Estonia Lighthouse Team, Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tuesday at the Lighthouse
Greetings again from Estonia. We are in the second day at the Lighthouse. Wayne and Dave succeeded yesterday at installing a toilet, and also mounting two large fire extinguishers. Today Wayne has been scraping a stairwell that was loaded with loose paint and plaster. The children called him a "snowman". He is now putting on new plaster so it can dry overnight, and then put on paint tomorrow. This area is in very bad shape! I know that Mall, the director, will be very happy to have it looking better.

After coffee (with pastries, cheese, ham and tomatoes), we got out tables for the crafts, and prepared for music. The children made a cross necklace with colored beads that represented the Gospel story (black for sin, red for the blood of Jesus, etc). The all seemed to be very proud of their project. One Russian boy drew me a picture. It was very well done, and was a picture of a man with a top hat carrying flowers. I thought that was very nice! The children are often hungry when they come, so we don´t put off lunch. After they are fed, we have music, and today I used a colored chart with groups of rhythm instruments. We also played bells and boomwhackers on a couple of other songs. We repeated "Jumpin´for Jesus". Wow! I feel like I´ve had an aerobic workout after we do that song! These children are younger than the group I had two years ago, and their attention span is shorter. They did seem to enjoy being wild and crazy during "Jumpin´for Jesus"!

Jan did puppets again, and they also enjoyed doing that. Tomorrow we are doing the "Cha Cha Shuffle" or whatever it was called. Oops, I got another workout because Jan and I practiced after the children had left so we won´t get too mixed up tomorrow.

In the evenings, we are relaxing. Last night, we slipped into an organ and violin recital at a church nearby. The music was really beautiful. However, I was afraid that Wayne and Dave might interrupt with snoring, so we didn´t stay too long. This church has painting all across the top of the church of Bible stories, that were during a time when people were illiterate. They would learn from the pictures.

Last night we walked around Old Town, near our apartment for about two hours. The churches and old structures are interesting and beautiful. Some of them have recently been restored. (I noticed progress in this area since I was here in 2008). The daylight lasts until about 2:00 in the morning, so before we knew it, it was bedtime (10:30) ,and we were still wandering around town.

We continue in our efforts tomorrow at the Lighthouse. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Judy and Wayne Werner & the team