Thursday-Monday sorry it took so long!

Sorry we have been very busy these last few days, but here is an update and some more pictures before we travel home!
Thursday: We began the day as usual, songs and a bible story in the morning. The Bible lesson for the day was Jesus healing the paralytic man, the deaf mute man, and the blind man. The younger classes learned these using fun actions while the older classes learned idioms. The English lesson for the day was friendship, we learned what it means to be a friend in English and adjectives to describe how friends treat each other. We celebrated another special day, Pastor Vinovskis had his 20th year of ordination. All of the ladies in the church were given flowers to give to Pastor (an old Latvian tradition) and he received letters and pictures from all of the children at camp that they made on the sly.
Friday: The bible lesson for the day was the Crucifixion and Resurrection. It was a very powerful day in all of the classes. Before classes Mr.Coe talked about how our Lord came and died so that we could be forgiven and after classes Marcis, someone the young boys look up to very much spoke in Latvian about the resurrection. It was a sad but also joyous day around camp because that day it was more about Jesus than about learning English, all of the teachers were excited to tell their kids about Christ. The English lesson for that day was Holidays, so the younger classes celebrated holidays while the older classes discussed the cultural differences between holidays.
After classes were over and we ate dinner we headed to Zvejniekciems to watch the sunset on the Baltic. A few of us took a swim in the 8 C water, it was absolutely frigid, but got our adrenaline pumping. The sunset was gorgeous (seriously look at the pictures) and after it went down we headed home for some much needed sleep.
Saturday and our last day of camp: the bible lesson for the day was ascension and the return. This day was set up a bit differently because at the end of the camp day we had a program where each class gets to perform a skit or a song that shows what they learned in English. After doing the bible lesson all of the classes practiced their skit or song and then we let them have a little free time for a change. Brian did a great job keeping them occupied outside playing four square, jumping rope, and just being active. Sharon also put out all of her extra craft supplies from the week and helped everyone who wanted to make more, they really loved making friendship bracelets! When the time for the program rolled around everything was set up, all of the kids parents and family came and it was showtime! The first show was Heide's class, the youngest children, they sang two songs wonderfully and used great English with their actions. The second was Katie and my class, the beginners, they all wore different animal masks pretending to be on Noah's (Brian's) ark, after each announced their animal name and sound in English we sang a song about animals. The third was Priscilla's class, they sang two songs, and used hand drawn letters to spell out CHRISTIAN from "I am a C", it was very fast paced and I'm sure took a lot of practice. Next was Pastor Vinovskis class, they did a skit where they pretended to be ordering food from a restaurant, they were very funny and used very many idioms such as "they eat like pigs!" Pastor Schuschke and Suzanne had the advanced class and they performed a skit mostly of things their group found funny, it was a little wacky but all of the characters in the skit showed a very high level of proficiency in English and some even hardly had an accent. Larry had three adults, one was a very elderly lady and a middle-aged married couple, each hadn't studied very much English in their lives and just wanted to spend a week learning. For the program the elderly lady said John 3:16 in English, it was very touching, and the middle aged couple told jokes in English, which was hilarious. After all the talents were over we had a great big dinner for everyone, the actual dinner food was Latvian and delicious, but as a team we brought supplies to make s'mores over a fire and the kid's were crazy about them! It was an amazing night of fellowship and we all hope that everyone left with their hearts full with Christ.
Sunday: We all woke up and went to Church, which was quite possibly the best thing so far, so many children from camp came to Church! We had been inviting them all week to come and sing our English songs for the congregation at the end of the service. It was so great to be all together praising God! Pastor Shuschke gave the sermon and was translated by Vanda, it was really powerful and he used the story of the paralytic that the children had heard earlier in the week. After Church we visited Sigulda and saw a Medieval Castle and visited one of the oldest churches in Latvia. It was a very nice day.
Monday: We began our last day in Latvia getting on a train and visiting the occupation museum in downtown Riga. It is such a moving experience because it is hard to understand without actual information how recently Latvia actually was occupied and how many people actually died due to terror or disappearance (550,000). After we spent a while in the museum we had lunch and of course did some souvenir shopping. It was a beautiful day and we all got to see so many flowers and green grass even being in a big city. We traveled back by train and were invited to dinner by Marcis's family to eat at their house. It was such traditional Latvian food, homemade, everyone loved it, and loved the last night we all got to spend together. After dinner we sang a few songs and said a few goodbyes to those we won't see before we leave.
Tuesday:HEADING HOME (we may be able to update from Amsterdam)

Wednesday

Today was our second full day of camp, all of the children were a little more comfortable and almost have our English songs memorized! The rain held out so we got to do crafts and sports outside as planned. The English lesson for the day was food, so the younger class took a field trip to the grocery store to learn the words for produce and bread etc. while the older classes got to order from menus in English. Jesus feeding the 5,000 was the bible lesson to accompany that and that also began our first lesson about miracles. After eating dinner we attended the Wednesday night church service here in Sloka's Church. A few went down to the supermarket again to get some ice cream and soda (that they have been missing from America). We finally were able to get our pictures up and running so check them out and keep us and our students in your prayers!

Tuesday

Today was our first full day of camp, we began by gathering together to sing and then broke into our classes. The bible lesson for today was the story of the good Samaritan, all the classes talked and learned about caring for each other with Christian love. The English lesson today focused on community, the younger classes learned the public service jobs and buildings, while the older classes got to create their own communities. God decided to send rain today so our afternoon went a little differently than planned. Instead of playing outside for their sports time and doing crafts on the picnic tables we had to bring our activities inside. Everyone was perfectly flexible, Sharon's craft worked out perfectly and instead of playing outside the children gathered inside and played UNO (their favorite game). Finally we had snack and gathered again together to sing a few songs before leaving for the day. Thankfully we got in touch with the church office staff at St.Luke's they got to hear our students beautiful voices. Our team was a little tired after our first full day and all the anticipation leading up to it, so we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon chatting about the day. After dinner it was off to continue studying the book of Philemon, today we discussed forgiveness and how God commands us to love the unlovable. A few of us walked to the grocery store after bible study to explore the neighborhood and pick up a few goodies. Keep us in your prayers this week, we are all falling in love with Latvia!

Sunday-Monday

Labdien! We started off Sunday with a beautiful Church service, it was almost entirely in Latvian, but Pastor Schuschke printed out the verses used in the message in English so we could pick up on what they were talking about. They sang beautifully as always and a few of us got to sit next to Latvian friends that helped translate. After Church we went to Lido, a group favorite that has traditional Latvian food and a few outdoor attractions. After lunch we visited Jurmala, (translation: sea shore) and walked around the shops and swam in the Baltic, which was absolutely freezing, but worth it. During this excursion Pastor Vinovskis and the Coes took a separate trip to see Pastor's mother's childhood home. After that exhausting day it was time to get down to business preparing for camp. We were all so excited as we got everything in order to teach our classes. We continued our devotions on Philemon and discussed all the reasons to be a Christian and all of the blessings we find in our lives because of our faith in God. Then we went to bed ready for the next day!
Monday morning the team woke up, ate breakfast and the kids started trickling in. We began the day by testing each of their English skills, at the end of the test they received a score that determined their class. There was one preschool class, one beginning level class, two intermediate classes, one advanced class, and one class offered to older adults that didn't know very much English. We all sat and sang a few songs together after lunch and then broke off into our classes. The Bible lesson for today was the birth of Jesus which many kids understood well because of Christmas. After about two hours of lessons the children broke into two groups, recreation and crafts, for the next two hours. They enjoyed kickball, and in crafts everyone loved making crosses. Finally we closed with a few more songs and a Bible message and sent them home. After our team sat down and took a breath for a few minutes we had dinner and then went outside for devotions. It was an interesting devotion because it ended up raining outside, so all 26 people there to listen pulled chairs into one tent. We were very close while discussing building each other up, and learning from the book of Philemon how to refresh your own faith and that of those around you. After that we all went inside to celebrate the special events of the day: 1. Jim and Sharon Coe's 35th wedding anniversary! 2. Pastor Schuschke's 12th year of ordination! It was a wonderful celebration full of reminiscing in both English and Latvian! After a long day full of joy we are all looking forward to tomorrow to continue sharing the Gospel and spending time with our Latvian friends and students.

Day one!

Today was the first full day we had in Latvia. After a full nights sleep we woke up bright and early for breakfast at 8 o'clock. These next two days we are spending getting to know our teammates and the Latvian people we are working with before the joyful chaos of camp starts on Monday. During the day we visted St. Anna's Church in Jelgava. This building was built in 1567 and has been rebuilt many times due to WWII, it was an outstanding piece of architecture and was surrounded by gardens. We also visted Lici, a restaurant with traditional Latvian food and an outdoor playground. We went to "Tervetes Dabas Parks" a nature park and walked around for a few hours enjoying the good weather. Finally we arrived back in Sloka and had a team bible study on the book of Philemon. We had a few wonderful translators that helped both Latvian and English people understand fully and we learned how to say the Lord's Prayer in Latvian. What a blessing it is to be able to learn about how different our cultures are yet still have the same loving God. Tomorrow morning we will be attending church, Sloka's Evangelical Lutheran Church, and preparing ourselves for the week of English camp ahead!

Finally done traveling, safe and sound

We finally arrived here in Sloka! All of our flights went smoothly and we arrived on time. Mara and Velga met us at the airport in Riga to collect our bags and some tired travelers. Shortly upon our arrival to Sloka we were fed a wonderful dinner, sausages, watermelon and of course some vegetables with dill. The weather is warm, but a little rainy, say a prayer for it to clear up during our camp! We got to catch up with old friends and for some meet new ones. We are all looking forward to getting to know each other better and having fellowship with the Latvian people. Tomorrow is looking like a busy day beginning to explore Latvia and learn more about their culture. Look for our traveling pictures!

Friday, July 6, 2012

The Latvia Mission team has arrived safely in Latvia. Everything went very smoothly - all flights were on time, baggage all arrived safely and there were no problems. Continue to pray for the team as we get rested and acclimated to this beautiful country.

Stop #1

Good Morning,

The Latvia team arrived safely in Amsterdam at approx 11:53pm (Florida time)

2012 Summer Trip

Our mission team is on the way to Latvia.  They are joining with 3 members of another Lutheran congregation heading to teach English.  Please pray for them as they spread the Gospel to people who want to hear the Word.