Gone again

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

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

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….

…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”

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...

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...

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...

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!

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...

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!

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...

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'

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...

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...

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.......

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

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!

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!!!

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)