Greetings from Saldus, Latvia!
Tidbits about the country:
The size is Latvia is small enough to fit inside Colorado (my home sweet home) 4 times!
After being under Soviet govern for 48 years, Latvia regained it independence in 1991. Strong ties to the past still linger but Latvians strive to keep their heritage alive.
This month my team, along with team Iris, partnered with St. Gregor’s Christian Mission School for a variety of ministry and community outreach.
Saldus is a beautiful, small town in western Latvia. Saldus means “sweet” which is appropriate for the town’s name since there is both an ice cream and candy factory in this little town.
Every month, one of my favorite part of the Race is getting to know our contact. Meet out host for the month, Ieva. She is a bubbly character with big dreams and a fire for the Lord. She has a knack for bringing the holy spirit whenever she goes, and prays with so much passion and love. It was wonderful to here her stories throughout the month and spend time in her peaceful garden.
Ministry looked different each week this month which kept us on our toes all month and allowed everyone to meet Saldus citizens in many different walks of life. Our teams helped facilitate a youth summer camp, hosted weekly bible studies, and organized a youth outreach in a nearby town.
Members of my team and I also had several opportunities to go on home visits to elderly members of the community. We brought care package, prayed with them, and lent a listening ear to the stories that they eagerly shared with us. My squad mate wrote an excellent blog to describe out experience visiting with the woman pictured below, check it out here: http://wayneandcodie.theworldrace.org/?filename=its-so-easy
Our home visit with the sweet woman pictured below is one of my favorite moments from this month. She welcomed us into her home with a wide smile, insisted on giving everyone a tour of her home, and stuffed everyone with tea and biscuits. Before we sat down to talk she rushed over to her record player and stated, “We must have music! Music and dance bring life to the soul.” Then, without any prompting or questioning, she proceeded to share stories of her life and pictures with us for over an hour. We could hardly get a word in at the end of one story before she started another. I loved hearing her stories and seeing her joy brought smiles on the faces of everyone in our group. It was very apparent that she was overjoyed to have visitors, that we were a distraction from daily loneliness. That afternoon reminded me how precious conversations and the company of others can be.
Traditional Latvian folklore, especially the dance of the folk songs, date back well over a thousand years. Members of the local retirement community gave us a fond farewell by teaching several of these dances and celebrated Jánis Day with us- a mid-summer celebration in the Baltic countries.
The greenery and flowers throughout everywhere I looked never ceased to amaze me. Latvian’s take great pride in taking care nature and creating astounding gardens.
There is so much of God’s beauty throughout this country.
