Remembering God's hand at work in Estonia

The Rev. Tiit Henno (left) listens as Niina Suudla tells her story.

It's been nearly 12 years since I spoke with Niina Suudla and I have no idea whether she is still with us on this side of heaven.

But as I listened Wednesday night to the Rev. Gita Medniz tell about life in Latvia during Soviet occupation, my mind went back to that fall day in 1999 when I tried to get the then 77-year-old Estonian woman to tell me her story. We were sharing coolies and tea at a Lutheran church in  Kuressaare.

Her voice reminded me of a British schoolmarm, but Niina's life was decidedly Eastern European, seasoned by decades of living in a closed society.

Niina told her story to women on our short-term mission team, who relayed part of the story to me. I later asked the retired English teacher and translator if she would mind retelling the story. Niina's cheeks red as she said, “That was so long ago and it was such a bad thing.”

When she was encouraged by the team members to talk to the journalist, Niina's said simply, “We’ve learned not to talk about things of that matter.”

The next day, however, she relented and me her story in these words:

“First of all, in my school days, the central core of our life’s teachings … was the church.

“My mother was a Lutheran, my father was of the Orthodoxy, so it was a sharing of all kinds of traditions during the year. But it was such a not a very easy point. But it was quite friendly and same time I have very happy memories of that time.

“Of course, then came the moment when we were deported and it was a great help from God that mother and the children are left behind … and it gave me such a taste of God’s help. And, later on, life went just so with little ups and downs.

“I wasn’t allowed to go to school. I wasn’t allowed to go to church. But we had such moments with our mother, who was a religious person, and (strengthened) our faith.

“During my teaching period, of course, base life was very oppressed. Teachers were not allowed to go to church and no religious teaching at school, and so on.”

I asked how she came to learn English.

“I learned at school. I learned in high school when I was in Kuressaare. But later on I managed to enter the Tartu University. It was also the last moment when students were admitted to the correspondence course. It was not the general. Because my father was arrested, I was not allowed to do that. But it was the last time when there was no special committee who questioned all of the applicants. There was no interview. The interviews came a few months later. I was the last who was admitted without the interview. And so, I could enter the university and could study the correspondence course.

“And I have experienced God’s hand so many times.”

I asked why her father was arrested by the KGB, but the answer is still a bit unclear.

  

“In his youth, he had been to the … police once.

“Now, of course, in 1941 tens of thousands of Estonian families were taken away to Siberia one night and never came back.

“But, you know, again – again! – we were in the camp … for six weeks and KGB needed the wagons, the railway, for the troops against the Germans. And so they had very few possibilities to transport all of the people who were arrested and they brought back the women and children and only the men were taken away.

“Again, it was the only time in the Estonian KGB history that the arrested people were brought back. My mother and I were there, who were brought back.

“So, you know, there were so many moments in my life where I had a special guardian angel.”

“It is such a story that you can hear from very many people.”

Niina talks a bit more about her family and another time when she experienced the grace of God:

 “But then my brother fell ill at the end of Soviet time … and it was a very difficult time for me and I found that only with God’s help I could overcome that time.

“My brother died in 1985 (mother, 1965). After that, came a change in our Estonian Republic. Of course, it was a great feeling to see our flags again, to hear our beloved songs again, and to be able to talk to people again and to go to church again. It was such a big happy surge in all of our feelings and all of our religious feelings, too.

“There is one occasion that showed I had a special guardian angel during my life.

“We made a trip to Sweden with a group of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in September 1994, just five years ago. And, you know, it was on a Saturday and we had to come back on a Wednesday. But that morning, when we had our tickets, packed all of things, we learned that the ship Estonia had sunk.

“And it was such a terrible moment, but it shows we’re just saved by God.”

Even now, I pray that God continues to bless and protect Estonia and Latvia.