3 months, 150 hours of language studies, over 60 hours driving, 5000km and…

I am finished with Language studies in Tilza! It is so very bitter-sweet. I have come to truly enjoy the people and town of Tilza. The people have and always will have a very special place in my heart. I have found great community there and great friendship as well. It will be hard to not be there in community with all of my dear friends as I was in the past three months.
Looking back on the past three months I cannot figure out how I actually did it!!! Thinking now as I sit here on a Wednesday night more rested and relaxed than I have been in a LONG time, then realizing that Wednesdays for the past moths have been a VERY LONG day!
Tuesday night packing, preparing to get up at 4am in the morning, drag my sorry butt out of bed to my car to drive for 3 to 4 hours depending on weather, to a desk to study language for 4 hours, makes for a stinkin’ long hard day! Praise Jesus that he is always so ever-present in my absolute weakness!
Thank you to all of you for your prayers and encouragement through this very difficult time and for your understanding with my lack of communication as well.

Now it is back to Riga! No, the language is not over! The way it is going I think I will be fluent by the age of 80! But I will not give up, no matter how hard it is and how slow I might be. I plan on working with a language helper at least 3 days a week and hopefully get into a tutoring class in the beginning of January.
My goal is to be able to have flowing conversation with Latvians by the time I return to Arizona in November 2008 for furlough. Keep praying! I will need it ;)

Merry Christmas from Me and my Girls!!!

Click the link it is worth the wait!!!!

This past week

This past week was crazy busy, yet really good and full of blessings! I was out in Tilza for my second to last week of language school. It was hard and I am finding myself hitting major walls. Mostly just a lack of desire to put in the effort to learn more…. Which does not seem normal or me as I have been dying to learn the language! But it is not that I don’t want to learn, just having a lack of excitement in it all. I do know I want to speak, and that will never change so I will press on and keep moving forward no matter how hard or boring it may get! Please pray that I will not loose the vision and commitment of learning this language.

After Language in Tilza I drove almost 6 hours to a location where we had our second weekend of “Intro to Youth Ministry” (formerly known as “School of Leaders”). This weekend was sooo goood! We have 12 young leaders in training this year and they are full of passion and desire to serve the Lord!

Another blessing was having the whole team there! For the first time Kelly, Donna, Joe and Nick were there with us! It was great to share that time all together also.

Here are some pictures of our time together at Intro to Youth Ministry:

A little clarification

I was please to get feed back from someone back who really cares about me and what is going on here in Latvia. It was brought to my attention that I am lacking in the area of sharing with you all how I am sharing Christ to the people around me! Wow, that is so true! Sometimes I get so caught up in life here and all the “things” that are happening that I forget to share with you the joy I am experiencing in ministry here! I apologize. And I will do my best to be more ready to share the “God stories” before “My stories”! I ask for your forgivness in this.

I would like to share with you really quick the difference between ministries here for me depending on the season, so you can get an idea of where my focus is at a certain time. Summer ministry is full of evangelism and sharing Christ with the youth around Latvia. Full of energy, relationships, and evangelism. (Honestly my favorite time of the year!).
But just as important (if not more) is the Winter season. This is focused on building into the relationship already established and discipling and encouraging. Intro to Youth Ministry is one of those types of programs that give me that opportunity.
Summer, I am out and about with the purpose of sharing Christ through spoken word and life lived out.
Winter has a different feel as the days are shorter and MUCH colder, things slow down and give me a chance to meet one on one with students and really pour into them.

I open the door wide open for anyone at anytime to let me know if I am lacking in any area when it come to communicating to you through this blog, website, or monthly updates. Thank you for caring. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers!