How is Making a Cake Like Church?

I won't tell you, but that was the discussion this afternoon at youth group.  To illustrate the concept, they all co-operated to make the banana bread that Raivers is holding.  We enjoyed eating it!!

Prayer Requests for Nov. 9-15

~Our spiritual lives
~Riga Reformed Church (at right is our "hymnal") & Ungars & Gundega (pastor & wife)
~Artis & family who will return from France on Friday
~Kate Anickin who is sick (Timur's daughter)
~Ideas for Teen outreach in school(s)
~Movie night (Fri, Nov. 13)
~Moms' Group- God to work in each family
~Place for conference in March
~Becky to teach her English students well
~Wisdom for Christmas event planning
~David's preaching in Papilys on Nov. 15

LOTS OF COATS, SCARVES, GLOVES, BOOTS . . . .

. . . at the Mom's group each Wednesday! We're thankful for such a great group of Moms who have such good thoughts & discussion. Pictured here are: Liga, Anda & Becky; Liva and her two children & Lasma & her daughter. Thank you for praying for these Moms!! (click on photo to read plaque on wall)

A Shrinking American Dollar; 3% extra; a Faithful God

Perhaps you have heard missionaries talk about the shrinking American dollar?
What cost us $700 in August, now costs $750. In addition, we lose a minimum of 3% just getting money here. ATM withdrawals--3% + a $5 fee; Visa & AE credit cards--an additional 3% surcharge on anything charged overseas. (To deposit a US check in our bank account here took 2 months to clear & still costly--only did that once!)
Bottom line--everything is costing more in terms of dollars with an additional 3% added on. BUT . . God has faithfully supplied our needs.
We regularly go between the currencies in this picture (& no, it is not monopoly money!)-- US dollar, Latvian "Lat", Lithuanian "Lit" and European "Euro". Keeping constantly changing currency exchange rates in one's head is enough to drive one crazy(ier)!!

Still Celebrating!

Birthday time again with Timur & Olga last night. This time it was for Timur (birthday Nov. 5)--and a little bit for Becky's birthday. Kate made Barbara & me each a fall craft. So cute!! Please continue to pray for Timur & family and the Russian church plant with which they are working. Pray for their financial needs. Olga fell recently & hurt her shoulder badly--pray for complete healing. Pray that they can pass their Latvian citizenship test in November.

Thank you, God, for so many things--
good youth retreat last week-end
good fellowship time with church
Tigretts getting more & more settled

God, we ask your guidance on these things this week:
English on Tuesday; Mom's group on Wed.; Young adult group
Carl's preaching in Kaunas on Sunday
Martinsons move to another apartment this weekend
Tigretts' visa application on 11/2

TIME FOR A CHANGE . . .

. . . if you live in Europe. We go on standard time tonight--fall back one hour. Here are all the time devices I must change.
For one week, Eastern time will be 6 hrs. behind us; Central time 7 hrs. behind us. I'm sorry to say, though, that you'll never catch up & will always be behind us!
Speaking of time, it seems very relative when it comes to the post office. Yesterday I received TWO issues of WORLD magazine on the same day. No matter that they were sent 2 weeks apart. Maybe . . . time for a change in some of our post offices.

PRAYER FOR OCT. 19-25

A BIG week this week. Some special items:
PREACHING CONFERENCE on Thursday & Friday (22nd-23rd) - Carl helped organize it & he & David Tigrett will attend. It is put on by the Reformed Churches to help men better exegete God's Word.

ALL DAY TEEN RETREAT ON SATURDAY (24th) - For those teens (about 7-9) who have been attending the Sunday afternoon study. Pray for God's spirit to work in all involved. Pictured at right is the teen group this past Sunday playing a Bible game Becky has had for years--Bible Tic-Tac-Know.

Braving the Elements!

I (Becky) woke up to SNOW this morning & dark gloomy clouds. I had planned to stay in all day but . . . the mail lady brought me "a slip." Here, one receives a slip in your mailbox when you have a package. You must go to the local post office to pick it up--sorry NO package delivery via post office in this country!!

OH. . . .a package . . . I'd been waiting for it for a week. Nothing to do but get bundled up & walk the 40 minute round-trip walk to the post office. The snow turned to slush & general mess, but there was NO line at the post office (who but me would get out in this!). AND, the reward was a birthday present of sweaters.

Ever since David & Barbara Tigrett have been here, we're had windy, wet, cold weather. (I looked out my bedroom window yesterday & saw this car with an unwanted decoration!)

In spite of bad weather (& now Barbara having a cold), the Tigretts have gotten much accomplished. Thank God with us that they have a wonderful apartment near us & almost everything needed to apply for their Latvian visa. They still need various things for their apartment. Today we went looking. Please continue to pray for their adjustment, for God to lead them quickly to the rest of the things they need to purchase, & their relationships with Latvians & Lithuanians.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO CHECK-OUT THE RETREAT CENTER

Monday morning (Oct. 12) Ruth, Becky & Gundega (no pictures of us unfortunately!) set out to check-out a possible retreat center for a spiritual life conference next March. Along the way we found--
SNOW (I kid you not--snow on October 12)
SHEEP (in the snow no less, along the side of the road with no fence, no nothing--LOTS of them!)
SIGNS that say only people standing on bikes can go on these paths (please enlarge for full effect)
SLEEPING QUARTERS at this retreat center
Last but not least--a lovely fall tree (back in Riga where there was no snow)

Autumn & Birthday in Riga!

A great fall day for a birthday! A special thanks to the many people who wrote to wish me (Becky) a happy birthday! It made my day special.
Also making my day special was lunch with our new teammates, David & Barbara Tigrett. Between rain drops, we got to see some lovely sights of fall around Riga. Here are--powder tower covered with red leaves; aerial view of the Russian Orthodox church (my magic photo taking ability again!). Happy autumn to you all!!

Westminster Divines?

Did you know that there is a group of men right here in Riga that meets every other Thursday morning & goes by the name "Westminster?" Well, now you know! Maybe not as intellectual as the original "divines," but these are great guys.

Here are two of them--Carl & Alvis (discussing something important, I'm sure!). The others who meet are: Artis, Ungars, Martins, Maris, Timur and now David (our newly arrived teammate). They met today. It started as a time to translate the Westminster Confession into Latvian. That project being done, they use it as a time of prayer, study & fellowship.

Pray for these men--they are the leaders of the Reformed Movement in Latvia.

Ducking the ducks--that's what David, Barbara & I had to do while walking through a park in Riga this week. There were plenty of ducks!

Please pray for David & Barbara's adjustment to Riga. The devil doesn't want them here & is working overtime. Pray for them-- to have joy in the midst of so many new things; that new phones would come this week (as the phones they bought & brought didn't work :/); that they'll be able to open a bank account (ran into problems this week :/) & that God will lead them to an apartment (so far we've we've had to choose between dark, creepy staircases, pink furniture, high windows not letting in light, etc.)

Here are some of the moms from the Mom's Group this past Wednesday morning (9/30). Thanks for praying for me, these women & their children as we study the book Shepherding a Child's Heart & related Bible passages.

We've waited for them for a year . . . & they arrived today! David & Barbara Tigrett are here to join the MTW team in Latvia & Lithuania. Much of their work will be in Lithuania. Pray for their adjustment.

Pray for our continued work this week--Mom's group on Wed., a new after-school program to start on Thursday; young adult meeting on Wed. evening, teen meetings on Sunday afternoon. AND, pray for our Latvian language learning with Liga.

Carl & the Tigretts will go to Kaunas, Lithuania this week-end. THANK YOU for praying.

A Silly & Serious Sunday Afternoon

God gave us a good "silly & serious" Sunday. The teenage Bible study time went well. Some new teens not only came to the study but attended church & then attended the fellowship ship after church (see photos on side bar)

Please continue to pray for these Sunday afternoon meetings & for a new weekly after-school outreach with youth in a local school which will on every Thursday afternoon. Martins will lead these, assisted by Carl.

Men in Black

It seemed that one either had to be in black, gray or beige to attend this meeting of the board for the Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Friday, Sept. 25. (Carl has a little blue there, but perhaps he didn't know the dress code.)

How to stretch a dollar was their theme. What would God have them do regarding running the seminary program this & next year in light of shrinking contributions. Pray God would show them His plan.

Some strange things going on at the teen Bible study on Sunday afternoon. Just what are the girls doing behind the couch? I'm not telling! But let's just say--we won! Here are Carl & Martins trying to make a point. Anda & Martins made many good points during the study. Pray for this weekly Sunday teen Bible study. Pray that God brings teens & that He will work mightily in their lives.

Both Sides of the Port

We now live very close to one of the ports on the River Daugava. But, hiding the port from the road is a loooong row of panels--each panel painted by school children. Very interesting. On the other side of these panels (one has to walk around in order to really see it) is this pretty setting for boats.

It was a zoo & a Russian language lesson at Timur's apartment on Monday night. Kate was trying to teach Becky the Russian names for all her animals & then Kate & Becky were trying to teach those names to Carl--who was helping Timur add memory to his computer. Timur's computer got the memory, but unfortunately Carl & Becky's memory failed them when remembering these animal names!

Uno is a favorite game among the single young adults in the Riga Reformed Bible Church. Here we are playing it after Bible Study last night (9/2). Lots of fun! Pray for this group as some return to university study & some are looking for work. Oskars, Zane, and Liga are among the ones who need jobs. Please pray for God to supply that need for them. Pray for their faith to remain strong amid the many non-christian pressures that they face.

Teenage Outreach, Mom's Morning Group

On Thursdays, Carl, Martins & Anda have outreach to teens in a park near the Martinsons' home. Here are some photos from last night (8/27).

But, as school starts soon & the days become shorter we are praying about what type of outreach to do next. There is perhaps an opportunity in one school. Anda & Becky hope to get a Mom's weekly group started in September. (We had done a little bit before summer.) Please pray God will guide us.

College & Career

Last evening (Wed. 8/26) the age group we call "College & Career" met at our apartment. The week before we had a birthday cake for two in the group--Martins (who leads the group) and Oskars (on right). PRAY FOR THIS GROUP WHICH MEETS ON WEDNESDAY EVENING.

Oskars helped Carl get our car registration address changed today! Thanks, Oskars. Please pray our car can get repaired this week & pray we can get a parking permit for the area around our new apartment.

20 years later!

On Sunday, August 23rd, was a 20-year reinactment of the "Human Chain" along the Baltic Way (from Tallinn, Estonia to Vilnius, Lithuania) which took place Aug. 23rd 1989 in protest of Soviet rule. Although hands were not held along the entire path as before, people walked or ran the path. Returning from the retreat we were held up in traffic for the "runners." It took us a lot longer to get home, but was very neat to see the people out walking or running "the path" with their Latvian flags. Here are two girls who held up their flag for me to take a photo from the car.

The retreat was wonderful! God truly blessed. Great teaching, discussions & fellowship. Thank you for praying Here is Carl playing badminton with some of the guys.

Prayer requests for this week are below, plus pray for the youth meeting on Wednesday night (will be at our apartment this week), and park outreach to teenagers on Thursday.

RETREAT this Week-end & other things

We're going out of town again--this time not too far. Riga Reformed church (pictured here is pastor, Ungars Gulbis & his wife Gundega) is having a church retreat Friday night through Sunday evening. PRAY that God would pour out His Holy Spirit on this fellowship/teaching time. Carl will preach on Sunday at the retreat. Becky will be helping some with the children. Pray God would guide us in all we do.

VISA - we reapply on Monday, August 24. Pray all will go well.
CAR - it is fixed . . but not quite. Pray it can get completely fixed.
PARKING PERMIT - We need to get a parking permit to park on the street by our new apartment. Pray we can get this soon.
COMPUTER - Carl's new computer came with Rob (remember the old one was hit by lightening). Pray Carl can smoothly get it set up & move over files from old computer.

PRAYER REQUESTS August 17-20

Praise:
~Rob is here!!! (see photo at right)
~Carl had good trip to Lithuania 8/15-16 (see header)
~Great Fellowship time Sunday night with RRBC (see slide show)

Please Pray for: Carl's work w/ seminary students & preach:
~God to give wisdom to Carl & Artis as they work with the seminary students; God to direct & empower the seminary students
Youth meetings each week:
~For God to guide Carl & Martins each week as they meet with young adults on Wednesday night and teen-agers on Thursday night; pray for meaningful conversations

A Terrible Tale Turns Terrific

Off to see a castle we were-- equipped with maps, picnic lunch etc. When . . . right outside Riga our car breaks down. Dead as a door nail! What to do?!?! Who to call!?!?! Our "day" ruined--how terrible!!

BUT . . . a call to Ungars (pastor of Riga Reformed church) brings help right away. Ungars was so kind to call a tow truck AND he & Gundega (his wife) took Becky & Carolann on to see the castle. What a terrific day Carolann & Becky had with them!! We rode a cable car & saw a castle. Thank you, Ungars & Gundega! (Poor Carl had to stay with the car.)

Tuesday we took Carolann to show her where we used to live in Jurmala. There we met Imants (pictured w/Carl)--our former neighbor with whom Carl continues to meet. Pray for Imants' salvation.

We also met Olga (wife of Russian pastor, Timur) at her job selling ceramics along a tourist section of Jurmala. Isn't she pretty here among the ceramics! Please continue to pray for Timur & Olga--the church & their family.