My Readers!

Dayna here! I’ve been waiting to make a post about my readers because I wanted to actually get to know them before I start telling you about them.  I feel like over the past two weeks I have been able to start building relationships with these people, so here I am now to tell you about it!


1. Iren

Iren is a Russian woman in her 60’s. She appeared very nervous and shy when she showed up at the information meeting, and she could barely speak any English at all. This made me worried that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with her during our reading sessions.  During our first lesson she was having a super hard time understand anything I was saying or what the lesson meant. I was pretty discouraged, and Iren didn’t show up for her next lesson so I thought she didn’t want to come back at all.  We ended up communicating about a second lesson, and let me tell you, it was MUCH better!  I had prayed for the lessons going smoother and that’s exactly what God gave us.  Iren had studied the lesson beforehand, we still went through it very slowly but steadily, and we even talked about God and what she believes.  She said that she prays for others but not for herself, and when I brought up the subject of her mother she started crying because she had recently passed away.  They way she looked at me as I squeezed her hand to console her really made me feel like we connected.  She started asking me about God’s plan for our lives and I showed her some Bible verses and she thanked me so genuinely.  I can’t wait to read with her more!

2. Stasya


Stasya is a 15 year old Russian girl.  She is very shy!  She reads well, but in the beginning when I’d ask her questions she would just smile and shrug.  I couldn’t figure out if it was because she was nervous or she just didn’t understand me!  When I asked her questions about herself she began to loosen up, and she even brought in pictures of her family to show me.  She began to study the lessons ahead of time and also brought a dictionary, those helped a lot and our conversations began to flow more smoothly.  She tells me she and her mother believe in God, but she doesn’t know much about Him.  We have had conversations where I’ve explained to her the Holy Trinity and baptism, she seemed very interested in hearing what I had to say.  I am excited to see what more I can show Stasya about God!  Pray that we will continue to connect!

3. Alex/Sasha


I have this guy’s name two ways because I honestly don’t know what to call him!  The name Alexandr has so many forms here that everyone calls him something different.  I’ve been sticking to Alex because it’s easy.  I met Alex last year (very vaguely) at camp because he is a church member here at Asunduse in Tallinn.  He is Russian, 18 years old, and easily one of the smartest people I have ever met at that age!  He plays competitive chess, people.  We spend a LOT of our reading sessions talking about the world and different cultures.  Canada’s landscape absolutely fascinates him.  He also always asks me questions about if something is actually true about North American culture or not. My reading sessions are typically done with a Luke workbook, but Alex has done that one more than once so we do an Acts workbook together.  It’s a new challenge for me and I enjoy it!  We talk a lot about the purpose of religion and all of the varieties out there.  Alex is a very interesting kid!

4. Jana


Jana is one of my favourite readers!  She is also 15 years old and Russian.  She is very into music and her style shows that.  She reads with me every day and I find her very easy to talk with because she really attempts to participate in our conversations. We laugh a lot because I will ask a question and she will have no idea what I am saying so she just says “what?!”. We have had some more serious talks as well, for example she told me about how her best friend helped bring her out of a stage of depression in her life and help her see good in the world. When I ask her questions about God she always tells me what she thinks, she believes in God and was baptized in the Orthodox church when she was 7.  I asked her how that came about and she told me that her mother read her some Bible stories and she decided she believes, but now she doesn’t know very much about God.  I am hoping we can go more into depth about her beliefs and begin to strengthen that into and actual relationship with God!

5. Artjom


Artjom is an awesome kid. He is Russian, 18 years old, and really good friends with my other reader, Alex.  Artjom was baptized at Camp Balchyoca last summer and I didn’t really know him then, but I am so glad I’ve gotten to connect with him now!  He also is working on the Acts workbook with me during our reading sessions like Alex is.  I can tell he really cares a lot about the text we are reading and the questions I ask him, I always look forward to talking with him.  I feel very equal with him because we can bond over the awesome, yet tough parts about being a young Christian.  I look forward to getting to know him more!

6. Katrin


My Estonian reader! After last summer in Tartu with all Estonian readers, I was so happy when Katrin signed up with me! Katrin is a very sweet woman who is finishing up university and needed help with her English to graduate. Her English is very, very good though, much better than she thinks. As we have gotten to now each other, our reading sessions have been really amazing. There was one session where I started out explaining to her who Elizabeth was, which led to John the Baptist, which led to talking about denominations (what I believe vs. others).  She was a complete open book, asking me all these questions about baptism and what happens to our souls when we die.  She told me that she has no idea what she believes, she wants to believe in something but has no idea where to begin.  This is ideal for me because now I am able to inform her of everything I know about God and His love and power in our lives.  She said that sometimes when she is really lost, she goes to a church and sits there in peace and she feels so much better afterwards.  I really hope I can continue to connect with her about this!

7. Larissa


Larissa signed up with me after she came with a friend to our Canada party!  I was so excited to have another reader.  Larissa is crazy, in a good way!  She is over 60 years old, but she is so energetic and enthusiastic about English.  She is not afraid to make mistakes when she speaks, which is very entertaining but also helpful! Once she finally understands what the lesson was about, it’s like a light bulb goes off in her head and she knows some of the stories from the Bible. She is my newest reader so we still haven’t gotten too in depth about each other’s lives, but she’s a sweet lady and I’m looking forward to knowing her more.

8. My Miscellaneous Readers


I have a few readers who don’t quite qualify as “LST” readers. One of them is Nikolai Vasjutin, who happens to be the minister here at the Asunduse church.  I meet with Nikolai almost every day, and seeing as I’m not needing to spread the gospel to Nikolai, we instead work very diligently on his English pronounciation abilities.  We pick a book of the Bible, like Luke or Mark, and we go over parables and afterwards we discuss them and talk about topics related to the reading.  Nikolai was actually a product of LST, and it’s amazing to hear the story of where he came from to where he is today.  God does amazing things through this program and this church is very blessed to have Nikolai and his wife Olga, and his daughter Anna.

Another girl I scheduled to meet with a few times was an Estonian we met at camp named Marta.  Marta doesn’t live in Tallinn so that’s why she doesn’t quite qualify as a reader.  Marta has decided to get baptized in mid-August, and knowing that, I talked with her a lot about how she came to the decision and how God and touched her life.  The way she described it was so simple, she just felt him in her heart and it felt so good. She has such a sweet soul and I really hope God can do some great things in her life!

Anyways, there’s my extremely minimized version of what I’ve been up to during these first two reading weeks. Please continue to pray for our team and our efforts here!  Estonia is a very special place with incredible people. We’ve got two more weeks to go and I am so excited to see what God has planned for them!