Endings and Beginnings

I finished "Aggressive Christianity" last night - not the easiest read but as I said before, definitely challenging. Here is the final inspiration: Without the power of God you cannot transform (their) hearts. That is too much for the human to do. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

I'm not a big fan of Christmas as the world views it. But, there are some traditions that I love and one I've tried to maintain each year is to personally observe the Advent season by reading and studying something specific to Christ's Coming. Last year I read Isaiah. This year I've returned to one of my favorites: The Upper Room's "A Guide to Prayer" ( www.upperroom.org ). I love the way it takes me through the Prophetic and Messianic scriptures and focuses my thoughts directly on Jesus Christ. Monday from Colossians 1:18 came these important words: "...that in all things He may have the preeminence." And the reading for today:

And his coming and his presence are not only the result of our waiting or a prize for our efforts;

they are his decision, based on his love freely poured out.

He comes even in moments when we have done everything wrong, when we have done nothing...

from The God Who Comes by Carlo Carretto

Estonia Pictures-click on pictures to enlarge

Thanksgiving with exchange student from Hong Kong and eating alone!









Chatting with the Wildes (Oscar and some Estonian) and great sign in Tartu









Tallinn - Old Town

Happy Thanksgiving! from Tartu

What's Thanksgiving like in Estonia? Liz and I left Riga on Wednesday on the bus to Tartu - it was great. A minibus with reclining seats, heat and it was clean. The trip took about four hours and was a nice drive. The trees were frosted and we got to see some pretty little towns along the way. We are staying with the Clarks, corps officers in Tartu. They have a house church, which is also their home, so we are staying in the chapel. It's great! On Thanksgiving we joined about 40 Americans at someone's house. Once we entered the house, it felt like we were in America for the rest of the day. The house was huge and there was food everywhere. They even had an American flag hanging from the stairwell. We had a slow start - Tim and Evelyn had to arrive late and dropped us off into a house with strangers. That was OK, until we got our food and were directed to go down stairs to eat - just Liz and I. We sat and ate for a long time and no one joined us. The rest of the 40 people were eating somewhere else. It was very funny and a little awkward. When Tim and Evelyn arrived we came upstairs and joined them, but for a while we thought maybe Latvians weren't allowed to mingle with the Estonians. I suppose if we were sensitive girls, we might have been offended, but instead we laughed about it. After that I had a nice time with the group and had several good conversations with Americans, some from the Chicago area and some students from Hong Kong and Italy. The food was amazing - or maybe it was just normal Thanksgiving food but I ate and ate. Today we went with Evelyn and Chris (their son) to see the new Harry Potter movie. I loved it - the rest gave it mixed reviews. Then a couple of hours roaming around lovely Tartu. It is a beautiful city and maybe when it's warmer I'll return. Tomorrow we will go to Tallin for the day. I thought often about my family and friends yesterday. It was nice to be with new friends and I did enjoy the day, but I really missed you all. I thank God for you!

Enjoy the experience

Iwoke up today and decided that no matter what I am going to have fun and not lose my joy during this process of making a training program and all that goes with it, including a broken computer. It's much less stressful trying to have fun than getting myself all worked up about things. So, I took Misa with me to return my computer (again) to the computer shop because I hoped that a Latvian speaking male would make a difference. I'm not sure he did but we had a nice, colddddd walk and trolley bus ride and good conversation along the way. I have to make sure I find time to talk with Misa once ina while - I always get blessed. I'm plugging away at my 'to do' list and making some progress. And I had the best hair cut today! My favorite part of getting my hair cut is the wash and today my lady, Ieva, took forever washing my hair. I nearly fell asleep it was so relaxing. And since we couldn't really communicate I had a nice quiet time. I got home and fixed a pre-Thanksgiving dinner of ham and real baked sweet potatoes loaded with butter and brown sugar - mmmmmm! I'm going to Estonia for Thanksgiving and expect a great meal, but I couldn't wait! Then I've had emails from all of my family and some friends. So, all in all it's been a really nice (and fun) ordinary day in Latvia!

Life and computers

I planned to write about getting my computer back and then show you some fun pics from our latest Leadership Training Day but...after I downloaded the pictures and deleted them from my camera of course, my computer died again. And this time I think it's for good. I got it back from the shop today and had a funny feeling about the quality of repair they might have done. I should have trusted my instinct. I think they put some old or mismatched parts in and now it's fried (my official computer expert opinion.) I'd like to say I'm very calm about the whole thing but I'm afraid my life these days is very dependent on that computer and what I have stored on it. Anyway, enough whining. Liz has graciously loaned me her computer while she is gone for a few days, so I can do some things. Tomorrow is Latvian Independence Day and a holiday for us. It's also Sian's birthday. There is a party tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise, I'm free! I'm hoping to clean house and get my life/work organized this weekend. Maybe some shopping on Saturday. This week I sent out a notice about praying for Latvia tomorrow. My friends at home forwarded it to the OBT corps email list and some other places, too I think. I've had so many responses from people who will be praying for us. My newsletter also got sent out and again, so many wonderful and encouraging notes from home and around the world. I am very blessed with such amazing support. If you think about Latvia tomorrow - pray for us!

Little events during the last few days

Thursday evening I went to the Bible Institute again...on the right tram. On the way home there was a man with his little boy on the tram. The man seemed to want people to notice that he was a good dad, trying to get someone to appreciate his son. I fell for it as they were getting off the tram. I smiled at the boy, he promptly turned away from his dad and spit at me! That didn't stop me from trying to be friendly, well, I did ignore the boy. But when I got off the tram there were a couple men trying to get directions. They spoke English so I asked if they understood what they had been told. We walked and talked for a couple of blocks when one of them said 'Your English is quite good.' DUH...my polite reply was that I was American. I don't know if I should be offended that he thought English was my second language or glad that he thought I was a native Latvian! I woke up at 3 a.m. that night thinking about how to train Lieutenants. My life is definitely out of control. When I got up in the morning I panicked because I realized I hadn't studied for my Latvian class. I decided confession was the best option, so I called Dace. She had too much to do and was glad to cancel. So, it was to be a day at home getting my house together and my work. I went to coffee break, put a carmel in my mouth and pulled out a cap from my tooth! AUGH! No worry - I just popped it back on and am trying to eat carefully. I suppose someday I will have to face a dentist but not yet. In the mddle of that our accountant started asking me budget questions. Once again the panicked feeling - I wanted to run away! I'm afraid I was a bit rude to him. After a few hours of just being alone, I went to see Zoe who was having a bad day. We talked and played with Sian for a while and later that evening went for a walk and to my new favorite coffee shop. Good cafe au lait and even, pecan pie! That is not a typical Latvian treat. We walked to the president's castle where there were hundreds of people and hundreds of candles lit for Lacplesa Day (like Veteran's day.) It was nice. Today is a leadership training day, which I'm responsible for. I managed to arrange it so that I'm not teaching workshops but had the first session. I had a power point ready and when I turned on my computer ------it died. I mean dead, no screen, nothing. Can I say - another panicked moment. I'm not good at backing up and with traveling between offices don't save on the network. But, life will go on - somehow. No boring days in my life! I'd like just one...

Joy!

You can see on their faces the joy they have! They are such a blessing. Last night we had a more serious than usual discussion and I found myself feeling very protective and pastoral about them. We do have a confidentiality agreement, but I think I can say that everyone of them deals with some kind of discouragement, misunderstanding or even abuse at home and/or school because of their faith and especially because they are so involved with Pestisanas Armija. It's easy for me to talk about witnessing to my family and friends, but I don't face what they do. It occurred to me that they really need something much deeper than what I am providing. And after January, I won't be able to do this at all. So, pray with me that we find a solution for that, please.

I've been reading Agressive Christianity by Catherine Booth with Cory Harrison. Cory was one of my camp staff kids when I was a divisional youth secretary. Now he's all grown up and publishing books! I'm so old! Anyway, admittedly I don't always agree with or understand everything Catherine has written, but if she is anything she is challenging. And Cory makes her even more so. He defines this book as The Salvation Army's manual of evangelism to millenium three warriors. Here are some quotes that are significant for me and I don't mean as I look at the Army and judge it, I mean for my own spiritual journey:

We have been deceived in 'regards to the standards of our own relationship with Jesus and to our responsibility to the world.' 'The church, almost as a whole, has adopted an "It's all about me religion!"'

'If you don't want to raise your life to the standard of this righteousness, fine, but for the sake of the children, and for the children not yet even born, don't drag it down and try to make God's standards meet your little, insignificant , confined experience.'

'Do you want to know how to win the world for Jesus? Show people a real, living, self-sacrificing, hard-working, sweating, victorious life and the people will be influenced and transformed by it...'

'Faith that is EXPRESSED IN LOVE is everything.'

'There is no improving the future, without disturbing the present. The difficult part of it all is getting people to be disturbed.'

Odds and ends

Some odds and ends of life in Latvia. Today was another Latvian lesson with Dace – she is so patient with me. I seem to be able to fill out the grammar charts and remember a few words, but putting it all together is so hard. Anyway, it’s fun learning with Dace and I do think I’m making slow progress. I haven’t asked her what she thinks – that’s too risky! Tonight our training program began, preliminarily. All of those students to-be are attending a Bible Course at the Riga International Bible Institute. We are partnering with them for some intro level courses. I planned to be there early to meet them and talk with the Institute staff. Well….I confidently got on the wrong tram and since I was in my own little world, I was nearly out of Riga before I realized I had been on the tram for far too long and I had no idea where we were! Fortunately, I have some sense of the system, so I just got off, headed on the return tram and then met up with the right one. Instead of being early I made a grand entrance just as they were starting the class. That meant I got a front row seat, facing the students! Since I’m not taking the class I quietly left during the tea break. I was happy with the teaching and if it hadn’t been that it was a intro class and that I was sitting in a very awkward place, I might have stayed just to enjoy listening. I got on the right tram going home (just in case you were worried!)

I have to tell you the latest about my small group…we are studying Witnessing 101 (dumb name but you can figure out the lessons.) Each week we give an update about the people on our list who need to hear about Jesus. This week many of them had made great progress and a couple had brought their friends to the corps. This Sunday was Youth Worship Service and the girls were prominent in the leadership. The meeting was really exciting – high energy and fun. I think every one of them has potential to do amazing things as leaders in the church and who knows where else. Also, some of their friends came – some for the first time, others returning. That’s really cool – they don’t have the same reservations about talking about Jesus that some of us do. I've tried to upload some pictures but it's not working - maybe later.

Oslo

A couple of weeks ago, on a whim I bought a ticket to visit my ICO friend, Jan Harald and his family in Oslo, Norway and took that trip this week.  I left early on Monday morning and after a few minutes in a long line at the Riga airport the computers went down.  It was a mess – 5 or 6 flights all leaving within 10 minutes of each other and no one obviously in charge of the plan.  It felt less like a developing country and more like an underdeveloped (or like Chicago Midway Airport and Southwest Airlines) I made it though and when I got on the plane there was Olesja!  She’s one of the girls from the corps and a good friend who is studying to be a flight attendant.  What a funny and happy surprise.

Monday night I went to Oslo Temple band practice and ended up being THE solo horn!  It’s why I don’t like to announce “I played in the CSB for 8 years!”  Because, I don’t usually add “second horn only.”  Anyway, it was fun and fortunately not a very serious practice and 2 of the pieces I knew pretty well.  I was a disaster at the high notes (a new horn and not playing for over a year, except one wedding while I was home – blah, blah, blah) but otherwise survived OK.  We came back to watch the last game of the World Series (3 days late) and I tried to explain a little bit of baseball to Jan and his wife, Eli. (Because I’m such an expert!)  One of my goals for this trip was to get some organizing done without the regular interruptions of working in Riga.  I did have some time to do that but of course not enough – I really need a couple of weeks without interruption but that won’t happen.  We visited the Nobel Peace Center one afternoon.  It has some really powerful media presentations – very thought provoking and challenging, especially to an American Christian.  Maybe I’ll think and blog more about that later.  The weather was awful – foggy and rainy – so not much sightseeing got done and if you can believe it, I didn’t take one picture.  I’ll have to return at a better time of the year.  

It was great to talk to Jan and Eli and get some perspective on my little world.  Sometimes I think life begins and ends here and especially with my work.  Of course, that’s not true and I need to be aware of the needs of my friends in other places.  

Lots of other things have been happening, but I’ll save them for another blog entry.