News

As you probably know my grandfather Pastor Harri Haamer wrote a book We Shall Live in Heaven. In this book he is telling a story about his journey to a Soviet slave labor camp in Siberia which lasted almost eight years.

Printed versions are not any more available in English and Estonian. As people keep asking we need to make new printing. I’m planning US trip in the end of September this year and would be really good to have new edition in English printed by this time.

Unfortunately we don’t have funds for this purpose at the moment and we need financial help in order to print new books. To make minimum print-run on both languages costs at least $5,000.

I’m sharing with you a short update about Home of Hope fundraising process.

We have raised so far $1,132,005. It’s a bit more than 50% of all our needs. Please, watch this video for more information.

I’m sharing with you information about Ukraine refugees whom we have helped with your donations.

We are very thankful to all people and congregations who have donated Ukraine refugees through Tartu Academy of Theology. Until now we have received $51,328 to the Ukraine fund. We are cooperating with the Estonian Lutheran Church congregations and because of this, your donations reach different locations in Estonia where refugees are hosted. Pastors and church members are not only offering them housing, they are helping them also to settle in this new country, to ovecome the bureaucratic obstacles and to solve the economic problems.

Although the battles in Ukraine take place approximately 1,000 miles from Estonia we are facing new challenges here. Since the end of February, Estonia has faced an unprecedented influx of refugees, mostly women and children. Estonia has hosted around 45,000 refugees over a couple of months. The shortage of housing is enormous and hundreds of refugees are still forced to live on empty cruise ships or other temporary places.

Our US trip with Mattias is over. We had very tight schedule with many meetings. It was really enjoyable to see old friends and make new acquaintances. We are very thankful for your warm welcome and for all the opportunities we had. Here is short video to wrap up our trip.

We are very thankful to Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Excelsior as they recorded our presentation there. If you would like to listen or share our story then you just need to share with them this YouTube link https://youtu.be/q_S4j1t0PKQ.

Our US trip with Mattias is in full mode. Although we won’t be able to visit all places we’ll give you an opportunity to be part of one of our presentations where we will be sharing recent updates about Tartu Academy and Home of Hope and also about challenges we face due to war in Ukraine.

If you won’t be able to attend physically then you are welcome to watch Friends of Estonia Summit online live streaming from this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I26gz_mYKnI.

Friends of Estonia Summit takes place on Monday April 25th at 2:00 pm in Mount Calvary Lutheran Church (301 County Road 19, Excelsior, MN).

After 2,5 years of pause I’m visiting US again. This time with my assistant Mattias. We are starting on April 19 from Bismarck ND and finishing on May 3 in Denver. On the way down we visit many places also in Minnesota and Iowa.

Hereby I’m sharing with you our itinerary. You are welcome to meet us in these places. We will be sharing recent updates about Tartu Academy and Home of Hope and also about challenges we face due to war in Ukraine.

Christ is risen! Please watch Easter greeting from Pastor Eenok Haamer.

We are very thankful to all of you for your generous donations and willingness to help Ukraine refugees. In one month, we have received $41,000 in designated donations.

First of all I want to point out that this crisis might last quite a long time and our goal is to use those funds wisely, looking ahead at least for a one year period. We are thankful for your continuing help because need for help is huge and I will be implementing ways how to share this donation directly to the people who are in need.

Since March 16 we have hosted seven people at Home of Hope’s small 430 sq ft apartment. Before receiving them we replaced some furniture and bought a TV, washing machine, bedding etc. Our guests are mother (Jana) and father (Oleksandr) with two children (Adeline 3 months and Arina 6 years) and three sisters (Tatjana, Ljuba and Natalja) of Oleksandr’s. All are in the picture below. They escaped in the very beginning of the war as they live in Sarny which is close to the Belorussian border and military base is located at their town.

It’s hard to find words about Russian aggression in Ukraine. It’s hard to describe sadness that we feel towards Ukraine people. Although Estonia is currently not under attack and we are members of NATO we have to be alert as well.

At the moment is our duty to help Ukrainians. Refugees from Ukraine are already arriving to Estonia. I offered Home of Hope guest apartment for their accommodation. Probably soon our apartment will temporary home for war refugees. I promised that Tartu Academy will cover all their costs and guarantee their daily needs. For their more convenient stay we need to change some furniture in the apartment. At the moment it’s furnished for shorter accommodations.

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!”.

Click “read more” and watch video.

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