wfn.org | Estonian Methodists raise funds to build church in Tartu

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 28, 2002   News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71B{023}

By Cathy Farmer*

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UMNS) - The Methodist Church in Tartu, Estonia, is holding
on to a choice piece of land, and the Rev. H. Eddie Fox believes he knows
God's will for the property.

God "intends for that land to house the Methodist Church of Tartu," said
Fox, director of World Methodist Evangelism. He spoke at the annual meeting
of the Friends of Estonia, an unofficial United Methodist group, Jan. 18-19
at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Tenn.

"It's a miracle that the Methodist congregation in Tartu still has the
property," he said. During the previous century, the site was coveted by
invading Germans and Russians, and then by the municipality of Tartu. After
the Soviets left, the city tried to claim the property, but the Methodists
went to court and won their case.

The property is across the street from the 375-year-old University of Tartu,
where Estonia's future leaders are trained. A church there would fulfill the
Methodist strategy of regional ministry while giving the congregation the
high visibility it needs.

"The building will cost $400,000 to erect, and half of that has already been
promised by laypeople from Georgia," Fox said. "Dunwoody UMC in Georgia
pledged another $60,000. With money pledged by the Tartu congregation, we
now have $290,000 in hand and need only another $110,000 to make it a
reality."

When the land thaws, perhaps as early as March, the Methodist congregation
plans to break ground. But in this former Soviet bloc country, no
construction occurs on borrowed money.

"We need individuals or congregations to give us $5,000 or $10,000 or
$15,000," Fox said. "We need commitments so that by Christmas, the building
can be dedicated to the glory of God."

Fox isn't the first person to believe God wants a church built on the site.
In 1926, Aleksander Kuum, a newly minted Methodist pastor appointed to the
area, persuaded his bishop to pray for the money to buy the property for
Tartu's fledgling congregation. Moving forward in faith, they signed a note
and made a down payment. But the money ran out and they were about to lose
everything.

In a journal written in 1931, Kuum described his wonder when desperately
needed funds arrived from America after the congregation had fasted and held
a weeklong prayer vigil.
"But with God, everything had been arranged," Kuum wrote. "What's meant for
the church, the church will surely get."

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*Farmer is director of communications for the Memphis (Tenn.) Annual
Conference of the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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