When we started helping children in 1997, people’s opinions were very different. Some said that such children could no longer be helped, and others said that we should not help these children because we did not have the necessary education or conditions. At the same time, there were people who said that this work was very necessary and offered us their helping hand. There were also people who asked how dare we let children who smoke, sniff glue, skip school, and cause headaches for both ordinary citizens and law enforcement into the church. However, we told the children that Jesus loves you, and they became church builders who began restoring Peeteli church with their own hands. Today, many of the children who came to Peeteli from the streets and started school have become good members of society, and are working in Estonia as builders, taxi drivers, sales managers, hairdressers, welders, salespersons, security guards, IT specialists, and in many other essential professions. Some of them may even be someone’s business partners today. Work and life have also taken them to Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia. Many of our former center’s beneficiaries are now parents themselves, and we are very pleased that their children are growing up in homes where they are supported and loved. All of this is evidence of God’s love, which has provided hope, encouragement, and inspiration to overcome life’s challenges for new children who arrive at Peeteli. 

There have been children who came to Peeteli and whom we tried to help but to whom our rules did not fit. Sometimes afterward they received help from other children’s support organisations, and today everything is fine with them. Unfortunately, the lives of those children who were left without help and whose schooling was interrupted have often been difficult and sometimes very sad. Over the years Peeteli kiriku sotsiaalkeskus has supported over 330 children and young people.