A whirlwind first year in Estonia

It has been a bit of a whirlwind. A little over twelve months ago the Brotherston family uprooted themselves and headed for Estonia. We caught up with them to hear about their whirlwind first year there. Chris Rolfe reports

Find a home, get the kids into school, settle into church, make friends, oh – and learn a new language. This was the Brotherston family’s job list this time last year. Craig, Abby and their girls Sianna, Aliza, Ariela and Tamara had moved to Tallinn and, while no strangers to missionary life, they had a lot of settling in to do. So how has their first year in Estonia gone and where has their missionary journey taken them?

The first month

Craig describes the first couple of months as a whirlwind – Airbnb-hopping while they found a flat, registering the girls at two schools, applying for residency and joining their new church. “We had already chosen the main Pentecostal church in Tallinn, Toompea Kogudus so we focused on getting to know people there,” he says. “We hosted lots of dinners!”

Church life

Craig immediately became involved in church life and leadership. “Very quickly they highlighted that one of the church’s big needs was for youth ministry, so I joined the team and started working alongside the youth pastor,” he says. “It’s been a real joy because it’s brought them the help they needed but we’ve also been able to serve, get involved and understand the culture.”

The UK and Estonian cultures differ in several key ways, Craig has discovered. Estonians are more reserved and their society is more individualistic, for example. “That’s why we’ve needed to build relationships,” he says. “It’s been really important to come alongside people and build trust so we can share life stories and learn from each other.”

The girls have really helped here. “Our two eldest come to everything we do with the youth and the young people really love them. It doesn’t just feel like me figuring this out alone; we’re doing it as a family.”

Craig’s work hasn’t been solely in the main Tallinn church. Toompea Kogudus is a hub for Pentecostal churches in the area, which creates opportunities for partnerships further afield. Craig has joined with Paldiski an hour west of Tallinn to build a youth ministry and Valga four hours south to train young leaders. He has also preached and taken seminars at youth events elsewhere.

School life

While Craig has settled into work the girls have tackled school, where lessons are taught in Estonian. “It’s been challenging but they’ve done really well,” he says. “They’ve been given a year of grace where they’re not really being graded. The idea is that in September they’ll repeat this year with a better understanding of the language. Sianna and Aliza have teachers and classmates who speak English, which has made it a bit easier, and Aliza’s teachers would be happy for her to move up a year because she’s done so well with the language. It’s been harder for Ariela and Tamara because they don’t hear a lot of English.”

He is thrilled that Sianna, who was least on board about coming, has ended up loving the experience. “In God’s kindness we’ve seen her completely U-turn. It’s been great to see this at school and also in her discipleship journey. She’s realised she can do this, her confidence has grown and she’s connected with God in a deeper way.”

Learning Estonian

Craig and Abby have been learning Estonian too. “We now understand a lot but it’s still hard to speak,” Craig says. “There are 14 different grammar cases in Estonian, so every word can change in 14 different ways depending on the sentence!”

They are juggling Estonian with Russian as they attend Estonian services on Sunday mornings and also serve with the youth ministry of the Russian-speaking church. “Brits are used to hearing English spoken as a second or third language,” Craig says, “but Estonians and Russians aren’t used to hearing their language spoken badly!”

What’s next?

With a year under their belt, what’s next? “There are three things we really care about and feel will be part of our future,” says Craig. “One is church planting – there’s a big need for more healthy churches here and we’re exploring how we might get involved with that. Another is passing the gospel on to the next generation. A lot more help is needed with this. And third is mission. For us that’s two-way – hosting people from the UK and Ireland, then mobilising Estonians too. For 30 years [since Estonia gained independence from Russia in 1991] Estonia has been such an important mission field that people have naturally focused on their own country. Now they’re starting to see they have something to offer to other places and want to become involved in that too.”

Of their family’s experiences so far, Craig says Estonia has been “beyond expectations”. “We’ve never understood God’s kindness like we have in this past year. We prepped the kids for the worst but it hasn’t been like that. People have been great and we’ve loved it!”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.