to see a world...

Liepaja Day Center

We started working (who am I kidding… this is not work!) in the day center on Monday. The past two days have been great! The day center doesn’t start until 3, but, on Monday, they had a staff meeting at 2, so we went early with Zanda. Most of the day center staff is from the Baptist church: the pastor’s mother prepares meals, another sweet lady leads the kids in worship and prayer time, and several women help oversee games, Bible study and craft time. The meeting yesterday was a little somber since, right now, it looks like they aren’t going to have funding for next year. I guess a lot of people are cutting back on their giving because of the economic crisis, so Buckner doesn’t have the budget to support the day center for next year. School doesn’t start back up until September, so they are praying (as am I) that funding will come in so they can continue.

The day center officially starts at three, but the kids start coming earlier than that. For the first hour or so, we play outside with the kids… I like playing with the little kids the best (probably because I’m not athletic enough to play with the big kids!). Several of the older children speak some English, so we could communicate enough to understand the games. But really, speaking isn’t necessary… I think hugs and smiles communicate a lot more. At four o’clock, one of the women gathers everyone together and leads the children in a prayer. I need to get a picture of this lady! She has such a sweet presence and gracious manner—she really is a joy to be around. The kids take turns praying before everyone goes inside to wash their hands and eat lunch.

The meal starts with soup and then the kids take their emptied bowls back be refilled with the main course—yesterday, it was beef stroganoff and, today, potatoes and chicken patties with gravy. And don’t forget dessert! Today we had these little candies that are quite popular here: it’s basically fluffy, flavored cream cheese covered in chocolate… yum! For a lot of the children, this is the only hot meal they get. Zanda told us that on Mondays they are especially hungry because they might not get much food at home over the weekend. After everyone has their fill, “the sweet lady” (I need to find out her name!) leads all the kids in song time. They are so precious! They have motions made up for a lot of the songs, so there’s always at least 5 girls up at the front singing with all the dances and hand movements.After that, the children split up into three groups and have Bible lessons, then craft time.

Today, the group I sat with had a lesson about the Good Samaritan. Not that I could understand what was being said, but a picture is worth a thousand words (whether they be Russian, Latvian or English!). I was thinking how today, the “good Samaritan” would be like a Latvian finding a Russian, beaten and robbed, and, instead of leaving him (considering all that Latvians have suffered under Russian/Soviet control), picking him up out of the gutter and offering help and healing. We were talking about our dreams and where we see ourselves in five years at dinner tonight, and Zanda told us that one of her dreams is to build a children’s outreach program. This program would disciple and train young Latvians to witness to other children and, in particular, lead them on mission trips to Russia. Since they already speak Russian and have similar histories with wars and Communism, she thought it would be a great way to reach Russian children with the gospel and foster reconciliation between the people.

A few prayer requests:

…Kristina and Katarina (14 year old twins) are being beaten by their mother. They told Zanda about it yesterday and stayed at her apartment last night, but are back home tonight. Tomorrow, Zanda is going to Latvia’s version of CPS to file a complaint. Especially pray for their protection tonight!

…Funding for the day center. I’ve been here for two days and can see what a huge impact this center has on the kids. It’s changing their lives and offering them hope as they encounter God’s love for them.

…All of the children. Zanda has told us several of their stories and it’s hard for me to understand how they can be so happy when they’ve gone through so much hardship. Some of the kids with the most heartbreaking pasts have such strong faces, so it makes me think that there must be many others who are going through bad stuff right now and just not letting it show.

3pm

Arriving in Latvia!

Sveiki! (“hello” in Latvian). Our flight from DFW left Friday at 3 pm and took about 10 hours. The flight itself was uneventful, but I did have a little trouble with my luggage (who knew they weigh carry-on luggage too?). Everything worked out and the rest of the trip went smoothly. We landed in Amsterdam at 7:30 am and had a short layover before flying on to Riga.

We met Buckner’s Latvia staff at the airport and then had a three hour drive to Liepaja (pronounced lee-ah-pie-ya), a port city on the western coast of the country. The country side is beautiful! It’s pretty warm now, so everything is green. Along the road, there were lots of trees and pretty yellow wildflowers blanketing the gently sloping fields. Zanda is our gracious hostess for the next week here in Liepaja. She runs the day center that we will be working at this week. She’s such a wonderful lady! Yesterday, after we arrived in Liepaja and had a chance to freshen up, she took us to a great restaurant in the old town, then on a little walking tour of the city. Liepaja is known for its music and it’s “First Rock Cafe.” One of her relatives has a star on the sidewalk outside of the cafe, which is lined with handprints and stars for famous Latvian singers.

The day center is located in the old naval port section of the town. Zanda invited us over for dinner tonight and told us a little more of the area’s history. Latvia was occupied by Russia in one form or another for a long time—from the late 1800’s by czarist Russia, then later by the USSR. The czar sent the Russian navy here to Liepaja in the 1880’s and built base for them outside of the established city. Up until the fall of the Soviet Union and Latvia’s independence in 1991, the base was closed off from locals. When the navy moved out, they left a lot of empty housing. The Latvian government moved low-income families into the apartments. The area has some problems… drugs, alcoholism. Buckner started coming to Liepaja in 2004 and sponsored VBS day camps for a few years. They were seeing good results in the kids, but realized that they needed more than just one week out of the year, so Buckner partnered with a local church to open a day center that runs from 3-7 pm after every school day.

We went to the church’s service this morning with Zanda. It’s small, but has a very big heart! We were welcomed very warmly by everyone. The church members, like most of the people in this part of the city, are Russian. It was really cool to listen to them worship God in their language, then recognize the tune of some of the songs they sang and join in English. A young woman, Rita, decided to give her life to Christ today. The pastor, Serges, gave an invitation and Rita raised her hand. Serges called her to the front, so she walked forward and, in front of the congregation, prayed out loud to accept Christ. I was impressed by her bravery—I’m used to having people raised their hand when all eyes are closed and praying silently to themselves. It was really neat to see her proclaim her faith and be welcomed in the body of Christ with encouragement from others in the church.

After the service, we joined everyone for refreshments… coffee, tea and cookies. Zanda translated for us so we were able to have a good conversation with the pastor, who speaks some English, and the young women around us. I think we were all humbled by the fact that we came thinking we’re going to serve and every one there was serving us with such hospitality and graciousness. It was a great morning!

2pm

Today, I flew to Dallas and met with my intern team for orientation at the Buckner missions office. There are three other girls on the Latvia team: Ramie Stewart, a senior at Hardin-Simmons in Abilene; Jeannene Parsons, a senior at Berry; and Leslie Troyer, a sophomore at Auburn. They’re sweet girls—I think we will have a great time together!

After our orientation, all of the interns went to the warehouse for Shoes for Orphan Souls, a ministry of Buckner’s that collects and distributes shoes to orphans and at-risk children in close to 60 countries around they world. This year, the number of shoes they’ve handed out will reach 2 million! We helped sort and pack shoes for a few hours before going back to the missions office to sort and pack the humanitarian aid and supplies we’re taking on our trips. My team is taking toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and other hygiene products in addition to our supplies for VBS. It took some shuffling to get everyone’s bags under the 50 lb. limit! It will be nice to lighten our load as we leave humanitarian aid and supplies with the orphanages we visit. This is probably the only time in my life that I’ll leave for a month and come home 50 lbs. lighter!

I’m at the hotel now, getting ready to go to sleep. It’s 7:30 am in Latvia right now, so we were trying to stay up a little later so we could sleep on the flight tomorrow, but I think today’s activity has worn me out—off to bed!

11pm

Happy Mother’s Day!

8am

“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

The opening lines of Auguries of Innocence by William Blake inspired the name of this blog. To me, the words speak of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary… taking time to stop and enjoy the little things that make life special. What a wonderful gift it is to be alive! I’m excited to share some of these “little things” through this blog.

12am

Holiness is not God asking us to be ‘good’; it is an invitation to be His. We belong to Him. The best synonym for holiness is the word ‘freedom.’

4pm