|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hi everyone, | |||||||||||||||||
| As I'm writing this in the morning I should say, Labrit, which means good morning. | |||||||||||||||||
| When I first arrived I thought it meant hello and used it all day, people smiled , especially in the evenings. | |||||||||||||||||
| I don't know if I mentioned it or not, this is the land of the storks. I have seen them flying quite often and also seen their very large nests built up high in the sky. Two weeks ago as we were driving to Drusti to do the 1st Anniversary meeting it was interesting to see one of the parent birds standing high in the nest as the other returned to take it's turn with the small birds. They had grown so big that the parent could no longer fit to settle down with them. They are very plentiful throughout the country. But I don't really think they bring the babies as I've been here over four months and am still alone in my flat. | |||||||||||||||||
| I knew I would be asked to speak at the meeting but when we arrived it wasn't on the order of service and I was relieved as I hadn't thought of what I would say. Unfortunately much of the meeting was in Latvian and the translator was sitting in front of me beside Henrik. All of a sudden she turned and said they were waiting for me to speak. They had welcomed me and introduced me, but I hadn't heard it. As Dianna was praying she said many times, 'Paldies Kungs' I know this means 'Thank you, Lord'. And I was able to speak using those words thanking the Lord for the way He has worked in Drusti and how the people are growing spiritually and in numbers, and then to thank Him for giving me this wonderful opportunity to be part of the work He is doing in this country. | |||||||||||||||||
| Travelling to Drusti and attending the meeting there was like stepping back many decades into the 30's or 40's. We traveled for 2 hours at 120 km an hour up a four lane highway. Then we turned off onto a winding dusty gravel road and drove the last 16 or 17 km through very beautiful rolling hills. Many wonderful old farms. Roofs sloping almost to the ground and very picturesque. I didn't have my camera and was disappointed. | |||||||||||||||||
| The S.A. was given a very old farm and we have our meetings in the old house. Very poor furnishings and facilities but we had a wonderful meeting and finished with people kneeling at the altar. One young woman very sincerely seeking salvation. What a lovely finish to the day. | |||||||||||||||||
| We had already had a service here in Riga in the morning. | |||||||||||||||||
| After the service we went into the yard and had tea and coffee and cakes etc. and of course, chocolate. I think there was around 30 people there. (plus dogs and cats) They have only the one service a month and they also have a Bible study. Tomorrow I'm going back to do the Bible study and on the 16th of September will be doing the meeting and speaking. I will remember the camera tomorrow. | |||||||||||||||||
| It was interesting on the way home. We stopped at a restaurant for our dinner. Conversation stopped and everyone stared at us as we arrived in uniform. The uniform isn't well known in this country and is viewed with suspicion and sometimes fear. We placed our order and hastily made for the back room so people could continue their meals. | |||||||||||||||||
| During this next period I experienced some more Latvian living. I woke up one morning with several small very itchy bites. I thought they were spider bites and thoroughly checked my bed but saw nothing. This continued for 3 or 4 days until I couldn't stand it so at lunch I spoke to a couple of women. They said lets see... " Fleas". Lisbeth came up and we completely stripped the bed and washed everything that was on it. I moved into the other room. I still am finding new bites, one or two each day and can't discover where I'm getting them from. So now I just dab some ointment on them to take the itch out and try to put up with it. This problem is prevalent here in this country. Sarah is now experiencing the same problem. The Andersen's have also had them. I think a lot of times it's from too close an encounter with someone carrying them. I seem to always be hugging or kissing someone. | |||||||||||||||||
| A week ago Wednesday I had an interesting visit to Betanija Corps and a tour of their buildings. | |||||||||||||||||
| This old house in a hundred years old and one of the biggest houses I've ever been in. Downstairs there is a large sanctuary, a fair size dining room, (they feed 600 people each week) and a large commercial kitchen has just been finished. Upstairs are many rooms that people can go and stay in. They are all nicely done up, like motel rooms. Then a wing of the house is home for around 12 children, from very small children to teenagers. There is also a large dining room up there. | |||||||||||||||||
| Out behind the main house they have just built a large structure with a room with commercial washers and dryers and also shower rooms and dressing rooms. Many people in the community do not have hot water or places to do their laundry or to have baths etc. This is quite a place. All done in white tiles, very clean and easy to keep clean. This is just completed and the opening for this building and also for the new kitchens is this Sunday The 2nd of September. A Swedish billionaire who lives in Cyprus has financed all this project and will be here on Sunday for the opening. A Swedish Salvationist who works for this man arrived yesterday and I sat and had coffee with him in the afternoon. His English is excellent, and that is a treat for me. | |||||||||||||||||
| One of the soldiers at Betanija is a well known Latvian Artist. He is 90 years old but a strong vibrant Christian gentleman. Looks more like he is in his 60's. He is known throughout the Scandinavian countries and exhibits in Sweden. Many of his paintings are on the walls throughout this house and I was interested to see them. We are going to purchase some of his paintings to hang in the new offices in memory of Aunt Madge. She was so pleased and interested in my coming here. I think she would be delighted. They are mostly Latvian Scenes. | |||||||||||||||||
| If it were possible I would like to bring one home but I have no room to either carry it or to hang it if I did, so I will take some pictures of them to bring home. | |||||||||||||||||
| Again I was given a lovely bouquet of yellow roses. Ah, Latvia.... what a wonderful custom. | |||||||||||||||||
| During this past two weeks I have spent many hours in conversation, well listening really, to Lisbeth, Henrik, and Maud, together and separately. They all have too much work to do and the work is very frustrating. They are dealing with problems that we know nothing about. I do believe one of the main reasons I am here is to be a source of encouragement to these people. | |||||||||||||||||
| Often it helps to be able to share our burdens and they always can find me. I spend a large percentage of my time around the building. Back and forth between the office or the Corps Offices or my flat. But I try to be available. | |||||||||||||||||
| I do little projects for 'whoever'. I did up a job description one day this week for a person who has to be hired to clean the new offices. The job I had so much fun with this summer and I told you about, cleaning out the files, which are mostly letters in Swedish, Latvian or Russian I guess the Lord really had control over as I asked Lisbeth yesterday and she said she has had no problem. I thought she would have been running back and forth into the archives looking for things. | |||||||||||||||||
| One of the biggest problems that the Andersens are working with is the lack of discipline. Orders and regulations mean very little. Many of the people ignore what Henrik says. Coming out of the Communist system they are influenced by a life time of thinking that we find hard to understand. | |||||||||||||||||
| He lays the law down and they still do what they want. Each Corps is so different and is run according to the leader who is there. Only one is run by an officer. She is a Norwegian officer who felt the call to go to Bouska. The Army said no, she said yes and here she is. And she will stay there until the Lord takes her home. She does operate pretty much within the Army structure and system. Also At Daugavpils a Russian city 250 km. from here, the Envoy , who is again a very new Salvationist, but so very humble and is willing to do things 'right'. He has had some training as a Baptist minister. But we wonder at some of the methods. In order to get food they must attend the meetings. They are getting large crowds to their services. | |||||||||||||||||
| The woman at Betanija runs a total dictatorship. She is a real tyrant and the people are afraid of her but she does an amazing work there. There are crowds of people in uniform, but again I can't help but wonder if it isn't for the economic aid they receive. Of course, there are real genuine soldiers who love the Lord and I must not in any way imply differently. | |||||||||||||||||
| This has been such an interesting experience. There was a corps council meeting last night, even that is interesting. According to the laws of the land there has to be an election each year for these positions. Any one can go and vote, so they are able to vote anyone that they want into any position as they can bring their friends to the annual meeting where all this voting takes place. I don't think they really take the job seriously. It's a status thing to be elected. | |||||||||||||||||
| I hear that so and so is the CSM or someone else is the HLS but they don't come to the meetings. | |||||||||||||||||
| Last Sunday Major Maud Fennvik and I were out of town doing the meetings at Iecave at 12:00 and Bouska at 4:00. We had a really great day. Beautiful services and people forward to pray at both meetings. Maud and I both spoke, at both meetings. We spoke on the same theme. | |||||||||||||||||
| We stopped at a beautiful small restaurant for a meal. I wish I had taken a picture of the food. Everything here is presented so nice and the food is excellent. This place was very inexpensive. My grilled Salmon and vegetables was around $3.25 Canadian. We had a good laugh though as I saw they had battered mushrooms and the price was so low I thought it would be nice to have with my dinner. When it arrived it was a full dinner plate. So I had two dinners. But we did share that one. | |||||||||||||||||
| The envoy at Bouska was in charge as Major Hansen (the Corps Officer) is on furlough, is the loveliest Christian woman you could ever meet. Her name is Laima. I would love to be able to sit and chat with her. On our way home from Sweden on the ferry we went together and spent an hour in the coffee shop. Not able to talk but just to smile and be together. I have spent quite a bit of time with her on different occasions and how I wish I could speak Latvian. | |||||||||||||||||
| There are a wonderful couple at Liepas Corps who really shine for the Lord. It's good to be with them. And of course I've written about Arija Bergman at Liepajas. A truly amazing woman who is 71 and refuses to be retired. She expects to work for at least another ten years. | |||||||||||||||||
| I get to see most of these people at some point each week as all the finances for the country are handled at Headquarters. | |||||||||||||||||
| I wondered at the reason the meetings at so many places were at different times and were on Saturdays and Sundays. In the early days the Commander did all the meetings traveling out from Riga. | |||||||||||||||||
| Thursday was Henrik's birthday so of course this was a day of celebration. When I went down for prayers the cafe area was decked out with lots of Danish flags. Everyone sang the Birthday song and there were some presents. Lisbeth had planned a surprise birthday party after work for all the staff and many others from the area. She sent Henrik out for an hour on an errand and everyone got busy. They moved all the vehicles from the parking lot, brought out the tables and chairs, food etc. When he came back everything was ready. It was a real party, lots of music and dancing (or maybe I should say exercising?) to music. Everyone had lots of fun and took part. I just sat and enjoyed until the music got a little louder than I can enjoy so I finally left and came back to the flat. By then a number had gone next door to the school yard for a football game. Henrik got a new soccer ball which we all signed. He is soccer crazy !!!!! | |||||||||||||||||
| We had a business meeting on Thursday morning with a management consultant. His grandfather was one of the early pioneers of the work here in Latvia although he is not a Salvationist. He wanted to give something to the work here so gave his time. It was a very productive meeting for well over 2 hours. I wondered how I could contribute anything worthwhile to this but amazingly my years in business seemed to come back to the surface and I was able to focus on what we needed to focus on. I suggested to Henrik that he get the staff together a couple of times a year for just such a meeting. He agrees that it would be good to do that. He asked us what we were doing, what we see as the positives and the negatives of work here in the country and in the building. It really got us thinking and opened our minds. | |||||||||||||||||
| I must finish this long letter off, but first I have to tell you about yesterday. It was my names day. | |||||||||||||||||
| On each day of the Latvian Calendar there are 3 names. When your name coincides with the day it is a big celebration. Yesterday was my name day. At 8:00 a.m. two of the women came to the door with a gift and singing the special "name day" song. At 8:30 more flowers from Urzula. After prayers again Henrik gave a little speech, they all sang the song and I received more flowers and also a card and a Riga mug full of chocolate bars. During the afternoon a lovely little white basket of sweet peas from the Children's Home and at supper time LaLa arrived at the door with more flowers. Vicki had sent me a gift which was a book about the names of God. All these flowers added to the three lots I already had and the flat seems like a funeral home. As I only had a couple of vases so I now have no glasses to drink out of but what a lovely day. | |||||||||||||||||
| These people have made me feel so loved and so special. I will never forget them. | |||||||||||||||||
| Four weeks from now I will be on my way to Glasgow. This whole wonderful adventure will be a memory. | |||||||||||||||||
| Tomorrow after the Bible class in Drusti I will be visiting a nursing home out in the forest. From what I hear this will be an upsetting visit for me. 70 people waiting hour after hour to die. Almost like a warehouse situation. I believe I am going to see appalling sanitation and conditions. I am praying that Gods grace will be sufficient and that in some small way we will brighten their lives for a few moments while we are there. I went to a Bible book room and found some small pictures of Jesus to take and hand out to everyone. | |||||||||||||||||
| So if you read this by Sunday morning around 11:00 a.m. your time, please pray for us as we do this visiting. | |||||||||||||||||
| What has God planned for me next ? Whatever it will be will be wonderful. When we make ourselves available to Him and are wholly yielded to Him, exciting things happen. | |||||||||||||||||
| I pray that each one of you will experience this for yourselves. | |||||||||||||||||
| Love, Wilma | |||||||||||||||||
| Home Back Next Update 1 Update 2 Pictures | |||||||||||||||||