Few highlights from ministry this summer

I have been so happy to have opportunities to open up my apartment, and hold events here. As it is summer, everything adjusts it's schedule to allow for a more summer-freindly situation. The youth leadership meetings at the Jesus Church have also done this, and so to do something more layed back 'meeting' we had a girls fellowship at my place. It was such a wonderful time with almost all of the ladies from the leadership team able to come. We visited, watched a few movies, and had lots of snacks.

We made chocolate chip cookies during this fellowship night, because they are a favorite with everyone. Anytime I ask if I can bring something to an event the Latvians I am asking say "bring your cookies!!! Mmmm they are so tasty" It always makes me smile, because they are an American classic. I have shared the recipe a lot already, so I think they might become a common sweet here- at least within the friends I have made here.

There was a weekend called "Open Doors" for the churches in Riga, where people were welcomed into the churches to visit, and participate in activities that were planned especially for the special weekend. One of the things that the Jesus Church did was a worship night. We made 500 oragami butterflies to decorate the sanctuary with. I helped with making the butterflies for an hour or two, and I am glad there were a lot of us folding- or we could have been making them non-stop for an entire day.

This is a photo of the butterflies installed. It was a really great idea, and was a really interesting thing to see and to think about.

When I was preparing to come to Latvia a wonderful gentleman from Central Minnesota shared a faith sharing tool that he and the mens group at the church us. They are small coins that have a cross stamped out of the middle. Printed on the coin is John 3:16 "the gospel in a nutshell" we attached a little paper to it with Psalm 16:11 on it which reads "You make know to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

Just because I think it might be interesting to see, I will share what the verse looks like in Latvian.

"Tu darīji man zināmu dzīvības ceļu,

Tu piepildi mani ar prieku Sava vaiga priekšā,

un jaukas, svētības pilnas dāvanas pie

Tavas labās rokas ir mūžīgi." Psalmi 16.11

AGELESS Drama Camp! ...

Last week was a busy week, full of acting, acting and more acting! A group of Canadian actors came to Riga for a week and shared their gift of drama with us. I had been working with their leader for months getting everything done on this side of the pond. They led a drama camp for youth, teaching techniques, basics of being on stage, as well as a number of small skits, and a short play. We did street performances on Monday and on Friday night. We also shared a few skits with the youth group at the Jesus Church. It was a great week which was very blessed.

The actors hard at work learning the script.

This isn't all of the participants, but it's the majority. Pretty good looking group!

This was a street performance of one of the skits. This is just outside of Central Station, which is the big train station in Riga.

An evening in Riga.

These photos are from an evening walk around Riga. There was supposed to be a lunar eclipse, so I went out in hopes to see it. When I realized the overcast skies made it impossible to see, I thought I might as well enjoy the night anyway.

Though it is so light, it is truly 11:30 at night. It is from the blackheads square. The church on the left is St. Peters. The beautifully lit building on the right is the blackheads building, which was the the place where all the guild men gathered for business, now it is simply an interesting place where I believe tourist information can be obtained.

The tall building in the center is used for science, and is a bit of a mark from the soviet times here. It is a building that was given as a gift to the city from Stalin. There are buildings in several other cities in Eastern Europe that are of the same style. The arched bunkers below that are a portion of the Central Market, which is a large market of fruit, vegetables, meats, fish, cheeses, along side of clothing, and shoes, and all sorts of things.

A look at Old Riga from the middle of a bridge over the Daugava river.

A look in the other direction to the other side of the river. If one was to take the river further in this direction it would lead to the Bay of Riga, and then to the Baltic Sea.

Playgroup Picnic in the end of May

An outdoor lunch. The children ate sitting at the edge of the low deck, it was cute to have them all lined up like that.

Balloon animals, a 4x4 bouncy house, face painting, trampoline, tents, basketball and a number of other toys were the source of fun and entertainment for out lovely last hurrah for playgroup this year. We look forward to another fun year starting in September!

We held our picnic at the Sink's house. Mrs. Sink is the woman who has been running playgroup for many years. Her and her husband are here in Latvia with Agape ministries. The big backyard was a perfect place to gather, and to allow the children to run and play.

Rained out... Plan B.

During one youth evening held in Ramava, we planned to roast hotdogs and marshmallows on a campfire... well, it rained, and so we made the hotdogs on the stove, and toasted the marshmallows over candles.

It worked pretty good!

Some of us thought the space heater might work even better... it also proved successful!

Some patriotic Latvian sites.

The Freedom Monument

The President's Palace

The Latvian Flag

Leading a few games...

These are photos of some of the people from the Jesus Church youth group playing a few games I led at a youth evening in the Spring, held in nearby Ramava.

Another look out my window

Before you saw a look out my window... well the view is changing. This was several weeks ago, and the tree turned green almost over night.