Hi everyone!
I know it's been forever since I posted, so I hope this post doesn't seem pretentious, but I promise, now that Panera's not dumb anymore with blocking Xanga, I'll be posting a lot more often.
There's been a lot of stuff going on in my life the last year or so, and this letter will explain some of it, but I'll try to fill in the blanks bit by bit.
Hello friends,
We wanted to write a letter and let all of you know exactly what is happening in our lives. Writing this letter is exciting, scary and thrilling all at once. We have been dating for 6 months now and we have reached a place in the road where we are considering the possibility of becoming more serious… like I said - exciting!! Now some of our most intent conversations involve what may or may not happen in the future. Each of us individually and then both of us in our relationship are trying to seek God’s will for our lives.
As most of you probably know, I (John) have plans to move back to Estonia with my family to participate in the various ministries through which the Lord is mightily working there. Foremost on my heart has been the youth ministry “Going UP!”, which is now poised to transition into a new paradigm of ministry and service as its own distinct church. I will be stepping into the role of worship leader for this outreach, and it is a dream-come-true opportunity for me to serve in an area that has been a passion of mine for years.
There is also tons of other work that I will be doing related to the ministries that my parents are involved in: a pregnancy distress center seeking to minister strategically to the young women of a country whose abortion rates are among the highest in the world, and a family camp that will reach out to Estonian families - believing and unbelieving alike. Others of you may or may not know that my (Beth) plans are consisting of finishing my American Sign Language Interpreter’s Degree and working with kids and teenagers in learning about God, life and love. I know those are a bit more ambiguous than John’s plans but I know that I have had such great experiences at Joseph Badger Meadows Camp and Conference Center that the thought of working at a camp just makes my heart skip a beat and helping others on this road of life sounds like heaven on earth.
SO… we come to the place where we need to look a little more seriously about where we are taking this relationship and how we are to be responsible with the callings we feel God has placed on our lives. We need to find out how well Estonia and Beth Earnhardt get along and if this is a place I could live for the rest of my life. It seems the best way to know that is obviously a visit for some period of time. Due to school and other time constraints we have decided to try and visit in August and September. John is planning on staying later into October to be a help in getting “Going UP!” church off the ground. Then when we return to the States we can give everyone a better idea of where we feel God is leading us.
A quick word of clarification: this will not be a vacation. Both of us are upholding goals of being as much of a help as we can while we are there as well as learning about each other and how we fit in this culture and God’s plan. We feel this is critical in determining where to go on our relationship and as for my part (Beth) if this is not meant to be I do not want to keep John here in the States for my sake any longer than need be. He needs to be doing God’s work and if that means getting more involved here because we will be here for a while then wonderful, if that means us no longer being together and him being off in Estonia doing what he feels called then, praise God! We really want what God has for us and we want to jump into that adventure… together or separate!!!
Therefore we present our needs to the God who is able to fulfill them all, and to his people whom He uses as He sees fit. Although there was a financial plan in place when we first started this project, unforeseen events have arisen and Beth has been unable to work for the last month, making it hard to pay regular bills let alone trying to save money to go overseas. Also, we will be gone for a month and will be unemployed while we are over there but still needing to pay bills like rent and car insurance. We have no doubt that God is willing and able to do more than we can hope or even imagine and so we are beyond excited to see what He can do here!! Therefore we ask most of all for your prayers in this adventure we are anticipating! We both have complete confidence that the Lord will accomplish everything in our lives that will ultimately bring Him the most glory, and so the “success” or “failure” of this trip is not the main issue; the thing of paramount importance is that God be glorified in our lives!!
If you would like to help us out in this great adventure, we would love to hear from you. You can contact John through email: estomk@netscape.net or on his cell phone at any time: (614) 327-5652.
We thank you in advance for your faithful prayers on our behalf, and look forward to reporting back to you the wonderful things that we trust God will do in and through us, be it alone or together!
In Christ,
John Viinalass and Beth Earnhardt
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Or maybe it's just sping break and I don't have anything better that I want to do right now. 
) I was pulling into the driveway that I thought it was when I looked one house further down and saw two little faces peering through the glass storm door. I immeditely knew that this was actually the house I was supposed to be at, and as I corected my course, and approached their house instead, one of the little girls raced away from the door to tell grandpa that the pizza was here. 