Day of the Dead

In Latvia, one of the most beautiful places you will see are the cemeteries. They are usually on the edge of town in a pine forest. The Latvians show great reverence for the grave sites. They plant small bushes and flowers as borders of the plots. The headstones can range from a simple stone marker to elaborate black granite. Most families visit the graves quite often, polishing the markers, weeding and of course, adding fresh flowers. They use small wooden rakes to draw designs into the sand and surrounding dirt.

We were invited to go with our friend Inese to visit her father's and grandparent's graves last night. We really didn't know what was meant by the 'Day of the Dead' but it was quite interesting. As we got to the cemetery and started to enter we could see maybe 20-30 acres of white, blue, green and red flickering candles. Most are in special containers so they can continue to be burn even when it is windy. This cemetery is actually kind of hilly so as we got to the top it was almost like looking down onto a city with Christmas decorations. There were many people walking to their loved ones graves and placing the candles, flowers and other items onto the graves. It was a beautiful sight unlike anything we have seen before.

It was also interesting to hear Inese speak about her relatives. Her father was a taxi driver and a nationalist (didn't want the Soviets to control them). One night he was singing the Latvian national anthem in public. Evidently, he had been warned before about doing this (it was illegal) and he has not been heard of or seen since. Several days later his taxi was found in the Gauja River (burned). A body was found down-river several months later and the authorities asked Inese's mother to come identify the body. She wouldn't go but his sister did. The sister was positive it was not her brother as she said the teeth were not his. However, the Soviets said yes, it is him and he will be taken back to Cesis and buried. They looked at it as someone that drove into the Gauja, was a missing person for a while, a body was found so the case was closed. Someone is buried at that grave that has Inese's father's name on the marker but she is positive her father's body is not there.

It is amazing what some of these people lived through. Maybe next time I'll share her grandparent's stories.

Have a good week!

Youth Night -- Servant Evangelism

This week's youth meeting was designed around the concept of 'servant-evangelism'. This is the second time we have done this activity and the students really seem to like it.

Basically, we ask each student to take a long-stemmed flower, attach a note that contains a scripture and anything else they want to write on it. They then go through-out the town and find someone they want to give the flower to. The only rule we have is that it cannot be given to someone that they already know. Of course, the first question the students get is "Why do you want to give this to me?" followed by "What's the catch?". We have tried to prepare them for the occasional rude response or belligerence but it has really gone great. After establishing a dialogue with the person they then ask if it would be ok if they (the student) prayed for them in the coming week? If they get a 'yes', then they ask if there is anything specific they can pray for them about. Our kids have been surprised how open some of the people have been in their requests.

Our purpose in this is two-fold: to get the students used to doing something without the promise of a tangible reward and secondly, to get them to become bolder as they approach people they don't know. If they are ever going to present their own testimony they are going to have to become a lot more open to other people. This culture is one that can be sometimes intimidating if you don't know the person and strangers are not always welcome to just begin a conversation.

We hope this type of servant-evangelism will help these students in the future as they go out into the world to witness and live a Christian life.

For some reason I only have pictures of the girls but we had about 15 boys and girls participating on Wednesday night.

Things You Won't See in Latvia . . .

1. A carton with a dozen eggs . . . they only sell 10 in a carton.
2. Free water at a cafe or restaurant
3. Air conditioned buses
4. Dr. Pepper
5. Basketball games on any nights except Friday, Saturday or Sunday
6. A free second cup of coffee
7. A change of plans because it is raining or snowing
8. Water fountains ... you just will not see a public water fountain (even in a gym)
9. Regulations on fireworks ... they are bought and sold in stores year-round
10. Yellow school buses (school's don't own buses or have student routes)

Fall Festival & Thanksgiving

Cesis Baptist Church celebrated their Fall Festive and Thanksgiving this past Sunday. Laura and her Ladies' Bible Study group did a good job of planning and decorating for it. We held the festivities at another church because we do not have adequate facilities for something like this.
We hope the people had a good time because we have been stressing the idea of more church fellowships and enjoying just being with each other. A lot of our members do not see each other except for the time they are together on Sundays.

We had singing, games and of course, food. It was quite different from what a church fellowship would be in the USA but everyone seemed to have a good time. One of the neat things was that two of the games that were enjoyed the most were 'musical chairs' and 'charades'. I could get right with them on the musical chairs but trying to compete at charades with a foreign language you don't really know . . . well, let's just say I didn't win.

I hope you enjoy the pictures: