Latvia Mission Trip Update #2

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. Read the first here. Here's the second update we've received:

Dear Latvia Prayer teams,

We are having a great time and seeing the Lord work in a variety of ways! On Wednesday we attended the Vilandes Baptist preschool for the second time. The ladies are professional women who gather together for a play/enrichment time with their toddlers and for friendship. Teresa did a great job of leading the crafts and the women loved the cards and stamping which they had never seen before. Latvians are very artistic and thei handiwork was amazing. They were less reserved than the group the day before and we had a lot of good conversations with them. None of these ladies are Christians and this is an important ministry for this church and several families have come to Christ through this ministry. One of the ladies heard about the Christian Women's Job Corps and offered to teach computer skills once the program gets started. Please pray for this church as it ministers to the Riga community in many ways.

Nicole went to a women's Bible study and shared "Identity in Christ" and "Resting in the Lord" with these ladies for 5 hours. Many lives were touched by the message and the majority of ladies made counseling appointments later with Nicole. It has been wonderful to see the response to her messages and to see what the Lord is doing through this ministry.

In the afternoon the rest of the team went to meet women who lead Latvia's women's mission organization, called Mary and Matha. Virginia shared about WMU and Christian Women's Job Corps which they found very interesting and a great possibility for Latvia. She left them with lots of information and contacts. Please pray for the founding of this ministry in Latvia as it would bring the love of Christ and practical working and life skills to the women of Latvia.

Wedneday evening we all went back to Vilandes for the second evening of Parenting seminars. This evening the message was "Expressing Love to Your Children" and there were twice as many people as the first night. People were actively engaged in sharing and Nicole concluded the evening with a gospel pesentation. Many people shared how encouraged they were with the new information they learned.

The rest of the team was having a exciting time in the Fall Festival for the children with carnival games, prizes, caramel apples, popcorn, and two different gospel presentations through the Slipdisc frisbees and the pumpkin story. They all had a great time and went home very sticky!

Today was the first day it rained which we had expected all along. Nicole had a full day of counseling appointments and many people became aware of the need to share feelings and seek out Christian counseling. Nicole has seen many needs for the need for relationship healing.

The rest of the team went to the countryside to visit families with the Humanitarian aid ministry, called GAIN. The first family we visited turned out to be a family that Kathy had met in 2005. They now live in 2 rooms with 6 children and a mother and grandmother. (The grandmother had experienced deportation during Soviet times and had made her way back to Latvia from Siberia.) We shared gifts with them and talked about Jesus while they served us tea, coffee, and sweets. No matter what they have they always show hospitality. Teresa brought a craft for the girls which they painted canvas tote bags with very artistic designs. At the very end we pulled out yarn and knitting needles for the mother and grandmother to see if they could use it and they were very excited to have this since they knit and can make things for their children. Before we left they gave us a huge traditional Latvian pastry made by the grandmother as a gift for all us!

We also visited 2 other families that had a total of 14 children and then we had a big surprise. We were taken to a center where we met with a group of about 30 people who were expecting to hear us talk to them. We had no idea we were supposed to do this. THis group meets for support because they all have lots of children and large families are considered a bad thing in Latvia. They are looked down upon by society and so the local Christian social worker put together a support group for them. We all introduced ourselves and then they asked us questions about families. Teresa came up with just the right craft and God provided all the materials for us to do it. Some of us also shared our testimonies as well as one father. It was a very powerful discussion time. Daina, the GAIN staff member, said that she had never seen these women open up so much and she felt the presence of Jesus there.

Tomorrow we will all be going to Parliment to prayerwalk. In the afternoon Nicole has more counseling sessions while the rest of the team will be going to the countryside for more humanitarian aid familiy visits. Pray for these sessions and the visits and Christ's love to be shared openly with ereyone. Pray for God's direction and wisdom in everything as we share God's love with people.

It is a joy to also see the results of the Lloyd's ministry in Latvia. Several of the children we met had heard about Jesus through their school through the Christian Morals and Ethics cirruculum which the Lloyd's originally wrote and ;introduced in Latvia. What at blessing to see the fruit of their work!

Love to all,
The Latvia Ladies