My team and I like to joke about being lumberjacks in the Birch woods of Estonia but there is so much more to our ministry than cutting down trees. I know the video is kind of lengthy but I encourage you to take ten minutes out of your day and watch the testimonies of some of the men at the Village of Hope. Their stories are what our ministry is all about. It is about the transformation of lives. It is about hope!
We have been blessed to have the opportunity to work with three out of the four men in this video. God has changed their lives forever! My team and I have spent the most time with Nikita. Before he was addicted to heroin and a gang member, his dream was to be a firefighter. God brought him to the Village of Hope and now three years later God has given him the opportunity to live his dream of being a firefighter. He is also a student leader at the Village of Hope and is helping others transform their lives. God is and is going to do amazing things through him!
me, Nikita
Rognar who once was a drug addict and jewelry thief is now a leader here and is a wonderful role model for the men at the Village of Hope. We have only met Eric a few times but every time we do he is over flowing with joy. His love for the Lord radiates off him and fills the room. He is now a missionary and just returned home from Zambia. My team likes to call him my long lost brother, they think he looks like the male version of me. Then there is Roman (not in video), who was addicted to heroin for 5 years and lived a very broken life. He has been sober and working with the Village of Hope for 11 years and has two children.
These men are living examples of hope. They are free from the chains of their pasts. They laid down their lives and now live for the Lord. This is what it is all about. Each tree that we cut down brings hope and an opportunity for more men to overcome drugs, alcohol and their pasts and start truly living. It is about building new life, building disciples.
God has given me a new perspective. Normally I would be afraid to be surrounded by gang members, ex-cons and drug addicts, but I am not. I am thankful to be here. Men in the program, like Ron (an international bank robber who is addicted to cocaine) are lost but desperately want to be found. They are not bad people. They are sinners just like you and me. Jesus loves them just as much as he loves us. Their lives and the lives of others can be transformed just like Nikita’s, Rognar’s, Eric’s or Roman’s.
“It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:17
