Patricks' Day

Patricks' made his first appearance at Cesis Baptist as he listened (mainly slept) to his father preach. He is the first new baby in quite a while for anyone in the congregation. Since there is no nursery he is passed around quite a bit during the church service ... but I didn't see anyone that was bothered.

After the service, Iveta, Olegs, Patricks and Roberts were presented with flowers and small gifts. The WOM from FBC-Athens also sent many nice items as well. Thanks to Pam Bauman and Debbie Leatherwood for taking care of everything. As you can see from the pictures, we also had some good eats that Inese and Laura made on Saturday. I helped by staying out of the kitchen except for licking bowls and spoons.

One unusual thing that happened at the end of the celebration was that a man came in off the street to see if we had anything to eat. We sometimes don't know remember that there are still some very real needs in clothing, food, and adequate housing all around this area. He didn't know that we were having a party, he just saw the open door of the church. The members responded so quickly and shared with him, just as we are commanded. Is there something more we could be doing here to help these people??

Thanks for reading! Atta!

Planning: s-l-o-w-l-y

So far, we have moved fairly slow on our plans. It's not that we don't have plenty of them (see previous blog posts) but it seems something always comes up.

With Olegs new baby, of course he has been busy. As soon as he gets time (we hope this week) we must get to Estonia for our visas. I think we can all have plenty of time to sit on the bus during the trip and get everything worked out together.

We have had to postpone our youth meetings for various reasons but we did have a good planning meeting with Tabita, Anete and Elise. We are trying to get as many viewpoints as possible on things such as best nights for the meetings, schedule, etc.

Laura's ladies' Bible study is going to start this week, even if it is just the two of us! This is not a negative on the Latvians because we sometimes move too fast as Americans but they can sometimes be very slow to decide things. Many of the ladies have requested that she offer the studies but it seems that they always want to talk about it for one more week. So, Laura thinks the church has studied this long enough ... our flat, 7:30p Wednesday...be there!

The photos today are of the planning meeting on Tuesday, some gooseberries that are now in-season and various photos of Laura and her friend Inese on a castle tour. The castle is really a beautiful place and something that this entire region of Cesis is proud of.

Thanks for reading!

A Red-Letter Day -- Paying Bills

Sometimes even the simplest things take a while to get used to. A case in point here is paying bills. Again, I think as Americans we have it wwwwaaaaaayyyyyyy too easy.

First, no one comes and reads any of your utility meters. You read your own electric meter and water meter. Then you fill in a form and figure how much you owe. Next you go to the POST OFFICE and pay your bills. The post office looks just like a regular post office in the USA unless you happen to see all of the gum, candy, books, mailboxes, etc. that they have for sale. So, you stand in line and when you get to the front, you can pay your utility bills, buy something to snack own, check out the latest, newest mailbox for your house and even buy a stamp or two.

There are no stamp machines in the whole city ... so you buy them from the counter and of course, international stamps are not sold very often. So, they have to discuss where they are kept and go find them. Nobody gets in a hurry and everybody accepts that this is the normal way to conduct business. I'm trying to figure out if we did the same thing in the United States, maybe we wouldn't have postage increases so often. The more stuff we sold in the post offices, the less our stamps would have to cost. Just a Latvian thought for the day . . .

Blog Catch-ups

There just hasn't been much time to post ... nothing big going on just a lot of things that have to be done. Pastor Olegs will be back in his regular position tomorrow as he is back from vacation. Actually, it wasn't a vacation as much just a couple of weeks off to get his wife and their new son settled. Things are going well with all of them. We will have a baby shower after church services tomorrow.

Today's photos are from our recent trip into Riga. We had to get some things at the big department store. It is ultra-modern and Laura even found some fresh red peppers that we have been using to spice up our meals. The strange thing is that you walk out of this Swedish department store and go about 2-blocks into a huge outdoor market.

The market gathers around 4 zeppelin hangers (dirigibles) from World War I. One large hangar is for milk products, second is baked goods, third is meat and the fourth is fish. Individuals rent small cubicles to sell their goods. It is a very interesting place to see all kinds of food and even how it is being prepared.

The outdoor market has flowers, homemade items, junk and the most amazing variety of produce that I've seen. A lot of it is grown in Latvia but they import large amounts from Italy, France, Germany, etc. The photos show some of the grapes ... we got some really tasty ones.

The prices are very good and they come down during the day. Our only problem is hauling all of our goodies home on the bus.

Also, you can see some of the electric trams that are all around Riga. It costs only about 30 cents to ride these. You can hop on and off fairly easy.

Bringing Home The Bacon!

So, just when you think you might have things figured out a little ... something new pops up!

Today, as most Saturdays, we went to the market. Laura had found some pinto beans in Riga and I had really been wanting her to cook them. We didn't have any bacon to season them with so we decided to go to the meat market and get some.

We get in line and when it comes our turn we point to the what we think is smoked bacon. Laura asks the lady if we could have 1-lat's worth. She kind of nods her head and mumbles something and takes her knife and just cuts a small chunk off. I'm about to tell her we want a little more than that when she pushes the sliver out toward Laura to taste! If I would have had my camera ... well, that definitely was a blogger moment. Of course, there are lots of people waiting in line around us and Laura just kind of shrugs her shoulders, takes the smoked bacon and eats it. The woman is just looking at her, I guess expecting her to say "Yummm, that is garsigs!" but Laura just kind of gives her a sickly smile and says..."Labi" (good). I'm trying to keep from laughing and Laura just keeps nodding her head as the lady is chattering away. We get our lat's worth and head on out. It does look like good smoked bacon and we are now back home ... I think I just saw Laura heading to bathroom with the Pepto bottle (no, just kidding!).

It's just a lazy day in Cesis ... we stopped and talked with three of our basketball girls as we were coming from the market. The town center is the place where everybody goes, young and old. It is always neat to walk around there as you are usually going to see someone you know. It is a nice pace that this culture has with their daily living.

Have a good weekend!

Why it is always interesting ....

. . . to shop in Latvia . . .

Several things make it fun to go shopping in Latvia. Obviously, the language has a lot to do with it. We can't help but laugh at some of the Latvian words (translated into English).

There is certainly not the selection that is so common in the US. So, we spend a lot of time just looking at the products, holding them up, guessing what it is and maybe even taking a chance and buying something that we think we know what it is.

Customer service is something that has not made it to Latvia, yet. When you go to any store, it is very rare that anyone asks to help you. Now, it is extremely hard for us to hide the fact we don't have a clue what we are looking for, what the name is, what the price is, or even if they have it. But, you will not find a sales person coming over and checking to see if we need any help. Sometimes it is like they will do anything to avoid meeting your eyes! It is probably a left over from the Soviet times, when it really did not matter if you wanted something or not, they didn't have it.

Many items are sold by the individual piece such as one band-aid, one pillow case, one balloon, one glue stick, etc. Things that are sold by the pack are sold in very small packages. Tonight we saw frozen french-fries in the freezer case not even packaged...you just dipped in and got however much you wanted and put them in the bag yourself. I guess it is a sign of our American materialism that we want everything in the Sam's gigantic size.

When you check out at the veikals (store) the cashier sits on a stool and she's not getting up. They do have scanners for the most part but they do not sack the groceries. You sack your own and if it is crowded you'd better sack them in a hurry so you don't get your items mixed up with somebody else. If you want anything more than a little thin plastic sack you'd better bring it from home. In some of the large stores in Riga, you pay 1-lat ($2.00 US) to use an ordinary shopping cart. Being the frugal person I am, I carried several armloads around the store!

So, I thought I'd have a little quiz on the blog today. Below are common kitchen products that everyone uses. Can you figure out what is what? Send me an email if you want to guess what they are. My numbers got all confused so don't pay attention to them .... just count from the top, there are 13 items. Some should be pretty easy but some may give you a problem.

mwimberley2005@yahoo.com

Saturday -- Market Day in Cesis

Cesis has an open-air market that is well stocked every day but on Saturday it is especially full. Farm fresh vegetables, berries, mushrooms, clothing, motorcycle parts, flowers, farm equipment, small pets, animals and just about anything else is available. It is a great place to just watch as there is always something going on.

Laura and I went to get some blueberries and ended up getting carrots, onions (of some sort!), berries and sausage. The market has an indoor meat-selling area that is clean and smells kind of like a smokehouse. We bought some of the smoked sausage. We just kind of point and ask for 1 lats worth (about $2.00USD). Sometimes we get what we think we are ordering, sometimes not!

So, when we got home Laura cooked a big soup with all of the fresh ingredients from the market. As the Latvians would say, it was 'garsig'. The cake that went along with it was topped by the fresh blueberries. A pretty good meal whether you are in Cesis or Athens.

To all of those that have asked: YES, we got our bed! It was delivered in three boxes on Wednesday. After the guy got them inside the flat, he handed Laura the receipt to sign. I started asking him wasn't he going to put the bed together? His English was similar to my Latvian ... I repeated it again and he snapped his fingers, smiled and went to the first box and stated opening it up. I'm thinking it won't be too long before I'm stretched out and enjoying my new 200 x 140cm bed and mattress. He digs around a minute or so and then hands me the directions to putting it all together ... smiles and is out the door.

Laura and I start looking at the directions and we figure out that it is saying that an average person can do this job in 40 minutes. I am not too proud to say that we aren't average ... 5 hours later and I'm laying down to enjoy my new 200 x 140 cm bed. It really is so much better than the hide-a-beds we had been using. And, as an added bonus we are still married after working on this project for the 5-hours.

Here are some photos from the market:

Have a good Sunday! Atta!

Furniture Shopping in Cesis

Latvian Word Of The Day: gulta (bed or bed frame)

So, I have blogged before about our new flat and how happy we are to even have it. The only problem is that there is not a full bed. There are two fold-out couch/bed types. This is pretty common here because of space limitations in all of the flats.

Being over the half-century mark, our Amerikanu backs just didn't quite conform to the Latvian version of the hide-a-bed. We were so glad to have the flat that we thought we could tough it out and save some money. Nay, that is not going to happen!

So, Laura, Inese and I went furniture shopping for a bed and mattress. There is no such thing as a full, queen or king size bed in Latvia. You have to know if you want a 200 x 160 or a 190 x 140 or some other metric dimension. I resorted to just laying down on each one and measuring it that way. Of course, our Latvian is so poor that we can only pick out a few words but we'd find a bed at one store and think that it was good and then we'd pick up that maybe it was from Poland and didn't have as good as warranty. At the next store, same thing but this time the salesman seemed to be saying the Polish one was a good buy and the Russian one was not as good. Must kind of be like the Chevrolet vs. Ford comparison. Eventually, we found one that seemed to pass all of the international protocols for bedding and it will be delivered next week. We were just glad to get a bed without creating any international incidents.

Laura now has to find enough sheets and blankets (which by the way, we have to use blankets every night ... even with the windows closed) to fit. We have resorted to carrying a metric tape measure with us at all times.

The 600 year old Lutheran Church here was very busy yesterday with so many weddings. Of course it was 07/07/07, so all of the couples wanted to marry on that date. (easier for the men to remember their own anniversary dates, I guess) The church does make a beautiful place for weddings and there are many couples that travel from around Latvia just to get married here. Our flat is not very far from the church so we can see some the families heading to the ceremonies.

Our regular church service will be today at 2:30 and then Laura and I will try to find a way to Limbazi for the next camp. The last bus leaves from Cesis at 3:00p so we will miss that one. We may just get up early Monday and take the 6:30a bus there. This is just the Latvian way. You either hitch a ride with friends or just wait for the next bus. It is a laid-back culture that works for them very well. It definitely takes getting used to for us, but we are learning.

Until later...continued thanks for your prayers and support. We'll report from the Limbazi camp next week.

--Mark & Laura--

A week full of thanks .....

Things are certainly quieter here now that the last Americans (besides us!) have left. It was a great week and we saw God's hand working in so many different ways.

As I have gotten closer to the Cesis young people over the years, I have asked them what do they look forward to the most during summer? I hope they are not just being nice but almost all will say it is when the Americans come. I don't think it is because of what we do in the camps or celebrations; I think it is because our team always has worked to develop relationships at every level. I have seen quite a few of the young people the last couple of days and they all said they are missing their friends from the USA. We saw one teenager last night at the Leil Veikals (big store) and she had just talked with Mattie (in the USA) by phone. It's a pretty awesome thought that a week could have so much impact. We also know that the Christian influence our young people have on the city of Cesis is huge. We hope our team will continue to reach out to their new-found friends to help and encourage them as the year goes by.

Thanks to the entire team for so much planning, inspiration and hard work. From Dashiel, Hillary, Spencer, Lauren, Kyle, Jacob and Jordan working so well demonstrating the basketball skills to Mattie, Adrianna, BriAnn and Jessica handling the crafts and non-basketball duties...all of you did an outstanding job. Never a cross word, never putting yourself first; what a pleasure to work with you.

With Steve Gowan on the guitar you never have to worry about music. An accomplished musician adds so much to every thing we do here...many thanks. Chase Bowers has the ability to talk to young or old about the word of God. He is a student of the Bible and knows how to explain God's heart. You can feel his inspiration as he is always able to say just the right thing at the right moment. Debbie and Jimmy Leatherwood are two of the hardest workers on any mission trip. We feel blessed with their friendship and they make so many things go better through their knowledge and abilities. Dawn H. has become a cherished member of our FBC team. Always happy to do whatever is needed, she has a loving spirit that is contagious to all. Katie only got to be with us a day or so but it was inspiring that she worked so hard to make it possible to come to Cesis. The balloons are always a big hit with the kids. The guy that makes it all happen is Steve Akin. He is always ready to try something new to make things better; always ready to jump in and work in any situation and keeps a thousand things going both here on the mission field and back home.

Last but not least, I must give my biggest thanks to Laura, my wife. Through a hectic week of basketball camp, youth celebrations, moving, etc. etc., she has been more than my help-mate. She organized the crafts beautifully, modeled Christian love in every way possible, was a gracious host to our visitors and said the many things that I can't. She was definitely chosen for this position as she is the perfect person for it. It takes a pretty strong individual to live with me 7-days a week, almost 24-hours a day . . . I'm so glad that she was sent to be by my side through all of this.

Loti, loti, paldies to all of you. I hope it was a week you won't forget but I also hope you will always remember Chase's last message about the 'hardest place'. Isn't it so true?

As one last reminder of the week I thought I'd post a picture someone you are all familiar with. Let's not forget him!

**Mark & Laura** ( mwimberley2005@yahoo.com )

Sunday -- July 1

What a fantastic Sunday in Cesis. This had to be one of the more most memorable worship days in my life. I know several other team members felt the same way.

First, we gathered at the shore of a large lake where 4-members of Cesis Baptist Church were baptized. Pastor Olegs preached a short but very good sermon about these new brothers and sisters in Christ were also new 'rocks' in the foundation of the church. Several songs were sung, accompanied by Steve Gowan on the guitar. It is so moving to hear the Latvians singing in Latvian and the US team singing the same song in English. Each of the four were baptized in the waters of the lake as the rest of us watched from the shore. It was not hard to imagine a similar baptism almost 2000 years ago....reeds on the shore, waves lapping at the edge, just a simple, beautiful ceremony.

Afterwards, we had regular church services with special recognition of the newly-baptised members. The Latvians seem to take baptisms as a lot more special than maybe we do. Each person was presented with several bouquets of flowers from the last two members that were baptised. Special music, scripture readings and gifts were presented to each one.

Since this was the last day for our group to be in Cesis, several of our team members either spoke or sang. The Cesis congregation is always gracious with our group and seems eager to see our style of music and worship.

Lastly, we had the Lord's Supper. Everyone that is partaking is placed in a large circle. The bread is then passed from person to person with each serving the next. The communal cup is then passed in the same manner. It was very reverent with time for reflection and personal prayer. It was so meaningful to do this with the Latvians. I think it bonded all of us even closer.

Closing the day, we had a fellowship outside of town with the Baptist congregation from Valmeira. After a time of singing and fellowship we had a lot of Latvian food and fun. Our team, especially the students, were happy to get out and enjoy the beautiful countryside.

Unfortunately, the first US group had to leave to return to Riga for their trip home. They flew out at 5:55 this morning (Monday). Many, many church members and Sports Camp kids arrived at the hotel in Cesis to see them off. After a few tears and hugs, they were on their way. As I write this they should be about to land at DFW.

We took the second group to the airport this morning. They left about 2:30p for Frankfurt for an overnight stop. They will land at DFW around 2:00p on Tuesday.

So, it is very lonesome right now in Cesis. Not only were we sad to see all of the Americans leave, we also had to say good-bye to our youngest sons, Jacob and Jordan. I know that Laura and I were both dreading the time that this would come but it was definitely harder than we imagined. Six months is a long time to not see your family ... they are both good boys and I know they will do well but it is another chapter in our lives that is closing.

When we felt God was calling us to this field, we all knew there would be sacrifices on all of our parts, including all four of our sons. They have encouraged us to do what we feel is God's mission. Thanks to all of you: Andrew, Adam, Jacob and Jordan. We love you . . .

Tomorrow: the wrap-up of a successful week's activities

MWimberley2005@yahoo.com