rest of the week!

The past three days have been completely outstanding. Saturday was the last day of English Camp, each class spent the day preparing for their presentations for the closing ceremony and learning about the second coming of Christ. It was a rather laid back day, as soon as all of the classes had their presentations ready to go, we all played games outside and had fellowship. Around four parents started coming for the closing ceremony. We started with the pre-school class, they sang a song in English and every single one of them did the motions, it was adorable. Then was the first entry level class, they each held up a sign with a few words on it to complete the verse John 3:16, then they recited it. The second entry level class played guitar and sang Kumbaya and had everyone sing it with them, they were so sweet singing that song. The intermediate class did the drama they did during the week about feeding the five thousand, in English of course. The first advanced class for their performance sang "Awesome God" and "King of Kings" and the second did a drama involving idioms, for example, green thumb and lend me a hand. All of the performances were a benefit to the children's English abilities, at their own level. After the performances we prayed and had a traditional (delicious) Latvian meal. As the children waited with much anticipation the men built a fire and we started to make smores. The Latvian kids loved roasted smores. After cleaning up we had the great honor to be invited to the home of Vladimir and Mara for a cookout. Not everyone on the team came, but a few of us travelled to their home. We had a cookout and Brian and I went to the gulf of Riga with a few of the boys that went to camp. It was such a great time. Sunday began so wonderfully, it was our last Church service together and most children came to sing the new songs they learned in English. After Church we took some pictures, said our goodbyes and went back home to change to go out for the day. First we went to Jaunplis Castle, it was built in the 1500's and it was beautiful. We took a tour and had the opportunity to go up into the bell tower of the Church. After touring the castle we went to a park called Sati, it was such a good experience. We went into a Latvian sauna, it was so much fun. you go into the actual sauna, lay down, and they hit you with hot birch branches and leaves, then after you are finished you jump into a freezing cold pool, and then repeat. Mrs.Coe and I got to rub coffee on our hands before going in. It was so much fun. when we got back from the park everyone we were with came back and watched world cup with us on the computer, it was fun, especially to hear them translate the Latvian announcer, Monday was our last full day in Latvia, and what a day it was. We all woke up early to have breakfast together and to get ready to leave for the train to go to Riga, the capital city of Latvia. It was about a 50 minute train ride to get there, but it was well worth it. We all did our own things, strolling around Old Riga, some of the ladies shopping, others sight seeing. One of the first things we did was go to the     , to listen to an organ concert. It was really special because at the end of the concert we found out that a few of the people we had been staying with set up for Mr.Coe to be able to play the organ at this ancient church. Our whole Florida team got to go up to watch him play and look down at the rest of the church, it was beautiful. After the organ concert we went and had lunch, and went shopping. When the day was almost over we went to The Occupation Museum of Latvia. It was so interesting, I always thought that when the soviets took over Latvia, they just ruled over the country. But today i learned that they deported many of the citizens, and when the Germans "liberated" Latvia, the Latvians were happy to have a hero but this didn't last long. Soon Nazi Germany started to do their thing on the people. Latvians were murdered in cold blood and were terrorized. When the Nazi reign was over the soviets took over once again. Latvia finally became a free country in 1991, which is not that long ago. The museum was very eye opening to all of us and also made us glad that we were given the opportunity to show the love of God to those kids this week. When done at the museum we all went and had lunch together then headed back on the train. Since then we have been packing and getting ready to come back to the United States! Saying goodbye is so difficult. Please pray for us for safe travels!