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.