A bit of news

First, a couple of special sites to check out: see http://www.urbanarmy.blogspot.com/ to read a touching story of the Spirit's work through a woman named Hannah (hope you don't mind, Gordon!) And for some good music check out http://www.martymikles.com/ - Transmission has some new music you can listen to there.

Now about life in Latvia, well first of all a few days in the UK. It was great to meet my ICO friends, Helene and her husband Graham and Marion in Liverpool. It is hard to describe how special those relationships are unless you've experienced ICO. The closeness and intimate sharing that happens there naturally leads to a few special friendships. But for our session, I think we all became especially close and even seven years later I miss that fellowship. Unfortunately, Helene had to be at her corps when I arrive, but graciously Graham became my tour guide and we spent a few hours walking around Liverpool. Yes, I went to the Beatles store and then to the Caravan Club where it all started. I'll post a picture or two later. I liked Liverpool and wouldn't mind a few more days to explore it. I had dinner with Helene and Graham and a nice 'catching up' conversation. Of course, we couldn't talk about all 7 years but since we do occasionally email each other it wasn't necessary to share every detail. Then I was off to spend the night at Marion's home. We stayed up and caught up for a few hours, but as I was on Riga time, I finally had to get some sleep. Saturday started as a lovely spring day and we had a nice breakfast looking out on her green yard (I left Riga with dirty snow and rain.) Henrik and Lisbeth came and picked me up to spend the rest of my weekend with them in Manchester. It was so good to see them, check out their new home and see how much taller Lukas has grown just in 3 months or so! We started talking as soon as I got in the car and kept it up until I left Monday morning! It was good to hear how they are settling in to their new British life and especially, Army life. Of course, they miss Latvia but they have so much to offer the people in their division and already I heard the care and hopefulness for the work and people there as they talked. I talked, too, as you would expect! About everything and everyone I could think of here in Latvia. I also went with them to their new home corps, Sale. It is a nice corps and they will enjoy being part of the fellowship and life there, I think. Lukas has friends there (something about Liverpool versus Manchester?!) I have to admit I enjoyed both the band and songsters, as well as the worship team. You can do it all together! Saturday evening they took me out for a good English carvery meal - so good, but so much food. We were all stuffed after the main meal, but none of us refused dessert! Mine was treacle pudding with a whole lot of custard poured over it...delicious! But I could hardly walk out afterwards. Oh well, once in a while and with good friends it's OK to eat like a pig! My flight was at 6:00 on Monday morning which meant Henrik had to drive me at 3:45 a.m.! (He did the same for Ilsters just 2 weeks earlier.) BUT...somehow I made a huge and stupid mistake, which I didn't realize until I was checking in and was told by the lady at the desk "this ticket was for Sunday." Great. No more Riga flights out of the Liverpool airport until Wednesday at the earliest. But there was one from Manchester that afternoon. Back to Manchester on the bus, then a train to the airport arriving about 8:00. (oh, I did have a very large latte in Liverpool before I left.) I went straight to the Air Baltic/SAS desk and the woman, in her lovely British accent, told me she didn't work for Air Baltic until 12:00 so I would have to wait but she would try to help me at 11:00. I tried to be nice but a bit impatiently asked if she knew if there were seats available (I was thinking of going back to bed at Andersens!) She said 'yes, I have just been on the computer checking'. Hmmmm...why couldn't she go back on and sell me the ticket? So, 3 hours in a comfy airport chair with a book, orange juice, a chocolate chunk cookie and a bag of Maltesers. Back to get the ticket which cost me a whole lot of money (thankfully the first ticket was very cheap.) Then 2 1/2 more hours before the flight. I almost finished the book and I did finish the Maltesers! But, at least I got home and without too much hassle. Do these things happen to other people? The worst (or best) part is that I have no one to blame for the mix up except myself!

Today was our monthly Leaders' Day. I like to see everyone and have a few words together between meetings. Goran asked each center to give a brief overview of their program and talked about each property and the possible plans for each. It sounds boring, but actually was interesting and I think it is good for us to hear about each other. Also, we got a little history lesson about The Salvation Army in Latvia and how we got some of our properties. Oh and a bit of news was announced that might be interesting - this summer, after 3 years here, I'm returning to my home territory for an appointment there. It is too much to explain here but if you want to have a cup of coffee and a couple of hours, I can try to tell you how I came to this decision. It's not an easy one, but I do have peace about it. Now, there is a lot to do to get ready to leave - but first, we have 6 cadets to finish training and get commissioned! June 16-17, 2007 if any of you want to join us! And the big, wonderful news - we have 2 accepted candidates for the next session of training in Latvia! So, if you think of praying for us 1. pray that I will finish well 2. pray that the right person(s) will become the training officer(s) 3. pray that the transition will be smooth for the region, especially the new cadets.