Pastors' Retreat

This past weekend (Friday and Saturday) we hosted a retreat for Baptist pastors and their spouses. Our facility, appropriately called 'The Yellow House', is great for such events. Kaspars and Liene participated as well as helped to put on the event. The rest of us took responsibility for the food, cleaning, some child care, and other such items. It was a lot of work but I think everyone had a good time. The Baptist Bishop came out from Riga to speak to the group several times, giving updates on what's happening and encouraging all to trust God for big things.

Our teammate, Dave, returned this weekend also. It is great to now have everyone together. Sunday afternoons are a good time for catching up and good conversation so we invited Dave over for lunch and found out about his time in Scotland.

This coming week I am expecting to get hooked up to a high speed internet service (using dial-up at the moment) and that should be both less expensive and much easier to get larger files that people send. Right now pictures take forever to receive. Getting this set up only happened because Katie was able to help me - actually she did all the talking and arranging. Now when they call this week to let me know which day and what time they are coming - I hope Katie is around to talk with them!! :)

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Prayer
Today we walked around town and prayed as we went. Our team has decided that we would do this once a month on Saturday mornings. Aija, Liga, and I started from our house, while the two families started from theirs. Even though I often couldn’t understand what was being said, I could sense in my spirit how meaningful it was to be in agreement about God being honored and glorified in this place. We prayed for the needs of people and that they would be spiritually hungry and seek the Lord with all their heart.
We covered most of the city in just over an hour and met up with the others in the center of Tilza – everyone seemed to think it was time for an ice cream!! We had perfect weather – sunny but cool.

Our House
Our home is becoming more cozy all the time. The girls put new wall paper in the living room last week and we have borrowed furniture that is a little more comfortable. A new floor lamp adds a nice touch. I was able to do a little touch up painting in the kitchen this afternoon while the girls went to clean the church for worship tomorrow. We are enjoying a quite evening now.
Last night we hosted the ladies’ prayer group which is usually just the women on our team but a young high school girl, Zane, was able to join us which was very encouraging. Many of the young people have asked when we will start our Youth Program/Bible Study. We look forward to getting started in October.

Week of August 26-September 1, 2007

Roths Return
Dan and Katie returned from the US where they spent the last three months. The day after their arrival Katie was taking the older two children to the doctor to get their certificates so they can start kindergarten.
Doctor Visit
I asked if I could go along so that I could get signed up with their doctor because they seem to like her. That process was fairly simple but when she started asking questions and checking my health, she quickly recognized that I was quite “under the weather” with my allergy-induced asthma. She was concerned that there were other problems. She gave me a prescription and also had me go over to the hospital for an X-ray. The result is that I do have bronchitis also. Please pray for a quick recovery and patience as I wait!
Another Source of Help
My sister was very helpful last week because she told me about using a Sun Rider product called “Sun Breeze” . It has really made a difference in subduing my cough and letting me get some good nights of sleep. So, thanks, Lorrie.