Latvia Mission Trip Update #1

Hillcrest is sponsoring our own Lori Shepard on a 10-day mission trip to Latvia. I'll post the team's updates as I get them. Here's the first:

Dear Latvia Prayer Team,

Labdien! (which means, "Good Day"). We arrived safely with all our luggage intact. We were greeted immediately by the Lloyd family who took us to our hotel in Old Town Riga. We spent the evening with the Lloyds for a time of fellowship and orientation.

On Sunday, our day began at Vilandes Baptist Church with fellowship followed by adult sunday school which was well attended. Nicole shared a message on identity in Christ and Leslie shared a testimony; missionaries from Brazil talked with Nicole in Spanish about the lesson. At the church service that followed, Virginia and Lori gave their testimony, which was translated in Latvian by our interpreter; several people came up to them afterward and said how much the testimonies had meant to them.

It turned out that four girls and two boys who Kathy had spent time with on previous mission trips at the orphanage traveled to the church to meet us. Nicole, Kathy, and Leslie had an impromptu Sunday School with the girls. The whole group spent the rest of the day with all of the orphans and three young translators. We went to a museum that chronicles the history of all the occupations of Latvia (giving us great insight into the Latvian culture). We then took the whole gang to dinner at Lidos and had a wonderful dinner, followed by presenting the girls with individual photo albums of the previous visits and handmade jewelry beaded by Lori's mom, a former IMB missionary. Please pray for the orphans, as many are searching for God's reality in their lives. Pray for some consistent discipleship for these orphans.

The evening ended with a conversation that Teresa and Lori had with a man from Norway who professed to be an agnostic. They planted a seed which concluded with Teresa's asking him about why he was an agnostic and suggesting that he consider reading the book The Case for Christ. Please pray specifically for this businessman who is searching for answers.

For tomorrow, please pray for Nicole's Grace Life presentation to the Agape Latvia staff and for her parenting seminar that evening. Pray that many non-Christians from the neighborhood will attend the parenting seminar and that many lives would be changed. Pray also for the other team members who will be leading the children's activities which include games, crafts, and evangelism.

More to come. Thank you for your prayers!
To God's Glory,The Latvia Mission Team