The Bible and The Ball Days

Põlva, ESTONIA. More than 300 young people will come to Põlva to celebrate their annual The Bible and The Ball Days (PPP’05) on February of 18-20. This popular sports and Bible study event has been a tradition for Adventist youth in Estonia for a long time. The theme for the event has been taken from James 1:21-25, saying that “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Main speaker and guest for the event is Mariel Pilois, Adventist youth director in Finland, who after receiving an invitation from Estonian Conference Youth Department had a good story to tell: “Before I received an invitation from you, I got a clear message from God that I should prepare a talk on James 1:17-27, but I did not know why, and now I got your e-mail and now it makes sense.”

Central activities are, for the three day event, to study Bible, have a trivia (based on James, 1st and 2nd Peter, letters from John and a letter from Jude), and to play volleyball.

Teams to participate in trivia and to play volleyball are coming from all over Estonia. As a new forming tradition, two teams from Finland (Helsinki and Toivonlinna) are also represented. This is a result of formed friendship between Estonian and Finnish people as we have been participating in their similar youth events as well.

By doing this we hope to encourage our young people to read more Bible as a source of life and guidance and hope. We also aim to propagate active lifestyle involving sports.

Next great event for both young and old in Estonia will be held in April. More than 500 people are expected to participate in this Adventist Spring-festival 2005.

Andres Ploompuu,
Estonian Conference Youth Director