CESIS: A year in the life of . . .: GOOD-BYE CESIS

SUNDAY'S GOOD-BYE FELLOWSHIP -

After a good church service, we were all invited to an outdoor fellowship. One of the church members has a beautiful outdoor area that we were able to use. While we ate snacks and sausages, many of the kids and adults got involved in games and sports activities.

For a few weeks, one of the members has been asking me if we have a game in American where "you get on each end of a string and pull". I didn't think we had that game but today I found out she was talking about 'tug-of-war'!

I'm sorry to say, the Americans got waxed pretty good in the pulling contests. It looked to me like the Latvians have played this a few times. As the men started to 'tug', two guys pulled out lifting belts and other equipment. We even had the women and little kids pulling against each other.

A final game of 'capture-the-flag' finished off the activities. Pastor Olegs closed with a few words and the Americans loaded up and headed to Riga. They will spend the night in St. Matthews' Church hostel and fly out at 5:55am on Monday morning.

It is amazing how fast the week went. Final tally of activities: Two sports camps (four days of each); three days of Youth Celebrations; one music concert; one day of prison visit; four days of VBS and numerous opportunities for our young people to share their faith. We are aware of at least three decisions that have been made and we will follow up on several more.

Laura and I would like to thank the Americans for coming and helping. We know they made many friends and we hope they will return next year. The seeds that have been planted will bear fruit one day, of that we are sure.

Below are various pictures from some of the good-bye fellowship: