That's right, Estonia isn't a developing country any more and our economy is much better compared to Africa and many other regions in the world. Our problem is that only a very small percentage of our population, around 5% or less, care about church life and mission work in Estonia. Approximately 10% of the population are in some way affiliated with churhces but they are not all giving people. Unfortunately, most of the people who care about mission work don't have much money. We try to do our best in order to teach Estonians to give. We have arranged two special fundraising gala dinners in Estonia to raise support for our work. We were able to also involve local business people and some of them have responded to our call for support. The first evening we raised about $40,000 and the second evening about $30,000. We'll continue this work so that step-by-step we can reduce our dependence on U.S. donations.

Here is a table with our income plan that gives a simple overview of where we came from and what our plan for the future is.

TAT & Home of Hope annual budget income plan:

We plan to establish the TAT Endowment Fund in 2025. Our goal is that in 10 years it will be a source which covers about 10% of our annual budget. In addition, this fund could be a resource from which grants can be requested for Christian youth work activities in Estonia.

The primary vision of Home of Hope that we had in the beginning of 2018, when we started to build up this outreach center, has already been exceeded in five years. Home of Hope was opened at the end of 2019. But, we also had a bigger plan behind the scenes and it seems that these plans are also slowly coming to fruition.

PLAN #1

A low threshold helping people get close to God for those for whom the threshold of the church seems too high. – Achieved and growing

The idea behind the scenes with the establishment of Home of Hope was to create a Christian center that is not in the church and does not look like the church but does the same work as churches do and much more. This gives us better opportunity to welcome people from different backgrounds through regular training sessions, seminars, and conferences that take place at Home of Hope like events that rent our space. Nowadays in Estonia people are quite often afraid to step through the door of the church. But at Home of Hope we offer a much easier door to walk through. We make it easier for people to step into learning about God. Even when we rent space our guests see the chapel, they can read the story of the plaque on the wall, and we present, on the screen, advertisements of our events, etc. Quite often they ask questions about our center. This is all part of our testimony that God is alive and active today.

Here is one example.

We rented a main classroom of Home of Hope to an organization for their event. One young lady participating in this seminar passed the chapel as she walked to the classroom. She came to Pastor Siimon Haamer and asked him: "I'm not a beliver but could I go to the chapel and pray?" Siimon encouraged her to do this. This lady went to the chapel, closed the door and spent several minutes praying. Afterwards, Pastor Siimon talked to her and encouraged her, because once one believes in the power of prayer they are actually not far from Jesus.

PLAN #2

Synergy and empowerment. – Achieved and growing

The plan with Home of Hope was to give an opportunity for different Christian organizations to work together. By doing this we save our money and use our workforce much more efficiently. Christian Radio joined, a Christian student organization joined,  and many people have volunteered to contribute to various initiatives. As a result, a Bible school, prayer fellowship mornings for men and women, several youth events, and pastoral work, etc. have come into being. We realize that people have been attracted by the story of the establishment of this center and all the work that is done here. Also, our very welcoming interior space makes people want to come back again and again.

PLAN #3

Involve various Christian media organizations with Home of Hope. – Achieved

Christian radio joined the center. In the early stages of Home of Hope establishment we offered the opportunity for the Estonian Lutheran Church weekly newspaper to join us as well. At the time that didn't seem a good option for them. But, five years later they still have rooms in the same real estate development in the building next door to Home of Hope. Now there is also a Christian newspaper editorial office next door to us and we have a good cooperation with them.

The fact that Christian media channels (radio and newspaper) are in the same place with us gives us good opportunity to inform people about all our activities.

PLAN #4

Home of Hope is an open platform that allows different Christian activities to be involved. – Achieved and new opportunities are on the horizon

Today we have a situation where more Christian activities/organizations would like to join our center but we lack space. If we had the money to buy more space in the large real estate development in which Home of Hope is located, we could involve more Christian organizations and activities in this network.

PLAN #5

Involve retired pastors as mentors for younger clergy. – Not achieved

The founder of Home of Hope, Pastor Siimon Haamer, had a dream in the early stages of the Home of Hope project. If there would be more gifts coming in than needed to build up the Home of Hope facility, then some apartments in the same residential building could be purchased and offered to retired pastors to live in. In Estonia, often pastors live in parsonages throughout their service years. Their salary does not allow them to buy any real estate. Once they retire they have no place to live. If we can offer them an apartment with reasonable rent in the same building with Home of Hope, we can also involve them in our work, particularly as mentors for younger clergy.

We plan our activities at Home of Hope in such a way that participation fees cover most of the cost of specific activities. To a certain extent, we always need to find additional money through giving and grants. Our goal is to gradually reduce our dependence on U.S. giving. In 2010, 85% of our budgeted income came from the U.S. In 2025 our plan is to have approximately  40% of giving from the U.S. Home of Hope is also a regular income resource for us. In 2023 we received about $40,000 income from rental activities, and in 2024, the annual income will increase to $50,000. This sum is more than double the maintenance costs of our premises. In 2025, we will establish the TAT Endowment Fund. Our goal is that by 2035 10% of our annual income will be covered from Endowment Fund profits. Also, we will include much more giving money from Estonia. In 2010 we didn't have any gifts from Estonia. In 2025, we will have 7% and by 2035 ,at least 10%. This is quite a modest plan and we actually hope to have a larger portion financed from within Estonia.

30-40% of our income will always be from giving. We are not a business but a mission organization and we are working as a non-profit organization.

Here is a table with our income plan that gives a simple overview of where we came from and what our plan for the future is.

TAT & Home of Hope annual budget income plan:

Our problem is that we have never received any large amount of money that would have given us the opportunity to create a good financial base from which to operate. Since the establishment of the Tartu Academy of Theology in 1992, we have never received enough to establish a savings account. We have always been short of money. We hope that the establishment of the Christian outreach center of Home of Hope will finally give us what we need and help us to get on our feet. We are clearly moving toward this goal.

Today we have to admit that we are too late. In the 1990s, bigger money might have come to Eastern Europe, but then we didn't have the kind of network in the U.S. that we have today. Home of Hope is a center which is also encouragement to our American friends. Many of them have become our ambassadors and they share about our mission work in the U.S. If people from the U.S. are able to provide a stable financial situation for a time, then this gives us an opportunity to build up a self-financing system that in the long term does not need so much support from U.S.

Revenue of 2023 – $315,215

Home of Hope and Tartu Academy of Theology have one united operating budget because the non-profit organization, Tartu Academy of Theology, is the owner of the Home of Hope Christian outreach center. We dokeep separate the Home of Hope mortgage payment income and finances for the operating budget. The aboveamount includes only the annual operating budget. Money paid to the mortgage is not included in the organization of our daily mission work. Adding the mortgage payments to the revenue would give the wrong impression about the financing of our real mission work.

In 2023 we were able to make $69,443 in mortgage payments.  

Expenses of 2023 – $312,825

In the beginning of 2018 we were in a situation where we had two choices: 1) either to close Tartu Academy of Theology, because our premises were so poor that we could no longer continue working there (we also did not have money to rent better premises) or 2) make a leap of faith and start building a Christian outreach center, which would provide an opportunity to involve a variety of mission activities involving our alumni whom we had trained for 25 years. We made a leap of faith and we have seen so many signs from God that confirm we made the right decision. This is an extreme blessing that we have experienced at Home of Hope. And we pray constantly. We won't start any activities without prayer. Prayer is our encouragement and assurance and we share that testimony with all the people. People around us quite often think that we are stupid for taking on such a large financial burden. But skipping this plan would mean for us that we are not trusting God.

Probably you know the story of Joshua (Joshua ch. 3-4) when he was with all the Israelites in front of the flooding Jordan. The Lord said to Joshua that if the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the covenant step into the Jordan the flood will stop and you can walk through the riverbed to the other bank. Joshua trusted the Lord and followed his word. Therefore a miracle happened.

The story of Joshua was a great encouragement to us in the spring of 2018 while we presented a vision of a Christian outreach center, Home of Hope. By God’s miracle, we were able to raise a downpayment of $125,000 in six weeks. Then we couldn’t be untrustful to the Lord and we decided to step into the water. The signature was given to the contract in which there was an amount of seven figures. We didn’t have all this money but we realized that God was walking with us.

Home of Hope is located in ground floor of the new residential building and we have a very nice facility. This is very different and much more expensive compared to facilities in Africa or India. This is our context and we have certain requirements for study facilities that we are obligated to follow. Also, it is very helpful in our work if we have welcoming and comfortable rooms. People want to come back.

Then we are able to negotiate with the lender, the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, about the terms of the contract in order to extend the payment period. But, this is not our goal and we want to get the mortgage paid on time.

Number of people served in 2023

1. 130 bachelor and master students
2. 47 Bible School participants (40% of them online)
3. 32 Summer Bible Camp participants
4. About 100 participants at various youth events
5. 75 people were counseled by Pastoral Care Givers
6. 83 participated in seminars and supervisions targeted to pastoral care givers
7. Our Pastoral Care Center at Home of Hope is networking with 60 pastoral care givers across Estonia
8. Hundreds (mostly young people) are served through our social media platforms (Especially popular isthe One Minute Bible Study series.)
9. Christian Radio located at Home of Hope, serves 1.5-2 million square mile area, in addition to Estonia also in Russia
10. All together we had about 700 visitors at various events (seminars, conferences, life long education trainings etc.) held at Home of Hope.

During 2023, approximately 3000 volunteer hours were provided.