Everything Must Go

I can not believe it is that last day of July. Wow! It seems it should be mid-June, rather than August. Life post-Latvia is going pretty well. I dove head first back into work, and that is quickly coming to an end (August 9th ish). If you haven't heard I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but Borders (the book store) is going out of business. This is a real bummer, especially for us San Antonians because it is the major bookstore here. I even went for it and got the Borders + membership for 20 bucks a year about four weeks ago. Poop. Well everything must come to an end someday, and Joe & I (along with our family members) have been taking advantage of our perks for as long as we can. Our dinning table is now covered in new books! Yay! Who doesn't love to get a new book. We got novels, cook books, religious books, art books, etc. For the last time until October we spent the weekend in Houston. We chilled with family, ate dinner with good friends, and while Joe went to the art museum, I went to... Borders. My dad and I would go to the Barnes and Noble on Post Oak pretty regularly while I was growing up. Both my parents love to read, and I have thankfully inherited this trait. There are only a few things that bring me greater pleasure than getting lost in a good book.  Perhaps one of them is going to a book store with my parents.

This is only after our first trip. We have been back twice since.

Latvia 2011 Wrap Up

I have been back in San Antonio for nearly two days now. The time after Latvia is always an adjustment. I have experienced God in a mighty way, and thankfully my thinking is a little bit different as well as my actions. My biggest fear is that I will not change at all- that I will easily enter back into my comfortable American life and act as if nothing has occurred. This trip has caused me to really think about "what am I doing" for the Kingdom on a daily basis. When I look at some people around me and the decisions they are making I am finding myself thinking "I hope I don't come across that way". There needs to be no doubt of what God I serve.  Now, this could become a real stronghold if I allowed myself to judge them etc. "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone".  So now begins the journey of change.  It was such a wonderful trip. I believe we had 10 salvations just in our two VBS groups. God is so good.   We were stretched, and are changed.


Here are some pictures from our week in Ziedkalne:

Huge bowl of beet soup.

 Our VBS group. Please notice the basketball in mid-air.

Liene came to visit!

Some men who my dad was speaking with after the Wednesday night service.

Sweet Aija. 

Latvia 2011 Day 13

Well we are back from Ziedkalne. We had a wonderful week there. I will write more about it when I get home on Sunday. Crazy. Some of my favorite girls are here: Agrita & Liene. We are going to be girls again. Seen you in the states!

Latvia 2011 Day 8

                            

I can't believe that we are already more than halfway finished with our trip. It is crazy how quickly time flies. Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Ziedkalne. Unfortunately I will not be able to blog, facebook, twitter, etc. while there. It is a small town where we have also been working since 2001. I thought I would wrap up this past week in this blog post. I haven't shared many details because of how busy we have been.

 These are two girls at the youth night on Wednesday.

This is Ruta, the former pastor's daughter. Gotta love UNO!

Agrita made bracelets with the girls. They loved it!

 

 These are all of the girls from VBS. They are so precious to me. Six of them accepted Jesus as their savior on Thursday.

Parent's night. (Friday)

Some of our wonderful boys. Please pray for them!

 

 Just one of the beautiful kids we got to love on.

 

 The little girl above to this picture. I just thought it was funny.

 

Raimonds & Agrita's house. It looks amazing!!

 

It was such a wonderful week! God did so much in our hearts, as well as the kids. I know this week is going to be just as good. Thank you for your prayers and encouraging words. Talk to you on Friday!

                                                                                                                       

Latvia 2011 Day 7

Today was our annual trip into Riga to buy souvenirs. It is always fun to see what has changed, and what is wonderfully the same. We shopped till we dropped and met our dear Liene Svoka at the airport. She is just returning from a six month mission trip to Bolivia. I haven't seen her in two years (how has it been that long?) but it is like not time has past. This has to be one of my favorite things about Latvia and the people here. There is something so special about the bond you share with people whom you have served along side of. Tonight after we returned from Riga, we met Galina, Nora, Arturs, Arturs R., and his bride to be Inta for dinner. We had a fantastic evening full of great food, and lots of laughter (Liene- Agrita and I were so wishing you were there!). It was a very full day, and I'm so looking forward to being in our church and seeing the church body!

There is usually one kid in particular I get attached to. This is Brunis. Please pray for his salvation. I wish I could hide him in my suit case.

 

Latvia 2011 Days 5, 6

Wow! The past two days have been quite full! VBS ended well, parent's night went pretty good, and we had awesome pizza tonight for dinner with Billy, his wife Gita, Agrita, and Raimonds Locs. I am exhausted and promise I will do at least one more blog before we head to Ziedkalne on Monday. Love from Latvia.

Latvia 2011 Day 4

Wow. Today was exhausting. I don't have much to say tonight (or pictures to share), but please pray for the strongholds on these youth to come down. They are so hardened. Tonight we had youth night, and it ended with the boys acting the fool. I can't really explain, but eventually we got them to go home. They need Jesus so badly. It is good. We are good. God is stretching us. Praise, glory, and thanks to the One who is able.

Latvia 2011 Day 3

Today was our second day of VBS. It is going really well for the most part. My dad and I are working with the youth and most of them are in the middle school age range. So it goes without saying that they require patience and unconditional love... especially the boys. I have to say though, it is much easier for me to do these two things now than a few years ago. Today after VBS we had a prayer time with all of the workers and I had a good cry. My heart (more than ever)  is breaking for the life our kids are choosing. I have no words for them, but thankfully God does. After preparing for tomorrow's lesson, we took a walk around Jelgava. There are lots of new and renovated things to see and it was great. I got some awesome 'Jelgava souvenirs', and we had a very good meal at Cili Pica (a pizza type place). God is good and neither of us have been experiencing serious jet lag. Although I'm quite awake for it being 11:23 in the evening. Oh well. I will sleep on the plane. We miss you all and speak of you often. We talk about the 'old days': staying up till 2:00, walking to the phone booth, getting sugar high off LV Coke-Colla, Jo-Jo marshmellow, showers stopping and walls falling... the question game... I could go on and on. Enough nostalgia, it is time for bed. Here are some pictures from today.

Latvia 2011 Day 2

Numa, the entertainer.

Snack Time

Crafts...

Fellowship with a dear friend :)

Too tired to type more. Much love.

Latvia 2011 Day 1

We are finally here! It is nearly fifteen till 10 in the evening here, and this is my last stop before bed time. All of our flights went great, with the exception of our flight from San Antonio to Atlanta. We were nearly 30 minutes late and were those people running through the airport. Praise the Lord we made our flight just in time, as did our bags! We arrived in Riga around 2:15 and headed strait to Jelgava for the VBS carnival that began at 5:00. It was so wonderful to see familiar faces and meet & love on some new ones. Tomorrow is our first day of VBS and I'm super pumped. When you think of us pray: that we would not think of the number of kids we are ministering to, rather that we would be like the angels &    celebrate over one, for physical energy & emotional strength, and of course that the Lord would do a mighty work here. It is wonderful to be back. My heart is too full for words. Here are some pictures from this afternoon:


Of course we had to get ice cream asap. Notice Agritaš brand. :)

My dad with Pastor Peter. He was the pastor at Jelgava Baptist when we first began our trips.

Carnival Games

My mom has a picture with this little boy on her shoulders in 2005 (at  the   orphanage, mom).   It is amazing to watch the kids grow up.

I will do my best to post again tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers! We can feel them.

In His Service,

Travel Day

The day has finally arrived. We (my dad and I) leave today at 1:09, and after three 'short' flights we should be in Latvia around 6:30 am central time (2:30 pm there time).  I am so excited and so thankful to the Lord for allowing me the opportunity to go to Latvia again. I wish I could push the fast forward button and stop at tomorrow at 6:30, but alas I can not. I hope to post every day while I'm there. At least a picture or two. We shall see.


If you think of it please lift us up in prayer while we are there. I will post specific needs I'm sure when I know them. For today: that we would have safe and care free travel.







In His Service,

Theme Song

This song has been ringing in my ears when I think of our trip to Latvia. 

Preperations

My trip to Latvia is drawing near. Four days to be exact. Naturally I am beginning the process of packing, making lists, and checking them twice. One aspect of a mission trip that is different than say, a vacation to the Keys, is I have to think of something to say to the youth I will be working with. Thankfully I have nothing (really) to do with what I say, the Lord has everything to do with it. Usually it is very easy for me to share where I'm at, because I'm at where they're at. Not so much this time. To them, I will be an adult. Weird. I was thinking and praying about the verse I would focus on, and I felt this is where God is leading me:

Proverbs 4:23

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." NIV

More later. Hope you had a terrific Tuesday!

July the 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

I am so grateful to be an American and for the sacrifice of all servicemen. We will be watching fireworks on TV since they are cancelled here. The D.C. ones are my favorite! 

Happy July, Folks!

How-HOW, may I ask, is it July already? This past week has been great with my mom. We watched movies, shopped, and of course ate great food. Tonight Joe gets into town around 10:00, and then we are off to Houston for the weekend. We haven't been in town together since Easter, so I'm way excited. 

The picture above is one Joe took in D.C. with our camera. I love D.C. I know you know that.