Month 5 of my Race (May 2014) my team spent at Village of Hope in Estonia! It was a month full of surprises.
When I first heard we were going to Village of Hope, I was not excited. Two other teams on my squad had already gone there, one in March and one in April. Although they only had great things to say about it, I was not excited. Spending a month at a men’s rehabilitation center working at a sawmill did not interest me at all. However, it only took me about 48 hours on the Village of Hope property to completely change my mind.
My team, Chasing the Deep, was super fortunate to have Jeff on our team who had already spent a month at Village of Hope in March. He was able to give us some awesome information about the place so that as soon as we got there we could dive right on in with ministry!
So the Village of Hope is an amazing property in the woods. Men voluntarily go there for a 10-month program to help with drug and alcohol addictions. Some have been addicts for years and it has gotten them into a lot of trouble and problems, sometimes resulting in jail time. Others are young and have already seen their addictions slowly ruining their lives and want help now!
It was so inspiring to hear their stories and see how successful this program has been in turning men’s lives around. They are also starting a women’s Village of Hope soon! We were able to go see where it will be and help with some cleaning and yard work there!
So the men there get up around 6 every morning, have breakfast and then have class until 10. Then they go to work at the sawmill. Some work inside the sawmill making pallets while others work outside chopping up trees to make fire wood (because the entire grounds at the Village of Hope runs on wood burning furnaces to heat their buildings, houses and water). They have lunch at 12:15, which was always some sort of soup, and then head back to the sawmill at 1. However, before they start their work they have what they call the “Ring,” which is a circle they stand in and tell each other how they are doing and then pray together. They work until 4:55, have another “Ring” and then head to dinner at 5:30! After dinner they would do homework and have meetings in their dorms. Except on Wednesday nights they had a Prayer Meeting from 7 to 8. This was one of our favorite parts of the month! They would get together, worship and then pray with one another. It was always so encouraging and moving to see. Especially when some of them would pray for us, including one of the director’s 4 year old son! Then Saturdays they could choose to work overtime for pay and then Sunday’s they had church and some off time!
We were fortunate enough to be able to do most of these things with them. We would join them for work every morning, lunch, work in the afternoon, dinner, prayer nights and Sunday church! At the sawmill, the guys on my team would chop wood and help the men outside, while the girls stacked tons of firewood, all around the grounds. We also helped with lots of random projects like bagging up potatoes, washing their fire truck and cleaning out freezers. It might not sound thrilling but this place had such a joy about it and the men that we worked with were so sweet and made it the best month! It was also so great to have girl time just stacking wood, talking, singing and being silly together. We would be alone in the wood stacks sometimes singing and laughing so loud that some of the men would come over and see what crazy things we were up too!
One really cool thing that happened was one man came to the Village of Hope just 3 days after we got there, so it was like he started with us. One day he asked one of his leaders, “Why are they so joyful and singing all the time, when they are just stacking fire wood?” and his leader just shrugged and said “Miracle!” We didn’t even have to say anything but the men could see our love and joy through our work, attitude, singing and smiles, which comes only from God. Because of that this whole month was so cool because it did not even feel like we were doing ministry. It just felt like we were making friends, hanging out, working at a sawmill and loving life!
I will surely never forget my amazing month at Village of Hope or any of the men that I met there!
