Day 3 in Riga. It's Sunday and that means that I get to start activities with the youth! First we had bible study at Carl and Becky's at 1:00pm. We were celebrating 4 birthdays for the youth today. Before the youth arrived I helped Becky make personal pizzas (sliced bread with pizza sauce and cheese). After the youth arrived we ate some food and then played a game. The object of the game was to sit on an air pump to inflate balloons to a certain size. It went over really well (you can see pictures of the game in my slideshow). My team came in last place because I wasn't very fast at this game :( oh well. Once the game was finished we studied Exodus 20 "The Ten Commandments". I didn't really get much out of the Bible study because it was all in Latvian and no one translated for me :-/ . After Bible study it was time to walk to church which starts at 4:00pm. The name of the church is "Riga Reformed Bible Church" and their church service is very similar to Summer Oaks PCA where I attend at home. First we had a song "How Deep the Father's Love for Us", sung in Latvian of course. Then we had a responsive reading and another song. After that Alvis Sauka preached from John 6:41-71. Martins translated the sermon and it was very good! The sermon was 100% gospel focused. A funny illustration is that Alvis said after we become believers we can't just sit around like a bunch of cucumbers, we have to go out and share the gospel with non-believers so that they can also believe! Another thing Alvis talked about is that when believers are stressed out and emotionally unstable if we read scripture it brings us peace. He offered that the reason it brings us peace is because it is the voice of our Father God speaking to us through the scripture. He said it's like when we were young and afraid the voice of our father could calm us down and regain peace. I definately agree. After the sermon we recited the Nicene Creed and had the Lord's Supper. After communion we recited the Lord's Prayer and sang a couple more song including "Before the Throne of God Above" translated into Latvian. Once the service was over we had a time of fellowship over coffee and hot tea. Then it was time to head for Carl and Becky's apartment where all of the youth met for a party in the basement. We had pizza, chips, brownies, cake, and other delicious food. We played pool and other games. After we had the birthday cake we sang "Lord Reign In Me" and "Blessed Be Your Name". The music went really well! The youth loved the first two songs and then requested that we sing "Awesome Is the Lord" and "Here I Am to Worship". All of the songs were sung in english however because they didn't feel confident enough to sing them in Latvian yet. After the music we hung out a little while longer and then it was time for the youth to go home :( . Anyway that's pretty much sums up today and I'm headed to bed soon!
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