Yesterday morning I was living in Nairobi, Kenya and by dinner time I was in snow in Riga, Latvia. That’s a climate change if I’ve ever seen one.
And within my first twenty minutes on Latvian ground, I had already thrown up in the airport restroom.
So, I didn’t exactly have high hopes for my time in Latvia.
But God is so crazy good and loves to show up in such tangible ways.
So our first morning in Latvia is Easter morning.
I had heard talk the night before about people going to a Lutheran or Catholic church for Easter Sunday service. I wasn’t exactly interested. Mass in a language I don’t understand doesn’t exactly sound that appealing to me.
But I wake up and my dear friend Shelley had come in our room and was asking if we were going to church.
She tells me that it’s a Baptist church and that someone has offered to translate for us.
Now that’s what I’m talking about!
Shelley later tells me that we had been invited to this church the night before we she and some other squadmates had gone to the hospital because one of our squadmates has malaria.
They had met these two random people that offered to drive them to another hospital. It turns out that these people are Christian too and the girl, Tabitha, had worked with YWAM in South Africa. And also, their father is the pastor of a Baptist church.
So this morning a group of about 15 of us head out for the service. We are trampling through the snow and all I have on is Chacos. Yep, my bare feet in the snow was quite a combination.
We get on a tram and get to see the beautiful architecture and snow every where and are once again amazed at the beauty of this place and the difference between Europe and Africa.
We get to the church and are immediately greeted with warm coffee and an absolutely gorgeous church.
We are invited to sit upstairs so people can translate for us.
The service started with a 30 minute shadow puppet show of the story of Creation to the resurrection of Jesus. Amazing!
Then the pastor spoke for a little while and we had 4 baptisms. Each one had a video recorded of their testimony and one of them brought me to tears!
It was so incredible to hear the stories of who Jesus is to these people on Easter.
Then we worshipped some with our last song being “How Great is Our God”.
First, I just love this song.
But second, it is even more impactful when the entire church is singing in Latvian and our group singing in English. It is such a beautiful foretaste of what heaven is going to be like!
Then we have communion (complete with real wine! Haha!) and then they announced that there was food for everyone in the side room of the church.
So we went and enjoyed some delicious Latvian snack foods and got to meet more people from the church.
As I was standing in a group with one of the girls who led worship she asked us what our plans were for today.
We told her a lot of us were planning on going shopping to get boots and jackets and warm clothes. We had been in hot weather for 9 months and definitely didn’t have many (or any) clothes suited for snow weather.
She takes a look at our feet and mine stand out the most because of the fact I was only wearing Chacos.
She asks for my shoe size and says they might have some at church but she is going to go talk to someone.
She walks away instantly and we carry on with the conversation. I had almost forgotten that she said something about getting shoes for me and honestly didn’t expect much from the situation.
About 15 minutes later she comes back to us and says, “Well, we have plans for you today. We are inviting you all back to the church at 6 for dinner.”
We respond, “But there are 48 of us! Are you sure?”
“Oh yes we are!”
We were all floored by the hospitality of these people we had just met. They hardly know us but are making us feel so welcomed and loved and demonstrating the love of Christ in such a tangible way.
Then a few minutes later, Tabitha show up with some white, high top converses and says, “These aren’t great for the snow but their better than what you have on.”
I was so in awe in that moment.
These people were loving me and taking care of me and we had just met a few hours before.
They exemplify what the body of Christ is supposed to look like and I am so inspired by it.
They have seen me and others on our squad in need and joyfully gave us their time and money and shoes.
They surrendered their own agenda and things to bring such joy to a group of strangers.
That is what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like.
This will be an Easter I will never forget!
I am so thankful for this wonderful first day in Latvia and I know God has so much in store for us here!
Happy Easter everyone!
