Youth Evening in Dubulti

At the seminar my professor Tim Rippstein and I led on youth ministry a couple of weeks ago, we met a wonderful young woman named Ilze. She is the youth leader at a church in Dubulti, Latvia. I was filled with excitement when she invited me to come to their youth evening and speak. We figured out which Saturday it would work for both of us and thus last night I met Ilze and we headed to Dubulti. After just a short train ride, we were at the church's fellowship building and setting things up. It was a wonderful evening of fellowship, discussion, learning, and praise. We spoke about Jesus's time in the wilderness, why He did it, what it would have been like, what we can learn from it, what it means to spend time recognizing our sin, and thus even more fully understand our need for the perfect savior Jesus Christ. When we were singing at the end of the evening, I was blessed by the inclusion of English words to the songs- we would sing each song in Latvian, then in English, then the chorus in Latvian again! It was so wonderful to meet more of my brothers and sisters in Latvia, and share this special evening together. It was truly blessed.

A Supervisor Visit

As a DCE Intern I have an 'On-site Supervisor' and a 'University Supervisor'. My DCE professor Tim Rippstein is my University supervisor. Since it was spring break back at CUNE, Tim was able to fly on over to Latvia to visit and do some evaluations, check in on how things are going, and to help me to understand where to go from here. During this visit Tim and I led a seminar at the youth center in Riga which ended up being quite nice, and has already opened up more opportunities for me to contribute to the community. The seminar was about youth ministry. It presented things to consider, helpful ideas and methods for planning bible studies or messages. We also had a lot of meetings and discussions in days following. The last days of Tim's time in Latvia was in a town called Saldus. We connected with St. Gregor's mission center and both taught the lessons for the students there for 3 days and 2 of the evenings Tim did presentations on family, passing on the faith, parenting and relationships which were open to the Saldus community. We were also blessed to meet many, many wonderful people and visit a small town call Pampāļi, where a Lutheran pastor is really sharing his heart and his dreams to help the community there.

This experience was quite interesting for me. Along with participating in the events themselves, I was able to get some administrative experience before hand, as I planned and prepared in advance.

Tim getting ready to begin the presentation in the evening for the Saldus community. The young lady in black is Inese and was our wonderful translator. The pastor who is introducing the evening is from the local Lutheran Church.

Here is a photo of about 1/3 or 1/4 of the group that attended the evening presentations.

In this photo I'm at the front desk in the classroom as we took some time to reflect on and write down a few thoughts on our lesson for the day regarding love. God's love, our response to Him and then to each other, incorporating the 5 love languages.

What's that? Julia can teach? Ready and willing!

Here's a snap shot of four of the joyful little girls that we were able to spend some time with in Pampāļi. The pastor involved in this community has spent a lot of time and energy getting this children's center up and running. They have a chapel space downstairs and upstairs there is a play room of sorts where children can come after school. It is a safe place for them to have fun, be kids and in some cases escape for a little while from the difficult situations at home. The center also holds donated clothing and other items for families that are experiencing hard times. There are dreams and committed hearts to continue this ministry further with a church, more diaconal ministry and maybe even some opportunities for employment.

The View of the World Outside My Window

I thought I might share a few photos that I took today as Winter holds on, but Spring get's closer. We have been quite blessed by a lot of days of sunshine, which has been welcomed happily. These photos are taken from my living room/dining room/kitchen/office. The snow is beginning to melt, and most importantly one doesn't feel like a popsicle as soon as they step outside. It isn't as beautiful now as in the Summer, but this way you can see through the tree, to the buildings. I will share more photos as the spring/summer arrive and share as it transforms.

The wooden framework is from a semi-outdoor beer garden that was used this fall. It had clear rubber/plastic around the outside and a tent top. They had heaters, a stage, a counter and tables throughout, but as the really cold temperatures came, less and less people were brave enough to go.

The tall clock tower you see on the left is the city hall. The entrance to city hall faces the city square that is shared with the occupation museum (where one can learn all about the foreign occupation in Latvia, like the soviet time), the Blackheads building (now monumental, but was a meeting place for the business guilds of Riga, also the origination of the tradition of the decorated Christmas Tree) The bottoms of the rest of these buildings are shops, and many of the upper floors are apartments.

This is just a continuation of the view in the other photo. I wanted to share this one, because you can see the steeple of the Dome, which is the very old Lutheran cathedral that we have an English worship service at every Sunday. I do like this view, and being able to read the clock on the Dome, but I am looking forward to having leafy branches filling my window as well!

There you have it...

The view from my window.