Leaving for ROME!!!

Tomorrow I will pack up and leave bright and early on Monday morning for a week of renewal and time with my Jesus, and lucky me, it happens to be that the place I will be going to do this is, none other than one of the most beautiful places in the world, Rome!

I will be joining the other women from Josiah Venture for the annual Women’s Retreat and enjoying the community of women who have been doing this for way longer than I have, and pulling from anyone I can, getting wisdom, encouragement, advice, and just down right fellowship!!! It will be good!

I promise to take lots and lots of pictures!

Summer is around the corner!!!!

I just got back today from checking out Kuldiga, a town where we will have a camp this summer. It is very exciting because this will be the first camp done in that town and the church we will be helping ut on the camp has an amazing “youth guy” and a group of kids ready to lead!!! This is HUGE!!! And so exciting!

It gets me quite pumped for it all. I am soo ready to get back into the summer ministry! It just hold a totally different energy and spirit. And fits my heart for students and meeting them where Jesus can get a hold of them!! Ahhh I cannot wait!

Please, if you think about it, just pray for the preparation time going into this summer. We have many things going on and a lot of different realm of people coming together for ministry. Pray that God will orchestrate it and we will be ready to play!!! Yes, this is exciting!

These pictures were taken at "Europe's widest waterfall" in Kuldiga

(It was -20 degrees out, yeah I know, Where is my jacket! what was I thinking!)

Good Monday to all!

I had a wonderful weekend with “my girls”. I spent most of Thursday and Friday morning in turmoil over what to do… go to the orphanage or go to Liepaja to visit one of the 4 sisters from the orphanage (she has been adopted).
She is the youngest of the four and I have not seen her in a while and it is very important for me to let her know that my love for her is still as strong even though I do not get to see her as much as the others.
yet, my heart was torn because of the expectation of the orphanage and the kids there. I did not want to disappoint anyone, yet I was faced with a “catch 22”, and as I sit miserably trying to figure out who I could handle disappointing more, my Jesus spoke to my heart and told me so beautifully that it is HIM who I need to look to, it is HIS approval that matters, and that HE approves! (before I made any decision he already approved of me and who I am!)

so i decided to do what i felt i was being called to do no matter the response, and it was a HUGE blessing to be with Ieva, my little sister. It was a perrrfect weekend with her!


** BIG SIGH


I Love my Lord so much, and I am taken back by his love for me and how he meets me in my mess daily! What a God we serve!


OK, so now I have to go work on my Monthly update letter…** another big sigh….

Take 5 min and... SHOW UP & SHUT UP!

Listen to your Jesus for a minute…

“And he whispers, ‘Now is the time! The unreal world of glanost and Gucci. Hagen-Dazs ice cream and Calvin Klein jeans, beaver vest, Persian rugs, silk underwear, and the Super Bowl is passing away. NOW is the time to stop running around frantically like Lancelot’s horse in four directions at once and QUIETLY remember that only one thing is necessary. NOW is the time for personal decision and creative response to MY Word. (114)


“has it crossed your mind that I am proud you accepted the gift of faith I offered you? Proud that you freely chose Me, after I had chosen you, as your friend and Lord? Proud that with all your warts and wrinkles, you haven’t given up? Proud that you believe in me enough to try again and again? Are you aware that I appreciate you for wanting Me? I want you to know how grateful I am when you pause to smile and comfort a child who has lost her way. I am grateful for the hours you devote to learning more about Me; for the word of encouragement you passed on to your burnt-out pastor; for your visit to the shut-in; for your tears for the retarded. What you did to them, you did to Me. Alas, I am sad when you do not believe that I have totally forgiven you or you feel uncomfortable when approaching Me.” (154)
(Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennen Manning)



This is a much different Jesus than I perceive most of the day, but refreshing, exciting, and motivating me more and more toward being SEIZED BY THE POWER OF A GREAT AFFECTION!

Back again....Gone again.....Back again......Gone a......

So here I am off for the weekend again! I will be back on Sunday evening. Then I have four days and then I leave again for the weekend. We will be meeting churches that we will be working with this summer at the camps. I will be back from that on Sunday And then… I leave AGAIN on Monday for 6 days!!!
I will be attending the annual Women’s retreat for Josiah Venture. I am dreading it, and cant wait for it in he same breath! But it will be good to just soak up time with seasoned women of God and pull from their time on the field.

All that to say I will be quite busy in the next coming weeks and I hope to find time to write and update, but just so you know what is happening!

I am deeply sorry to anyone who feels like I am not communicating well enough. I am finding the pull between doing ministry and sharing what is happening with it all very difficult these days. But if you do feel neglected by my lack of communication, I am truly sorry. I will try to do better.

Back from Sweden

I arrived “home” yesterday afternoon from an amazing trip to Sweden. I had a great time visiting the school that meant so much to me, and visiting people that I hold as close as family! It was a perfect time of rest, relaxation, refreshment, and lots of fun too!


This was when we decided to go sledding behind the van! ( max speed was 55km!) Crazy but sooo fun!!!


This was the night of WaterPoker!
Rules:
If you loose a hand you drink the water that was bet in that round
you loose the game if:
1. you get up
2. you throw up
3. you pee your pants!
4. all of the above :)
Daniel peed his pants!!!!! haha!


Chillin' in the Bik (a little hang out spot at the school)



I am so blessed to be able to go to a place like that with such ease. It is an amazing thing to live in Europe that’s for sure! Just hope on a plane, train, or ferry and you can get almost anywhere in Europe fast and cheap!

We spent 4 full days in Holsbybrunn, and had a blast. I did everything from playing in the snow, to gong on many walks, to visiting my dearest friend Coral and her beautiful family, to praying lots, to spending time with my Jesus, and a major part of what I did there was reflection…

Reflection on the past 4 months of my life and what God has done, what he is doing, what I am doing and how it fits with what God has called me here to do. There have been times I have already felt overwhelmed by the need here, and have started to doubt myself and the calling on my heart. i guess I was in the starting stages of “burn out”… I don’t now, I just knew I needed something, or something needed to change.

While at Holsby, I was refreshed by the heart of Matt and Coral and how they serve Christ with their lives. They have been missionaries in Sweden for many years and to watch them live out Jesus just inspired me beyond anything I could have asked for! It was beautiful to watch their surrender to Christ in every part of their life!
Thank you Coral and Matt for being examples to me, and inspiring me to press on with JOY!

Also I found out something and I am sure I will talk about this more, but I just realized something during this trip that may surprise you or may not, but I did not know this until I searched for it!

God WILL give me more than I can handle! He is in the business of giving me too much on purpose! You know it is funny because my whole Christian walk I have trusted that he will never give me more than I can handle, but I am just now realizing that that is not true and if anything is true it is the opposite! He will give me way more than I can handle so I can grow by doing three things with “the more than I can handle”

1. it will teach me to prioritize and learn how to put some things down, give
some thing up, no matter how good they are.

2. I will learn to lean on the body of Christ, my family, and hand off some of
the things that are “too much” so the body can work together.

3. I will learn to go to my source of strength and power; JESUS! For his power
is made perfect in my weakness!

So I say with expectation and excitement, I am ready for the next… whatever that is, and I hope it is more than I can handle! I want to see Jesus at work, not Jaycee !

Thank you to my three Latvian friends, Agnese, Anna, and Baiba, who made this trip so special!!!

I’m leeeeeavin’ on a…..big boat! ;)

Today I will float my way over the Baltic sea for to for 5 days!!! I am sooo stinkin’ excited!! This will be a great time to reflect on the past 4 months of life here in Latvia. A good time to rest in the lap of my father and let him speak to me, heal me, revive me.

Can you pray that I will take the time needed to be with my Father on this trip? There will be many thins that could get in he way of that seeing I am going with three of my favorite Latvians, and I will be going to Holsby, a school that holds some of the best memories of my life, and meeting with a friend that means the world to me when I am there! So that being said, I know I will have to be intentional with my time, and keep Jesus at the center of this time.

I will be back in Latvia Sunday night. I hope to have some kind of communication while in Sweden, but I am not too sure what that will look like, so it might be Monday before I can write again.

I...Have....NO....TIME!!!!!!

Ahhhhh there are so many things I want to share…so many people i want to call…so many things on my heart….but no time!!! Ahhhhh!!!

Pray for me. Pray that I find strength in the Lord. I am tired and I am in need of refreshment! I am in need of encouragement from those who live Christ, love Christ, who are in Christ! My friends. My family. I miss you!

I am off to the orphanage yet again. Reason being, I will not be there for the next few weeks as I will be taking a short vacation to Sweden. I will visit some staff from Holsby; the Bible school I attended a few years back…so I guess that will be my rest and relaxation!!!

So I am blessed, even though as I sit and write this at 11:30pm knowing I still have to get lessons ready for tomorrow and Saturday, pack for the weekend, go to work in the morning, leave straight from there to the orphanage, come back on Sunday and have a day before I leave for Sweden… I am blessed!

I am ok.

Things are going well.

Very discombobulated at the moment, but goooood!

God is good and I am learning more and more about what t means to surrender to him and his call.

Did I say I missed you?
I Hope to write soon, but not too sure how and when that will be!

Cau!!!!!