Rewind to five days ago. Kaitlyn, the day before we were to fly out of Kenya, was feeling very nauseous. The day after: nauseous and vomiting. On the plane: nauseous and more vomiting. On the bus to the hostel: still nauseous and vomiting. By this point I'm getting really concerned. Maybe she has Malaria. Either way, she needed to go to a hospital.
So after everyone gets settled, Kaitlyn, Shelly and I decide to go to the hospital. A taxi is called, takes us, and drops us off, and leaves. We walk up to the hospital building. Uh oh! Closed. Now what?
By God's favor and timing, two men walk up to the hospital; one of them is limping. Luckily, he speaks JUST enough english to say that he will take us to another hospital. Well, okay, I guess. This is totally safe, right? We just got into two strange men's car. 2 hours into Latvia. Off to a good start.
Well, they take us to the hospital, driving crazy fast, listening to Latvian techno music, skidding around turns. I'm starting to feel like I'm in a Jason Bourne movie. We find the hospital, but we can't find the entrance. After 5 minutes, and many backtracks, we find the entrance and they drop us off. We walk into the hospital, and talk to the person at the desk. He speaks English. Sweet! We're at the wrong place. This is an orthopedic trauma center.
Crap.
But he tells us that he will call a taxi and tell them where to take us. We sit down, and the two people behind us tell us they will take us themselves. Wait, what!?
Yeah. That just happened. Now, I've been awake for 60 hours by this point, so this is starting to feel crazy. How are people this kind here? Well, in route they ask why we're here. We give them the run down on the World Race.
"Oh, you.re Christians?
"Yup."
"We're Christians too!"
….I love God. How is He orchestrating this? Had we been one minute later, we would have missed them. This is no coincidence. Come to find out, the girl recently had done a DTS (discipleship training school) with YWAM in South Africa working with needy children and wants to move back some day!
Well, over the course of the next few hours, they take us to different hospitals until we find what Kaitlyn really needs, all the while, we are talking about the mission work they are doing in Riga, what we've done, trading stories of being on the field, and just talk about life in general. I feel like they've been my friends for years. We also come to find out that they were at the hospital because a friend of theirs had stapled his finger while putting up decorations for their church's Easter service. Did I mention their dad is the pastor? Did I mention that the World Race is breaking ground in Latvia, and we are looking for more contacts?
This is getting unreal. How is God doing this right now? So we tell them we will come to their church for Easter. Kaitlyn is admitted to the hospital and has to stay for a few days until bloodwork tests can come back because of the holidays.
So we go to church on Sunday, along with about 10 other Racers, fully expecting for it to not be in English, but it doesn't matter because we just want to be at church on Easter Sunday. It's snowing!!! How good is God just for that. It's been over a year, and I feel like I'm at home. The service is amazing. Highlights:
Free coffee.
They have a clarinetist, a saxophonist, and accordion player, and a violinist.
The violinist plays a Bach sonata.
The background music for their video presentation is Sigur Ros, one of my favorite bands.
The sermon is the best Easter sermon I've ever heard, translated by our new friends!
They have wine and pound cake for communion.
They have four baptisms.
Each of those people shares their testimonies of why they are being baptized. Woah! What if you had to do this in an American church? It makes it real. The stories are amazing. Their baptisms really mean something. It's not just some societally appropriate thing to do.
After the service, they have a "lunch" of pastries, deli meat, and fruit. Shoot. I"m in the land of milk and honey. We talk with so many people in the church about life. We tell them had just come from Africa, and that many of us don't have the clothes we need. For example, Grayson is wearing sandals, has no shoes, and it's SNOWING.
They bring him shoes! Perfect fit!
Then they tell us they are making dinner for us that not. Stop! For the whole squad of 48 people? Yup! I'm speechless at this point. No one knows how to express the joy that we are feeling, from being in the presence of the Lord in the service, from feeling like the international kingdom church, from their kindness and generosity.
It's blowing my mind. They are loving us so well, it's hard to comprehend. Our squad was tired from pouring out so much, from working so hard just to get our spirits just to align with God's. Here, it's like we're not even working for it. He's just opening all these doors before us. It's crazy.
So we go to dinner tonight and they've collected jackets, shoes, hats, and pants for us! I'm losing it at this point. My heart is so moved. This church is powerful in how they love strangers, in how they love their community, and each other.
God is baffling me right now. I'm in this gem of a country, hidden away, this secret place of Europe.' And here, we meet some of the most amazing people I've encountered in my life, much less the whole Race. In 24 hours, I feel like my family just grew a little. I can't wait to see what this month has left in store, but it's hard to leave these people and this church already. God is moving, and He's gonna do crazy, ridiculous, awesome things this month!
And it all started with vomit and a stapled finger.
