Day 5 June 1st 2010

Another day has come and gone! They are going by very quickly and that's one of the reasons I'm thankful for this blog. I'm glad that I'm able to keep a log of everything that happens on this trip because before I know it I will be back home in North Carolina wondering how the summer flew by so quickly! Anyway it's been a good day. First I ate a quick breakfast so that Carl and I could catch the trolly bus (called a trolly bus because it's electric, they have diesel also, reffered to as just bus) but unfortunately they changed the bus schedule so we came at the wrong time. :( Oh well Carl and I walked instead which took about 25 minutes so we were a little late (oops)! We were heading to the Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary where Professor Gordon Cambell was teaching 1 out of 10 workshops on the book of John. The workshop was very good but for the first segment I was too sleepy to get anything out of it! During our first break I grabbed a cup of coffee which perked me up quite a bit considering I'm not used to drinking much caffeine! (Hopefully I can get some pictures from inside the Seminary so that I can post them tomorow.) After the workshop Ungars the pastor from Riga Reformed Church (not Riga Reformed Bible Church where Alvis is the pastor) invited me to join him and some friends for lunch. So I accepted and ate with: Ungars, his wife Gundega, Kristaps (the Latvian version of Christopher), Professor Cambell, and his daughter Amy. Lunch was good and I hope to have a picture of Ungars and Gundega for y'all soon. After lunch I walked to the Freedom Monument where Carl and Becky picked me up so that we could attend a planning session with Martins and Anda. The planning went well and we have a ton of good ideas for outreach. I'm excited to see how these plans develop! Once the planning was through Martins and I ate a quick bite of bread soup that Anda had fixed then we were off to the park. First Martins and I raked up the dead grass off the field so that it would be suitable for our activities. This took about 45 minutes and I somehow managed to break off the handle on the old garden rake that I was using. Now we had 1 and 1/2 old garden rakes to use on dead grass...not an ideal situation but we made it work! Or I should say God made it work! =) Anyway the park outreach went well. We had 5 teens, one of which hadn't attended in a long time. (I meant to get some pictures tonight but I wasn't able to so please forgive me!) First we played an intense game of field hockey, then we threw the frisbee for a few minutes while Carl set up croquet. We played an extremely long game of croquet, then it was time to pack up and head home to eat supper...Well its about time for me to get in bed but first I'd like to tell a little bit about Martins testimony. I think that it's important to know because it helps to understand his zealous heart for outreach ministries. Martins did not grow up in a Christian home and therefore wasn't a believer when he was young. He had some grandparents that were believers and he went to church with them a couple times but he was never interested in church. We he was in his later teen years he began to play sports in the park with members from a local church. Eventually he came to this church and became a believer! I think this is one of the reasons that Martins sees the value in park outreach ministries...I just thought that y'all needed to know some of his story, so anyway I'm off to bed soon and I'll talk to y'all later!

P.S. To those who are wondering my relatives that know Carl and Becky are: Jerry & Peggy Cross and David & Barbara Cross.