Jaycee In Latvia

You are Invited!!!!

2008-09-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Recent EU statistics revealed that there are over 30 million students, ages 15-29 in Eastern Europe today. Less then 1% follow Jesus. More than ever these 30 million desperately need to know the love of Christ. God is calling us to step out in faith and ask Him for more fruit in the next three years.

This fall, Josiah Venture is hosting a 11-city vision tour in North America in the next two months. Josiah Venture has never done anything like this before. The ministry that has been going on for over 15 years (5 in Latvia) is at a pivital piont and we want to share with you in person all that has been possible and all that is to come, thanks to your support!!! This is to honor and thank my donors who have faithfully supported this ministry, and to share the vision God has entrusted to us. Two of these events will be in Scottsdale, AZ and Denver, CO where we can meet and share in this together!

I’d like to invite you to the evening program and dessert where you will meet me and some of the missionaries who I work with here in Latvia!!

To learn more and to register, click the link above
(JV 2x3 Capital Campaign).

One Percent from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

What is to come???

2008-07-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

In the next few weeks to come I will be organizing all the camp stuff, reviewing the good, bad, and ugly of the summer so we can move forward into the next year in a progressive way. Spend a little time just resting, having a staff meeting to see what things are going to start looking like in the future with new leadership and a smaller team, and hopefully spending some quality time with my girls when they all get home from summer trips.

My schedule is quite full in the coming days, weeks and months!!!

August:

10th – the Interns leave for the States
11- 13th Team “combobulating” retreat!
20 – 26th – Coral , a dear friend from Sweden to visit
all other time – follow up, and small group training, with all the local church that were involved in summer camps.

September:

12th – 20th Family vacation
22nd – 27th JV Fall conference in Czech

October:

21st - BACK TO AZ for a few months!!!

2008-07-30T05:36:00.000-07:00

We have finished our last camp!!!

This was the fourth and last camp of the summer. This camp was the biggest in number of campers, which is quite exciting seeing that this was the first ever camp for the Baptist Church in Jelgava!!!

All in all we had about 70 people at this last camp. It made for a great last camp. Red Mountain Community Church, from Mesa Arizona was there to connect and help with this camp, and that they did.

Many Kids made decisions to follow Christ for the first time and several have made commitments to follow him in deeper ways. It was an amazing, to say the least!

PICTURES!!!!

I was really excited about this camp from the beginning because Red Mountain is my home church and I knew many of the students coming over so it was like a double blessing being with all the campers and then some of my old youth that I love so dearly from Arizona!

RMCC YOUTH ROCKED KAZDANGAAAA!!!!
Thank you for EVERYTHING you guys did and all you are!!! You poured your GUTS into this and I love you for it!!!
I truly miss each of you!

Here is a link to the RMCC youth group blog of their trip.. it has tons of stories and video of there time in Latvia!! Check it out.. you wont regret it!

The inner struggle…

2008-07-30T05:35:00.001-07:00

...I did not expect to be so broken when RMCC got here. My emotions were all over the place as I watched these dear youth that I have watched grow up serving the Lord in such amazing ways and watching them be stretched and grow in so many ways… it made me want to go back to Arizona with them!!!

I found myself for the first time ever questioning my “call” to Latvia! I was experiencing so many blessings being with youth from my own culture and language I kept asking God why he had me in Latvia where I feel so handicapped relationally and spiritually because of language and culture! Not only that, being with some of the girls that I have invested in the past years before I came to Latvia and being able to continue to speak into their lives again had me shook to the core… all I wanted is to be there for them. Yet I knew they were only here for a few short weeks and then return to AZ and I would be here in Latvia… what the heck was God doing to my heart!???

I am still hurting inside as I just said my goodbyes to the Arizona team and I am still shook for sure, yet there is this solid assurance deep inside my heart that I am right where I need to be. And I will continue to trust the Lord that he has me where I am for a reason. But I could defiantly use your prayers as I work through the pain of watching the dear students from Arizona leave and me stay behind and continue to serve here where God has me.

What happens when…

2008-07-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

...Your home Church comes and tears your heart in two… wanting to be near to them and wanting to follow Christ and his call for me in Latvia. Then in the midst of that find out that even though you know that God has called you to Latvia to stay he is calling other away from Latvia.

Scott and Lisa just shared with us that it is evident that the time has come for them to return to the states. This has again shook the core of my world. Scott and Lisa Runzo ARE Latvia in so many ways to me. I cannot even start to think abut what Latvia will be for me without them here. I am in a deep inner struggle not wanting them to leave and sooo happy that the Lord has called them home for something he is doing in their life now!!!

Along with loosing the Runzo family we also are loosing another teammate… Mike Kelly has decided to return to the states also.

Please pray for me as I work on accepting this news, and truly trusting the Lord with ALL of me here in Latvia. And for our team to continue to move forward strong and unified.

Please also lift the Runzos and Mike up in prayer as they make the transition from Latvia back to the States and whatever God is calling them to.

Here is a letter from Scott Runzo to explain their decision a little more clearly:

Greetings, Dear Friends!

We have just finished our fourth and last camp for the summer (BIG SIGH!)!! The RMCC team from AZ is still here for a couple of days, so we will be hanging out with them and helping process through all that they experienced last week. It was such an incredible blessing to share our last camp with them! The students did great, the leaders were so supportive, the energy of the camp was high, several students accepted Christ in the end, and many young Christians were encouraged in their own faith as they saw all that happened. It felt just like "old times" in many ways! Thanks so much for your prayers! God was glorified, and we were very blessed to take part in it! (Blog update with pics should be coming shortly)
There's no good way to share this, so we'll just say it - it was a bittersweet camp for us as it seems this will be our last, at least for quite some time. Two very significant things have happened that I feel are the beginnings ofchange for us, and I believe are also directly from the hand of God.

This weekend I officially "passed the baton" as country leader to Kelly Hargan. Kelly is a former youth leader from Fort Collins, CO. He and his wife, Donna, joined our team last fall. Although I believe God sent me to Latvia strategically to begin the work of JV here in this country, I have felt for quite some time that I would not be the person to carry it the next leg of the race. It was a pioneering effort in the beginning that I felt called to, and now that JVA is firmly established as a leading youth training organization here, it's time for a new leader to step in and take it to the next level. I believe that is not my call nor within my giftedness and have been praying and fasting through this past spring and summer as to what God would have us do. I believe Kelly has been called and JV is in full support of this decision. We feel greatly blessed by God in His provision of a godly leader who shares our common vision of "seeing a movement of God among young people of Eastern Europe".

The second big decision we have made is to put our house here in Latvia on the market. Financially for us, this is the best decision we can make right now regarding that. We want you to know that our ministry partners (who feel much more like family to us!) have been so faithful and God has provided for our every need through their generosity!! The cost of living is just so high here right now and the dollar so low, it has been impossible to keep above the red in our ministry account. We are, in fact, currently negative $ 3,000 and have been maintaining that negative balance for several months now - NOT because people aren't giving, but because it's just so expensive to live here, we cannot achieve financial stability. We feel this is a clear sign from God, because we know He could change that situation if He willed it so.

With these two big changes happening right now, we feel moved by God to look towards new direction in our lives as a family. There are other indicators in our lives such as Andris’ special education needs, which make it clear we need to look towards a move back to the states and new ministry opportunities there.

This has been a very long, very painful, and very extensive process for both Lisa and me. Hearing God's call to leave the foreign mission field has been much, much, much more difficult than hearing His call to go. We have been forced time and time again to go to Him, to recognize that this has always been HIS Kingdom work and not ours, and to trust that His direction (Will) is good, pleasing, and perfect (Romans 12).

So, what does this all look like?

· We are still Josiah Venture missionaries working and living on support in Latvia currently

· Lisa and I will continue doing ministry during this transition time, discipling and mentoring youth leaders, as well as helping in the transition

· We are praying that the house sells and will be wrapping up ministry, delegating ministry responsibilities accordingly, and settling back in the states by Spring 2009

· I will continue working on my Bible degree through Moody Bible on-line, as well as seeking what direction God would have us go

· We will be actively seeking where the Lord is calling us in His Kingdom work, and we greatly appreciate your prayers for us during this time!

I cannot stress enough how difficult these decisions have been for us. We still need your prayers and support greatly! The enemy would love for us to begin the process of leaving with our heads hanging in defeat, forgetting the many lives that have been transformed by the love of Christ through the work here. This is NOT of God. It has been an incredible privilege to take part in HIS Kingdom work here in Latvia, and we are confident that the work will continue on far after we leave. Part of our souls has become Latvian, and we are different people because of it. We are grateful to God for this incredible chapter written by the author and perfecter of our faith, and we look forward with great anticipation for what He will write next! And we are so blessed and grateful to you for standing with us throughout this journey!

Please feel free to contact us, as we know you may have many questions. Life and ministry will certainly move forward here, and we will keep you clearly informed throughout this whole transition.

We thank you for your continued prayers and support in these crucial months ahead!

In Him,

Scott A. Runzo

Third round….

2008-07-19T02:05:00.001-07:00

This third week of camps was amazing. We had a team from Texas here to help with Vilandes Church. It was a great week! Texas was full of love and ENERGY!!! They blessed us all with all they brought to our camp.
This camp did not start out like other in the past. We actually only had 5 kids registered and at camp when camp was suppose to start! We were freaking out! how the heck do you do a camp for 5 kids and 20 leaders!!!
Well, the Lord had His plan al along!
Because of the small numbers we decided to split up the leaders and half of them would be sent out into the small town community where we were having the camps, just to build relationships and hang out with the locals.
Something we should have been thinking about from the beginning! It was a great move and tons of locals started coming out and just hanging out and talking with us. We had some basketball games with the local guys and crafts with the kids, and just hung out with the girls and the community! It was great! I am looking forward to see what the Lord has planned for next week and the continuation of those relationships!
Not only that but by the end of the first night 17 campers had trickled in and we were ready for camp too!!!
Spirits were low that first day and Satan did a number on us when it came to uniting all the teams. But through the Lords Grace and love we were able to mend brokenness and move forward in unexplainable love for each other! After that first day, there was a major shift and you could feel the lord working on everyone, not just the campers!
I was blessed to see not just one but two leaders on from Texas and one form Latvia share their testimonies and share breakthroughs that had just happened over that week!
It is beautiful to see that these camps are not just to reach the campers for Christ, but he is truly doing a work in each one of us along the way!!!

I sat with one of my dear friends who volunteered for this camp and we came to the beautiful conclusion that if we as leaders are not being moved and changed daily by the lord we cannot move students anywhere. There is no walking alongside someone in there faith if you are not walking yourself!!!

This camp was a true blessing to see EVERYONE moving in their walk with the Lord!

2nd done... on to the 3rd!

2008-07-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

We have just finished our 2nd camp! This Camp was a camp for Kuldiga Baptist Church. Kuldiga is a small town in Latvia that we have been working with for over two years now. Faith Church in Fort Collins Colorado came to partner for the second year in a row with Kuldiga and the outcome was straight from the Lord!!!

This camp was full of energy and building relationships, new and old! It was an amazing camp for everyone involved! I was so deeply blessed to watch as the Lord moved throughout this week. We had 20 students from Kuldiga at he camp, a fourth of those not really wanting to be there at the beginning and some that had returned from last years camp.

We played crazy games, danced, sang, prayed, laughed, cried, and grew closer to Jesus together through long days and nights, full of spending our energy building into these students.

One student in particular made me smile. He was a 13-year-old kid who was very clear at the beginning of camp that it was not his choice to be there and that his parents had forced him to come so he could learn English! Two nights in we played a night game and he unfortunately ran his teeth into the elbow of one of the leaders and knocked his front teeth out! He had to go home that night. We were all very sad to see him go because we all started to see him warm up to the camp and to us.
When he got home to his mom that night, the story that came back to us from one of the leaders from Kuldiga was this; they said that when he got home full of blood and missing teeth, he looked at his mom and begged her, “ Mamma, Please let me go back. I promise I wont bust anything else, just please let me go back!”
Less than 24 hours later he was back and welcomed by the whole camp!!! Needless to say he felt something at that camp that was real and he did not want to let go of it!!! Praise Jesus!

Thank you for your continued prayers as we move into week 3 and our 3rd camp of the summer.This one is with a Church in Riga, Vilandes Baptist Church with whom we have been working with for over three years. They will be partnered with Richardson Baptist Church from Texas. Richardson Baptist has been a sister church to Vilandes for many years and in the past two summers have brought a youth team to help with their Summer camp! It will be an excited week!

We are at CAMP!!!!

2008-06-30T06:56:00.001-07:00

All the months of planning, all the promoting, all the training is now behind us and now it’s time to see the Lord work!
We have four camps planned this summer. Three of those camps are with three local churches in Latvia partnered with three churches in the states.

Faith EVC, Colorado is coming to partner with Kuldiga Baptist Church at the beginning of July.

Richardson First Baptist, Texas is partnering with Vilandes Baptist Church in Riga in the middle of July.

And Red Mountain Community Church (My home Church!), Arizona is partnering with Jelgava Baptist Church at the end of July. This camp will be the first for Jelgava!

Right now we are in our first camp and this one is very different than anything we have done in the past. We have felt a need to connect with students from around Latvia that have experienced camp in the past or have made a decision to follow the Lord and have maybe fallen away or just have had nowhere to go. So this week we are having what we are calling an “Open Camp” where any student from all over Latvia.

We have about 17 kids here and it is sooo exciting to see the kids that have come! This is a smaller camp than usual and we have no American Church team to assist, so it is quite a stretching week for our Interns and staff. I would have to say that I see the Lord moving in amazing ways already! Man I am sooo blessed to be apart of this!

Here are some photos!!!

Please continue to pray as we walk through this next month and connect with 100’s of students from all around Latvia and of course the states who are coming to serve! Thank you for being a part of this with me!

Also a personal prayer request:
I am in a whole new role this year. Last year as you may know I jumped right into leading camp ministry, and with that it has been a quite natural transition into continuing that role and adding more!
This summer I am in the main role of “Camp Director” which is very overwhelming most of the time!!! I am enjoying it, and I love watching the Lord use me and grow me. But again, I would love to be even more surrendered to the Lord and to what he has for me and for this summer ministry! Pray that I lead fully from the Lord’s power and love with the students, the American teams, the interns, and our full time staff.

Thanks for your prayers! Thanks for partnering with me!

Easter Fun!

2008-04-01T06:29:00.002-07:00

This is just a fun Video that will not stop making me laugh at my girls and their silly ways. This was just a bored moment at our place when I had 5 of the orphanage girls together at my apartment for the Easter Holiday! This is Endija on the left and Sinitja on the right.
Have fun watching.. they are very creative! I was actually cooking dinner when i heard them playing this song and they made up this dace in less than 30 min! amazing talent, and goofballish to say the least ;) enjoy!

I LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Moving Forward

2008-04-01T06:29:00.001-07:00

Hello there!
thing have been moving along since my update. I have visited many different organizations and places in Latvia helping he type of people my heart is longing to reach. It has been a great time of just getting to know people in Latvia with the same heart and passion. And let me tell you there are deep needs here!

I spent some time with the director of Buckners here in Latvia and she is in over head with helping the needy here in Latvia. the main thing that Buckners does here in Latvia is work with orphans and foster homes trying to get the kids into family units instead of the institutions. Every time i have met with her my eyes and heart are ripped open to what the true need of these kids are. I also visited a very poor community out in a town 3 hours from Riga with her and a couple social workers. this community is set in a old military base that was abandon after the occupation. and the towns near by sent all the poor people who were not able to pay bills and make it in regular society and sent them there. this community has old apartment building but with not much more than four walls. not a lot of chance of heat or hot water, or even running water in some cases, and i also saw many apartments with the windows knocked out! I can not image what it is like in the winter with no windows or heat!!! Buckners has started a day center there for kids to come after school so they are not out on the streets. They get a hot meal and there is a program to keep them entertained and safe. it is amazing to see how it all works, but there is also so much need that you can’t help but hurt for these kids and their families!

I see my self working along side Buckners out there in the future, but we will see what the Lord says in all of that too.

I also had a chance to meet with a young lady named PJ, in her mid 80’s working in Latvia as a missionary working with teens who are dealing with pregnancy and abortion prevention. This woman amazed me and would amaze you too!! she has such a heart for serving the Lord and being obedient to what he has put on her heart. they do every thing from counseling before the teens have the baby, to helping them understand the consequences both physically, mentally, and emotionally linked to abortion, to sex education, to post counseling for those who chose abortion, to helping teen orphans, and much more.
I also had an opportunity to go with PJ’s assistant to an orphanage in a town outside of Riga to talk about these things and just meet the kids and build relationships with them. when we arrived we had a class full of 9 teen boys, and it was an amazing time of just talking and sharing, and building relationships with them. My heat was so touched when i went there, i also see my self returning to this orphanage and hopefully continuing to grow in relationship with the teens there.

there are tons of other things in the works too....
I just see the Lord really working on my heart and showing me his heart in this area of ministry here in Latvia. I am excited to see what is next!

Please pray that I will be in-tune to His still small voice as i search to see what the next chapter here in Latvia will look like for me.

Link to my latest update...

2008-03-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the latest news from Latvia!
Check it out!

Prayer Update...prayer still needed!

2008-01-18T03:52:00.000-08:00

From the word of Scott Runzo:

Well, like always there has been good news and some not-so-good/but not too bad-news. First, Kelly and Donna Hargan got the news today that they don't need residency to get their container out of port. This is big because when we arrived, we needed residency to get a container out of port. If that had been the case for them, after Saturday, it would have cost them 80$ a day, and with residency on hold that could really add up. So, this news is a huge positive for them. Praise God!

The situation with the residency for all the new missionaries is the same, only the time frames will look different, because of their different arrival dates.

We know now that the old system of getting Visas will no longer work, so we will be going through the Baptist Union. I think, although seemingly inconvenient right now, this is a real Godsend. It will bring the new missionaries and the local church closer together by needing each other. Already we have seen the local church that Mike Kelly has been working with really step up and want to help Mike get in the country. I think this will happen with all the missionaries, and it will cause an automatic tangible connection between each. We see that God is so good, and He is always mindful of the bigger picture!

The time frame is our biggest prayer request right now. As you may already know, you can only be in the country for 90 days without a visa. Otherwise, you are considered breaking the law and are forced to leave with a big, back stamp in your passport that forbids entrance back into the country for a year. As it stands, we know when they have to go, we're just not sure where yet! Before, we just went across the border only a couple of hours away and waited it out. But the EU and other European countries just signed an open border agreement (the "Shenga Treaty, if you want the terminology) which means there is no one at the borders to stamp your passport. We love this when it comes to traveling, but no one can tell us what it means to be out of the country. This is why we sent Mike to Ukraine, they are not part of the open border agreement.

As it looks right now all the missionaries will have to leave and head to a country outside of this area. It look like we will have additional places for them to go in Albania and Croatia. Lord-willing, they should only have to go for a week or so while their papers are being processed. Please keep this in your prayers. As you can imagine, for a new missionary who has already spent at least a year (sometimes more) preparing to go to his new country, to have to leave so soon, is very discouraging. Please pray that they will see (as we have already) the hand of God in all of it, and that, in the end, we will all be drawn to Him to a deeper trust and a strengthened faith for all He does in our lives and in the ministry. Also, please pray for Mike Kelly because he left the country on his 90th day, which leaves us a little confused as to how he will come back into the country to pick up his residency papers.

WOW! we will keep you up to date as we get more information.

Thanks for praying and keep on praying - it s so evident that many have lifted us up - we have felt such a peace which transcends all understanding - REALLY! We feel you lifting us up!! Thank you!!

Scott A. Runzo

Josiah Venture

Country Leader Latvia

Director JVLV Latvia

Urgent Prayer Request

2008-01-14T00:52:00.000-08:00

I will just copy what Lisa Runzo has said concerning this. I really do not know what that means or me personally as i am one of the ones who looks as if i slipped by (at least for now) but please read this and pray!!!

We would like to ask that you pray this week very fervently, and possibly in the weeks to come for all of our new staff to receive their residency into the country of Latvia!!

Most of you know that we have only had one person not receive their residency in the past. And, in actuality have only heard of two cases (one of those being ours) where missionaries did not receive their residency in the past, out of literally hundreds who have come through Latvia to minister for some time.

Unfortunately, this pattern is about to change. The first of our five new missionaries was rejected on Friday. Mike Kelly left for the Ukraine (a non-EU country, as required) yesterday, and will have to reside there until this conflict is resolved. We fear that the other four will receive their bad news on Wednesday (although this is not for certain yet - prayer # 1!!!!!!!)

It seems that EU rules are changing things significantly. In fact, our family should have been rejected in October when we re-applied, as well as our other existing missionary, Jaycee Jensen, in November. How we "slipped through" we cannot say. We suspect that the five new people applying caused a red flag and further investigation. Apparently, the way we have been registered as a not-for-profit organization does not allow us to invite people into the country to live any longer. This is hugely significant because every other missions organization in the country is listed in the same way and goes through the same process to bring missionaries into the country.

Some people have suggested we pay for a lawyer, but, in fact, this would do no good (and, actually, we paid for a lawyer with our last missionary who was rejected, and he really couldn't help us). A lawyer cannot help us change the law, and they cannot change the minds of the people working in the government office. The EU is "cracking down" and making it more and more difficult for foreigners to receive residency, and in fact, they have to do this. With all the new Eastern block countries that have been accepted into the EU, they have to control it somehow if they do not want all of Russia and the Middle East to flood through their doors. The difficult part of all this is - we have very few other options.

Right now, we are praying that possibly not all of our new people have been rejected - Eastern Europe is still that way - it can change from day to day, depending who is working. We will know for sure on Wednesday whether or not they all have to leave. Mike will be applying for residency through the Baptist Union for a religious visa, and since he does have a certificate from a seminary, we don't see that he will be rejected again - but, again, nothing is ever for sure here. The down side of that kind of visa is that it is only given for one year, so every year you have to pay high fees and face the stress of being rejected. But, as said before, we don't have a lot of other options at this point.

Pray for Mike as he has to stay in Ukraine and wait - pray that the Lord will meet Him there and minister to him. Pray that he will receive welcome back into the country very soon.

Pray for our other missionaries - Kelly and Donna Hargon, Joe Brookes, and Nick Fletcher - as they wait until Wednesday. Pray that miraculously the news is good and they have been accepted!! Pray that if it is not good, we will find a good course of action for all of them - they can't all stay with the one couple who lives in Ukraine!

Pray that we find a solution to this very upsetting mess! As said before, this will affect every other mission agency in the country, and quite possibly all of the EU!! Pray for Scott, as country leader, that he would have wisdom and discernment. Pray for someone to come along side of us who can help us sort this out! Pray for the right people to be in the right offices as they make decisions regarding our people.

The bottom line of all this is - we are shocked and confused. The good news - God is not!!! He knew it all before any of it came to be. He is in control, and now we must petition Him to work His mighty hand in this! He can do this - we cannot! But we must come to Him and pray!!

Please commit to praying for this matter to be resolved, and for our faith to be strengthened as we see Him work!

Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God." - John 11:40

Thank you for standing with us in faith and belief!

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

2007-12-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2007-12-14T13:21:00.000-08:00

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

This past week

2007-12-10T01:22:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-10T01:12:00.000-08:00

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!

A quicky....

2007-10-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

I am in Sweden.... will be here until October 30th...

then go to Tilza... there till November 2nd...

then go to Bauska... there till November 4th... then home!!! I hope!!!

Sweden....
Here for sharing about Latvia and missions and just a time to visit dear friends for a little while! It has been amazing so far!

Tilza...
will be the 4th week of class and i can say it is amazing and i feel like i am learning much!!! A huge blessing!

Bauska.....
first School of leaders starts this coming weekend!!! cant wait to see the young people God will bring to us this year!!

Thank you for checking in. I will Post more pictures as soon as I get better Internet access...

I will not have my computer for most of the days to come until the 4th.... so i hope to find a way to relpy to e-mail and such... so just so you know where and what i am doing!!!

love you... I hope you know that!

sorry!

2007-10-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hey all! sorry I have not written any updates on the trip or Language or anything. I am doing a terrible job of keeping you up to date...
I will try to at least catch you up in the next few days... until then here is a slide show of the Road trip to go get the car that was donated to me by a dear friend in Germany...

Enjoy... I am off to Language training for the next 4 days... will update soon!

9 countries....in less than 2 weeks!

2007-09-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

Lots to say…
I am in Czech right now and I have been here for almost 5 days… I am attending the annual Fall Conference here, and it is amazing!!! So many cool things God is doing in my heart and in Latvia and especially all through Eastern Europe!
I cannot even begin to explain what my heart is feeling as I walk around seeing so many nationals from so many countries on fire for Christ and youth!! It is nothing less than a taste of heaven (every nation praising the Lord!)

So I leave tomorrow to travel to Slovakia…

Why you may ask?!

Well… The Lord has blessed me with a car! My friend from Germany has donated her car to me and my ministry!!!! Crazy! I know!

So I head to Slovakia, spend then night and travel to Bratislava, Slovakia to jump on a plane to Switzerland, get to Switzerland and drive to Germany, pick up the car stay the night there hang out with my dear friend, then head half way up Germany to visit one more friend and rest, then drive to the north tip of Germany and jump on a boat with my car and float myself 27 hours back to Latvia!!!! FUN!!!!!

You may ask…why all that traveling!!!! Believe it or not, it is the cheapest way to do it!!! Haha! Go figure! So I should be back in Latvia by September 28 or 29th! And then I start Language Training on the 3rd of October!!!

Can you please pray for safety and logistics of this journey, and that the whole way I will keep Christ as my center and that HE gets the glory?

Thank you for checking in. thank you for your prayers!

Update again when I can!

A hard day for me

2007-08-31T03:47:00.001-07:00

Paul Levenda, my dear friend a partner here in Latvia left this morning to return home to Arizona. he has been a major support to as i have made my transition into life here in Latvia. he was always there to take me places, fix thing in my apartment. move me in and out of all the places I was in before now. but more than anything he was the person who I knew without a doubt was there for me not matter what! He listened, encouraged, laughed and cried with me. a true friend and brother to me. he will be deeply missed.

If you are in the Arizona area and happen to see him please always give him a hug for me and tell him that Jaycee misses him.
pray for him also as he transitions back into life back in the states. being in Latvia for two and half years will defiantly have an affect on him and getting back into the culture there.

Be blessed by him as I have have here!

Where am I going next?

2007-08-31T03:33:00.000-07:00

On September 16th I will head to Czech to our annual Fall Conference with JV. This conference is different then the Spring conference. The Fall Conference is more about equipping and training. And we get the blessing of bringing some of the nationals from Latvia that are involved with youth ministry and connected to us in Latvia. This year we will be taking about 6 Nationals with us this year! Very exciting!
I will be in Czech from the 16 through the 22nd of September. Please pray for safety as we travel. We will be taking a van for the 18-hour (one way) trip there and back.

Gonna do it!

2007-08-31T03:32:00.000-07:00

I have a chance to learn Latvian in a different way. I am not doing as well as I was hoping to do by now. My understanding of the language is not too bad, but my conversational Latvian is terrible. So I have decided to go to a small town about 4 hours away, a VERY SMALL town! And go through a three month intensive immersion program. It will be very hard to do this as I have already seen the great opportunity for ministry after this summer. But I cannot give up this chance to finally get the language! So I will need a lot of prayer as I enter into a new world of language learning in the next month. The program is October through December. I am praying that I will be able to find some form of transportation to and from that town, other than public transportation. As I will be commuting back and forth several times a month.

Summer coming to an end...

2007-08-31T03:31:00.000-07:00

So summer is practically over. It is sad to say because I truly love the summer time and the ministry that goes on during the summer time. And if I am honest I definitely prefer the summer weather to the wintertime. But I do have to say that I am already excited about what God is doing because of the fruit of this summer and even into next summer and what that will look like!
During this summer I found myself on fire for what God is doing and what he can do through summer ministry here. The Lord put on my heart so many ideas and ways we can make this summer ministry into something even better.
We have so many different parts of the body of Christ come together each summer to make the summer work. Of course we have the full time JV staff here, then we have the churches that we are involved in training their youth leaders, and helping them by using a camp to jump start their youth ministry in their town. Then we have the North American Church teams that come for short term mission trips here to help run the camps. Then we have the summer interns, who are here for the whole 3 months of summer ministry teaching English, running camps, doing outreach, service projects, and much more.

Needless to say, it is a very fun but challenging task to communicate and bring it all together. God has been more than faithful in working it our over the past summers and he again did an amazing job of working it out perfectly this summer.
I cannot wait to see how he is seen and glorified in it again next year!

Just so you know it looks like I will have a big part (even bigger than this year) in the planning and running of the summer ministry this next summer. And that starts even now with communication and planning! So I have my work cut out for me, and I cannot keep my excitement in! I am stoked to start!

Merging worlds

2007-08-31T02:41:00.000-07:00

For as many years as I can remember I have found myself in many different worlds that have never seemed to come together. In 1998 I came to Latvia for the first time, since then I have returned to this country several time, and now live here. I have also found a special place in my heart for Sweden. I went to Sweden for Bible school and it truly became a “home away from home”. I have lived in these worlds only dreaming that they would someday meet each other. But I never thought that dream would become reality.

This summer it did!

As you can see from the picture here! "my girls" who have become my family ...with my family! Words cannot explain how cool this was!

My Parents and Grandmother came to Latvia to visit me in my new place of residence. It was such a peculiar feeling as I drove them from the airport through the town I have loved for so long, yet never being able to share it with my family until that moment! Latvia was no reality for them, and everything that I talked about for so many years was no right in front of them, they could smell the smells I smelt, they saw the blinding green all around that I could never really explain, they saw the face of the Latvians that until then were just names. It was a dream that I was living out!

They were here for 10 days and it was great. For the first time I shared this “world” I have loved and longed to share for so long with the ones I love. It was a beautiful time.

But boy did I keep them busy! We walked, we drove, we flew! Toured Riga and the town. Visited several towns all around Latvia. Met with many people who have become very special to me. Spent a lot of time with “my girls” and letting them enjoy my parents and grandma. We also took a quick 2 ½ day trip to Sweden to visit the school I attended, and met some very special people who live there.

All in all it was crazy busy but so much fun! My mom kept saying, “I need to try to figure out how many miles we have traveled during this trip!” I don’t know how many they figured out, but I do know we went EVERYWHERE!!!

It was hard to see them go. It definitely was not long enough for me, but I am truly blessed by the time the Lord gave me with them!

More Photo's Here

Intern Wrap up...

2007-08-27T03:12:00.000-07:00

What an amazing end to an amazing summer of ministry! We spent 4 days in Liepaja, a town on the cost of the Baltic sea (sounds exotic, I know!). we stayed at a little bed andt a 2 min walk away in California!
It was a great time of rest, fellowship, reflection, prayer, food, laughing, crying, vision, and fueling the passion that was ignited in each of us through what Christ had done with and through us during the past 3 months.
I could go into great detail about all that time was, but no words would ever give justice to what we experienced there, but I guess that really goes for the whole summer! I guess that’s what you get when you are just a little part of a BIG GOD and his work!

I can definitely say without a doubt that this team of six interns were hand picked by our Jesus, and there was no one or nothing I would have wanted to change. I spent months worrying and recruiting for interns with NOTHING to speak of, yet out of that “nothing” Christ put together HIS team. I love it when I can say I did nothing to have such a great outcome, because HE gets the GLORY! And all I can say is TO HIM BE THE GLORY!

A little bit about each one of the Interns from this year:

Linda (Riga, Latvia):
This was probably the best surprise and best gift of the summer for me. I did not know Linda at all, actually no one did except for Lelde. Lelde knew I was struggling terribly to find people to serve this summer and so she went to work, and asked a couple people. Linda was one of them that she mentioned the internship to just in passing, and without hesitation Linda said ok! What?! She is ready to commit to serving hardcore for three months straight without much of a break, not knowing anyone? Are you sure she knows what she is getting into Lelde, I asked completely shocked!
Lelde was sure she was committed and would be great. I was still very hesitant because I did not know her and I was not too sure if she would “fit in” with the team… but I needed as many Latvian as I could get and so I said OK!
Linda turned out to be an amazing addition to the team that I could not imagine this summer without! She completed “us”! she was a ball of energy. She was/is passionately in love with our Jesus in a way that inspires me (and makes me jealous, if I am honest). She is real to the core, nothing superficial about this girl! NOTHING! I feel more than honored that I got to spend 3 months serving along side this woman of God! And pray that this will not be the last time I will be able to be blessed by her presence.

Lelde (Riga, Latvia)
about youth and serves in any way possible when she gets the chance. Even as I type this, though our JV camps are over she has been involved with other camps goinWell Lelde is nothing short of a lifesaver! She is more than a servant. Lelde is our JV office secretary, and MUCH MORE! She is passionateg on, and at this moment is serving in one now! Amazing! Lelde throughout the summer held us together. She was the “go to girl” for any question we had pertaining to…well pretty much everything! And if that was not enough she still led an English class, and small groups, and was deeply involved in relationships. This girl amazed me! Not only was she amazing, she was personally a huge support to me as a dear friend that I have found a refreshing blessing that I am so exited to be able to continue! Lelde is so focused on meeting the real Jesus everyday and that was seen and experienced by each of us on the team several times through out the summer. She is a prayer warrior! She is determined to live out Christ! She is humble and a true servant of the King! A woman that blesses people she comes in contact with in ways that I only pray I can do some day.

Ilja (Riga, Latvia)
This kid… this NOW true man of God! Ilja and I go back a long way! He was a little squirt running around in 1998, my first year ever in Latvia. And he has been around ever since in different ways. Involved as a camper, then as a helper, then as an intern, then… well honestly I lost track of him! Just to find out he was attending the same bible school in Sweden that I had attended 2 years previous. I went to go meet with Aaron (we will talk about him in a minute) about the Internship. He was also attending the Bible school at the time. While there I got to talk to Ilja, and the boy I remembered from so many years past was gone! I was shocked at this man who was talking so deeply about our Jesus and his passion to serve him! He met me in so many areas of my desire to serve Christ! At that moment I felt like I had found a true brother in Christ! And I was flippin stoked because he said he was interested in the internship as well!!!
What a blessing to have him on our team. Ilja brought a dynamic to the team that brought a joy that would not have been there without him. He has a heart four youth that we covet for here in Latvia and JV. He has a sense of humor like no one I know, I don’t think I have laughed so much in a long time! A laugh that is nothing short of contagious. A heart that is bigger than most I have seen in my life. He was and is a true encourager, something that is priceless when you serve in such an intense way. His desire to follow Christ was evident and he had no problem telling us when he struggled, or was not on the right track. He brought us into true community through his transparency! Which brought us to deep spiritual commitment with each other, that I did not experience until this summer. I am deeply touched by Ilja and his realness, and his readiness to give up all to follow His Jesus.

Ashleigh (Mesa, Arizona)
This girl was with me last summer as I helped lead a group of youth to Latvia for a 10 day mission trip. Ashleigh and I were already acquainted before the trip, but I truly got to see her heart during the summer of 2006 when we were serving together. She expressed the desire to return as an intern almost right away, and I was ecstatic! I knew I would be in Latvia by that time and most likely leading the intern team, and I could not think of anyone better to have on the team.
And boy was she a blessing! She is quite and very laidback, something so refreshing when there is so much to stress out about! What touched me about Ashleigh was her true desire to follow Christ. Not just “follow Christ” as “all” Christians do, but to be a true follower! No matter what the church, or Christians, or religion was saying she should do, she looked only to Christ! She was ready to turn away from anything no matter how it looked to follow her Jesus. such an inspiration to me, such a true example! She has touched me deeply and I cannot wait to see how the Lord will use her and her true devotion to Him! One thing I learned from this, barley 18 year old young woman, is that no matter the age of a person, it never determines the power and knowledge of the holy spirit inside of them! I learned so much from Ashleigh this summer that will keep me in tune to the family of Christ all around me, no matter how old or how young, ALL have the Spirit of God Himself inside and he is ready to speak through them right to my heart!
I pray that the Lord will keep me close to Ashleigh so I can be blessed by her and her passion.

Susan (Vancouver, Canada)
Well Susan is one of my dearest friends in this lifetime. I met Susan at Bible school in Sweden and we have held on to a deep friendship since then. Susan has a long story about how she got here this summer. I probably could write a book about! But I will try to keep this short.
Right before we left Sweden to return home I was walking with Susan and mentioned some things about Latvia and like a lightning bolt from heaven I got this vision of Susan serving in Latvia with JV. Susan spiritual gift is administration… I know, weird! But if there is any spiritual gift that is needed in missions it is that of administration! There are so many people with the desire to reach people through evangelism, or service that the organizational and administrational needs are left WAY behind. So that being said I convinced Susan to try and be an intern that next summer so she could check it out. She was not as excited as I was, but she did it… and then came back again this summer cause God is doing something in her heart! ha, I knew it!!!
Anyway this summer just showed me in so many ways how much Susan should be here and how she could be used in such powerful way for the kingdom of God here! she has a way with people that I covet! She has a sense of humor that is so attractive. And yet she has a depth about her that keep her level and a true blessing as a support and counsel. She loves youth and building deep relationship through discipleship. I cannot wait to see what God does with her here in the next years to come! Please pray for her as she begins the hard and trying time of becoming a full time missionary here.
If you know her or just feel called to encourage her you can contact her at:team_spike@hotmail.com

Aaron (Vancouver, Canada)
This guy was a big surprise, but and even bigger blessing. Through a contact he had with Susan he heard about the internship in Latvia and was interested. At that time he was attended the same Bible school as Ilja. I had never met Aaron and I wanted to check him out before accepting his application. So I took a trip over to Sweden to have a chat with him. He impressed me from the beginning, asking tough questions and just sharing his desire to serve Christ in a new and real way!
Aaron was a born leader and we looked to him throughout the summer for direction. He naturally leads in a way that people want to follow, and seeing his heart for Christ made his leadership refreshing and a blessing to have on the team. Aaron had a way of being completely real and transparent that brought us back to the true meaning of community. Through Aarons example and lead we entered into conflict that was brought with love that inevitably brought us into a “community of Grace”. Something that once you are a part you will never be satisfied with nothing less!
He is a leader lead by the love of Christ. He is committed to being a man of moral integrity. He has a sense of humor that kept all of our stomachs sore. He loves adventure. He loves youth! He is a true man of God.

So that was our intern team! And that really does not come close to explaining the time we shared together this summer. But I do know that this summer was like no other I have ever experienced.
“When failing striver's stumble into a community of grace, safety, and vulnerable repentance, it radically disrupts their game plan. Suddenly, they are face to face with a real, tangible option of sweet freedom. And the ongoing environment of the community tells them that they have not dreamt up this way of life. As the community treats them as they have never been treated before, their confidence grows that grace can support the FULL WEIGHT of their sin.”

TrueFaced, Bill Thrall

Just got back from Intern Debriefing..

2007-08-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

We just walked in the door from a four day end of summer debrief with the Interns... the summer is over in 3 days....

i will write about the time in debriefing soon.

thanks for checkin' in.

Kuldiga Camp

2007-07-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Back from our last camp for the summer, and I am loving life and lovin Jesus! he did amazing things throughout this past week and a half. I am sitting back trying to put my mind around the whole things and it seems to be impossible! God was present and moving in this camp in Kuldiga in ways I can only say that I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to be apart of.
Everything from the kids, to the town, the ministry team of Kuldigas Baptist church, to the Colorado team that came, to the interns, to the weather, EVERYTHING was absolutely amazing! And I believe with all my heart that it was that way because Jesus was living and breathing through his people during this time! What a huge honor to be apart of his work!

I could tell many stories of salvation, of relationships, of God coming through in times of great need, and sooo much more. Ahhhh, where do I start to even come close to sharing how this camp and outreach went?
I don’t know if I can!

One thing that blessed my socks off was the Colorado team! There was a group of 13 high school and college aged students who come o be apart of this camp, and all I can say is that I saw Christ through them! And what is sooo exciting is that I see God moving in the hearts of young adults for the country of Latvia!!! Almost half of the team has expressed desires not just to return to Latvia but the desire to be summer interns and even possibly more! It is so cool to see God moving even where you don’t know!

About the town of Kuldiga. This was our first camp there so it was defiantly fun breaking new ground. But more than that I just sensed a great openness and joy throughout the town. Of course there is a lot of hurt and darkness, but a sense of hope that I have not felt in other towns. And the church is behind the youth, seeing them as the future church!! That is stinkin sweeeet! Even people not involved with the church were interested in what was happening this week. The second day the news paper called and asked if they could interview Paul, Lelde and myself about the camp and why we were there! What a great blessing! The next day we were on the front page! Top story of the newspaper, color picture and all!!! Kuldiga is amazing and I sense God moving in really cool ways there!

The camp its self was so fun! Of course it is one of my favorite things about being a missionary here. seeing kids just grow, and transform before your eyes. Building relationships, and just watching Christ revive these youth and give them a joy that is not of them! Ahhh, what a beautiful savior we have!

Here are some pictures of the Kuldiga camp and outreach days CLICK HERE

Gone again

2007-07-14T01:49:00.000-07:00

in 5 min I leave to go to Kuldiga for another English camp....
please pray for us, for the teams coming, for the camp, and campers....
cant wait to see and tell what Jesus does this week!
be back on Tuesday... will update then.

Cau! (Chow)

Vilandes English camp

2007-07-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

Back from our second camp this summer.
This camp was our first English camp this summer and it was an absolute blast! This camp was for Vilandes Baptist Church in Riga. The fun and challenging part f what we do here at JV in Latvia is bringing teams together to accomplish the task at hand, that of which is running an English camp for the purpose of bringing teens into a relationship with the Jesus we so long for them to know as we do!

There was a team from Texas here, which consisted of 10 high school students, 4 leaders, and 2 kids.

There was a Ministry team from Vilandes Baptist Church, which consisted of Toms, the youth Pastor, and 4 of his youth leaders.

There was the Intern team of 6, which consists of an American, 2 Canadians, and 3 Latvians

And then you have Paul and I, who are the JV staff.

16 Texans, 5 church leaders, 6 Interns, and 2 JV staff…

Talk about coming from all areas of life and experience!!!

The only way that all of these people could come together and produce anything that would bring glory to God, is if God is the CENTER of it ALL!

And that he was!

27 kids from all over Latvia bordered a bus in Riga and traveled to a town about 3 hours away called Viesita. These kids came from all walks of life, some from churches, some went to church every once in a while, some just coming because they came last year, some with no idea about Jesus or church!

This has to close to my favorite camp ever. The sense of Christ in that camp was evident in so many ways! He worked in ways I cannot even begin to explain. I was so blessed to be apart of the work Christ did through each one of us there. The Texas team was more than a blessing. The Vilandes Ministry team was amazing. The Interns held it all together. Which made Paul and my job quite easy and gave us much joy to see it all come together.

This camp was full of Fun, games, singing, dancing, making new friends, speaking English, Learning English, butchering Latvian language, laughing, joking, and not much sleeping!
But above all else I believe that each teen there was touched in some way… I can honestly say we all left there different, changed, touched by the love of Christ.

Here are a few pictures of it all:

Break between camps

2007-07-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend relaxin’ chillin’ and paintballin’!!!! yeah buddy!!!

Click Here for more pictures

Now ready for another week of camp!
We leave tomorrow morning bright and early! The Church team from Texas is here and we are set to start the English camp for Vilandes Church!!! They look like a great team and I am soo excited to work with them. It should be a great time!
Please pray for us and for unity within all the teams coming together to do this camp. and for the campers that will be there. May they see Jesus in human form through all of us!!!

A swollen hand, and 9 toe nails later….

2007-06-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

…A bug of unknown figure or name bit me! And my hand blew up like a balloon, and I decided to kick a stump and lost my toe nail, well almost it is still “hangin in there” :D just a few of the fun things during “tent camp hell…oh so much fun!”

We are back from our first camp! 5 full days, one shower, sleeping in tents, freezing my booty off, getting bit by things that I did not know even existed, mud, sun, clouds, rain, snow… just kidding;)
And best of all over 50 kids from the age of 8 to 12!!! Oh, was it a camp to remember! It was definitely full of adventure and no doubt filled with the power of Christ, because let me tell you… this 27 year old body could not do it with out HIM helping me every step of the way.
I cannot remember any time throughout that week that I did not have someone on my back or running from that activity to another or swimming in freeeeeeezing cold water, or doing all that pre teens just thrive on!
I am tired, but blessed!
I had a group of 5 young girls and 2 girls who were my tent leaders (in training you can say) both of which I had the blessing of meeting as campers three years previous in the same camp! What a blessing to be serving alongside them now! That is the beautiful thing called Discipleship!!! Ahhh I cant get over it!
The 5 girls that we had in our tent all professed that they were not Christians and did not seem to have much desire to know about him or really want to go deep at all. If I am honest I was relieved by this, just for the fact that it was not a show with them. They did not give the good ole religious answers and try to please us by their knowledge of who this Jesus we were talking about is. They were real to the core, which burned a fire inside of me for them and their souls!
I would love to tell you that by the end of the camp they were transformed. I would love to say that they have given their life’s fully to the savior of their life! I would love to share with you a change in their hearts. But all I can say is that God is at work in their hearts. I can see little lights of hope. I could see through out the week the battle for their souls! And it got me excited yet again for what Jesus is doing here in Latvia.

It was a great start to a crazy summer!

Our next camp is starting next Tuesday and we will spend this week creating our English curriculum for the next two camps, which will be English camps, and for teens. I am stoked!~

We spent the weekend celebrating “Jani” which is the mid-summers-eve celebration here in Latvia. It was just the Interns chillin at the beach… it was a great day of fellowship and bonding! (just an artsee picture of the interns)

My plan is to write a actual update letter this week so be lookin out!! ;)

Check out pictures here:

In Liepaja for Ieva’s Graduation
Outreach in Madona
In Riga for Graduations
At our First camp
Chillin for “Jani”

Leaving for “adventure camp”

2007-06-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today we leave for adventure camp in Ergli for a week! It is raining and cold for the first time in over a month!!! Go figure, the week we are to be I tents and out in the wilderness with 8 to 12 year old kiddies...and it is cold, wet and muddy!!! Yes!!! Well it will call for some good pictures I am sure of that!!!
So I ask that you pray hard for our team this next week! We all have felt a determined attack from satan spiritually and physically this past few days.
One of which was how I had my wallet stolen right out of my purse on the way home from our out reach this past Thursday! All of my credit cards and cash and drivers license GONE! Yep! He is out for blood!! Haha, and I think it is quite funny because he is so sneaky and yet not at all!!!!!!
And on top of that we have all felt a sense of tiredness and being drained that should not be.
Can you please pray for spiritual renewal and strength as we enter this crazy hard, crazy fun week?
May we all rely completely on Jesus in us and not us just going to “share” Jesus!

Thank you. Love you all!

If you read this can you try an leave a comment…sometimes I feel like I am writing these for no one but the random web surfers!
I would love to know if these entries are helping you stay connected in anyway! Thank you all!!!

Back from training...

2007-06-11T13:36:00.001-07:00

Estonia was great!
The team came together in ways that I can only praise God for. He defiantly met us there!
We spent a lot of time relaxing, swimming, sauna-ing (not a word, i know!) and getting know each other, planning, and praying. It was a beautiful location and a wonderful time of community.
Now we are back in Latvia starting the planning of English classes and lessons, and preparing for camps.
Tomorrow we head out for two days of outreach, then back for the weekend…

Click here to check out some pictures thus far.

Whip um' into shape...

2007-06-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Hey there,
Well I have not gotten to the schedule yet… but I do want to quickly update you on a few little but real cool things!
First all of our Interns have arrived for the summer ministry and we have already had some great times of getting to know each other and “bonding”! this team is quite unique and I can already see that God had his hands all over the selection of every member of this team this year!!!
It is sweet to know that you are sitting in the middle of a group that will be used to set the mood for the whole summer!!! Yeah this Intern team is tha bomb, I gotta say!
We have two guys that just finished a bible school in Sweden ( the same one that Susan and I attended a few years ago) and then we have two female Latvians, one of which is Lelde oue secretary, and much more!!! And then we have a girl that randomly/divinely joined at the last minute, Linda, and she is flippin; sweet!!! And then of course a joy for me is Ashliegh Klimike, a student from Red Mountain Community Church in Arizona, my home church and town, and Ash has become such a joy to live out life with Christ, so it is more than a blessing to have her here as well!
So all in all this team is dynamic and down right… “bad- … to the bone”… gay!! (I did not want to swear!)
;)

so we are on our way to Estonia for Intern training for 5 days tomorrow morning! Pray for us and that the Lord would work in us and that we could form into the body of Christ in a way that will shine the light of Christ and the church to this generation here in Latvia!!!

I’m out…

Hugs all around

The Hill of Crosses...

2007-05-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took two of my girls on a trip to Lithuania to see The Hill of Crosses!!! It was such a great trip and absolutely amazing to see the hill full of crosses put there by thousands and thousands of people!!!
This trip was just a special trip for the girls because I will not be able to be around as much as I would like to during the summer due to the crazy schedule of camps and out reaches and all the teams coming and going, so this was their special weekend… and did we have a good time!
We left in the evening on Friday and chilled in a town close to the crosses and when shopping and ate dinner, then drove to a beach town, and then back to the town by the hill of crosses, found a good piece of land to park the car, slept for a few hours, then up and ready to go see the crosses!!! It was really hot! But beautiful!
Then we drove around Lithuania a little bit more just for fun! Here are a few pictures of that trip.

To see more pictures click here

Where have I been!

2007-05-30T05:32:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have been able to update you on the happenings around here. And for that I am sorry.
I left you as I was on my way to Sweden for a lovely reminiscing time with Susan. And that it was! The weather was great and the people were even better. One of our friends from our year also came to visit at the same time from Germany. Sweden is so beautiful around this time of year and we definitely took in as much as we could!

Here are a few pictures:

After the plane ride Me:TRYING to look cool Sooz:lookin cute!

A wonderful Fika with Wally and Donna Life time Friends

Hot! don't you think?

Had a little problems with our camp fire!!! hahah!!!
Click here for more pictures of my trip to Sweden

Summer has hit!
Yesterday was 32 degrees (around 85 Degrees Fahrenheit) with about 90 percent humidity!!! Haaaa breathe deep! ;D

But more than the weather I am realizing how much time I will NOT have in the next few months. I have missed my monthly update for may… the first time I have not been able to update since I have come to Latvia. My commitment is to not make that a habit, I promise! I am sorry to anyone who has been waiting for it.

We have been spending a lot of time working on scheduling and preparing material for all the aspects of the summer in the past few weeks. It has been a lot of work, but also gets me very excited to “get the party started”, so to speak! (I know I am a retard!)
But truly I am so stoked about the camps, the Interns, the American high school teams, and of course the Latvian teens that will be involved this summer!!! This is such a sweet way to live life! Let me tell you!

Personally and spiritually it has been quite bumpy if I am honest. I have had some really amazing breakthroughs and some really amazing time with my Jesus in the past few weeks, but there have also been some pretty low times also. I have been struggling through an area of my spiritual life that need a major transformation.

UnBeLiEf
These are the thoughts that go through my head daily:

“God is not really good”
“God is not able”
“God will not answer”
“God will not come through on this one”
“It can happen for others, but not for me”

I know that Jesus is with me, but I don’t believe it.
I know that Jesus loves me, but I don’t believe it.
I know that Jesus is my protector, but I don’t believe that he will.
I know that Jesus is my provider, but I don’t believe he will, or if he does it will be in a way I don’t want!

I am realizing the major pain it causes me and those around me, and especially my Jesus when I live only in the knowledge of Him and not in the full belief of who he says he is and what he says he will do!
I find myself wanting to delete this as I write it because I am sitting here in Latvia as a missionary telling you that I don’t believe in God! How can that be?
But I do believe that if anyone really stepped back and looked at life and life with God all could agree with me that IT IS A FIGHT TO BELIEVE GOD!

So I am taking steps to push myself to experience him in whom he says he is. That is that hard part though, and very scary for me at time, and definitely lonely at times. But even as I write this there have been break throughs and experiences with Him that bring so much joy to my heart I cannot stop smiling as I write this!

So that is a little about me.

About the next three months… I would love to promise consistent updates, but I cannot as I already see me time running away from me. But I do promise to try my best to keep you as involved as possible with the ministry this summer through this blog.
In a few days I will be posting a schedule and some things about the summer you can be praying for.

Please e-mail me anytime if you want to know more, or just leave a comment as my dear friend Danielle did on the last post, reminding me that people actually do read this!
;) Thanks D.
Thanks for taking the time!
Thank you for your love and support!

gone for a week...

2007-05-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

Biggest apologies for not writing sooner.

The conference was amazing and Jesus met me there in a way that I can only begin to explain because words will not give any credit to the experience I had with him there.
All I can say is that it is a beautiful thing that God does not quit on the transforming process in all of us!
“He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it!”
Amen? AMEN!

So my best friend from Canada arrived a few days ago and will be here with me for the whole summer, which is more than a blessing. I have longed for a friend to share some of this stuff face to face with and the Lord is GOOD, and has met that longing!
I met Susan in Sweden a few year back at Bible School, and since then we have had the blessing of having a friendship that is like no other. There is just something very beautiful about complete transparency and that is what we have!

That being said I am leaving today for Sweden for 5 days with Susan. This is just a time for us to go back to where God had touched both of us in huge ways and just reminisce of the “Holsby Dayz”.

So I will be back in Latvia on Saturday evening and then it gets CrAzY busy!!!! So I am blessed to have this time, (the calm before the storm) to just be still before the Lord and be filled with more of him.

Thanks for checking in. I hope to update as soon as I get back on Saturday.

Miss you all dearly!

I made it to Czech!

2007-05-03T04:38:00.001-07:00

I am now at the conference in Czech Republic. This is our annual family conference for JV. It is beautiful here!!! I will post pictures next entry.

This conference has been great so far, just reflecting on life and transformation is effecting me deeply and realizing the power of Christ to transform me in ways that I never thought possible!!! This is probably not new for most of you and honestly for me it is not either, yet it is touching me in a brand new way!!! Jesus is like that I think!!!
But way cool!!!

I will update again soon (I hope)

In Poland...

2007-05-03T04:18:00.001-07:00

I am in Poland, chillin at Susan Ellis’ flat. Later tonight we will meet us with a group of single missionaries from JV -Josiah Venture (my mission organization). We will spend the first 24 hours of the Spring conference together at H2O, at camp ground just purchased by the Poland team for there ministry here in Poland! It is a great camp ground and is amazing for the youth ministry that will be done there… but it needs some work, and so along with getting crazy and hanging out with the “cool people” of JV… we will spend some time working on the grounds.

I think it will be a good time for sure!

I have only been in Poland for two days now and the Lord has hit my heart with so many things that I cannot even try to explain them all in words. You know those times when the Lord speaks to you, to you inner being, to the core of who you are, and you understand in the depths of your heart what he is communicating to you, yet to try and translate that holy word in human words just sounds so empty and nothing compared to what you have just experienced? Well this is one of those times! I have been intimately connected with my Jesus these few days, and I have so many wild and I dare to say, scandalize thoughts of what the Lord has planned for Latvia and the world, and how he has chosen someone as messed up as me to be used to accomplish a little piece of it, humbles me, excites me, and makes me fall in love with him intensely!

Being with Susan, a single female missionary here in Poland for the past 10 years has been more than a blessing. To see her in the middle of ministry and in the middle of living out life and love with her Jesus has touched me and encouraged me in a way I never thought possible. She is such a model of what I could only hope to be in the future of my ministry with my Jesus! She is undeniably Full of Christ and the joy of serving him!
We have talked about so many things that have just encouraged me and helped me regain a focus that is so easily stolen by the trails of life and living in a culture not your own.

All I can say is that so far through my time with Susan and especially my time with My Jesus thus far has opened the eyes of my heart to a clearer and brighter eye to the perspective of God!

We see so little, we think so small, our focus gets so narrow, it is only when the Lord allows us to experience the mystery of Him that we are able to start seeing through His eyes, His heart and His perspective!
I am filled with wonder as I look out into the world and unknown seeing with eyes and heart through Him!
How exciting it is to be a follower of Christ!

Here are some pictures of the view from Susan's apartment:

Travelin'

2007-04-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am off to Czech republic and Poland for a week. I know it has been a while since I write last.
Things have been going really well, and actually I have had a little “break” kind of the “calm before the storm”. It has been great to just spend time at the new apartment getting it organized and furnished. So not much ministry going on, other than the usual everyday stuff. But even that has slowed down a bit in the past weeks. I am not complaining though!!

As I said I am heading to Czech for our annual Spring Conference at the main head quarters in Czech. This is a conference where all of the missionaries from around Eastern Europe come together with their families and have a week of renewal and refreshing, fellowship and time with our Jesus. It will be good, this I know! Please pray that I will have an open heart to what the Lord has planned to speak to me heart.

A few days after I return home from that the summer begins!!! In full force!! Major planning and organization will be underway and I don’t think I will be coming up for a breath until the end of august! Which I am totally stoked about! I love summer ministry and just being with youth, so this will be a great time for me!

One of my best friends, Susan Paterson comes to Latvia on May 9th to come along side me and help me with the whole summer ministry, which is more than a blessing because she is a dear friend, and she is blessed with the spiritual gift of administration!!!! Just the spiritual gift I could never imagine in a hundred years having (or wanting!).

We also have a small but amazing team of interns coming and I am sooo stoked to be able to lead them into this summer of unknowns, relying on Christ himself to meet us!

Oh there is sooo much to say about the summer, but I will wait for the next entry.

In 6 hours I will get in a van with Scott, Lisa, Paul, and the four Runzo kids and set out for a 16-hour journey through Eastern Europe on our way to Czech! Pray for me! Pray for us!

...It will be….

…You finish it! ;)

Quick update...

2007-04-12T02:39:00.000-07:00

Well, there is so much to talk about but I have no time! I am babysitting all four of the Runzo’s kids, a dog, cat and turtle, while they are in Chicago.
But the past week has been great and full of good things…
I spent the Easter Weekend with some of the orphanage girls at my new apartment… which was crazy fun, but tiring also ;)
We had a great time and some great talks as well!

check out the pictures here

Easter was quite cold here, and I found myself missing “home” and the feelings of spring, and just the Easter season… you all know what I mean!

Anyway I will be finished watching the kids on Monday, so I hope to have an update letter out by then…

Thank you for checking in… e-mail me if you want! I would love to hear from you… and I am not just saying that!!!

I miss you all!

Do I have a story for you...

2007-04-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

Get ready!! It is a long one...but sooo goood!

Last entry was the beginning of a series of event that looking back have absolutely blown my mind about how flippin’ cool of a God I serve!

I left you on Tuesday night I think.

On the evening I started packing up the apartment because I knew I would be moving the next day. The landlord even came by and said the apartment I had been waiting for 3 months to get remodeled was all but done…just wallpaper to do! He said I could move in tomorrow! So it was a “for sure” thing…or at least I thought it was!!!

Lelde and I decided it would be best to go and speak with the landlord and talk about making a contract (the advice we took after every person I talked to about this situation said it was a necessity). We decided to meet at the apartment to check it out and see how it looked after the remodel. (I have to say I was a bit excited, knowing it had been three months…they must have done some really good work!)

Wednesday evening I met Lelde and we walked to the apartment to meet our “new landlord” to talk “business”. When I met Lelde, she said that the landlord called and asked if we could help wallpaper.

Hmmm….

Well that would have been nice to know a bout an hour ago BEFORE I left the other apartment in normal clothes!!! Oh, well… whatever helps us get in there faster, were my thoughts.
We walked up the stairs and knocked on the door of our “new apartment” hearing that they were working inside we just let ourselves in…and to our CoMpLeTe AmAzMeNt…nothing was done! It looked just as bad as when we saw it last, actually a bit worse as now there was an inch layer of white dust over EVERYTHING and the kitchen was completely torn up…no cabinets, no stove, actually nothing but a old dirty sink that they were using for the work. And this is what I am supposed to move into in less than 24hours!

2nd Hmmmm….

I took a deeeeeep breath and said, I can do this… it is not that bad, and once I am in here I can help them when I am at “home”, and then it will go faster. On that note we jumped right into helping them wallpaper the room I would be living in. They had two sheets already put up, which meant after about fifteen more, and two and a half hours later the wallpaper was up! “All” that was left was a sanding of the floor, sealing it and putting the overcoat on top, then painting the wallpaper… then ONE ROOM out of the three, not including the bathroom and kitchen was complete… this needing to be done a dry by the time I move in the next day, and at that time it was about 10pm!

3rd Hmmmm….

After finishing helping with the application of my beautiful textured wallpaper we went down to the landlords apartment to “talk business”.

That’s when things got kinda “sticky-weird”!

The minute I said “contract” the mood changed, the landlord said that he had other people who already said they would pay more, but since we had been waiting so long and since he had promised us the apartment he would let us still rent from him, but he did not want to sign a “legal” contract because then he would have to pay taxes… and he said if we wanted a legal contract out rent would go up 20%...

4th Hmmm…

Then we talked about utilities, he said it would be about 70ls to 80ls for all the utilities. That is about $160 dollars! This was weird to me because I had just come from the other place I was looking at before (when I thought I had lost this apartment) and the landlord there said that utilities would be around 25ls at the most 35ls. (on the really cold winter days for heating) That is about $60! That was a BIG difference for two apartments that were close to the same size….

5th Hmmm…..

The landlord also said that they would fully furnish the apartment including beds. Since I would be moving in tomorrow I thought I should at least ask about the beds (even though I knew that nothing else was there yet!) then the wife took us into a room where there was an old wooden bunk bed, she went on to tell us that they were planning on cutting the bunk bed in half and Lelde could have one and I the other! This was almost comical because I am 6ft tall and had a pretty good idea that I would not fit on that bed anyway. I told her that it was not necessary for her to cut the beds, because I would not fit, and I would prefer to purchase a bed that I could sleep comfortably on… she said, “none sense, try the bed!’ so I laid down and let her see my life long dilemma of not fitting on beds with railings! She dropped the issue.

6th Hmmm….

After our very insightful “business talk” we left to walk to the bus stop. I was quiet. Lelde was quiet. Krista (one of the orphanage girls, who came with us) was quiet. I was not feeling very sure, but decided to ignore those feelings because I was in desperate need of a place to live, because no matter what I was to be out of the other place tomorrow!

We got on the bus and I looked at Lelde wondering how she felt since she understood 100% of the conversation and I only about 50% (due to my lack of understanding Latvian!) Even though she said she was ok, and she thought it would be ok, she was not very reassuring.
Then this overwhelming feeling came over me and I knew that this place was not the place, no matter how desperate I was. I asked Lelde if she could call back that guy from the other apartment we looked at a few days ago (when we thought we had lost this apartment), she got this BIG smile on her face and asked if I was serious. We talked through my concerns and she completely agreed! Yet is was already 10pm so we could not call the guy that night, so before parting ways we agreed that we would spend that night in prayer to our Jesus for guidance and direction.

After the long walk home, I was certain that I would not be living in the apartment I had waited so long for. I had nowhere to go, and had complete peace! I knew that the Lord knows my stubbornness and he took me through all of these things, all of these “hmmm’s” in order for me to see that this is not the place for me!

When I got to the apartment I would spend one more night in, I could not stop smiling! I called Paul Levenda and told him the whole story and he confirmed and assured me that this was obviously not the right place for me. Then I asked him if I could not find anything within the next day, if I could bum a room off of him for few days until I found something. He said of course! (Since 80% of my belongings have been sitting in his house for 5 months!) ha ha ha!

Got to work the next morning and had Latvian Language and then came back to the office, Lelde was in the office, so we sat down and took a deep breath ad called that guy from the other apartment. I really did not have high hopes knowing that it was a great apartment in a great location at a great price.
5 minutes later we had a meeting to meet him in an hour and give him fist and last months rent, sign A LEGAL contract, and move in!
And we did just that!

AHHHHH! Who was right in the middle of this? Who was in control the whole time? Who was patient and just loved me through the doubts, through the confusion, through the unbelief and lack of trust in Him?
THIS is the flippin’ cool God I serve, that loves me and is right beside me, even when I feel like he is not taking care of me!

Since this is turning into a book I will finish…

Short end to the story:

I have an apartment!
A great apartment!
With a great landlord!
In a great location!
With a great price!

PRAISE JESUS!!!!

Thank you all for your prayers during this long and trying process. Thank you for walking through this with me.
I have learned more about God through this than I could have if this was easy. So now (in a small way) I can see what Paul says, “…consider it pure joy when facing trials of many kinds…”

Experiencing God and living in intimacy with Him is worth ANYTHING this world can throw at us!

Thank you family…

So.......

2007-03-28T04:04:00.001-07:00

I have packed up and I am planning on moving to the new apartment tomorrow!!! Yet, there is still this unsure-ness (not a word, I know!) in my heart, like something is going to happen in the next day… but if so, I am prepared to use the situation to glorify my Lord!!!

So if all goes as planned I will be out of this apartment and in a new one, but that also means I probably will not have internet access for a while, which means that I will not be able to keep up communication like I would like to.
So if there is a big gap of nothingness on my blog you will know why!!!

Plans for the next few days:
Today: Pack
Tomorrow: Latvian lessons, move to apartment, Youth night at church
Friday - Sunday: Go to the orphanage, teach English
Monday: Work, unpack and set up apartment

(Monday I should be able to give an update)

Thanks for chekin’ in!

Es esmu pati labaka sievite uz zemes virsas.netici? paprasi man…hahaha

Prayer update

2007-03-26T01:34:00.000-07:00

First I want to thank all of you for your prayers! From the moment I sent that request I was filled with the Joy of the body of Christ! I was taken back by the encouraging words, by the compassion, and the similar situation many of you have gone through during your own personal journeys with our Jesus!

As of right now this is what is happening concerning the apartment situation…

After telling the Landlord that we would be looking for another place due to the current news of sharing the apartment with someone I do not know, I went out searching! Many of my dear friends here came along side me and helped me look for places and gave me numbers to call of people who could help. By the next day I was already looking at an apartment!
While at that apartment, I received information about the other apartment. The Landlord said that they have found another place for that other person to live so I don’t have to open up the apartment for the use of my toilet, kitchen, etc.
They also said they would like us to still rent from them if we were still interested.

The apartment we were just looking at was good too… so now I was sitting with more than enough options instead of nothing!!!

So, the decision so far is, I will wait until April 1st and hopefully move into the original apartment!!!

There are some hesitation just because of the way it has played out so far, but I will again trust in the Lord to handle it!!

I have learned so much through this! Looking back at the desperation and lack f faith I had almost makes me blush!!! I have said over and over again to the Lord, “do what you want with me.” And this is how I respond!! yeah, I got some major growin’ to do!

Thank you for loving me, speaking truth to me, telling me to suck it up, but more than anything thank you for your love! I have felt it throughout this time, and all I can say is you bless me!

I will update again as I get more information.

I need Prayer!

2007-03-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I woke up for work ready to take on the world…by the end of the day all I wanted to do was cry like a little baby, quit…go back to America!

What happen you may ask?

Well as many of you know I have been looking for an apartment since I arrived over 5 months ago, after two months of looking I thought I found one, all we had to do is wait for the remodel to be finished (which was stated to be complete within a few weeks)…

… 3 months later…

Still waiting, but knowing I will have a place to live soon!

Then yesterday…

I lost the apartment! It is quite a long story of how and why, but the short end is that there was a girl who was going to live above us in this new apartment, but it was only a room…no water, no bathroom, kitchen, washing machine, and word got out that we were expected to allow her to have free use of all of our toilet, bathroom, kitchen and washing machine! First I thought this was a joke, but as we soon found out it was not!

They never told us this while we were waiting to move in. we called the landlord and asked if this was indeed correct, and she said it was and there in nothing really they can do about it! Hmmm.

Well I am sooo desperate to finally unpack my life from all the bags and boxes it has been in for the past 5 month, I was not really caring about the situation…BUT my team was! Scott, Lisa, and Liva all were very animate that this was not right and I shouldn’t live there with that situation. And this opinion was not just from them but every person who heard about it thought it was absolutely weird!

So after crying for about an hour or two, I have begun to search yet again for an apartment!!! I am back at square one! After 3 months of waiting, and anticipating…now this…again!

I am trying to see Jesus in this, but I am not going to lie and say that I understand this or am ok with it…
I am hurt, because my Jesus has allowed this. I am confused at why, and I don’t know if I will get an answer.

But one thing I do trust in is that no matter the situation or how I feel, I am deeply loved by Jesus, and he will provide.
He has a plan in this that I cannot see, and His ways are above mine. He is and will do something in this and that is exciting to be apart of!
My joy returns in the moments that I think about Him and his sovereign plan in all of this… but I am finding it hard to keep that focus right now… can you please pray?

They are all grown up!!!

2007-03-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

I returned home from the orphanage on Saturday night this trip was quite different as I was not able to teach English at all! I arrived too late in the evening on Friday to teach the director and the teachers, and on Saturday I was privileged to be a part of celebrating Kitija and Krista’s 18th birthday in Saldus (the larger town next to the town where the orphanage is).

It was a great time to say the least! Endija, their older sister, and Sintija, Santa, and I got up at 5am and snuck into their rooms and tied the up… Kitija was first, and we did well at not waking her up! And then we tried to do the same to Krista, but she woke up so we POUNCED! Held her down and used plastic wrap to fasten her to her bed!!!
Then we went back into Kitija’s room to see that she was waking up… so we POUNCED again!!!! And tied her up GOOD!!!
Here are some pictures:

Then later that day we went to Saldus to celebrate at a pizza place…little did they know what I had planned ;)
A birthday party is not complete without some sort of embarrassment…right? Sooo… this is what I did!

They had a great time and so did everyone watching!!! A good day and memories to match!

(Click the photo for the full slide show)

Real Quick...

2007-03-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

I am finally going to the orphanage this weekekend... have not been there in a bout a month. two of my girls (the twins) are turning 18!!! ahhh!!! we will celebrate this weekend! (fun pictures to come!)

I am also waiting to here about when i can move to my new apartment... I am about to go crazy living out of bags, and not knowing where 3/4 of my stuff is!!! pray for me to have patience and shine Christ and not my fleshy frustration!!! please!!

Emotionally i am not doing so well! It started last night after a great chat with the fam (webcam style) This was the first time i have seen my family since i left. I thought i would be ok, and I actaully was and had a wonderful talk and great to see me neice and nephew, sister, and parents...
Got off the phone and was really happy...about an hour later i could not find the strength to smile! I have been quite down ever since. I just want to find a corner in this world where no one can find me and just cry!!! I think something big is going on in my heart and it is hard to explain, but it is deeper than missing "home".

please pray. thank you.

What happend in Rome...

2007-03-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

After a LONG flight home, I finally arrived in Riga at 3am this morning! But praise God we arrived safe and sound, as we had to wait over and over again at the airport in Amsterdam because of “technical difficulties”! That is always such a nice way of putting it, don’t you think?

Anyway, this trip was more than beautiful for my whole being! Mind, body, and especially spirit! If any of you have been reading my updates or have spoken with me in the past months you could be sure to know that I have been struggling quite a bit. My spirit has just been a little down since I arrived here in Latvia. Not that I have had a terrible time so far. Not that I haven’t seen the Lord working here and in me. Not that I am second-guessing this calling.
I have just been felling different than ever before since I have come here for the “long term”. There have been many close friends and family of mine that have commented on my mood. How I am just “not my self” and I am “different”. All of what has made me quite uneasy about how I am handling this transition and this call of “missionary”, wondering if I am cut out for this, wondering if someone else should be here instead.

Jesus is SO GOOD TO ME!!!! I met with 35 women from all over Eastern Europe, who are also in full time missions, and who are my sisters in JV, and about half of those were SINGLE women!!!! And I got to talk to so many of them, ask them all the questions that I had about this crazy world that I just entered, and had some questions answered that I didn’t even know to ask!

One of which came on the last night together and I was talking to two singles that have been on the field for 2 to 3 years, Christina and Anna. We were just talking and Christina asked how long I had been in Latvia. I told her that I had been there for a little over 4 months. She just sighed (in unison with Anna!) and said, oh so you are not doing so good are you? And I just stood there in wonder. How did she know? So I asked what does she mean and she just said that looking back that part of her time in her new country was the hardest time of her life, and looking back she cannot believe how hard it really was, and was trying to think about how she got through it!

As she and Anna spoke about their transition they echoed my life right now and what I am going through and how people are responding to me in this time. It was such a relief to know I am not the only one, to know that this is quite normal!!

So…I am ok! Even if I am not ok! I will get through, and even better than “getting through” I will see God holding me, I will rest in Christ in me!!! It will get better, I will see light, I will see joy, I will!

What a blessing that was!

I also got to talk with many other women, one being a single missionary that has been in missions for over 10 years in Poland. Susan is nothing short of a true inspiration! She taught me about expectation of people, being the nationals, being people back home, being supporters, and how we will never make everyone happy with how we serve the Lord! We talked about money, and ministry, about being single and about living the “long term”. It was a much needed, much appreciated time! Thanks you Susan!!

And with all this wonderfulness, I got to see ROME!!! Here are the pictures ! It was amazing! And to think about Jesus, the creator of the mind that created all of this!!! WOW!!!

(click the picture to see more pictures)

So now I am back and ready to take on LIFE!!!! Whatever that may hold!

Comment me, email me, or call me!!!! I want to share more!!!! (If you want to hear it!)

Leaving for ROME!!!

2007-02-24T12:42:00.000-08:00

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!!!!

2007-02-24T12:35:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-02-19T00:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-02-19T00:24:00.000-08:00

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......

2007-02-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-13T02:12:00.000-08:00

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! ;)

2007-02-06T00:40:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!

2007-02-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!

I am Poooped!!!!

2007-01-29T05:01:00.000-08:00

26 years old, and I feel like I am dying! Haha, can I actually say, “I am getting to old for this”? …NAH!!!!
Anyway I just returned home last night from the orphanage and I would have to say it was a pretty good time! I have bruises on my knees and legs, a big lump on the side of my head, and an aching back to prove it!!!
This weekend it snowed, and it snowed good! We woke up to lots of snow on Saturday morning, and of course what do you do in fresh snow??? PLAY!!!! And that we did!
I was tackled many times and I did some tackling myself!!! It was a blast! I got hit with a shovel to the side of my head that left me seeing stars for a bit, but other than that it was just a blast!

I taught English to the teachers and the director on Friday evening when I first arrived and then taught the kids on Saturday evening after dinner. We had two separate groups for the kids which made it way better for me! It was a lot of fun, and I just can say that I love those kids and I know that God has me there for a reason!

On Sunday morning after I packed up and was ready to leave, two of the teenage boys came and told me to go look outside… what I saw was a beautiful sight!!!
You may think; a snowman….or a snow fort…or something like that. NO1 it was better!
It was a BIG pile of snow right next the orphanage building wall (right under the window of one of the second story rooms!) I looked up and saw the window! Oh yes!!! And that when they asked me if I wanted to jump!!!
Who me? Jump from the second floor window into a pile of snow? Oh, I don’t know! That just sounds sooo….ummmm….soooo…FUN!!!!!!
Heck yes!
So I did! It was great!!!
Haha!!!

I love life! I love these Kids! I love Jesus!

Click here to see the slideshow

Back to the Orphanage...

2007-01-26T01:41:00.001-08:00

I will be gone this weekend, as I will be teaching English again at the orphanage. If you remember please pray for that time, I always feel a heavy weight on my heart while I am preparing and while I am there… can you pray that Jesus is the center of my being and that his light will shine brightly in that place?
And that I would be bold and courageous during this time.

Thank you all!

I have Internet!!!

2007-01-26T01:40:00.000-08:00

I was blessed to have a roommate who is a web designer, and needs internet!!! Whoo hoo!!! So I am connected once again to all…well at least for a month, until I move to my new apartment, where I most likely will not have internet… but we will see! But as for now I am blessed to have it! So “Skype me!” (And if you do not know what that means…you should…
Go to http://www.skype.com
And get hooked up!

It snowed!!!

2007-01-26T01:26:00.000-08:00

Well for one day and then it was gone again ☹
But the past two days it has been unbearably cold, so I know as soon as we get any clods we will have snow!!! Whoo hoo, praise Jesus!
I know, I know! You all are flipping out wondering why I want it to snow…well I think I am ready!! it has been raining for months now and I would love a change in weather! I think I will be ok, and since it has come so late it will be a good ”taster” for next year!! Haha!!

Well come on, if it snowed in AZ and not here, you got to admit that’s not normal!!! So yeah!

Weird entry I know…sorry!

Just some great thoughts...

2007-01-22T02:55:00.000-08:00

I have been reading a book that I would suggest everyone should read right now. My mom gave it to me for Christmas and I have not been able to get it off of my mind! It is just a book with so much truth that you can’t help but think deeply of it all the time!
It is called

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennen Manning.

Here is one of a hundred places I have underlined…ahhh I is soo coooool!

“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and I get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said, “I am a rational animal”; I say I am an angel with a incredible capacity for beer.”

Ok ok, one more!!!

“something is radically wrong when the local church rejects a person accepted by Jesus – when a harsh, judgmental, and unforgiving sentence is passed on homosexuals; when a divorcee is denied communion; when the child of a prostitute is refused baptism. Jesus comes to the ungodly, even on Sunday morning. His coming ends ungodliness and MAKES US WORTHY.
Otherwise we are establishing at the heart of Christianity an utterly ungodly and unworthy preoccupation with works.”

Back from SofL...

2007-01-22T02:48:00.000-08:00

I just returned home from a wonderful weekend at the 2nd School Of Leaders. This is such an exciting thing to be apart of, let me tell you! I have been blessed to have an opportunity to hang out with some amazing young leaders who are passionate about reaching the youth of Latvia!!
The program that we run is pretty cool. We have gone over so many topics that we hope will equip and train these young leaders to build a youth ministry in their home towns that will be solid and have a foundation built on the power of Christ!

These people are just amazing, and have a joy for Jesus that I sometimes covet (if I am honest!) and they are so ready to know how to make their youth ministries grow and to see people come to know Christ the way they do!!! Oh this is so cool!

Here are some pictures of the weekend…

Oh yeah it snowed! Well for a day, cuz the next day it was already melting…bummer, still not much of a winter here so far… but I am praying we will get some snow that will stick soon!

So, I am off for the second “School Of Leaders”

2007-01-18T05:04:00.001-08:00

I am gone for the weekend. I hope to come in on Monday and catch up on communication with everyone. But we will see. I have no Internet where I am staying so I only have Internet access when I am in the office, and that is 2 days a week right now. Just so you know why my communication is a little different.

Be back on Monday.

Moved in!!!!

2007-01-18T05:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I spent my first night in my own apartment!!! This apartment is just a temporary place to stay until I can move into the one that I have actually chosen to rent.
It is getting remodeled as we speak, and should be done in a month or two.

So this apartment that I am staying in now is pretty cool, I think! Not many others have shared the same thoughts as myself though. I have had responses range from:

“ooo, that area? Well just don’t walk around at night!” (Liva)

“I think this is the area where all the criminals come from” (Baiba)

“I need you to call me every morning to make sure you are ok” (Scott)

“ I would never live here” (Baiba)

And many more!

But honestly, I don’t think it is that bad. Now, I know, you are probably laughing right now because if you know me I really don’t mind “bad” places. But I do agree that it looks a little shady around there, but it is cool.

Funny thing is I know that nothing will happen to me unless my Jesus has a plan in it. So I will rest in that.

The apartment it’s self is amazingly nice, I think. It is remodeled and looks clean. It has a great view out the window… I will post some pictures soon.
Oh yeah, and one of my favorite parts…it is about 100 yards from a graveyard! Yesss! It is beautiful! Yeah I know you may think it is creepy, but I really like it! It is quite and well just nice!

Good News...and...Bad News

2007-01-14T04:19:00.000-08:00

Bad news:
I do not have Internet access anymore! Well I obviously do, but just not daily like it has been since I came here 3 months ago. I will not be able to communicate as well as I have in the past. So we will have to work at trying to connect more than we have in the past.

GOOD NEWS:
I have keys to an apartment that I will be moving into until the apartment that I will be renting out gets remodeled. The people that I will be renting from have an apartment that they are looking to sell but they are not going to sell it for a few months, so they have decided to rent it out to me while I wait for my apartment to be finished!

Sweet!

So in the next few days I will be moving from Scott and Lisa’s to a new apartment!!! This is a huge answer to prayer as I have been living out of bags since my arrival here 3 months ago.

This will definitely be an adjustment to what I have been experiencing so far. So I will need your prayer. I have been quite comfortable living with the Runzo’s (and in Paul house while he has been in the states) but now I am moving from this community that now seems like family to me, to a place that is an hour away from them and I will be on my own during that time.

No TV.
No Internet.
No phone.
No roommate.

This is so good in so many ways, but scary too!

Good because I am glad to get out of routine and out of my comfort because I have learned over the years that doing that brings me into a deeper intimacy with my savior! And that I cannot wait to experience again!

Scary because I do not know the area or anyone who lives around there, so I feel isolated and alone, I do not know the quality of the neighborhood, I will be by myself walking home, and being in the apartment.

Please pray that I look to Christ in my loneliness before I look to others. But also that I will have the confidence to reach out to others when I need community, and that Jesus would give me confidence and peace knowing that nothing can happen to me that is not part of his plan, and that I am safe in his undying grip.

Also can you pray for the moving process? This apartment is an hour away and it is on the fifth floor! So it will be fun (even though my belongings don’t consist of much) to lug everything up five flights of stairs!

I miss you all so much! thanks for the comments ;)

Maybe...Just MAYBEEEE!!!!

2007-01-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

I think I have an apartment! Well I will have to wait for another month or two while the apartment gets remodeled, but it is GOOD!!! God is GOOD!!!
The location couldn’t be better, the landlord couldn’t be better, the price is exactly the price I can afford, I could not ask for anything better!

Funny thing is, before I went to go look at this apartment I was praying that the Lord would do his will and that I would be ok with whatever his decision was on this apartment. And there was this voice deep inside of me saying, “Jaycee, you need to wait longer!” what?!!! What is that supposed to mean? Does that mean that this one is not the one? “wait longer”? but, how long?! I have been here for over three months and I am still living out of bags! Wait longer, yeah ok, no problem, but how long is “longer”? I was in turmoil over this, because the voice was so clear! It scared me!

what you say, but I think that I wIt scared me because I felt like saying, “God, I lobe you and I respectill take this apartment if it looks ok, I don’t know if I can just wait as I have for so long!” my fear was that I heard Gods voice, and I was willing to ignore it!

He fixed that when I got to the place to look at it though!!! We walked in and it was completely torn up! No way I could move in! But after talking to the owner who was renting it, I knew this was the place, and I knew now why my Jesus said I will need to wait longer! He was just preparing my heart! What an awesome friend I have in him!

So the apartment will be under construction for the next month or so, in the mean time I will be looking for a temporary place to go, if that is not possible I will just need to take a deep breath and hang in there for another month or so commuting the hour or more into town daily from the Runzos! Which I know I can do, and I count a blessing to be able to have a place to stay!

Here are a few pictures of what it looks like right now:

Back from "teachin"

2007-01-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

So I am back from my first weekend officially teaching English at the orphanage! I have learned something while I was there this weekend, and that is;
Teaching English is just a way for me to come and build relationships with these kids and with the staff. I am not a teacher, and really never will be! But I do enjoy the thought of growing in friendship and relationship with the people there!

I taught English for 1 hours out of the whole weekend! The rest of the time was just hanging out, playing, eating, just living life with them! It was great! I was dead tired by the end of the weekend, but I was sooo worth it!

I will be teaching more next time, this time was just a “dry run” to see where the kids were at in their English and where I will need to start teaching. So it will look different next time, but none the less, I know that it is not the quality of my teaching skills that matter to them, it is the Quality of love I can give to them….and that my family is not a problem, since the love inside of me is CHRIST through me!!! Oh yeah!!! This is exciting!

Click photo to see more pictures

oph 2 learn sum english langage to sum kidz...

2007-01-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

So it is four days into 2007! Crazy!

Here are a few pictures of my New Year celebration with 3 of “my girls”
Sintija (long brown hair) Santa (short brown hair) and Krista (Blonde/red hair)

It was a great time with them! I cooked spaghetti for dinner and French toast for breakfast…I KNOW!! I COOKED!!! Go figure! We set off fireworks, with only a few not going exactly up, instead, going into neighbor’s yards and blowing up (not joking!!!) and then stayed up till about 4am! It was a blast!!!

The past few days have been beautiful restful days for me here in Latvia. Not much going on and since it is the holiday I have had a chance to just take some time for myself and have enjoyed some great times with my Jesus!
Solitude is so sweet sometimes!

There is some good news to share… I might have an apartment!!! We go look at it on Monday and this one seems to be the most promising thus far! I cam see the Lords hand in this for sure, and even if we do not get this one it will be ok, I ma just really encouraged by the movement of God in my life! It is very sweet!
So if you could pray that Jesus gets his way in this whole apartment thing. I am ready to give it up to him, so he can do what he wants! I will let you know as soon as I know more…but… it is way exciting just thinking about the possibility of finally moving into a place I can call home!

So tomorrow bright and early (6am to be exact!) I will be waling out the door for my first official teaching engagement at the orphanage! I am totally unprepared and scared out of my mind at the thought of teaching English to such a wide range of ages! But I will take full confidence in Christ in me, knowing he is made perfect, he will be seen much more clearly in my weakness than in anything I ‘think’ I can do on my own!
What a blessing it is to know that he is made PERFECT in my WEAKNESS!!!!
Ahhh what a beautiful, crazy, out of the box Lord we serve!!!
I love it!!!

So I will be gone from Friday until Sunday evening…bringing “my girls” back to stay with me on Sunday night, as they go to school in Riga Monday through Friday. And then it is right back to work on Monday! Whoo hooo!!! I feel a sense of excitement in my soul for this coming year and what God has planned for us all!!!

Talk to you sooon!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T05:44:00.000-08:00

Today is New Years Eve and I am sitting her in a house with 3 of “my girls” and we just bought a bunch of food, and fire works, and we are ready to party!!! So I will cook them dinner (God help me!) and then we will just hang out and enjoy each others company and set off fire works at 12:00!

So I will say Happy New year as it will be new here before it will be new there! ;)

May Jesus be our focus Tonight, Tomorrow, NOW and Forever!!!!!

Lovin’ life, lovin’ you, loving JEEEEEESUS!!!!!

Happy NEW YEAR!!!! ….Jaycee Leigh Jensen

BIGGEST PRAISE TO JESUS!! and THANK YOU- to you!

2006-12-31T05:41:00.002-08:00

December 27th 2006 I received the clearance to live in Latvia!

I have my Residency Visa in my Passport!!!!

I can stay in Latvia!!!

Praise Jesus!!!!

Thank you so much to all who have prayed so diligently and for all who have sent so many words of encouragement and strengthened my lack of faith. You all have touched me deeply during this very difficult time of waiting for the unknown!

Jesus is Lord of all, and may I have the understanding in the future to say these same words when it does not work out the way I would have hoped!

But for now I will enjoy the Glory of my Father and my Savior for meeting me, and answering so many prayers!

I am Back from the Orphanage...

2006-12-31T05:41:00.001-08:00

My biggest apologies to those who have been checking this waiting for an update on what my Christmas was like at the orphanage! I have been home for 4 days now, and I have just had not found the time to write out all I have experienced. You know those times in life that you wish you could bottle up and keep forever? Those times when you wish you could explain in words so that others could understand the beautiful thing you have just experienced? But you cant! There are no words, nothing humanly possible to explain the gift that God has blessed you with through a time in your life!!

I am there!

Christmas this year was different, really different. Yet so much of what I wanted it to be!

December 23th, 2006

2006-12-31T05:40:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Saldus, a larger town outside of where the orphanage is located to meet some of the kids who would take me the rest of the way to the small town of Lutrini, where the orphanage is located.

Once I arrived at the orphanage I was greeted with hugs and love from all the kids. It was great. I put my stuff in my room and then just spent the evening with the kids.

You probably should know that at this time in this orphanage there are not really any young kids. The youngest is Ernests and he is 9. The kids range from 9 to 18.
And if you know me that is my heart for orphans! Ever since I met Endija God has been burning this passion for teen orphans deep within my soul.

Anyway we spent the rest of that night cooking peparkukas (gingerbread cookies) and pidagi (a meat filled traditional bread from Latvia).

It was a good night. Then later I took “my girls” for a walk. We walked forever! But it was great just spending time talking about life wit them.

December 24th, 2006

2006-12-31T05:31:00.000-08:00

A BEAUTIFUL DAY! Well, at first the kids were a bit depressed due to the fact we had yet to have snow. They just looked out the window and were bummin’ around. When I went to the window I felt the same for a minute and then it hit me!

No snow? No problem!

I told them to get there jackets and shoes on…we are gonna go make a snowman!!!! They all looked at me like I was crazy. But I told them to think hard. What else could we make a snowman out of other than snow?
They started thinking and started getting a little light in their eyes. So I helped think and we thought we could make on out of old branches and leaves!! Yeah!!! Lets do it!

Well it did not come out exactly the way we had hoped to, but it was fun nonetheless!
Check it out!

So after that we needed to clean up because I would take “my girls” and Ernests to Saldus for the Christmas eve service. I would have taken all of the kids but… there are no busses that go on Sundays let alone on Christmas eve! So… we…(don’t kill me, yet!) …..Hitchhiked!

Now before you freak out, step outside of North America for a minute and try hard to understand that hitchhiking is very normal in Europe! Trust me! It is pretty safe. I never encourage any of the kids to do it (especially by themselves) but sometimes it is necessary (and quite normal!)

So we finally got to Saldus. We decide to go to the Church where we knew the pastor because his wife was actually the first director of the orphanage in 2003 when I met the girls for the first time! She is a Christian and had to leave the orphanage because she was running it more like Christ and less like what the State wanted. I had a great relationship with her, and it was so hard to see her leave, because that is when my struggle started with building any type of relationship with the orphanage after that moment. (until now!)

So we wanted to go to that church but we were quite early, as the hitchhiking was faster than we expected ;)

So we went to a park to let Ernests play on the playground, but it was quite cold. Then something really cool happened! Two of the girls wanted to go see their mom! Yes I said mom. Most kids in this orphanage are not orphans because of death of parents; most are orphans because of neglect, alcoholism, laziness, selfishness, (you name it!) of their parents.

So we went to go see their mom. They were very embarrassed and were sacred to show me because they were afraid she would be drunk. I, fo course let them know they didn’t have to bring me, but I also let them know I would not judge her or them by what it was like there. So we went!

It was a very interesting situation. Sad to say the least. But I was happy to meet their mom and see what she looked like and why in the world she would choose not to have these beautiful, wonderful girls with her. The apartment and her appearance explained everything. I would not want these girls to have to live in that kind of place and environment. For the first time I saw the blessings of God in the midst of them being ‘orphans’. It was eye opening and it made me love my Jesus so much more kowing he knows better than we ever will!

After meeting their mom we went to the church service, but unfortunately the previous director, Inita, was not at the service, but her husband was there and he told us at the end of the service to go see her has they live in the back of the church. We knocked on the door and one of her children answered and then she came to the door. Her eyes lit up when she saw the girls, Ernests, and I. she was so happy to see us. She invited us in and the minute we walked in the aroma of Christmas filled my heart! Food and candles and music. It was such a warm feeling. And she then did something that I am not sure if I would have done in her position… for their Christmas dinner she invited us to dine with them!!! 5 extra chairs, plates, cup , and mostly MOUTHS to feed!!! And she did it in a way that was so loving and so inviting! She and her family made Christmas for me so very special. It was enchanting, being there with a Christian family who seemed to love these kids just as much a I did, and it was just perfect!!

When we arrived back at the orphanage that evening we had everyone together and we sat in front of the Christmas tree and had a little ‘family time’. In Latvian tradition when the children are ready to get their gifts they have to sing, recite a poem, or do something special before they get their gift. (I think it is a great idea and I will take that one with me for years to come!) so as you can see I also had to join in the tradition, with a little help from “my girls” ! (we sand happy birthday to Mr. Jesus!)

I gave all the gifts I had to al the younger kids, but I saved my gifts for “my girls” for later. I had a special something I wanted to do with them as I know that they have Christ inside of them, we needed to make Jesus the center of our celebration.

So later that night we sat together and talked about Jesus, talked about the past year, talked about the good and bad times, and talked about what it was in our lives this past year that has kept us from having a more intimate connection with our Jesus. Then we went into our separate rooms and we wrote letters to Jesus telling him what we would like to give him from our last year so we could have a closer relationship with him. Then we came back together and prayed. Then we went out side and gave our gifts to Jesus by burning all of our letters together. We said happy birthday Jesus. Then we went in and finished giving gifts to each other. Then went to bed. It was a beautiful day all in all!

December 25th, 2006

2006-12-31T05:29:00.000-08:00

We didn’t do much this day because most of the celebration happens on Christmas Eve here. So we just sat and watch Christmas movies that were on the local TV stations (which was special for me because they were all dubbed with Latvian, so it was fun trying to watch and not trying to translate and learn…which I did more than watching)

And then I went to watch one of the girls play basketball in Saldus. Which was really cool because me and her connect well because our love for sports so it meant a lot to her for me to be there and watch! It was sweet!

December 26th, 2006

2006-12-31T05:22:00.000-08:00

The whole orphanage came to Riga, the capital city, and where I live, to go to a very large restaurant/amusement park. Where we ate a great meal and then spend the rest of the day ice skating!!! I wish I had pictures to share with you for this day because it was a very special day, but I forgot my camera in the bus that day! Bummer!

After that was over we had to part ways as I would stay in Riga and they headed back to the orphanage.

So that was my Christmas! Very different but very special!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

Hey,
This is way too short and quick for it being the holidays and how much I really want to write…but…. I am running out of time!
I get in a bus in less than 2 hours to go to the orphanage. I will be there until Tuesday!!! It is exciting for me to know I get to spend this time with kids I care about and that usually don’t have many people around for them during this time of year. So my (huge) bag is packed full of presents for all the kids, and I am just anticipating the struggle of carrying that bag to the bus stop…ride the bus for 30 min to the edge of town…take it from the bus to the tram…get on the tram and ride it for another 40 min to the center…. and then hauling it across streets and tunnels to get to the bus station!!! Oh, the joys of public transportation!!!
But it is worth it!!! This will be a good weekend!
About this weekend can you pray specifically for the staff and me? I know I have good relationships will most, if not all of the kids… but I have a hard time connecting with the staff, as most of them do not speak English, and I think there is much more of a trust issue with them…so can you just pray that I take the Spirits lead in how I interact with them this visit? Thank you sooo much!

On another note! MY VISAAAAAAA!!!!
I had an appointment to go get it yesterday. I waited in line for 2 ½ hours… when I finally got up to the desk to see if all was well and if I was approved for my Visa…well the inevitable happened! I was in the computer….but no paper work?!!!

THEY LOST MY PAPER WORK!!!!?

So after an all day ordeal, I am here sitting at my computer with yet another day to go and see if I have been approved!
So, Dec 27th is the day now that I will go back and do it again!!!
I have been sooo stressed about this because my 90 days is almost up…if I do not get this approved before January 6th I have to leave the country!!!

Please pray for all to work out according to the Lord plan in this, and that I am willing to accept the outcome, trusting HIM!!!!

Thank you!!!

I promise to write bunches about Christmas at the orphanage and much more when I return home!

MERRY CHRISTMAS MY DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!

May Jesus be lifted to the HIGHEST place in your hearts and homes during this wonderful season!

Will i Go?...Will i stay?...

2006-12-13T00:09:00.000-08:00

So they have received the papers here in Latvia that I had submitted in Estonia last week and told me to come back down to the same office where we sat for hours on end just to be sent to Estonia! And…. sit again! Wait… for them to call our number again! But this time they said that they will make the decision whether I can will get the visa for residency or not!
So on the 22nd of December I will be going back, and finishing up (what I hope to be) the last process in this fun paper work process!

In the mean time I will be just praying that the Lord works out all the details and that I can rest in his timing and his plans.

Me?...Teach English?

2006-12-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

Haha!!! Oh how God has a sense of humor! I am back from the orphanage and back from the much anticipated “big meeting” wit th regional director of the orphanage I want to be a part of.

It went amazingly well. They are excited about me coming and are looking forward to me helping the kids with English, seeing that the teachers/caretakers, and the director are very limited in their English.

And get this! The director herself asked if I could personally meet with her and help her with her English!!! And then on Friday’s meet with the staff and have English lessons with them!!!

Soo exciting, yet sooo scary for me! I have never really taught English (other than in fun camp setting!) so we will see what God has for me in this!

So I will be going to the orphanage every other weekend to spend time with the kids, and teach English! I am sooo excited about this opportunity. Thank you for your prayers!

I also will be spending Christmas at the orphanage also…so please pray that Christ would be completely reflected in all I say and do during that time! Thank you soo much for all your love, prayers, and support!

Here it Goes!

2006-12-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

I am off o the orphanage today (Saturday morning) this is the day that I will meet with the regional director of the orphanage and give hem my papers, and see what happens!

My hope is that they will let me freely come and work with the kids there. I am sure me speaking English is a benefit, as most everyone would like to learn English! But in return I get time with the kids and I also get time speaking and listening to a lot of Latvian, which I need desperately!

So I am praying yet again that Jesus goes in my place to this meeting and that His light and love would just shine through me! Can you pray that in all I do and say, Jesus would be the first name on my lips, the first joy that springs from my heart?
Thank you!

I will be home Sunday night! Have a blessed weekend with our Jesus!

Back from Estonia...

2006-12-07T10:16:00.001-08:00

So I am back in Latvia! And… well it looks like things went well! I will not really know until they call me and say that all my paperwork is correct and that I have been approved to have residency in Latvia. That will come “10 business days” from now! So we are looking at mid December before I will know if I can stay!
But the trip was a success! We had no problems at all, from car problems, to crossing the border, to finding the Embassy in Estonia, to submitting papers, to parking, and the 10 hour drive…all went amazingly well!
Thank you to all who prayed! Thank you to all who gave words of encouragement! Because of you I went into this day feeling like I had the army of Christ right by my side! Nothing to fear! Praise Jesus for his protection and for allowing me to be blessed by such an amazing family of Christ!

I will let you know more when I know more about the outcome of it all!

here are a couple shots of Estonia!

Going to Estonia!

2006-12-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

If you are reading this on December 6th or 7th I am asking that you take a minute and PRAY! I am in the process of trying to submit my papers for residency here in Latvia. So I am on my way to Estonia! Yes I said Estonia! It is the country just north of Latvia. After two days of waiting at a place here in Latvia (that I thought I was suppose to submit my papers) I found out I was in the wrong place!
Because I am representing Josiah Venture here in Latvia, for some reason I have to submit my papers outside of the country!!! Sweet!

I am almost positive most of you have experienced really long waits before, right? Like the DMV?!!! Well that is like a cakewalk compared to the waiting I just went through! …That is a story in its self! (I will write about it in my monthly update that will be out in about a week!)

So now that we got it all squared away that I was in the wrong place, I will head to Estonia with Baiba (my dear friend, translator, language helper and much more) and Lelde (my co-worker, translator, pretty much my saving grace here!) and we will try this again! But the issue comes that since this will be a 5-hour drive one way, I am praying that I will have all the papers I need, and that all goes smooth!

I am kind of running out of time to be here in Latvia without these papers too, so if you could also pray for a speedy answer also, that would be beautiful! I have been here for some odd 50 days (including the 2 weeks I was here during this past summer) and I can only be in the country legally for 90 day without that residency! The paper work usually takes about a month!!! OH SHOOT!

But cool too, cause I get to see the Lord work, yet again!

So that’s the prayer request! Be ready in a week or two for my monthly update! I am planning on sharing some funny stories, and more!

(I love when I get comments on these blog post, just to see if people actually read them, so if you have a minute, drop a comment my way!)

Thank for reading, AND PRAYING!!!!

Best wake up call!!!

2006-12-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

So I awoke this morning the sound of my cell phone ringing… no number on the display means it’s a call from the other side of the world…I thought about ignoring it, cause I hate talking to people in the morning…but I picked up…and what a blessing it was!!!

One of my dearest friends, Raelynn Bailey announced to me that she is engaged!!!! Congratulation my dear friend!! My heart longs to be with her and give her a hug and just sit and talk for hours on her bed!

This is hard to be here at times like this, but more than the sorrow if feel that comes with my absence from this special time, is the JOY that fills my heart, because I know she is happy!!

Sweet day! LOVE YOU RAE!

Never Mind!!!

2006-12-02T04:15:00.001-08:00

So it was rescheduled for next weekend. I will leave Saturday morning for the orphanage to go meet with the directors boss. I am guessing he is the regional director or something like that. We will see! So today and tomorrow are a beautiful surprise of rest and relaxation.
I feel like last night I took a deep breath, and this next day and a half is just a long exhale. I did not realize how tired I was! I have been so consumed with everything going on that I hadn’t taken anytime just to be still.
So that is what I am doing, being still, crawling up in my fathers lap, and resting.

May you also have the time to do the same this weekend!

My heart longs to be with you all, and yet I know I am here completely because of him, and because of that, I am content!

So I just got a call from Endija…

2006-12-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

The director said that her boss would like to meet with me on Sunday to talk about working at the orphanage!!!

Ahhhhh!!!

I am sooo nervous!

I don’t know what will come of this but can I ask you to pray?

I am excited about the opportunity to be a part of this, because honestly it is God doing it, that I am sure of! But where does this fit into the ministry that I am a part of here with JV? What is it that the Lord is doing through this?
Also can you just pray again that what is seen during this meeting is Christ and not me?!! I desire that more than anything!

I will let you know what happens!

Orphanage Visit

2006-11-30T06:22:00.000-08:00

So I am back from my four day visit to the orphanage and I can tell you that I felt your prayers!!! And they were much needed, and answered!
I arrived in Lutrini (the small town where the orphanage is) and was brought to where I would stay.
There was a former orphan that has moved out on his own and had an apartment that he was willing to share while I was there.

These apartments are given to the orphans by the government when they are to old to stay at the orphanage. Yes, I am sure you are saying what I said…”wow, that is nice!” right? Well, not exactly! The don’t give them much. This apartment consisted of a sink in a kitchen the size of a small walk in closet with nothing in it except corroded floors and wall, will holes and wires hanging out, the bathroom was even worse, just a toilet to say the most! And then a little living room with a couch to sleep on.
Not that I am complaining about staying there because it was an absolute blessing from God to be able to stay there. But I say this just to give you an idea of what the orphans are dealing with.

I was welcomed by the staff at the orphanage, even though I was told I could not stay there with the kids. It was very cool just to hang out and play with them hug them, eat with them, just do life with them!

BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED THE NEXT DAY!!!!
I was walking up the stairs to the orphanage to go take a shower thinking everything was fine just to have the girls run down the stairs telling me to run and go outside… then I heard a word that I understood quite well that stopped me in my tracks; “Vaditai” which means director.
They were running from the director? Why? I thought everything was fine? I mean the teachers welcomed me, let me hang out with the kids for two days, why would we be running from the Director???
So she came to the stairwell and started to yell at the girls.
Some cried, some yelled back!
It was a mess!
It was not how I wanted to meet the new director, and it was definitely not the first impression I wanted to give her!!! Dangit!

So I sat downstairs waiting to have the girls come down and I would have to give them hugs and say goodbye, because I knew now that I was not a welcome there as I thought! I sat and prayed and prayed that Jesus would intervene somehow, and somehow make something good out of this terrible confusion. About an hour later some of the girls came down (the one who were not crying) and asked if I wanted to talk to the director. “she wants to talk to me?” I asked. So we went upstairs my heart was beating so hard, and I went into her office. She did not understand much English and I could only speak a little Latvian…so I had the girls help.
I apologized for the misunderstanding and told her my story of how I came to know the kids, I told her my reason for being in Latvia, and told her I really want to learn the Latvian language. She told me she wants to learn English also. Then I said I would love to come help the staff anytime and she asked if I would teach English to the kids. I said I could help them as much a possible.
She said that she would talk to the “big boss” and if he said it was ok , I would be welcome to stay at the orphanage during the weekends and be with the kids!!!

Oh Jesus is good!!!! So good!
Thank you for your prayers…I can honestly say without a doubt that this was JESUS at work! I felt it in a way like nothing else! So cool!

So that is the biggest part of the four days, but there was so much more!!! Just hanging out and loving on the kids was more than I could have asked for! I miss them already!

Click here to check out pictures of the time there: Orphanage Visit

A much-anticipated visit

2006-11-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow I will be traveling to Saldus to go visit the orphanage. There are many kids there that I have come to know and love and have yet to see and spend time with. This trip will give me that very chance I have been waiting for.
There are a lot of details that I am not too sure how they will work out, such as where I will be staying!!! Ha-ha, I know, I am crazy… oh well! Can you just pray for me and that Jesus would be the only thing that these kids see this week? That is my desire! That is the reason Jesus has allowed me to go anyway. May I not take this as “my trip” but a trip with the purpose of showing the light of Christ!
Also could you pray that I will know how to use the time that the Lord has given me there? I have 4 days there and I want to be used to the fullness of what Jesus has planed.
Yeah pretty much any prayer through these four days would be a great blessing, and to be quite honest…it is a huge need!
Spiritual battles are not a maybe… it will be a battle!
Please stand with me!
Thank you!

Today was a GOOOOOOD day!

2006-11-25T13:18:00.000-08:00

A complete blessing from the last entry! Jesus blessed me with a day that I cannot really put into words. (But I will try!)
So we celebrated Thanksgiving today. Yes Saturday instead of Thursday, but none the less, we celebrated it! And it was perfect!
Going from the feeling I had the days before this was a true gift from my Jesus. We spent the day hanging out, Scott and Brennen cooked pies in the morning, which set the mood for a great day because the smell sent me back into memories and just happy time together with loved ones.
Something happened this morning when I saw them cooking when I saw everyone around me who I love and who I have come to call family. Yes, this is going to be a good day!
And that it was.
Not only that, I was blessed to have Endija with me during this time too. Which made it more than I could have asked for. She is such a part of my life I could think of not having her with me. So it was such a great time just being with the Runzo’s, Paul, and Endija.

Thank you, My Jesus for the day!

Thank you to all of you who are reading this, who are supporting me, and loving me.

I am Blessed!

HAPPY (late) THANKSGIVING!!!

Spot of Reality...

2006-11-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving day came and went for me like every other day thus far here. I have been away from home more than once during holidays and special times so I knew the feeling I was having was about normal. Yet I found myself so lonely. Lonely with so many people around me, lonely when I had people I loved and I knew loved me right by my side!
To say the least Thanksgiving Day was difficult for me.
I could not stop thinking about my family and my friends, and the traditions, the smells, the food, the hugs, the jokes, the ladies in the kitchen, the guys watching football… all of it! It just played in the back of my head all day. Then even thinking of the crazy day of “shop till you drop” the day after! All of it!!!
It was hard.

School of Leaders

2006-11-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

I am back from the first experience of the training program called “School of Leaders”! it was a great time just to see how things work and meet all the youth workers around Latvia.
I was taken back by the great battlefield these young leaders face daily! There are so many stories of these few faithful children of God and the way they have given their all for the sake of the youth of Latvia! If it encouraging and heartbreaking in the same breath!
This weekend a verse that I have heard over and over again rang clearer than ever before;

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Luke 10:2

And that is what I ask of you!!! These young leaders need this so desperately! I wish I could explain in words the great works they are doing here for Christ!! It was a blessing to see!

Here is a few video clips of the weekend!
The first is just an idea of the training sessions (keep an eye on the end with Scott and his computer)

The second and thrid video clips are of our :
"Specail ED"ition of School of Leaders!!!
Featuring non other than
SCOTT RUNZO!!!!

And the thrid clip just clips of time spent together in worship to our Jesus!

Labdien! ("good day!")

2006-11-17T03:39:00.000-08:00

It has been a minute or two since last update. So I thought before for I leave for the weekend, I would let you all know how things are going.

I am still in the same position I was last time with apartment searching…which is very discouraging, yet there is a peace that I did not have last time I write on this subject. Which mean someone must be praying for that ;) thanks!
Every morning I take my hour travel into to town for work, I ride a bus for about 30 minutes and then a tram for another 20 and then walk for about 10. I swear I pass about 1000 apartment buildings and I just sit/stand (depending on how full the bus and tram are!) in complete amazement that is it so difficult to find an apartment! How can it be? Well a couple of factors make it a bit difficult.
1. I will have a roommate, which means I will need to rent an apartment with more than one bedroom. And when you look at apartments here when it says 2 rooms that means a bedroom and a living room, which is quite normal for Latvian to live in. they have no problem sleeping in (what we would call) the living room. And honestly that still would not be an issue for Lelde (my future roommate and co-worker) and I, but because of the type of ministry we are in (youth work) we will need to have that living room free for a meeting area. So if we are out and want to come home and invite others over for tea, or a movie, or just hanging out we can have the freedom to do so…So that means we need to rent a “3 room” apartment. Which is not so common in Latvia.
2. Because of the first reason it causes the price to rent to raise considerably, but we have a budget of about 250ls, which translates to about $500. This seems like it would be enough, yet Latvia for some reason is getting SO expensive! To give an example of what most apartments we have seen so far for that amount look like:

But there are some good ones too… I have faith it will work out!!!

3. Because we will be working mostly in the center of Riga, that again raises the price, and there are many people who also are looking for apartments in this location because it is very central to everything. So the demand is huge! Which means we spend a lot of time calling and then just getting shut down because the apartments have already been taken. (Especially the good ones!)

So that’s a little bit about the struggle of the apartment search! Not only is it hard to find one, it is also hard to be here in Latvia, knowing I am here, but feeling like I am just visiting since I have been living out of bags, eating other peoples food, sleeping in someone else’s home, etc.

If you can just pray that I would engage even in the midst of that feeling? I was talking with one of my dear friends about life last night and she was talking about school and struggles with just not feeling like life is worth anything right now. And I was encouraged to know that no matter where we are, school, work, home, America, Latvia, your own place, or someone else’s, we are not here for “us” we are here for him! At that moment I realized the more I concentrate on “me” in this place, I will get down and depressed, feeling sorry for myself, hating life! But the moment I look at “me in Him-and Him in me” it changes everything! I can live in the struggle, in the pain, in the frustration, knowing it is not about me in Latvia, it is about

HIM IN LATVIA,

and he has got me here to use me for HIS purpose!! Wow, I am not worthy, but I feel blessed to be chosen to do it for him! May I surrender continually to him!

So this weekend I will be gone. I will be going to my first experience with “School of Leaders” which is one of our main ministries that happens during the “non-summer” ministry. I am not too sure what to expect, but I will tell you how it goes! Check out this link for more on this:

http://jvlatvia.com/index.html

Thanks for reading, thanks for showing your support and love! I would love to hear from you! Whether that is through a comment, or e-mail!! I wanna see pictures too!!! I miss you all!

I dimmed "my light"...

2006-11-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Many may know, many may not know, but I have been bumming about finding a place to live for a while (ha-ha, well two weeks). I have been complaining and feeling sorry for myself. I have had so many thoughts that are not glorifying to my Jesus.
During our weekly meeting a verse was brought up about the very thing that I have been guilty of, and I am convicted.

Do EVERYTHING without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you SHINE LIKE STARS in the universe.
Philippians 2:14 +15

Through my unbelief that my Jesus is in control of this, that his timing is better than mine, I have found myself not content. I have found myself depressed and unmotivated. Through my complaining I have expressed outwardly my disbelief that God is in control.

And because of that my light has been dimmed.

I am embarrassed, I am humbled.

I have come to shine the light of Christ and in the battle of spirit and flesh I have allowed my sinful desires to cover the very light I have come to shine!

May this be an experience that will stay with me throughout my years of following my Jesus, so that I will be more aware of the subtle yet fierce battle to allow Christ to shine through me!

I Got A Ticket...already!

2006-11-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon, not much to do. Had a great idea to go just hop on buses that goes to who knows where, get lost, get found, and do it again! Yeah sounds fun!
Then I even had a better idea, I would go on the busses but bring my language tablet, my dictionary, and my personal “language helper”, my daughter – Endija. Yep, sounds good!

So we were off! Found a bus that neither one of us knew where it went and hopped on! It was a great time of learning and just enjoying each other, the Latvian people, and Latvia!
After a while we realized that everybody had gotten off of the bus and we were heading to a pretty deserted area.
Oop, the end of the road for this bus. Problem was is that that bus was the only one we could take back (30 minutes later) so we sat at the bus stop in the freezing cold (sounds familiar!) and waited for the bus that we were just on to drive up about 20 feet just to let us back on.
When we got back on I was waiting for the lady to come take my money to get my ticket, but she saw that we had already been on this bus, so she just let us go without paying.

Cool.
Well… not so much!

About 15 minutes later a very large gruff looking lady came up to me, and in my broken understanding of Latvian, I knew she was asking for my ticket. Hmmm. Now what? I tried to explain what had happen, she didn’t care and seemed to get more upset when she realized that I was American and spoke English. Endija tried to explain she still didn’t care, and just got more upset! Then she just threw out her hand and said 2 lats.
What?!!! 2 lats? That’s 4 dollars! The bus ride cost 20 santiems! That is 40 cents! Man this sucks! Well I gave her the money because obviously I was not going to get her to understand! And then she took out her little ticket book and gave me a ticket!!! Ha ha! This is priceless! I got a ticket for not paying, and I am here to be a missionary! Sweet!

I couldn’t help but laugh as I was being issued the ticket (which did not make the lovely lady any more happy with me) as we were getting off the bus Endija told me that she was still talking bad about me and how it is like this all the time with people like me!

Hmmm… now I just need to find a frame that will fit the ticket!! ;)
Fun times!
Oh and I did learn a lot of Latvian that day too, thanks to Endija!

Good shoes…

2006-11-03T00:54:00.000-08:00

So I learned yet another lesson last night! Good shoes in cold weather are a must! ;)

So yesterday morning I woke up to snow! And it snowed most of the day! Very cool. So I was prepared! I layered up and I was thinking about what shoes to wear and well I have these shoes that are quite old, but I love them and if I double socked I would be fine. But when I went to put them on I realized the sole was cracked all the way across the bottom. Hmmm that is a bummer! How can I fix that? * Bing! * DUCKTAPE!!! So I taped up the inside and outside of my shoe! That will keep the wet out…or so I thought!

When about my day, quite warm for the most part. I was proud of my Arizona born, yet taking on this COLD day with gusto!!! Yeah I can do this I can live here! Later that night I was in a church attending their youth night with some youth, and then we decided to go get coffee after. We walked for a mile or so and then sat and had some coffee. At this point I realized my feet were pretty cold (one more than the other) and I just though, guess these shoes are not gonna hack it for this cold weather…* note to self*.

After coffee it was time to take the bus journey home! From the center I have to take two different busses both taking about 30-30 min. yet tonight it took much longer… the traffic was terrible, I think there were a few accidents on the road I was on. Anyway, I was late catching my bus at 10:39 pm… I got there at 10:45!!! Yes..welp next bus: 11:55pm! -0 degree weather, one hour, yep I am gonna die! Actually many things during that hour kept my attention. A lot of drunk people, a fight with the drunk people, a group of guys (who were drunk) coming to and trying to talk to me. Then trying to speak English. A drunk guy throwing up about 2 feet away! Yeah time flew by! Ha-ha!

Anyway about 15 min in I started feeling a lot of pain in my foot. I just thought it was cold, and that went on for the whole hour I was there. When the bus finally came I really couldn’t feel my foot, but I figured it would thaw out in the bus. When I got on the bus I realized I couldn’t move my toes! I thought, FROST BITE!!! I don’t even know what it feels like or how you get it, but I have seen terrible things in movies! So as I was sitting next to a grumpy old woman just glaring at me I took off my shoe and my socks…they were soaked!!!!! Oh man stupid Duck Tape didn’t work!

So all that to say, my favorite pair of shoes have been retired :(

*Note to all the cold weather people
Laugh all you want, and yes I know this is not a cultural thing. But in a way it is to me so… yeah! Whatever ;)

I am not in “Kansas” anymore!

2006-10-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

Well how do I explain how crappy feel right now! Hmm I guess the first sentence takes care of that!!!
Welp, today, not soo good! I mean I was a good day in the way that I am breathing, and that the sun came out (well enough to make it look like dusk!). I woke up to a rainy day, yet again. Which is fine because I was warned about this time of year and the weather. But me being me, I wore a pare of shoes that any sane human being would know that would not work for such cold wet weather, yet I didn’t give it a thought! Hmmm, and as I sit here and type this, my feet are now thawing, and unwrinkling from being soaked all day! Sweet!
On to my day at “work”.

Today’s task:
find apartments to go look at!

My thoughts:
exciting! No problem. Just looks some up, give um a call, go check it out. If I like what I see, MOVE IN!!!

Reality:
sat on my butt all day, looked…oooh too expensive! Looked some more… oooh definitely not livable!!! Looked some more…oooh this one is perrrrfect…sorry already taken!
Yup and we did that for the whole workday! Neat!

Funny thing is, I got “home” to Scott’s house and I was taking to him, and he asked me what I wanted to do, and in my most amazingly sweet demeanor I said without the least bit of sarcasm, “ hmmmm, what would I like to do? I would like to go on the Internet, find an apartment, rent the apartment and then MOVE IN!” but you know what Scott? I would actually be happy just taking the list of things I had to do today other that look for an apartment and get in my car and go complete the tasks and come back feeling like I accomplished something! But instead I come home without one thing accomplished and about 10 other things to do on top of that!! I guess that what I would like to do!”
His reply was so encouraging! He just looked at me with the utmost compassion and said, “it gonna be hard for you here!”

Oh yay!

Pray for me! (and my atittude!)

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T11:39:00.000-08:00

On Sunday night we celebrated Halloween with the kids! It was awesome. They all dressed up and I guess I did too ;)
We carved pumpkins, played games, the kids put on a concert, and then I ran to Paul house and stood at the back door while he was at the front and let the kids trick or treat!
Latvia does not really celebrate Halloween so it was the best we could do! Yet I think I was better than most Halloweens I had as a kid! The Runzo kids are blessed by very amazing parents!

Check out the pictures! You will love them!

Sleepover!

2006-10-31T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well Friday night the Runzo’s left for the weekend, and I stayed and looked after the house and Blue, their horse…I mean dog!
So 3 of the girls from the orphanage came over for the weekend and we had a sleep over! Whoo hoo! Nothing like jumping right in!
It was a really good time of just spending time and hanging out! As you can see!

Check it out!!! They decided to have a little photo shoot!
(click on picture for more!)

I made it!!!

2006-10-25T13:56:00.001-07:00

I have landed in Riga Latvia!!! My emotions are still very mixed due to the very difficult part of letting go of people I hold so dear to my heart, yet holding in my hugging arms the one here in Latvia I have longed to be with!!!
The flight was none eventful (EXCEPT the beginning! See the below posting for that story!) Very LONG though. While writing this I realize that I have been up and moving since Monday morning (with a short nap between last minute packing at 2am to 3am on Monday night!) now it is Wednesday afternoon…hmmm I should rest! (it is Wednesday at 12pm here!)
When I arrived at the airport my whole Josiah Venture team was there! Scott, Paul, Edmunds, Liva, and Lelde! And then I had 5 other welcomer's too… my orphanage girls!!!! So sweet!
So the team took my stuff left me there and I spent the rest of the day and evening with my girls. We went to coffee, then to a movie, then to dinner. It was just what I needed to “re-engage” my heart to what God is doing here! So praises to our Jesus for meeting me there (and for giving me the energy to do it!)
Then Scott came and picked me up and brought me to his house, where I will be staying until I find an apartment. I got more welcomes and hugs there as I saw Lisa and the kids! Spent the rest of tonight talking with Scott and Lisa about so many things. All I can say is that I am overwhelmed at the blessing I have in their guidance and wisdom, and especially their love for me! I feel at home! And I need that right now!

Thank you to everyone who has prayed me here thus far and for your continued prayers! You ready?...

Let the journey begin!!!!

Only the beginning

2006-10-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

So I get to the airport with a fully loaded cart of 6 bags, get up to the desk and start to check in.
The lady asks me when I will be returning, and with joy in my reply I said, “I am not, I am moving there for full time mission work!”
I was expecting a different response than the one that was given. She said, as she looked through my passport, “you cannot leave with out a visa or proof of residency in that country”
Now I thought, come on this is not true! Nobody told me about having to have a return ticket!!! There has got to be a way around this. There wasn’t! She was dead serious! And as I sat there trying to figure out what the heck to do, I sensed a blow to my joy from Satan, right then and there!
Well a lot of talking later and a purchase of a $3300 one-way ticket back to the states (which was promised to be refundable, hmmmm…. I will be praying hard about that!) And thanks to my amazing parents and a wonderful thing called a credit card! All seems to be ok! Of course we have not tried to refund the ticket just yet (since I am still sitting in Washington DC, awaiting the LONG flight to Germany, and then on to Riga.)

I had an amazing group of loved ones at the airport to send me off, and I will just quote some of their comments that helped me realize and awaken me to the reality that this will be a battle! This is only the beginning of the work God has planned through us!
If you ever have a chance please remind me of this truth! It is a necessity to the heart of making others glad in God!

So as I sat and wallowed in my self-pity, my unbelief of the provision of my Jesus, this is what my dearest friends and family were saying (not to me, yet spoke truth to my heart):

“Someone doesn’t want her to go”
“ It is so obvious that she is right where she is suppose to be!”
“This is only the beginning of complete reliance on Jesus, it will only get worse…. and by ‘worse’ I mean better!”
“Oh man! How exciting it is to be a follower of Christ!”

All I have to say is I am ready, but I will need many days of training! This was a good start!

7 days and counting!

2006-10-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

Packing until all hours of the night…
...up at 5:30am…
...can’t sleep...
...mind is full of thoughts of saying goodbye, saying hello, leaving the beauty of Arizona, entering the cold and dark of Latvia, thoughts of what my apartment will look like, thoughts of freezing to death, thoughts of failing, of disappointing, of falling short of expectations, of packing too much, of packing to little, of not having enough warm clothes, playing in the snow, meeting the youth where they are at, sharing the joy of Christ, wanting to go, not wanting to leave...JAYCEE!…why are you still laying in bed?… ok I think I will get up!

Get ready, head out the door, get a letter notarized for residency, go to the capital to get paper work apostilled for residency, go get passport pictures for International drivers license, go get an international drivers license, cancel my phone, cancel my gym membership, home for a minute, go to starbucks meet with a friend for the last time, say goodbye, go home grab a bite to eat, pack some more, need to buy a bigger bag! Go to the store to return bag, buy different one, to another friends house for a visit. Go home pack some more.
(Now when I say pack, I mean move things from my closet to the floor, then the floor to the bed, then from the bed back to the closet and then do it again!)
How do you pack your life up?
Any helpful hints?
I am down for any suggestions at this point!