A Baptism

On September 7 I went with our church to a small lake for the baptism of two people. Calle is from Sweden but now lives in Latvia. He spends his time working and helping folks in Tilža or Ergli. He grew up going to church in Sweden but never had much time for "religion" as an adult. He began attending church with us a number of years ago and just recently gave his life completely to the Lord. He then asked Kaspars if he could be baptized.

The other person baptized last week was 15 year old Marija whose father is the Baptist pastor in Balvi. Marija has spent many hours with us in Tilža and worked at camps in Ergli during the summer.

The lake is about 10 minutes from Tilža so we "stuffed" everyone in cars and drove to the lake where the weather turned out perfect for such an occasion. People from Ergli/Madona church wanted to be there for Calle and people from the Balvi church were there for Marija and then most everyone from the Tilza church came.

After Calle and Marija gave their testimony, Kaspars baptized them and we sang a few songs. Then the whole company returned to the Yellow House in Tilža for worship, communion, and fellowship. For me, it was one of the sweetest times of love and joy. Gifts and flowers, prayers and singing made every moment special. Then, of course, we had a meal together.

Hair Update!

There's not really much significance in a hair do. Sometimes you like them, sometimes you don't. Somtimes other people like them, sometimes they don't. But I thought since so many people made comments from my last prayer letter about my most recent "do" that I would give a bit more information - and a couple more pictures!

The latest

I was born with straight hair and there was a time (in the 60's) when that was very good - long and straight. I was a teenager and kept it that way into my 20s. As I entered my 30s the hair got shorter and I would have a "body perm" to give it a fuller look. Through all these years I have never liked spending time "fixing" my hair - it was always such a bother.

My attempts

Then some time in my late 30s I found that I could get a real tight perm and leave it if I didn't want to spend time every morning trying to make it look 'just right'. So, from that time on (with two exceptions) I have kept my hair that way.

Curly

When I arrived in Latvia I wasn't sure if I could get it permed tight enough to keep it like I wanted but I did find someome who could to it in Riga. This last time, however, my regular lady was not there so I had someone else do it. As I said in my letter, I tried to tell her what I wanted but she spoke Russian and I can barely speak Latvian, let alone Russian. So she decided to just cut it nice and short. Now, don't get me wrong. I LIKED they way it looked when she finished - but even she had to spend more than an hour

combing, brushing, back combing, putting on a lot of mousse and hair spray to get it "just so". And I knew that I would never be able to do that again.

Now, if it were just a matter of time, effort, and ability, I suppose I could change my ways. But the real problem these days is that when I need to curl my hair or use the hair dryer my thumb hurts too much (still). So, now it isn't just a matter of liking my hair or not, I NEED to get it curly again to save time, energy, and keep my thumb happy. And, last of all, it's a lot better when you can't wash your hair every day - curliness hides a lot of things!