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.