Hello......

As hard as it was to say goodbye to friends and relatives ... it is great to be able to say hello! (sveiki) to all of our Latvian friends.

After 21 hours of flying and airport waiting ... we finally made it. Olegs (pastor of CBC) was on hand with son Roberts to meet us at the Riga Lidosta. Janis (another CBC member) arrived shortly to help transport our bags to Cesis. We made it to Cesis about 8:00pm on Thursday and found several other church friends in the flat ready to greet us and help us in any way possible. One of the best things is that they knew how long the trip had been and excused themselves not long after we met. That meant that all of the Wimberleys could crash and get some sleep. Laura and I walked down to the local store and picked up some water and coffee and then the four of us slept the night away. The temperature was about 55 degrees at its lowest, which made for great sleeping weather. It has been cool throughout the day today, with maybe a 71 degree high.

We have spent most of the day today (Friday) unpacking, buying some needed supplies and walking around the town. We have already seen many of kids from the previous summers and it is fun to watch their face as they slowly have the realization of who are!

Tonight, Laura and I went out with Reinis (one of our 18-year old friends) to a favorite restaurant for coffee and dessert. He then took us to large lake for an enjoyable talk. The crazy thing is we checked the time and it was already 11:00pm. The sun was just barely setting and everyone was just going about their usual business. It always takes a while to get used to the late arriving darkness. And of course, it will be light again at about 3:30am.

God has been so good to us .... to lead us to this place ... to put people into our lives that have touched us forever ... to put a hunger in the Latvian people for 'something', a 'something' we hope to share with them ... a safe trip with absolutely no problems ... a saving grace that always gives us hope for tomorrow.

Until later .... maybe some photos tomorrow.

Chau!

Mark