As expected there are fewer and fewer church members who speak and understand Estonian. Many have, however, stayed faithful to their parents’ and grandparents’ congregations. Pastor Thomas Vaga has started holding services in Estonian and in English. The hymns are selected from two hymn books, Estonian and English Lutheran ones. The liturgy and sermon are in both languages as well. But our Estonian church is loved by all Estonians especially in Lakewood NJ where the church was built by Estonians through voluntary work and donations.

During the synod there were yearly reports by congregations. There were also three lectures: Pastor William Ilves introduced the synod to the 5th and 6th Gospel in the Bible. Pastor Gilda Karu introduced us to a comfort dog mission. She is actively working with a trained mission dog, JoJo from Grace Lutheran Church in Arlington IL. These mission dogs are used to make contact and comfort people in hospitals and nursing homes. The mission has proved to be very successful because many people relate easier to pets than to people. This opens a wonderful possibility to evangelize and speak about Jesus to people who need a friendly Christian contact. JoJo has her own web page “JoJoComfortDog”.

The Estonian Ev. Lutheran Church has her own webpage “eelk-kirik.com” with individual webpages for all ten congregations. The webmaster is Tiiu Roiser who lives in Toronto. She also filmed the church service on Sunday, the last day of the synod. The service could be seen on You Tube under the name “E.E.L.K. sinodi 2018 jumalateenistus”. The service is in English and Estonian. The sermon was given by Pastor Enn Auksmann. Please go to You Tube to listen to his excellent sermon in Estonian and English.