The month of May was spent in Liepaja, Latvia, with my new team: Team Relentless! As a missionary for YWAM, our contact Janis led us in a month of various ministry opportunities right on the coast of Latvia. During this month, God directed my focus on health: physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I spent most of the month redirecting my focus on building a foundation in my relationship with Christ once more. This was definitely a transitional time as a new team, in forming new friendships and a new dynamic. Looking back, this month was filled with so much laughter. I’ll never forget that.
Latvia Highlights:
- Our contact, JANIS, was one of the most amazing men of God I’ve ever met, with an incredible testimony. He and his wife had two beautiful daughters, with one on the way, (half Argentinian, half Latvian) who spoke both Spanish and Latvian! It was the cutest thing hearing “Muy bien” followed by “Paldies” (Latvian thank you).
i. My favorite sayings from our contact, Janis were, “You don’t eat no meat?” (My teammate Mandi is a vegetarian) and “Where do you from come?”
ii. He also chopped wood like it was butter – crazy!
- OFF TO THE FARM! We had the amazing opportunity to visit a couple of farms throughout the month and help the relatives of both Janis and Norman through physical labor. The girls went off to the woods to collect and pile the large logs after the trees were chopped down. The boys stayed behind at the sawmill to chop wood into smaller pieces. Other times, we were in charge of stacking the chopped pieces in the woodshed.
i. The last day we were at the farm, a newborn BABY COW was born, and it teethed on my hand!
- We were ENGLISH TEACHERS at a public high school for the month… well more like English-speaking guests that led class, but it was a great opportunity to build relationships with students.
- We held a “LIVING LIBRARY” where each of our lives was a book with chapters for the students to read and learn more about.
- Packed up with worship music and blankets, part of our team decided to have an ALL NIGHT PRAYER on the beach! (Liepaja is a town right on the beach, which is beautiful!)
- BALTIC PLUNGE! Our team ran into the ocean (which was still freezing cold when we were there!)
- The girls spent some days SORTING CLOTHES while the boys did some BIKE REPAIR.
i. We were later able to donate the clothes to beautiful GYPSY FAMILIES nearby who we previously spent time building relationships with.)
- A couple of the most fun experiences were getting the chance to play with the DAY CARE CHILDREN at the park. Every time, we were adorned with gifts of flowers from the little girls and we spent our time laughing beyond reason. We also played SOCCER in the park with the families in the area, which turned into quite the spectacle at times. (Some of us are pretty terrible at soccer – like me – but it was one of those hilarious afternoons that I wouldn’t trade for the world.)
- The BUCKWHEAT EXPLOSION OF 2014 took place on none other than the boys’ night to cook dinner. (Our team was introduced to buckwheat, which became the new staple food to eat…) Basically, the boys had no idea how much buckwheat to cook – and there was a massive, overflowing buckwheat explosion all over the kitchen!
- We rode the BUS a lot…and sometime I would make random friends!
- On Friday nights, we had the chance to be a part of the YOUTH NIGHTS at the local Salvation Army church. This group of girls had such a passion for the Lord and it was beautiful to see and be a part of.
- We had a true Latvian SAUNA experience, where we underwent three rounds of the sauna. In between each round, we went out and jumped into the LAKE. During our last round of being in the sauna, our backs were hit with BIRCH LEAVES! (Thinking back, I didn’t want to commit to doing the sauna, as we had a long hard day of work and I didn’t want to get all soaked in sweat again. This turned into another example of one of the best experiences of the Race playing out in doing something I initially didn’t want to participate in!)
