Nashville VIM Team Prepares for 2012 Lighthouse Summer Camp

A 10-member team from Nashville, TN will travel to Estonia this summer to help resource a summer camp sponsored by the Lighthouse Center.  Over 25 Estonia children are expected to attend the camp in early July.  This marks the ninth consecutive time that a Nashville VIM team from Calvary UMC has helped with the camp.

Genna Mansperger, a member of Calvary United Methodist Church, will lead the team on their journey to Estonia.  She has been a member of every Calvary VIM team that has helped coordinate the activities of the week-long camp.

Mansperger said the theme for this year’s camp will be “Fruits of the Spirit.” The camp is being held for the second consecutive year at a 21-room hotel located in the coastal city of Pedase, about 40 miles west ofTallinn.

The Lighthouse Children’s Center in Estonia’s capitol city of Tallinnwas formed in 2001 as a non-governmental organization to serve Tallinn’s marginalized children and youth.  Mall Tamm has served as its director since 2004.

“The people on the mission teams have shown unconditional love to the children.  It makes a difference in their lives,” said Tamm.

Mansperger says that showing and nurturing loving relationships with the kids is the main motivation for why she keeps returning each summer to Estonia.

“For me it’s all about your relationship with the kids.  There is just something about being with those kids.  I always feel the need to go back,” said Mansperger.

Team member Genna Mansperger hugs camping buddy

Calvary UMC pastor Steve Angus and wife Gretchen along with their two daughters will be serving on the team for a second consecutive year.

“Having done something once you feel more at ease and confident about what to expect,” said Angus.  “This year we are also taking two of our daughters.  One daughter is 13 and the other is 19.  It has been a joy to experience the excitement they have.  I believe this will be an eye opening experience for our children but will also allow the lighthouse children see us interacting as a family.”

Angus said the team is in the process of finalizing the details of this year’s camp theme and program.

“It is our hope that the campers will be able to discover how God can work in their lives on a daily basis to help them deal with the problems that confront them.  Many of them do not have a community of faith outside the Lighthouse.  Storytelling is a major component of what we try to do.  Many of the youth do not know the stories of the Bible.  We will be trying to use Bible stories to connect with the “fruits of spirit.”  They will remember the stories longer than just an ideal,” he said

In recent years members on the Nashville-based team have come from a variety of Middle Tennessee United Methodist congregations.  This year is no different as there are two team member from Bellevue UMC in Nashville.

The team will sponsor several fundraising opportunities to help raise an additional $6,000 to $7,000 needed to cover expenses associated with the camp, according to Mansperger.  It typically cost between $10,000 and $15,000 (excluding flight expense for team members) to adequately fund the week-long camp experience for team members and the Lighthouse campers.

She said that supporters of the team’s work will be able to adopt a camper with a $150 donation and also have the opportunity to have their cars washed.

Other potential fundraising activities this year include eat-out days at local restaurants (VIM team receives a certain percent of sales or profits), a dinner theater and a seminar on improving your personal organizational skills.

“We try each year to offer different types of fundraisers and not necessarily ask the same people for financial support all the time,” explains Mansperger.

First Broad Street Team Sees 11 Estonians Accept Christ

A 17-member mission team representing First Broad Street United Methodist Church in Kingsport, TN, recently returned from a very successful mission trip to Voru, Estonia that saw 11 young Estonians accept Christ as their Savior.

“Estonians tend to move slowly in their faith journey, so these commitments to Christ are a real cause for celebration”, said team leader Harry Turner.  The 11 commitments of faith occurred during a children’s camp supported by the mission team.

Team Member Bill Howle felt the team accomplished its mission.

Kingsport Mission Team Digs Deep in Voru

“We came, we worked hard, we built relationships, and came away with a feeling of accomplishment,” said team member Howle.

Howle said slowly but surely the unknowns about the team became more known as the work of the group progressed.

“Personal beliefs were shared with the group. Sometimes one attends church with a large congregation and although you know people, you really don’t know them until you have shared an experience such as this. A diverse group of people came together as a team to share their love and beliefs in hard work with people many miles from home. As always though, you return from a mission trip with the feeling that you have gained more than you put in,” said Howle.

“The cooperative and flexible attitude of the group was remarkable.  It allowed for some stresses in our air travel and work assignments to be taken in stride.  The team was both spiritually mature and practical in addressing problems.  They were loving and cheerful servants,” added team leader Harry Turner

The team departed for Voru on July 6^th.  The next day the mission team was met by Voru United Methodist Church member Grete Lepa and their bus to take them to south Estonia.

The team spent the next 15 days working on several construction projects and in support of the building expansion at the Voru church led by Rev. Kaupo Kant and wife Thea.

Several members of the team also helped with the children’s Christian Camp and came back feeling uplifted with the experience.

The team was able to worship in the Voru church building that they had worked on during the week.

“A woman next door attended church with her mother who is blind. She had lived there 17 years and had never attended. She had watched us work and I believe her slight interaction with us had an effect. I was reminded of the hymn “They will know we are Christians by our love,” said Howle.

Turner, a veteran of several mission trips to Estonian, noted that what made this experience different for him was the pleasure of working alongside Voru church members  on their own church.

” This was our group’s first opportunity to participate in a well-organized children’s camp.  It was a highlight,” said Turner.

The team wrapped up its construction projects in the final two days filling in a six to eight foot ditch that had been dug for the heating system. This was accomplished in a steady rain with the help of neighborhood children.

The team visited Tartu, Camp Gideon and the Baltic Mission Center at the conclusion of their trip.

(Editor’s Note—More pictures from Voru Mission Team can be viewed on the Friends of Estonia’s Facebook page.  The page can be accessed by clicking here.)