latvia8

My dear friends, I have been sharing so much of this wonderful adventure to Latvia with you, via these long letters. Letters that have been full of excitement and joy.

but

now let me share with you the burden.

This has been part of my diary for the week of Sept .2 - 7th 2001.

On Sunday I had the joy of traveling out into the Country to do a meeting and visit a Nursing home. These were wonderful experiences and I will share them with you in the next newsletter.

I traveled with a family and a translator and I learned so much that I didn't know about.

This week has been one where my eyes have been opened and my heart broken for the people of this country but also for conditions around the world that we hear about, pray about and forget.

I woke at seven so got up and had a leisurely start to the day. Then I left the flat at 5 to 11.

The women were waiting downstairs for me. Dianna who speaks one or two words of English, her 12 year old daughter, Santa, who I think understands some and speaks very little, her Mother, Rasma, our cook, who I see almost every day but have never had much of a conversation with as she understands no English, and Evita, who is the Corps Youth worker and was the translator, all day. She is a qualified Medical Doctor but not licensed. The licence costs a lot of money.

We really had a wonderful day and I learned so much. We talked every minute and I got a real headache and had to take a couple of Tylenol at lunch. Much of the conversation was upsetting as I learned so much of the very sad history of this country.

I now know why no one will express an opinion and are so closed mouthed and almost secretive. During the occupation, if you said what you thought about anything you were deported to Siberia and never heard from again, and not only you but all your family were in danger. The Russians came in and took over the country. They brought their own people and just took over your flat and all your belongings and you were deported to Siberia. They gave their own people the jobs and the Latvians had no work, no homes and no money. Many of the Russian people that took over the flats still live in them , rent free. The factories that once were flourishing have all gone bankrupt . There are no real substantial jobs in the country. Evita told me that since she was a child her parents had saved in the bank for her so that there would be a large sum of money when she turned 18. A few days before her birthday the system changed and when they went to the Bank all she received was 5 lats. (Aprox. $12.50 Canadian ) She said she cried and wanted to throw the money at them. She will never use a bank again.

We stopped at Dianna's home for her to take something in to her husband and I learned that they live in a tiny flat with no hot water and very poor facilities. They get what heat they can from a fireplace. She is quite resentful that now that the Russian isn't being forced on them in the schools etc., they are obligated to learn English to manage in their own country.

In our staff meeting this morning she brought this up as when we had the consultant on Friday she didn't understand a lot of the meeting. Henrik said we didn't either as the meeting was in Latvian and English and not always translated. He didn't understand that this is her country and she is working here and should always know what is being said if it influences her.

I will talk to him before the day is out about that.

They spoke about taking me to a concentration camp but I said no. I know I can't handle that emotionally. I couldn't go through the holocaust museum in Israel. It broke my heart and I left through the first exit, sobbing.

MONDAY

At lunch I was alone for a while with Dianna and Evita and was able to tell Dianna I understood her hurts and frustrations. We talked for a long time. I am understanding so much that I never have known before. The fears and struggles of what they have gone through and how that terror is still in the people. They still hide what they feel as there are still people in the country watching them and if the country falls again to the Russians they will suffer for what they have said. The people here are resenting the Andersens as they say they don't understand or care about how the Latvian people feel. I have become a mediator between them. Evita told me that today, she says, " we really need you here".

TUESDAY

Up at 6:20 this morning and up to the Andersen's with Sarah for prayers at 8:20. I was able to really speak to them about some of the things that I have heard and learned in this past couple of days and to share some of where the people are really coming from. I said we had to be more compassionate and understanding and that the people who are above 25 are never going to completely trust anyone that the only thing we can do is to keep telling them they can trust God. I was able to get the point across without saying much about what I had been told by Dianna. I think they got the point. I had to be careful as I wouldn't want to hurt Lisbeth and Henrik for the world but I can see what the women were saying was in many cases true. The Andersens are young and they see so much to do that they just go ahead and do it without consulting the people. We as outsiders have to be careful that we don't impose our thoughts and ideas and plans for the country on people without explaining why we want to do this and asking their co-operation. So often we feel that we must get over the past, we can't live there and it's gone, and while this is true it won't happen for a couple of generations at least here in this country.

9:00 was prayers with the staff. Then Evita and I went to the Old Town.

We went to the Occupation Museum. An excellent museum, but very depressing. One night alone, June 14/15 1941 the Russians deported 15,000 people to Siberia to forced labour.

They were herded into freight cars on the railway , often left in the heat on a siding for long times. eventually at that time 35,000 were deported. Their homes and jobs given to Russian people. Most died and were never heard of again. This happened in the middle of the night and nothing was ever printed in the paper. They just disappeared. In 1949 there was another large deportation but I don't have the figures. Some letters and pictures were eventually smuggled back to Latvia and many are in the museum. People wrote on scraps of paper and threw them from the trains etc. This wasn't just back in the 40's and 50's but continued throughout the years.

I made a very foolish statement to Evita. I said you don't have to worry, this could never happen in these days. The outside world would hear about this and step in. She shook her head and said, " Oh. Vilma, you don't understand. It is going on in the world today. Look at what The Russians are doing in Chechnya and the world says they belong to Russia and it's Russia's problem and the people are trying to exist in the caves, with no food or clothing." No I don't understand.

The Soviet regime was in power until 1991. In order to get an education you had to accept atheism and communism. Evita and I discussed this a lot as the young women who work here all went to school at that time. And I asked how then did they leave Communism and become Christians. They said that after 1991 some of the clergymen went to the schools and taught them and also their grandparents then told them and were so happy to be able to tell them. Many of their parents though have no belief in anything. We have old people and young people no middle aged at all.

I came away from there feeling very quiet and sad.

WEDNESDAY

Started the day with prayers in the Andersen's flat and then down to the Cafe where the staff gather each morning at 9:00 for prayers and devotions.

At 10:00 the leaders from every centre in the country met for their monthly meeting in our new conference room. Some of us were there a bit early so I shared with Major Maud Fennvik, my downstairs neighbour and friend some of what I was feeling and becoming aware of. She said you should speak with Guna, and with that Guna turned so I went and we talked.

Dr. Guna Deksne is a beautiful woman. A paediatrician and Gynaecologist who runs the Mother and Baby clinic here in this building for the Salvation Army.

And so I talked and told her how I was feeling and what I was coming to understand about the conditions and the people in this country. As I talked her face became flushed and her eyes bright with tears. She took my hands and said, " Thank you, thank you, thank you. People coming in to our country do not understand what it has been like and how it still is." She went on to tell me that both her father and her grandfather had been taken and had just disappeared.

It was one of my prayers coming here and I still continue to pray that the Lord would give me insight and understanding so that I would be able to communicate His love without the understanding of an oral language. He has answered that prayer in so many beautiful ways.

THURSDAY

We had our staff devotions and we spent the time praying for the S.A. situation in Moscow.

( For my friends who are not in the Army , a brief explanation. The Salvation Army in Russia is registered as a religious organization and are able to operate as such, conducting their business etc. But in the City of Moscow where the headquarters is they have run into a lot of trouble. This has been in the Courts for some time. In the spring the S.A. received word that they had to be in Court in a couple of days or would be liquidated. Their lawyers were out of town at the time, and these documents were dated some weeks prior to them receiving them. Fortunately they were able to have the case put forward till Sept. 11th. which is this coming Tuesday.)

We prayed earnestly for the situation. It will take a miracle for them to receive their registration, so please everyone be in earnest prayer about this. There is evil working in the hearts of those in charge and only the Lord can change that. The people are in desperate need of salvation and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, as well as the physical needs that are being met by our workers. We are needed in that country, perhaps more than any where else in the world. The influence of that enormous country spreads throughout so much of our world.

Lisbeth had been listening to me speak about the conditions that I had been made aware of and she asked that we would put our personal feelings about the Russian people aside and to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in Russia.

After lunch she was really taken to task about this. Rasma was very loud and vocal. " How could Lisbeth even infer that they wouldn't pray for them, they love the Russian People. "

Lisbeth and I discussed this later and couldn't believe she would say that after what she and others had said privately through the week.

This morning I think I know why and will be talking with Lisbeth about it.

They had previously told me things about this. There are still Russian people living here in the Country in the flats they were in during the Soviet times. They think the Russians are recording what the people are doing and saying and that when they take over again (not if, but when), then all these things they have said will be used against them to kill them or have them deported to Siberia to hard labour and certain death.

We still have some of our flats (in the Headquarters building) occupied by them. They pay very low rents and we can't do anything about that. The people here know that and are terrified of them. They hide their fears but they are there. So while they may tell me things in private they have to deny them and certainly never speak them in public.

FRIDAY

I haven't left my flat this morning. I skipped prayers and devotions. This week has been very emotionally draining and I have a heavy weekend and full week coming up. I need some down time. I know the Lord expects us to take care of ourselves, physically and emotionally. So other than a couple of projects, such as this letter , I will try and rest today.

So my friends.... Is there an answer???

Where and how do we focus our prayers?

Can I just suggest that you pray earnestly for all those working for the Lord in these countries. Not just our Salvationists but all who lift up the name of Jesus.

First that they will have understanding. That they will have the knowledge and the strength to reach out to the people and to tell them about Jesus. The people can trust Him, He will never fail them. And that when the dark days come and trials are humanly impossible to bear He will give them peace amidst the turmoil.

The only answer to the needs of these people is Jesus. There are so many living with no faith or trust in anything. They have had their hope crushed by circumstances. We can give them Hope, we can tell them of Jesus. I have tried to do this every day that I've been here, but I have only talked to a small handful of people. I pray daily that the Word will spread as ripples in a pond and that the Lord will magnify the work we are doing through His gracious Holy spirit.

I have heard so many stories I could share with you but this letter has already become so long.

Please pray.

I only have 3 weeks left here and there is so much I still want to do. I have a number of meetings and programs still to do plus a three day conference and I'm starting to really feel the pressure of preparation etc.

I want so much to make everyday count.

I daily pray the prayer of Jabez. That the Lord will bless me, indeed. And He does. And those blessings are shared with all I come in contact with. That He will increase my territory. And as I pray that each day someone different comes along and I'm able to minister in some specific way. And that I will cause no evil. Oh how I pray that. And even as I write this type of letter home I pray that in no way what I have written get into the wrong hands and be used against these people who have shared with me.

And that last line makes me realize how I am empathizing with these people, to the point of living with their fears.

I know His grace is sufficient, I'm proving this daily,

Thank you for sharing in this burden with me.

Love, Wilma

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