London calling Estonia mission team

How did God move when the first-ever mission team from Estonia hit the streets of east London? Chris Rolfe reports.

For the shy team from Tallinn, evangelising on the multicultural streets of east London and Essex was quite the culture shock.

It was their first time on mission, but during a week spent praying, preaching and serving they grew in faith as they watched God speak and move.

The eight-day trip took place in April and May, organised by Elim missionaries Alan and Alice Osborn, who work with EKNK – the Pentecostal movement in Estonia.

“In its early years during the 90s EKNK had a strong missions focus, but that had dwindled over the past 20 years,” Alan explained.

“Since we joined in 2024 our heart has been to help restart their international missions effort and find overseas partners to connect with.”

This is how EKNK came to send its first mission team to England.

Their Toompea church in Tallinn was piloting a ministry leaders programme teaching about the gifts of the Spirit, how to lead someone to Christ and so on. Pastor Ivo Unt wanted to give the students practical experience and so the idea for international mission was suggested.

Alan and Alice joined with the six-church Eastgate Elim Hub, led by pastors Lloyd and Joanne Cheshire, and brought a team of 15 over for a mission-focused week.

“The key thing was to support the existing vision of these churches,” said Alan.

“We asked what their weekly activities looked like, where could we fit in and how we could help them.”

From this, an action-packed programme was planned.

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