Leaving Liepaja...
This morning, Ramie, Jeannene, Leslie, and I loaded up all of our bags into a mini van (which was quite a feat considering how much stuff we have!) and rode to Riga. Although we left a lot of craft supplies and humanitarian aid with the day center in Liepaja, it seems like our bags are still full. We met Daça and Madera at the Elefant Hotel in Riga, where we’re staying for the night, then went to the airport to meet the group coming from Texas.
Leaving Liepaja was a little harder than I thought. Yesterday was the first day of their VBS day camp, so we were with the kids all day. Their camp was really fun… Zanda and one of the women from the church performed a skit in the morning that went along with their theme of time travel. The “mad scientist” made a time machine that took everyone back to the creation of the world, with God creating the sun and the moon, animals, plants, and mankind. The woman who played the mad scientist is a single mother of seven. Her husband was really abusive to her and the kids, so, a little over a year ago, they left him and moved in with the pastor’s family until they could get on their feet. I don’t know how she does it, but they manage and all of her kids are really great!
Pastor Sergejs and his wife have five children. Sergejs’ life is a story of redemption: he used to be a bootlegger (which, in Latvian, is an “alkoholisku”), making and selling vodka illegally. His wife was a Christian, so she kept praying for him and told him that he was going to pastor a church someday. I’m not sure how he became a Christian, but he now pastors the Light of the Gospel Church in Karosta and is supported by Hope International Ministries (if you click on the link, notice the little girl in the first picture—Gela, a girl from the day center). Some of his old customers still come to him, but now they come for living water, not “fire water.” Zanda pointed out one man who helps everyday with the kids, keeping track of all the toys and outdoor equipment, that used to buy vodka from Sergejs back in his alkoholisku days. It’s such a powerful testimony to how God changes people and what could happen in the naval port as more people are touched by His love.
There were forty children signed up for the day camp, plus some younger kids whose parents were helping. Most of the kids were familiar, but there was one girl I hadn’t seen before: Elina, a pretty girl with dark hair and blue eyes. Elina was very quiet and polite, but she seemed a little removed from a lot of the activities. I asked Zanda about her later and she said that Elina kept asking when day camp was going to be over, so Zanda, wondering if she wanted to go home early, told her that she could take her home. Elina said no… she was asking because she was afraid it was going to end soon and didn’t want to go home. I had guessed that she probably didn’t have a very good home life because of what Zanda told us about her brother, Sasha, early in the week: when Sasha first started coming to the day center, he got into a lot of fights and was really a problem for the adults. Once, when Zanda broke up a fight between him and another child, Sasha started hitting her—she thought he hated her. A few weeks later, Zanda took him to the store with her because another adult was taking all the kids to the beach and didn’t think she could control him. As they we walking in, Sasha grabbed her arm and whispered: “Do you think we can we pretend that you are my mom?”
There are so many more stories I want to tell about! Zanda told us a lot… about the changes she saw in the kids after they started coming to the day center and, as the children prayed for their families, watching their parents come to Christ. Even though these children see so much brokenness and hopelessness in their neighborhood every day, they are so joyful! Yesterday, when we said goodbye, several of the children got up to wish us well and pray for us. It was so precious… truly a priceless moment! I’m praying that Zanda and Sergejs and the rest of the church will be able to continue their day center ministry next fall. Funding from Buckner goes to wherever a donor designates. Most countries have partner organizations or churches that specifically fund Buckner’s ministries there, but Latvia doesn’t, so they’ve been supported by leftover money in the budget until now.
Tomorrow morning we are going to an orphanage outside of Jelgava with the group from Tate Springs. They’ve been here several times, so I’m excited to learn from them and help their ministry with the kids there. Pray for us this week because the kids at the orphanage don’t hear God’s word on a regular basis like those at the day center. Jessica, who is on Buckner staff and leading the church group, told us that many of the older kids are realizing what their future is going to be like as an orphan. When they turn 18, that’s it… they have to move out of the orphanage and most of them don’t have anywhere to go. It’s important that they know the hope that Jesus offers!
