What I'm thinking about these days

Friday was my birthday and I decided to make it a special one, my last in Latvia. So, first treat - no alarm! But of course, that didn't work. At 7:00 a large garbage bin was delivered just under my window and was loudly filled with wood and metal pieces. That went on for an hour, so I just got up. The rest of the day was normal. I had to do some work getting ready for commissioning. There were some good Latvian birthday moments though - flowers from Dana, Olesja and Ieva and chocolate from Solveiga and Dace. Note to friends and family at home - I'm quite content receiving flowers and chocolate! Edvins reminded me that I should celebrate my birthday (I'm not crazy about them) because another year is a gift from God. He has had health problems recently and I know this is an important theme for him. Linda asked me to help her with homework in the evening, specifically at 7:00. I had a suspicion something else was up and was right. While we were 'studying' the rest of the girls came out with a cake, topped with the proper number of candles. I'm surprised they didn't set off the fire alarms! We had a little photo shoot (posted later) and laughed a lot. It was a nice end to the day.

Once in a while something unusual happens here. Yesterday I was with the Bethel University Wind Symphony from St. Paul, Minnesota. Bobbie Ericson and daughter, Amanda are part of the group (Amanda on trumpet, Bobbie a traveling mom.) I met them for an outdoor concert, then Bobbie and I went on our own for lunch at my favorite Pankukas restaurant and a long walk through Old Riga. We met up with the group and I traveled with them to their evening concert just outside Riga. While they were setting up, Bobbie and I discovered the Salvation Army thrift store was just across the road. We went shopping! The group is very good so it wasn't hard to listen to their performance. It was fun to be with Bobbie and catch up on family and friends. Being with a bus full of American college students was so different from life here. Guess that's helping me prepare for home.

I've been meaning to write about one of the funny aspects of life at the training school with our cadets. Because we deal with 3 languages all of the time and all of us are trying to improve in one or another of them, we have interesting conversations. We have developed what we call the cadet language. It's a mixture of Latvian, English and often Russian - depends on who is involved in the conversation. We don't even notice when it's happening, but when someone from outside is with us they notice. I love it - it's how we figured out communication between us and usually, it works! I can't explain how, you have to hear us to get it.

We have 13 days before the commissioning and ordination. I want to ask you to pray for us during these days. As I've mentioned before, once again I have a sense that we need to be on our guard. I've been reading Psalm 64. David ask for protection from his enemy and I believe we need protection from the enemy. Experience tells me that these are dangerous days. Often in the last weeks before commissioning, I've seen some disaster, sin or sickness happen among cadets. Because of the importance of this commissioning, I expect the enemy will try to attack us. I want us to be prepared. I've been praying these lines from the Lord's prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Would you pray along with me that we see and know God's power, just as David prays in Psalm 64

7 But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down.
8 He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
9 All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done.

And in 13 days we will be able to say:

10 Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him; let all the upright in heart praise him!