Week 4

We had our weekly Youth Planning meeting in Tilza with three from Madonas church attending. The two young guys (in their 30s) who help lead the ministry there are very interested in discipleship and training. It’s encouraging to see their enthusiasm and love for the Lord.

On Thursday, 4 of us went to Riga for a conference on World Missions sponsored by Bridge Builders/Partners Office. Again, I was encouraged to see so many Latvians with a heart to reach out beyond their borders and share the gospel. The vision for this is expanding and what fun to hear them tell of the seminar for helping children learn about missions. Carol Wille from Corvallis was the featured speaker for this part. She did an excellent job. I attended the sessions by Chuck Kelley since it was in English and was being translated! I am even more excited about the possibilities for Tilza. Please pray for revival here… there are quite a few who have made commitments to follow Jesus but are not walking with Him.

Saturday morning I was not feeling well and by noon had a terrible pain in my side and was vomiting. Thankfully, Peter Eisans (a pastor helping with the conference and former Partners staff) called an ambulance and they took me to Emergency. After many tests and questions, they could not determine the cause of the pain. So I got a shot which fixed everything immediately. The doctor (a very good one, indeed) gave me two prescriptions and I’ve been fine. The cost for al of this? 37 Lats which is about $70.00!! I had such good treatment – and according to Dan and Katie Roth, I was in the best hospital in Riga. The Lord does provide. Stayed one more day in Riga just in case anything reoccurred but had no problems. Drove home with Katie – lots of snow.

Driving in Katie’s car is easy compared to the red van which often has problems. Two new tires were just put on the van just before the trip, but as we arrived in Riga one of them was going flat. Thanks to cell phones, we called back to Tilza to find out what best to do. After getting air in it (which in itself was not easy because we didn’t know where the next station would be and we were in new territory for everyone in the van with us), all seemed OK. But for those folks who went home in the van on Saturday there was more tire trouble and alternator troubles. Having left Riga at 7:00, they didn’t get home until 2:00 a.m. It was a long, tiring and very cold night.