It doesn’t usually happen like this! It sounds too good to be true, but it actually did happen to the newest family in Estonia, Tom and Jennifer Thompson.

“It astounds us that God has drawn people to Himself so that they actively ask for a church,” said Tom. “Particularly in Estonia,” he added, “where people are so secular and so reserved.”

Tom and Jennifer, along with their 4-year-old daughter Emma, moved from Houston, Texas to Tallinn, Estonia in September of 2003. Tom has transitioned from being an engineer to being a strategy coordinator for this northernmost Baltic country where winters are cold and hearts are sometimes colder. But Tom and Jennifer’s expectation of slow work and fruitless labor were blown apart when they met Maria Minhoff.

Maria is the director of an orphanage in the rural town of Tudulinna. She met James Teafatiller, IMB missionary to the Russian-speaking population in Estonia, when he accompanied a Russian-speaking couple to the orphanage. When Maria discovered that he was a church planter, she told him that she and other people in the town really wanted a church in the village—an Estonian lanuguage church. Since James was involved with Russian language work, he immediately thought of his new colleague, Tom. Although Tom and Jennifer had only just begun to learn Estonian, they were more than happy to meet with Maria and see what God was up to.

Tom and Jennifer contacted Maria and they had their first meeting to discuss plans for a church. “She said that there are 50 people in the town that want a church, BESIDES her and the children!” said Tom. Even more astounding is the fact that they don’t think that they must have a church building to be a church, they would be open to being taught how to be a church themselves, and they offered to meet in Maria’s house or in the orphanage building, if they needed the space.

For a church planting missionary it is a dream come true. “This willingness to have house churches is very important, as churches multiply more rapidly if they are small groups.” Tom explains. In this part of the world church buildings and what they represent are often the biggest barrier to the free spread of the gospel. The people think you MUST have a building to have a church. So it seems, Maria and her friends have broken the mold in Estonia. Tom and Jennifer are not rejoicing alone. The Union of Evangelical Christian and Baptist Churches of Estonia is very excited about a possible church start in Tudulinna, and that they may be able to have a pastor from a nearby town come to assist the church.

Very often, starting a new church is like planting crops, and it requires much breaking and tilling of the soil before seeds are set in the ground. “That is what we expected our jobs here to entail,” said Tom. “But this time, God has presented a field that is hoed and is ready.” What an incredible gift! What an incredible God!

Please pray that this church start becomes a reality!