Oh when he washed. When Jesus washed. He washed my sins away!"
The story starts back in Africa. Poor Kaitlin on our squad was very sick with some sort of infection all the way from Africa to Europe. Worst travel experience for her, ever. When we arrived in Riga, her team leader Chip and another leader Shelley took her to try and get to hospital. They went to one, it was closed. They were blessed to get a ride from some very nice Latvians to another hospital. Come to find out, that hospital was a specialty hospital, for orthopedic cases only. There Chip, Shelley and Kaitlin were standing, having just traveled for well over 24 hours, getting minimal to no sleep, first few hours in a country with a very sick girl who needs to get to a hospital, except none of them seem to be open or the right ones. Discouragement was starting to set in, a real “What now, God?” moment. Then, some voice behind them tell them that they can take them to the correct hospital. Praise Jesus! Two rides from two different sets of very nice Latvians in the first few hours, and this hospital was the right one. On the way, the people start asking the Racers what they are doing here, so they filled them in. This brought about the excellent news that our new friends were believers, the only reason they were at the hospital was an accidentally stapled finger while doing some lighting changes in the church, for tomorrow’s Easter service. The young woman had just done DTS with YWAM in South Africa. WHAT GOD??? The wonderful two friends helped Kaitlin get settled in to the hospital before inviting Chip and Shelley to Easter service the next day, we took them up on their offer.
The next morning, about 20 of us started walking towards our first real church service in months, it was a blessing beyond compare. We sat up in the balcony of a cute, old brick church perfect for 300 people with a gorgeous steeple and wrap around balcony. Picture perfect place to get married, just sayin. Our new friend Tabitha translated the service, which started out with an awesome visual arts skit from creation to the cross. There was a clarinetist, a saxophonist, and accordion player, and a violinist. The most beautiful music I have heard in a long time. An Easter message of the goodness of Jesus was brought, there were 4 baptisms and we took communion together. It was amazing. I was teary eyed during the whole service, but when the music for communion started playing, I lost it. The track was “Blessings” by Laura’s Story. It was just the instrumentals to the song, but my heart and mind filled in every word. I cried as I remembered all the tears on the Race so far, all the brokenness. What if it was all to get to this point, this closeness with the Father? What if I really did know Him more because of all that He has walked me through on the Race? I knew it was true. And finally, what if it was blessing time? I certainly felt like it was. I already felt so blessed by this church, a true body of believers.
We finished the service by singing “How Great Is Our God”. Some of you may know that this was the last song I danced to back home. Dance Camp last summer ended with a recessional to Chris Tomlin’s World Edition, the song is sung in many different languages. That song launched me into the World Race, where I have praised God surrounded by many different languages. This moment was one of my favorite.
When the music started playing, every one of my friends around me started getting teary eyed. We sang with the congregation, them in Latvian and us in English. We Racers couldn’t contain ourselves, hands went up in praise, voices were raised fully and tears flowed. The presence of God was in this place. Our voice matched theirs, we 20 actually were louder than the Latvian church at some points. I looked around at all the Racers who I love so much. The things we have walked through together are hard to describe. Here we were, being the true Body of Christ, praising with raised voices to our Beloved One. It was THE MOST beautiful moment ever. Two cultures, two languages, One Body. One God who deserves all the glory, from every nation, tribe and tongue.
After worship, the congregation invited us into their hall for food and fellowship. The food was out of this world, wedding quality back home and there were tons of it. They were so friendly, welcoming and kind. And the fun continued from there.
