We are living in the city of Liepaja (said like leah-pie), Latvia and we are with another team this
month. They are living at the church we are partnered with and we are living
with Granny.
She is a 72 year old woman letting us live with her in her
flat. She goes swimming every morning in the Baltic Sea. Her home is open
to everyone and anyone; many stop by in the mornings. She has family group once
a week and hosts about 13 people with tea, coffee and snacks. She speaks very
little English, but doesn’t mind talking to us in Latvian and playing charades hoping
we’ll somehow understand her.
Every night when we come home, she’s learned a new phrase to
tell us, some include: ‘you are beautiful girls,’ ‘happy to see you’ and ‘pass
me the spoon.’ She even plays the accordion. Most of all, she loves us so much
and is proud to have us in her home. It is a small place, but we are used to
small. It’s just nice to be in a home with a loving person to take care of us;
she serves us coffee or tea each morning and evening.
Family group in the living room
Ministry this month is very relaxed. We are working with a
Seventh Day Adventist Church. We don’t have a schedule and a lot of it we have
to come up with ourselves. Sam and Courtney are writing videos for the church
and we are the stars in the films (I’ll be adding the videos to my blogs when
they’re finished). We’re also going to go to schools and presenting on American
culture and cultures in the countries we’ve been to (this hasn’t happened yet,
but hopefully will soon).
We are working with the youth in the church. They have
something called Pathfinders in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It’s like boy
scouts, but for both boys and girls. They have meetings once a week that we are
a part of in leading games and discipling the kids.
Another part of ministry for me is buying food for the
teams. Three of us go out twice a week to buy breakfast and dinner for
everyone. It is quite an adventure going to the open outdoor market, meat
market, and supermarket. We call ourselves the Food Finders.
Pastor is on the left, he goes with us to shop. Nothing is in English here, weird, so reads the labels and help us find food in the store. Tyler is the guy in the orange jacket, apart of the Food Finders. That’s only some of the food.
The first time food finding. The baskets here have wheels and a handle. It’s like you are walking your dog around the store.
We live about a five minute walk from the beach. It’s so
beautiful! We have gone to see the sunset two times, hoping to go more. It’s
really cold, but would be a great beach to vacation at when it’s warm.
Europe is a lot like America. People dress nice here and
they aren’t open to talking about religion or Jesus unless you have a
relationship with them. They have regular grocery stores with everything you
need in them (except cookie dough, cake/brownie mix, and chocolate chips for
baking cookies, brownies or just snacking; they’re missing out).
One main difference though is people don’t smile here. While
walking down the street we were told not to smile because they will know you’re
a tourist. They don’t smile at people on the street or say hi to random
strangers. We try and put our best Latvian faces on while in public places, but
it’s very difficult most times; especially for Ally who never stops smiling,
ever.
If you haven’t
read my blog about ‘What I’m doing after the Race’, you might be interested in
hearing. Click here to read about it: What I’m doing after the Race. I need your help in raising funds for my next adventure.
If you feel led to give financially…
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You
can give a one-time donation with your credit/debit card by going to my
‘Support Me – CGA Here I Come’ link under my blog picture.
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You
can give online monthly with your credit card going to my ‘Support Me – CGA
Here I Come’ link under my blog picture.
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You
can give automatic payments monthly through your checking account by going to: http://adventures.org/dynapay/
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Or
you can write at check and send it to PO Box 534470 Atlanta, GA 30353. Make the
check out to Adventures in Missions and put my name, Aubree Richardson, in the
memo line.
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