june 25

June 25

As the stores reopened and life began to return to normal in Latvia, we were awoken with a beautiful sunrise.  The Lord has been able to shine His glory through the sun’s rays so often on this trip. In the morning we headed to Riga 1^st to join a small celebration for Inga, one of the young adult members of the church and a friend of ours.  Small snacks and tea aided much conversation and joy in the fellowship room.  After we had enjoyed our fair share of cake, we headed home to grab our stuff and enjoy a small lunch of rice and beans to fill the space that the sweets did not satisfy.  Courtney and I headed to the train station, while Dan and Brandon headed to a coffee shop to read and discuss.  As I am writing this, we are on the train back to Riga from Liepa, so I am unsure of the details of the guys’ day, however when we talked to them last night they were watching the soccer match and had had a great day discussing theological matters and relaxing in town and at home.

The train ride to Liepa was so peaceful and simply beautiful.  The setup of the cars reminded me much of public trams in the states, with seats facing both forwards and backwards in small clusters of four. However the ride was far from anything to be deemed normal.  The serenity of the lush greenery slowly passing by the windows just captivated me.  Everyone on the train appeared so differently, each one carrying a silent story that explained their purpose.  As I looked around, pondering each of these stories and trying to guess the reason for their journey, I wondered if they were doing the same to us. 

We arrived in Liepa to the Hope Center to find out that we would be joining the girls for dinner to celebrate two birthdays.  One was for Liga, whose birthday was yesterday, and the other for Sabine, one of the girl’s daughters, whose one year birthday was today.  We decorated cards for them and joined the grilling outside to celebrate.  The Hope Center is supported by the Methodist church and is a place where girls can go who are pregnant to be supported, or if they have had their child they can go and stay as they search for a job and stable life.  Right now there are five girls living there, all of which have had their babies except for one, who was due at just about any moment.  Most of the girls who come through the Hope Center are young, some under 18, and most have not had such favorable past experiences.  The small amount of their stories that I know are incredible.  The pain and the hurt that these girls have been through just breaks my heart.

Grilling sausage outside, we played with some of kids and just had a good time talking and laughing.  We took some pictures, and have hopes to make baby books in the future for the young mothers so they can have photos of their children when they are young.  The girls were very excited about this luxury we tend to take for granted nowadays.  We watched Princess Diaries 2 with the girls and shared a lot of laughter which was so wonderful to hear and share in with these young women.  After a short intermission, the girls wanted to watch another movie so we watched The Incredibles.  We said goodnight to an amazing group of young women, and headed to bed to catch the 5:30am train home.

When we get back to Riga, we will pack up the remainder of our stuff and catch the 10:15 bus to Liepaja to go back to Camp Wesley.  We will be there until July 5^th, having the youth leadership seminar this weekend and then Wesley Day beginning at the start of next week.  We may be away from the internet for more than a few days during this time, however, I will still write and update when I can, so be prepared for multiple posts in one day :)   As the youth are preparing for camp, we ask that you would pray for them that they would come with open hearts prepared for truth to be spoken to them throughout the week.  We ask that you pray for the leaders, that they would exemplify Christ in their words and their actions and that the Lord will provide them with guidance and patience during camp.  As we still don’t know what our role will be, we ask that you pray comfort and patience over us and that our hearts would be those of servants, ready and willing for whatever our task may be.  Your prayers are so important and your support means so much to us; we are so blessed to have such loving family and friends.  Know you are much appreciated and much loved!

june 24

June 24

The rain has continued today and has made for a somewhat gloomy day here in Riga.  The wind was harsh all day and made the outdoors far from inviting, so we stayed in the warmth of the flat.  We did much of what we did yesterday, reading and talking, and just chilling.  It was good talking with people from home and very comforting as well.  The weather seemed to have us all in a much more quiet and pensive mood today. The high points of the day were by far the cuisine. Dan graced us with his wonderful talent in the kitchen with an incredible lunch of such tender meat in noodles and sauce that were mouthwatering and had such an amazing flavor.  We were treated to homemade bread as well with dinner that was another homemade dish, this time being quiche.  I know I keep repeating it, but the food has just been quite tasty.  For a little comic relief, we watched the Pink Panther tonight after dinner and also some clips of Captain Positive (Dan’s friend who plays a super hero for a series of shows for the Boys and Girls Club - quite humorous) and ended the day with laughter. Hopefully the rain will cease tomorrow and we will be able to get some fresh air!

*On a side note, I was unaware that it was not enabled for everyone to be able to comment on the blog, so if you have tried to comment and were unsuccessful in doing so, you should be able to now. So sorry about that!  We would love to hear from ya'll so hopefully now it will work!

more pictures :)

again, just a small sample of pictures... here is the link to another album on Facebook (just click the link or copy & paste!)....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2243850&l=f8799&id=7001107

in downtown Riga

us with dan & courtney in the park in Riga

in the park in Riga... we're mimicking the statue if you can't tell...

in the church in Liepaja with Yanis, who translated for us

(the flowers are from the church thanking us for coming)

june 23

June 23

What a glorious day it has been!  We were awoken this morning by the smell of bacon and pancakes and it set the tone for the whole day.  Dan and Courtney are simply amazing and such a blessing to us while we are here.  Not only have they taken us in and provided us with a place to stay, they have provided us with food, conversation and such wonderful hospitality with open arms and without thinking twice.  They have been, and they are continuing to be, such an encouragement to us in our time here in Latvia.  I just praise our Father for placing us in their pathway! They both just have such a sweet spirit about them and have been mentors in several ways to us during our stay.  It is such a time of learning and sharing and it is just so needed to be I community with them.  Our Lord is incredible in His provisions!

Today is Yanis day as I described a little in the last post, so while most of Latvia was partying and celebrating, we lounged around in our pj’s for a while reading and talking.  And it was wonderful! After a while, we went on a walk and stopped by the 24 hour rental place to get a movie. We watched a British film named Millions about this boy who finds a lot of money and his journey of faith and learning that money isn’t everything. It was a little strange, but pretty good overall.  Coke and chips never tasted so good as we continued to rest on this rainy day of celebration in Latvia.  Dinner was homemade guacamole, bread and olive oil with garlic and pepper, homemade scalloped potatoes, and sasliks (which is meat that is marinated and sold in the marinade in a small bucket and then put on kabobs and grilled) and it was all quite delicious.  It was pretty overcast all day so it was good to be inside and just chill and read and talk.  Hopefully some of you have gotten the chance to look at the pictures and are able to see a small bit of what we are experiencing.  I will try to upload another few tomorrow and put up another album on facebook as well so check back!