Here’s the link

The worst day of the week

2008-01-25T17:41:00.000+02:00

Here is a piece of trivia for you - do you know what is the worst day of the week for pastor?

It is Monday! Thats when you feel most drained and empty. Overwhelmed by problems and challenges.

This Monday morning i really felt that way.
On days like that i start to compare the size of the vision with the current reality and it feels so out of proportion. I look at the number of people coming to church and feel discouraged. I look at the challenges that don't seem to resolve and feel worried. I think about the sermon that i preached the day before and wish that it would have been shorter and more convincing, not so informational but rather transormational.

These are the thought that were running in my mind this Monday morning. Even though i know that Risttee church is Jesus's and He is the one building it and I am replacable and priviledged to give my best in this season of my life.

But then we had the Monday morning staff meeting.
And I was filled again with new strength and joy to continue.
Spending time with the team, seeing them pouring their lives into the vision of seeing God start a movement in our city and country was what i needed.

I am so thankful for the team on both sides of the Atlantic.

Emma's first sauna experience

2008-01-06T23:43:00.001+02:00

Yesterday Emma, our dear precious daughter, had her first sauna experience.
She was sitting bravely in a 100C heat. After 5 seconds she got too hot though and started whining. But on the lower level of the sauna bench she was doing just fine. It was a proud moment for daddy!

After a revitalizing sauna experience she had tons of fun in the bathtub, kissing the reflection of herself in the mirror and kicking and splashing like her life was dependant on that.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T22:45:00.000+02:00

We had a great christmas service. There were probably around 130 people. Very many of them were there for the first time which was great. Atmosphere, music, environment - everything was really cool!
It was also the first time that we met in Atlantis, the conference center in downtown Tartu.

Here is picture that we took after the service under the christmas tree.

May you experience God's love in a very genuine way this Christmas. And let the year of 2008 be filled with true encounters with Jesus.

With Love,
Peep, Anna & Emma

Our Greatest Need

2007-12-25T22:44:00.000+02:00

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

Source unknown

Hope that goes through death

2007-12-09T01:45:00.000+02:00

We are just visitors and wanderers here on earth, our home is in heaven...

Two hours ago i received news that my uncle Tarmo had died in a car wreck.

He had been playing violin in a funeral in Tallinn and was hurrying to play in a concert in Tartu with his band while he was in a fatal car accident with 4 cars and 3 deaths on the highway. He died on the way to the hospital.

Tarmos life was lived on the purpose to serve God through music. He is now with his heavenly father!

Please pray for their family. 7 kids will be missing their father. Jakob, the youngest son, has his 15-th birthday tomorrow.

National Prayer Breakfast

2007-12-03T13:26:00.000+02:00

In the last days and weeks our team has been busy preparing for the national prayer breakfast. Once a year the council of churches invites the parliament members, the president and the government members to come and share a breakfast and be encouraged and prayed for by the churches. This years theme was "Today and tomorrow" which was about the youth in Estonia. Going up, as a youth organization was asked to be part of planning the morning.

Today the day was here. To summerize things in short - everything went great and God was really at work.
It was amazing to see the leaders of the country wiping tears from their eyes while Märt was giving a talk. His talk was followed by a video testimony of 2 guys, that have went through a life change because of what God has done in their life, and that was another great homerun.

After the official part was over then there were many people that came up to us and thanked for a great morning. But it wasn't really us that had to be thanked. Throughout the morning it was clear that God was there and was working in peoples hearts. I am sure that one big reason for that was also the worship and prayer nights that took place all over Estonia this weekend where people specially prayed for today morning. The youth of Tartu gathered acutally in Risttee and you can see pictured of that here.

As a leader it is always great to see your team excel in what they do. Today it was once again one of those times - our videoteam that had produced 2,5 video pieces, Märt who was speaking and Joonas who was drawing a painting on the stage during the breakfast. I am grateful for all of you guys!

Now back to Tartu where my sweet girls are waiting for me to return (and fix the car that decided to break down again).

1 picture = 1000 words

2007-11-22T22:47:00.000+02:00

hey everyone,
just wanted to let you all know that i put up the pictures from our U.S trip yesterday. even thought every othe picture is of emma, i still hope you have a chance to look through them, there might even be one of you in there!
it was such a great time for us, thank you for making it such an enjoyable trip!
CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR WEB ALBUM

Nomadic church II (updates)

2007-11-20T01:03:00.000+02:00

In the last couple of days we have been in contact with our land lords trying to figure out what has cause the current situation, are there any potential ways for us to continue renting the facility and if not then can we postpone the deadline of moving out.

So far we have got that far:
1. What is the reason why they want to kick us out? They really haven't explained it to us. The most that i heard from them has been "We just dont want to have you as renters any more. We are tired of telling you all the time what you can and what you can't do in this facility".
2. Right now it really seems that there isn't any way for us to continue renting the building. A good example of it was also the fact that the building crew continued working on installing a new heating system to the building on Sunday during our worship service. The working noise was so bad that it was even hard to hear the sermon. And to make things worse, the land lord himself was working together with the builders, so it wasn't like he didnt know about it.
3. We will hear by the end of the week if there is a possibility for us to postpone the deadline of moving out. Right now we have to be out by the 1st of December. That would mean that we would only have one more Sunday here. And it is HARD to find any place to be in that short of a time.

So thats the current update.
At the same time we feel peace in our hearts and know that it is time for us to move on from here and God is leading us that way. He really must have a much better place in mind for us, we just have to find it. So you can continue praying for the whole situation.

Actually, tomorrow we will go and see one place that has opened up for rent. It is an old night club in the center of the city. We dont know more about it but just that the location is much better than the one we currently have. Maybe that's the next place for Risttee church?

Nomadic church I

2007-11-20T00:37:00.000+02:00

It was our last morning in US. Anna and I were all excited about returning to the ministry in Estonia with the new insight from the conferences and encouragement from our friends when I received this letter from my brother describing a new situation with our land lords (many of you already have seen that email):
----
Dear fellow brothers,

Dima, our landlord just came into our (Risttee and GU) office with an
official paper that we will be kicked out as a church in 2 weeks. He asked me to
sign under it, but i didnt. He insisted that decision has been
made already.

He said that he will put it into our mailbox and they still have their
decision made.

I tried to understand whats the problem or why they decided so. He didnt
give a clear answer, but said that its the people here. What exactly, i
hope he will tell to Peep when he comes back.

We have 2 weeks to figure out is it God who is moving us again, or is it
just a problem, that we must be able to solve. One thing is sure, we
have to start praying and those who have skills, starting interacting
more with Diima.

Have a life-changing day!
Märt Saar

Making the shift

2007-11-20T00:28:00.000+02:00

Estonia sure seems to be grey and dark this season of the year. Specially if you make the transition from a hot and clear skies sunny Sothern California. It took us 29 hours to travel from door to door, but it went surprisingly smoothly inspite of travelling with a enormous amount of baggage and a 8-month old baby. We didn't loose our luggage but the airlines broke the stroller that we had bought just one week before we flew to the states.
Last night Emma was up and crying for 4 hours straight. And when the baby doesn't sleep then the parents are up also (at least mommy is!).
But it is good to be back.

30 years

2007-11-14T09:00:00.000+02:00

Today is my birthday.
30 years.
Thats what i call entering the Jesus-age. Which means that it is time to live in a way that leaves a mark in the world.

It is weird to think that if i live for another 30 years then im already 60 years old. But which is even more weird to think is that Emma will be then 30 years old of a woman.

Day 19: Traffic and Exponential

2007-11-14T08:49:00.000+02:00

I have spent almost 3,5 hourst today in traffic. Its awful. I dont think i am strong enough of a christian to live in LA. I would be experiencing road rage every time i'm on the road.

Appart from the traffic the Exponential conference that is about creating a culture of generousity in your church has been really stretching for me personally. That is something that I really want to see in my own life, in our family and in Risttee church! I'm ready for God to continue his work in me also tomorrow. Besides im very excited to hear for the first time in my life Rick Warren and Joel Ortberg talking.

Out of everything in the conference today the thing that talked to me the most was the video of Malawii Miracle - the project that WACC church did to raise money for building an hospital in Malawii.

Day 18: I'm not a whiner

2007-11-14T08:46:00.000+02:00

I'm very proud of myself. Today we were in the outlets shopping for 5 hours and my duty was to babysit Emma during all that time. But i did not WHINE! Learn from me guys!

PS Of course there are guys like Rodney Brown, Rich Richardson and Joel Thomas who actually enjoy shopping and consider it a great way to spend time. I dont even pretend to be on their level.

Day 17: My personal record!

2007-11-14T08:21:00.001+02:00

I went to church 5 times today. Do they give some type of an award for that? Thats my personal record i'm sure. If you add to that also a church service on saturday evening, then thats even more.
WACC has 4 services over the weekend and I was able to give a short greeting in all of the services. I think it went quite well. WACC church continues to model to me and our church generosity in ways that we have not seen before. In september when i saw Bill (the pastor of WACC) then i mentioned to him that we lost our camera after the summer english camps. As a church they decided to give us a great new Sony HD camera + Final Cut studio for Mac. Once again I am blown away how much people believe in us and the ministry in Estonia!

One thing that is great for all the churches in LA is that they can have the cafeterias and reception areas outside all throughout the year. In the pic: WACC church

Since I was already in LA then there are 2 churches that i have wanted to visit for a long time:
Mosaic church that gathers in downtown LA in a Mayan theater. And the Rock Harbor church, which is the "cool" church for the college students and single adults.

I went to the 7pm service in Mosaic. Lets say that it was a different experience. Mosaic gathers in a theater that is filled with all these sculptures and decorations that are mayan cultural and spiritual symbols. The people that had gathered (maybe 300 people) were different than the average people. I guess the best i could describe them would be multicultural urban artistic types. I did not feel that i am the target group. The worship was rocky-edgy-hard-indie. I didn't recognize any of the songs. Speaker was quite ok. Too bad that Erwin McManus himself wasnt there.

Rock Harbor gathered for the last time at 9pm. It took me an hour to get there from Mosaic. Although the service was so late at night, it was totally packed probably 1000+ people. And that was the 5th service over the weekend. The Rock definitely was much more main stream. There were the typical american college student type people unlike in the Mosaic. By that time i was already quite tired, so i spaced out couple of times in the the 1hour and 40minutes long service. Some things that were very cool - they had a great dance in the service and it even had a point that was very creatively communicated and tied into the sermon. And from the announcements i remember that the Rock sent over 2000 people to short term trips this last summer! Thats awsome. They want to live out the servants dna of a missional church.

By the time I got home it was close to midnight and i sneaked to bed so that i wouldn't wake up Anna and Emma.

Day 16: Atl - LA

2007-11-14T08:06:00.000+02:00

Today we started the last leg of our trip - the plane from Atl to Los Angeles left in the morning. Emma was quite good on the 5 hour flight. If you want to learn coordination then i have an exercise for you - try to change extremely poopy diaper in the airplane restroom where the ceiling is too low for you to stand up even.
It still amazes me how different the cities of Atlanta and LA are. Even from the plane you can tell what a difference there is. Atlanta from the air is all green, full of trees. Just two strips of concrete are in Buchkead area and downtown. Flying in to LA is a different deal all the way. You are flying in the desert for 2 hours and then starts the city but that is only concrete and stones. No sign of green almost at all. One thing is similar in both cities though - traffic is horrendeous in both!

Day 15: Fall

2007-11-14T07:58:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we visited the largest house in United States - the Biltmore Estate. Thats one big house. Built in the style of European mansions/castels but only 120 years old. The house was decorated with for christmas and it was really beautiful, even the sceptic that i am liked it. There was also a choire that kept singing in the big lobby for all the guests. They were awful though.

Today we are driving back from the Cove. Fall can be so beautiful. Too bad that in estonia we dont have that many sugar maple trees as here in Pennsylvania, North Carolina or even Atlanta. I love about travelling that sometimes you get to travel in time also - fall in Estonia seems a long time ago but here it is just getting here.

Day 14: The Cove

2007-11-09T06:58:00.000+02:00

Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove - thats where we are with all the international partners of NP.
In spite of the fact the average visitor here seems to be a southern baptist couple in their 70s, this place truely has a different feel to it. Everything here is so peaceful, calm and beautiful. Great place to connect with God.

Surrouned by beautiful forests

The foyer of the training center

Praying around the globe

Two things that make me smile here:
1. There are bibles everywhere. Even in mens bathroom. I guess if you got to spend more time there you might as well read some chapters.
2. All the waitresses/ladies in the restaurant (most of them are in their 60s i guess) wear a ankle-length blue jean dress. The last time i saw those things was in the beginning of 90s when we got the first second hand clothing packages to Estonia...

Day 13: Friends

2007-11-09T06:42:00.000+02:00

Our time in Atlanta is already so filled that we just can`t find time to meet all our friends. What a shame. Next time we just have to plan for couple of more days here.
What a miracle it is to think that just 3 years ago we did not know anyone from Atlanta and now we have so many great friends here!

Emma with her new best friend

Besides being the most popular bachelor in Atlanta, Rich is also known for his sense of style

Jim - the king of Polo

Day 11/12: Move conference

2007-11-09T06:34:00.001+02:00

55 people from 15 different countries all over the world (from Indonesia to Brazil) have gathered to Atlante for North Point partnerns conference. Hospitality and kindness is such a characteristic to everyone from NP church that i have come to contact!

It has been great to get to know some of these people and hear about their struggles and celebration stories in planting churches in the cultures that are so different from each other. And of course sessions with Andy are a treat.

Day 10: Buckhead experience

2007-11-05T05:56:00.000+02:00

After leaving at 5am toward Pittsburgh aiport we made it to Atlanta without any problems. It is great to be back here. Atlanta is probably my favourite city in US (since NY is such a different place then that doesnt count). Wilkins family is hosting us again this year and it is great to be with our "Atlanta family" and spend time in their awsome home.

Have you ever seen a polo game? As of today i can say that i have. How hard can be riding on a horse and trying to hit a small ball with a long stick? Seems real complicated to me.

Buckhead church is amazing. It really fits the culture of the part of the city that it is located at. We were able to visit the 6pm service. Amazing production and great sermon from Andy. One of the highlights for me of the service was when the video picture of Andy froze on the middle screen just in the peak of the sermon. I guess it proves again that noone is protected from unpredictable technical errors.

Griswold family hosted a desert party for us tonite. It was so great to get together with many of our good friends that we havent seen for a long time. We got to share what has been going on in Risttee and Going UP during this last year. Thank you guys for believing in us and being a part of the ministry in Estonia during all these years!

Tomorrow starts the Move conference. Time to hit the bed because it has been an exhausting day

Day 9: Congrats John and Beth

2007-11-05T05:50:00.000+02:00

Mr. and Mrs. John Viinalass - i find it very strange to call the couples like that but oh well, since it is a custom here then why not.

The wedding was beautiful. I really like the ceremony. It was also the first time for me to be a groomsmen so that was quite special. After the ceremony it was time for the reception. John and Beth had asked me to be the host for that and to put together an Estonian style reception. So we had couple of games and skits and songs there + traditional american dancing and toasts and cutting of the cake.

When everything was over then it was already late in the evening. Inspite of that all the canadian family and estonian crew + some other closest friends crashed in one hotel room for last bonding time before leaving Youngstown early next morning. We are sure gonna miss you all!

Day 8: Rehearsal dinner

2007-11-05T05:27:00.000+02:00

I think Pennsylvania is probably one of the most beautiful parts of US that i have been to, specially in the fall when all the hills are just covered with red and yellow maple trees. I love driving around on the country roads here.

Today we had the rehearsal for the wedding. Since i am one of the groomsman, i had to be there also. Everything went well except the fact that the best man and the wedding musician got there 1,5 hours late (they just were not able to find the church). Tomorrow is the wedding and it is time to start planning the wedding reception...

Emma is tired of waiting and is searching through aunt Melissas purse

Day 7: Cradle of civilization

2007-11-02T15:17:00.000+02:00

Today I had finally the honor to see with my own eyes the cradle of the civilization, the source of happiness for all mankind, the birthplace of heroes that have changed the face of the world - YOUNGSTOWN, OH.
At least thats how my best friend Craig has described his hometown.

We are here for the wedding of my brother in law - John and his fiancee Beth. All the family from Estonia, USA and Canada has gathered in a little farm near Youngstown for a time of crazy jollyness and gayful cheering before the wedding ceremony.

Day 6: 98 years of age

2007-11-01T16:02:00.001+02:00

Emmas great-great grandmother celebrated today her 98th b-day. She is still in such a good health. Strange to think of what would the world look like in 98 years from today, if Emma would live to be also that old.

By the way, it is pretty intimidating to be thrown into the room with 50 other people that all seem to know your name but you have just a slight idea that you have seen them somewhere sometime...

Day 5: Beating from the elderly ladies

2007-11-01T03:24:00.001+02:00

Today I played golf for the first time.
Do you know what hurts? Get badly beaten by a bunch of 90 year old ladies in a game of golf. They were hardly able to walk but they hit that ball like there is no tomorrow! Awful feeling and very humbling experience! :)

Daniel showing his style

Ladies who beat us bad

Today was also trick-or-treat night. Emma got to dress up for the first time in her life and she was just adorable. Little chick from Estonia! As you can imagine, we just had to push her in the strolly to the doors and the candy kept flowing in.

Day 4: Leopard and bottomless pancakes

2007-10-30T13:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday morning we had breakfast with our great friends Nelson and Mandy. Mandy has had many colorful experiences in Estonia (including the first Teemeister adventure game) but Nelli hasn't been to our wonderful country yet. Anyways, what I wanted to say was that instead of free refills on drinks, I had free refills on pancakes! Of course the problem was that since there was so much food on the original serving, then i couldn't even finish those 3 pancakes. Not to mention asking for more.

The other highlight of the day for sure was buying an iPhone and playing around with it. I know i dont need one of those, but it just is so tempting. I still think that i wont keep it when i get back to Estonia but sell it. It was also quite an adventrue working through the manual to open it to all networks. Is hacking an iPhone a sin i wonder?

Day 3: Highlights

2007-10-29T15:04:00.000+02:00

Here are some highlights from Sunday, our 3rd full day in US.
- Matt Hamer and I both installed Second Life into our computers to play with it some. So yesterday my avatar, named Tyyp Proto, went to church in Second Life. Lifechurch.tv has a huge campus there. Since I was there 45 minutes early i didn't get to take part of the service but just hanged out there, which was a lot of fun. On the same island XXXChurch has their little campus also.
- 5 (Free) refills of cherry coce in Max and Ermas (too bad that most places dont have Dr.Pepper)
- Daniel Viinalass giving greetins in NW bible church and handing Pastor Harrel a jar of dirt

Day 2: Congrats Mrs. and Mr. Bob Hart

2007-10-28T03:54:00.000+02:00

Today was the wedding of our great friends Tara Harrell and Bob Hart.

Since we can't find the cord for the camera I can only share with you right now the pictures done with my phone.
Anyways, Bob and Tara, all of your Estonian friends are wishing you all the best and rich blessings on that day!

Phone number

2007-10-27T21:04:00.000+03:00

In case you need to get hold of us during the next couple of weeks, our phone number in the States is 614-586 5665

Day 2: Some highlights

2007-10-27T14:58:00.001+03:00

Some highlights from our second day of travels (note: these highlights are highly subjective and don't claim to be absolute truths):
1. Emma crawled yesterday for the first time. We were visiting Anna's friend Danielle who has a dog named Donkey. Emmas love for dogs is huge, and Donkey was the sole inspiration for Emma to crawl towards him.
2. I have am a Leopard-user. New era has begun in my Mac life. Some higlights from the op.system that I sepcially like:
- Time machine
- ToDo lists and Rss reader in Mail
- Quicklook in Finder
- Spaces and less glutter on desktop
- Coverflow in Finder
3. The leaves are just changing the colors in Columbus and it is beautiful to drive around here
4. Last but not least - last night at Roosters I had 6 (FREE!) refills of cherry coce. I was not feeling good afterwards.

Day 1: Planes and travels

2007-10-26T04:09:00.000+03:00

Location: Tallinn-Amseterdam-Detroit-Columbus-Strive event in Northwest church

The day had a really hectic start. Emma still had a fever and did not sleep well so Anna got maybe just couple of hours sleep. Our plane was scheduled to departure from Tallinn at 7am, so we wanted to be there shortly after 5 to give time for all the procedures. Specially since we still had to buy the infant tickets for Emma. Well, it took us over an hour to do that since the KLM online system was down for that and the poor lady in the office had not done anything like that before. For a while both Anna and I got the feeling that we wont make it out of Estonia that day. They had to keep the check-in open specially for us as we were the very last people they were waiting on. Then they escorted us through the security and passport control without any delays so that we wouldnt make the plane more late than it already was.

Amsterday Schipold airport is nice. If you ever happen to travel there with the baby, then make sure to check out the Baby lounge. Nice beds, leather seats, microwave, sinks, led lightning and nice music - and all that is free. From Amsterdam to Detroit we are flying with a new Airbus 330, with video-on demand systems in all the seats, power plugs for laptops. Nice! Emma had still the fever and wasn't feeling good. It was up to 40C (103F) and in the last part of the flight she decided to vomit twice. After cleaning the seats, the floor and her clothes i was smelling all the way to Columbus like a barf-guy.

We didnt have any problems in Detroit and we made it to Columbus where Matt, Lisa, Brenton, Carrie and Kyli. Man, it was good to see those familiar loving faces.

In the evening I went to the Northwest singles event called Strive. Corrie, Chris and all the other guys that are putting the event on are doing a great job! I am sure that God wants to use them and their desire to change lives in Columbus OH. I was really tired and had the hardest time not falling asleep.
I dont understand how Anna is not tired. It is 9pm and im just waisted. We are watching just the episode of Office with Matt after which i will hit the bed.

Emma got the visa

2007-10-24T23:37:00.000+03:00

Today morning when we called the US embassy we heard that the visa for Emma was issued. When i went to pick it up i found out that they had issued it only for 6 months. Well, at least we are able to travel this time, but for sure it is really a lot of unconvenience for the future.

So now we have the visa for Emma. All that there is left to do is to buy her the plane tickets from the airport when we do the check-in. Hopefully that will go smoothly...

I year anniversary

2007-10-21T17:07:00.000+03:00

Risttee church is 1 year old. Yeah!
Today we celebrated our anniversary with an awsome church service.

We heard video greetings from out friends acrosse the world
The choir sang. They were great. Choir is the best outreach tool that we have, seriously!
Triin and Helena gave their testimonies of what God has been doing in their life this last year
The band rocked
We watched a cool video of the pictures from the first year
I spoke on Acts 1:8 - a new season that is starting for Risttee, and Mt 16:18 - that Jesus will always be the center of Risttee church
And last but not least - we ate a huge birthday cake!

My friend Martin said before the service "We have had one heck of the year!". And thats true. God has brought us through the good times and harder times. We are praying for a breakthrough year.
"Church for others, home for everyone" - that's us, the Risttee church!

Why the move

2007-10-10T16:15:00.000+03:00

Here we are - the Saar family has found a new web home.
Why did we move from the old address (www.tagahoov.ee/peepanna)?

There were 2 main reasons for that:
1. The power of a Blogger blogging engine is quite appealing compared to the selfmanaged wordpress installation on our server.
2. I have found that my name "Peep" is not a good one to use in the web. It turns out that it has too strong connections to the adult sites so that many filters ban the access to any website that has my name spelled out. So as a result some of our friends have not been able to read our blog.

And for sure you can pray for me so that the move to the new platform would also mean more frequent posts!