Home?

I am home!
Well home is relative I guess! I am back in Arizona for now! I just returned from the two-week whirlwind of a trip with the high school youth group from Red Mountain Community Church. What a great trip is was too!
God was working so obviously throughout the whole trip! I am so amazed by his Grace and his willingness to work through us to do his work! And that he did!
We ran a weeklong English camp in a small town out side of Riga called Usma. Most of the kids that went to the camp were from Riga though. We put on this camp for a church in Riga who is trying to start a youth program in Riga. It was a great camp. We only had about 20 students attend this camp, which is much less than we are used to, yet after it was over I was very happy that God sent that number to us! It was a beautiful time of building amazing relationships with amazing kids who are very interested in a life with Jesus Christ! It was go go go the whole time, yet not once did I feel overly tired or exhausted. This was Christ in me for sure. I averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night for over 8 days straight and I felt more alive, more ready for the day than I have when I have had plenty of rest and sleep! It was truly inspiring to sense the presence of Christ filling my mind body and soul to complete His work! And his work is summed up in one word LOVE!!!! And that is what we did!
If anything was accomplished this trip it was that the Love of Christ himself was manifested in us and flowing out of us right into the hearts of these kids! It was a beautiful sight to see!

So that’s it! If you want to know more sign up for my newsletter (to the right) and I will be sending out an update letter very soon!

Thanks for all your love, support and prayer! It was evident that someone was praying during this time, and for that the kingdom of God has grown! God bless!

(There is a link two entries down if you would like to see some pictures of this trip!)

done!

Today was the last day of our English camp. We had an amazing group of students from Riga and also from other areas around Latvia. Comparing to some of the other camps that have been going on this summer with Josiah Venture, this was a small camp. Yet I was very happy to see that the group was smaller than usual.
I was so proud of he high school group from Red mountain that I was so blessed to be a part of and blessed to have a chance to lead. They are an amazing group and my heart is overjoyed at the life changing experience that they have expressed.
Check out the link below in my previous entry for more on the students and their experiences so far. They have been trying to keep up a blog of their own and it also as pictures and information on each of them.

Yet I would have to say the best part of my trip was and is at this moment, my girls from the orphanage! They made a last minute disiion to come to the camp. what an amazing gift from God to have the people who I love so dearly with me during this short trip.

Yet I feel my heart already breaking at the thought of yet again saying goodbye. I do not know why I put myself in such a hard poison to feel so much love and then allow it to be ripped away again and again… please pray for that!

On the other side of this sadness I am feeling though is a huge excitement knowing that when leaving this time, it will be the last goodbye, and the last time I will have to say I did not have enough time. I am so excited to be here and to share the love that Jesus has given me with these girls, with the youth of Latvia and whoever God brings into my life!




So that is it! We are here for a couple more days and then it is back to Arizona for as long as it takes to raise the rest of the money needed to be a full time missionary here! So, again another big prayer request!

Thank you all for your love and your interest n what God is doing here!

For way more updates and pictures go to:

http://latvia06.googlepages.com/

Lovin' It!

July 15, 2006 at 12:15 pm….

I have enjoyed two full days of hugs and reuniting with all the amazing people I have come to know over the past 8 years! Every time I come back here I feel like there is a huge piece of me that is pt back in place. I am so blessed!

So, we have been just training and preparing for the camp and enjoying the cultural differences of Riga (he capitol of Latvia). The students have enjoyed many different Latvian foods, sights, sounds and much more! They seem to be willing and ready to serve! I am so excited to begin the camp starting on Monday.

Tomorrow we will go to two different church services to give the student an idea of what “church” is like here in Latvia, then we will finish up getting the final stuff done for the camp. And then early Monday morning we will board a bus with all the campers and head out to the campsite and start this crazy 5-day English camp!!!

Please pray for the hearts of the students to be willing to lean fully on Christ, and that the hearts of the campers would be soft and ready to hear the gospel.

Thank you for all your prayers!

July 13th 2006 @ 2am….
Well I am finally sitting on a bed waiting to sleep for a few hours before it all starts…again!!!
Yes we made here, we made it in one piece, yet our luggage did not! After arriving from our long haul, we awaited in anticipation our luggage coming through those beautiful black strips of plastic on the conveyer belt.
It started off quiet well! Then slowly but surely we hit the point of dread as we just watched as the same bags kept gliding past us over and over and over…then we heard the announcement!
“Any passengers that have just arrived from Copenhagen (that’s us!) And do not have their luggage please come to the lost and found office to make a report.”

Hmmmm…that was definitely the case for us, seeing that 15 bags had yet to be accounted for! Crap! So we rummaged through our ticket and got the luggage tabs (that always seem to be such a unnecessary thing, until something like this happens and then it clicks, “ah, this is why they stick these things on my ticket cover!”)
And start making the LONG report of bag, size, color, weight, brand, etc.

We found out that they were on the next flight to Riga that would arrive at 11pm (at this time being 6pm and none of us had really slept for over 24 hours).
They said that they would deliver the bags to where we were staying; so then we left in hopes of seeing our bags, and our sleeping bags later on that evening!

We hit the town for some yummy Pankukas and then just came back and rested and waited for our sleeping bags to arrive so we could get some sleep!
1:00 am could not come sooner! They arrived and we had all of our stuff! Praise Jesus!

(Not bad for a lost luggage story! God is so good to us!)

The next few days are days to acclimate and train for the camp that starts on Monday.

I wil write more when I get the chance!

I am off again!!!

Ok just a quick update….
I am on my way to Latvia for two weeks with the high school youth group to do an English camp. I am so excited to take such a great group of students to where my heart is! I am so blessed! So we leave in the early morning tomorrow and will arrive in Latvia on the 13th at 5:30pm.
I will try my best to keep this blog going while I am there…but Internet is sparse… I promise I will try so keep checking in!!!
You can also go to our web site for the high school group and we will be trying to keep a three-day blog there too.
Hmmm… I will have to give you the link next time, I cant remember it!!!
Sorry!
Please pray for us when you think about it!