South Estonia Outreach Project
Meet the Project Leaders, Crick and Mindy Porier
We began leading mission trips to Estonia from our home church in Colorado in 2008, and we moved on field in 2012 as full-time missionaries with Converge. Together with our two children, Faith (10) and Asher (7), we live in the university city of Tartu, the largest city in southern Estonia with a population of 100,000.
We partner with Kolgata Baptist Church and the Union of Estonian Baptist and Evangelical Free Churches to connect, develop, and support church planting, youth ministry, and various other outreach programs throughout southern Estonia. Crick became the team leader for Converge Estonia in 2016. We have a strong emphasis on building relationships in order to teach and mentor youth and young adults in leadership and spiritual growth.
Project Overview:
The South Estonia Outreach Project connects Christian young adult leaders to outreach opportunities in the cities,
villages, and rural areas of southern Estonia that are unreached or among the least-reached. We help provide the training and resources necessary, with the objective to bring regular ministry outreach and evangelism programs to these communities.
While it became an official project in 2017, outreach work in southern Estonia began in 2008 with the start of a Christian
teen adventure camp at Kolgata Baptist Church in Tartu. The South Estonia Outreach Project now includes four people
groups (Estonian, Russian, Võro, and Seto) in six counties with a total population just over 300,000.
LEARN MORE
Where is Estonia?
• Estonia is a small country located along the Baltic Sea in northeastern Europe,
bordered by Latvia to the south, Russia to the east, and Finland to the north.
• Once part of The Soviet Union, today Estonia is once again an independent nation.
• Estonia is the most atheist country in Europe and one of the least religious
countries in the world, at less than 2% evangelical Christian.
Project Overview (More Info):
We partner with local pastors, church leaders, and communities in ministry outreach, and we have begun several
outreach programs of our own. We have seen hundreds of Estonians come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior through programs such as:
o Youth leadership and development training
o Church planting
o Bible study groups
o Camps, youth groups, Sunday school, and VBS
o University student outreach, in partnership with Cru
o The development of Sunday school curriculum in the Estonian language
o The Estonian Language Bible Distribution Program, with over 1,200 bibles provided to Estonians since 2012
Liisa’s Story
During Kolgata Church’s 2010 Christian teen adventure camp, 17-year-old Liisa learned of her Lord and Savior for the very first time, and she received salvation. Upon returning home to her village of Pikakannu in southern Estonia, Liisa realized she was the only Christian in her village. Since then, Liisa has been a part of our South Estonia Outreach Project, serving as a spiritual leader, church planter, and missionary, with a heart for seeing the people of her village and throughout southern Estonia come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. She has led VBS programs and distributed children’s Bibles to every family in Pikakannu to ensure every child has the opportunity to know Jesus!
Projects/Needs we are working on:
We are looking to purchase an apartment in the town of Võru in the heart of southern Estonia, to be used as a
ministry office, training facility, short-term housing for missionaries working in the area, and as a home church or
Bible study site. The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Võru is around 45,000€ (about $50,000).
Pray
Contact us to become a regular prayer partner, praying for revival among the people of southern Estonia
and for the Poriers and Estonian leaders as they bring the gospel to this least-reached area.
Give
Become a financial partner by giving towards The South Estonia Outreach Project so we can meet the
needs of the project and expand the work that is being done here.
Go
We are looking for short- and long-term teams and individuals to come work alongside Estonian Christian
leaders, supporting various ministries within this project and bringing the gospel to every village of southern
Estonia.
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