News

Mattias has seen a need for a young adults conference that deals with topics which make young people to struggle. Now, the time has come and preparations are made and young adults conference ’The Juggler’ will take place at Home of Hope on March 18-19, 2022.

‘The Juggler’ targets people who are active in their daily life and want to be active in church work as well. They give their input everywhere and they don’t want to say no to God. The conference’s aim is to provide tools and to really open up what really means to be young adult and have an open space to talk about it.

Three generations of Haamer family wish you a merry Christmas!

In this challenging time we feel the importance to remind you that Jesus has said: “Do not be afraid!”.

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WE ARE VERY THANKFUL TO OUR DONORS! During last weeks we have received meaningful donations. Although, we haven’t been able to pay full amount of our next mortgage payment, we are missing much less. Current shortfall is $38,686. Our creditor agreed to postpone payment due date for one month until December 31, 2021. Another great challenge is to meet TAT/Home of Hope annual operating budget needs. Home of Hope is for us a good resource of income. We have earned $40,000 during one year despite of COVID-19 restrictions. Still, 2021 deficit is currently $49,108.   We are encouraged, but I have to confess we still need your help. Giving options are available by clicking here. God bless you, Pastor Siimon Haamer President of Tartu Academy of Theology

WE ARE IN NEED OF HELP! Home of Hope’s next mortgage payment is next week, but we are still missing $62,226. This isn’t first time for us to face with this kind of challenge but this is first time for Mattias. He wanted to have a talk with me to get encouragement and find out how we have dealt with similar situations in the past. We decided to record our discussion and to share with you. Watch video below, please. We are truly thankful for your support through prayers, financially and other ways! We know God is having great plans with all of us but sometimes we need much encouragement until we see these plans realized. We find our encouragement from God’s word and I’m sharing with you passage from Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” If you have in your heart to support us financially, then please find giving options in the end of this post. We call you to pray with us for solution with this payment and with our mortgage loan overall. God bless you, Pastor Siimon Haamer President of Tartu Academy of Theology GIVING CHECKS Charity Lutheran Church (Tax deductible.) 120 Aspen Ave. Bismarck, ND 58503, U.S.A. Make checks payable to Charity Lutheran designating “Home of Hope” in the memo portion. ELECTRONICAL To give electronically through Charity Lutheran Church in Bismarck ND (Tax deductible) go to Charity’s website. Choose from the “Fund” dropdown list “Tartu Academy of Theology” and then choose the sub fund.   More giving […]

I’m sharing our joy and gratitude with you. Because of COVID we have had very little in person contacts with our friends from foreign countries, but last Friday was very different from that. On November 5th our long time friends and supporters from Denmark, Bent Erik & Birgit Møller and Kristen & Inga Grysbæk, visited us at Home of Hope. They are representatives of Ringkøbing’s Y’s Men’s Club and our friendship goes back for almost 30 years. Danish Y’s Men’s have been our faithful supporters and partners and we are happy these connections continue. The purpose of current visit was to bring personally their donation for Home of Hope and Tartu Academy and to see Home of Hope facility. We are very thankful to Ringkøbing’s Y’s Men’s for their gift. I want to tell you why this visit was very meaningful to us. As you know we have challenging mortgage loan on our shoulders. This is our daily concern and prayer topic because we never know when and wherefrom we’ll get funds to pay next loan payment. It’s just a miracle that with help of many donors we have raised already over one million dollars for Home of Hope so far. That’s almost 50% of the total needed for the facility. Now, we have next mortgage loan payment on November 15th but today we are still missing $62,226. We don’t know at the moment what to say to the creditor on coming Monday. We have prayed signs from The Lord. Visit and gift from Danish friends was a […]

We have a great story to share. Below you’ll find a video where one last year Bible School student is sharing her story how she found her way back to God through our Bible School course and how her experience was influencing many more people. As a result, eight adults were baptized and confirmed and also five children baptized. This is a hopeful testimony and is giving us encouragement. God is sharing His blessing. Please, share this joyful testimony.

As US borders are still closed for European citizens we haven’t been able to plan any trip to the States. Hopefully spring will be different. However we would like to share our hopeful testimony with you face to face. Therefore we calling everyone to join live Zoom meeting on October 8th at 11:00 am (US Central Time): Topic: Estonia Summit Time: Oct 8, 2021 11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89940443096?pwd=WGNpdVFHc0YzejZhQjZPMlp3a3RhZz09 Meeting ID: 899 4044 3096 Passcode: 731841

New college year is running and we are very thankful for good admission this year again. In August we admitted together with Lutheran Seminary 36 new students: *16 for bachelor program; *16 for master program; *4 for church musician one-year program. Our student body with Lutheran Seminary is 135. Looking back into June we have one another good information to share. By then we had graduation and 14 students received their diplomas. Seven of them from the bachelor program and seven from the master program. Some of them are already working in their chosen specialty: *two are assistant pastors; *two are continuing their studies in order to become a pastor in the Lutheran Church; *three are chaplains in hospitals; *two continued their studies in master program. And now also about our Bible School. New Bible School class started on September 20th with 43 students. This year we are well prepared to offer also online participation and 23 people are using this opportunity. All lessons will be video recorded and if students aren’t able to attend every Monday, they’ll have an opportunity to watch recording afterwards. We have participants from all-over of Estonia and even from Finland. We are truly thankful to God for His great blessing and we are so thankful to all our donors. You are giving us the opportunity to do this work.

From 10th to 13th of August we had a chance to host a Youth Bible Camp alongside with our dear friends from Spiritual Orphans Network. It was great to meet missionaries from US after two years. We had a meaningful time during four days with 13 young people. Hereby we are presenting to you a fun video where the youngest participant, Laine-Liise, shares her memories and feelings with the camp.

For the past four months we have been running a campaign “Bringing HOPE TO ESTONIA”. With the help of our great supporters and friends we managed to raise $279,815 through sacrificial givings in order to erase much of Home of Hope’s mortgage loan. THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR DONORS AND GOD BLESS EVERYONE OF YOU! Here is a video giving an overview about campaign process. There is still over a million dollar Home of Hope mortgage loan debt. If you’d like to support our work in teaching and preaching to Estonians about God, then here are giving options: CHECKS Charity Lutheran Church (Tax deductible.) 120 Aspen Ave. Bismarck, ND 58503, U.S.A. Make checks payable to Charity Lutheran designating “Home of Hope” in the memo portion. ELECTRONICAL To give electronically through Charity Lutheran Church in Bismarck ND (Tax deductible) go to Charity’s website. Choose from the “Fund” dropdown list “Tartu Academy of Theology” and then choose the sub fund “Home of Hope“. More giving options are available at https://tatest.org/give/ God bless you, Pastor Siimon Haamer President of Tartu Academy of Theoleogy

We are coming to the end of the BRINGING HOPE TO ESTONIA Campaign. We are very thankful to all our donors. We are blessed through your partnership and we pray that you would be blessed as well. We have raised so far $278,965 and we are still missing $471,035. Campaign is finishing June 30th but you are of course welcome to make your donation also after official ending date. Every dollar makes a difference. God bless you, Pastor Siimon Haamer President of Tartu Academy of Theoleogy tatest.org/campaign

We are starting final phase of BRINGING HOPE TO ESTONIA Campaign. Please watch video below for more information. God bless you, Pastor Siimon Haamer President of Tartu Academy of Theoleogy

I’m blessed to have Mattias Haamer working together with me as my assistant. His enthusiasm and willingness to share his faith has been meaningful for the 70 plus young people who attend the activities offered for them at Home of Hope. I feel that I’m already way too old for them and they are eager to have someone like themselves as a role model for their spiritual quests. You are welcome to watch Mattias’ testimony below. Also, some Bringing Hope to Estonia Campaign updates…So far we have raised $224,465 USD and we are still of course keeping our end of June goal of $750,000 dollars. We are very, very thankful for every donation. Below you can also find a video and some other materials about the campaign. Everything is also available on our website tatest.org/campaign. God bless you all, Pastor Siimon Haamer President of Tartu Academy of Theoleogy

I’m sharing with you some updates about Bringing Hope to Estonia Campaign that was launched three months ago. During three months we have raised 220 000 dollars. This is amazing result and we are so thankful to all of you, our donors. It is an extraordinary experience to feel that so many people care about our work here in the suburb of the world. We also truly feel the power of your prayers. Although our activities were very limited during past months because of really hard COVID19 situation in Estonia we have not lost any of our projects, on the contrary, we are even launching a new project to offer pastoral care to the people in the rural area. This project is financed by the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs. We are filled with gratitude and hope. Bringing Hope to Estonia Campaign goal is to raise 750 000 dollars by the end of June this year. Please, don’t think that we are running a hopeless campaign, because we have only month and a half left and we are still missing 530 000 dollars. Our history proves that God is almighty and unbelievable things will happen. Home of Hope is one amazing example of it. In order to receive Lord’s blessing we need to pray and therefore we are organising 24-hour prayer chain at Home of Hope throughout May 20th and 21st. We are calling you to join in prayer with us for one hour in the beginning of this prayer […]

First year of the Home of Hope Bible School will be finished in the beginning of June. Pastor Marek Roots (alumni of Tartu Academy) has been very dedicated in coordinating all the Bible School work during this first year. This has been his voluntary contribution and we are very thankful for his faithfulness. Pastor Marek is sharing with you his testimony and is giving quick Bible School updates. Watch the interview, please. WE ARE CALLING YOU TO SHARE ABOUT BRINGING HOPE TO ESTONIA CAMPAIGN.

We recorded an interview with two long time friends of Estonia and key persons of the Bringing Hope to Estonia Campaign. Thus we are happy to share with you a video where pastor Bob Nordvall (Spiritual Orphans Network, Bismarck, ND) and pastor Paul Knudson (Faith Lutheran Church, Hutchinson, MN) are explaining why they are so dedicated co-workers of ours and why our mission work is meaningful for them. Watch the interview, please.

We are blessed to have many dedicated people working along with us at Home of Hope. We are introducing Gareth. He is a missionary intern from the UK sent by the Norwegian Mission Society. He is working with Tartu congregations and also helping out at Home of Hope. Watch his testimony.

Christ is risen! His is risen, indeed! Mattias Haamer, assistant to the president of TAT, is bringing to you Easter greetings. Watch this video, please.

I’m sharing good news. During first month of the Bringing HOPE TO ESTONIA campaign we have raised $170,000 USD. In order to reach our goal, we need to raise $580,000 USD more by the end of June this year.

Bad news is that COVID-19 infection rate in Estonia is the highest in the world. This has also affected our work and income. Few things we dared to plan for this period have been put on hold. Bible School classes are luckily transferred to the internet and are continuing.

We are truly thankful to all our donors and your continuing partnership!

Please go to tatest.org/campaign to learn more about the ongoing campaign.

One of our friends from US, Alice Klement, asked me to share her story about her recent giving for the campaign. You’ll find her letter below.

Help us to reach the goal, please.

My name is Eva-Maria, I’m 15 years old and I come from a Christian family. My home church is St. Peter’s in Tartu. I used to go to church every Sunday and attended a Sunday school when I was younger. Nowadays I can’t make it to church that often but try to go there as much as possible.

My personal faith has grown a lot in the past 6 months. Christianity has always been my own inner topic and I don’t talk about it with everyone. That being said, I can open up if I feel that people around me are sensible and supportive.

In my everyday life I have moments, where I see God more, and other times when I see Him less. There have been many times when I feel that it’s hard to go on alone, and in those times, God seems to be so far away. Deep down I always know that He is there for me….

ALSO EVA-MARIA’S VIDEO IS AVAILABLE.