Change Is In the Airformerly "Lydia's Latvian Blog."

Yesterday was Janji… actually, Janji is officially today, but that’s beside the point. The Janji celebration is one of the biggest in Latvia… It goes all night, celebrating the shortest night of the year. Every good Latvian celebrates, most of them eating a special cheese with caraway seed in it and drinking beer all night long. Because of this, it seems many “alternatives” had sprung up.

We went to a celebration near Talsi. The band Chris plays in (which, thankfully now has a name, “Fusion”) played there among 8 other bands. There were fireworks, sausages cooked over the fire and a lot of hang-out time (which is always fun with our group). It was quite fun. I’m not sure when the sun went down… I know at 1am it was dark, so maybe it got dark around midnight or so.

After sometime, a group of us went to another town nearby to a community dance. I was nervous about it at first, no knowing what to expect, but I was also really curious about it, mainly from a cultural aspect. It’s not something we do so much in the US, and since it was a group of us going from the Baptist church and some other Christian friends, we went. It was actually fun! The idea is you stay up all night, watch the sun go down and then watch it come back up. I do remember around 3am it started getting light and by 4am you didn’t need lights anymore. It was so cool!

We got home at 5am and saw this beautiful sunrise… slept till about noon today.

It’s raining. It tried to storm last night… we had a few bolts of lightning and a couple rumbles of thunder, but no rain. Now it’s raining… oh, look, now it’s over. That was a nice 10 minutes… and it’s still 80F.

Just had an amazing service at church. It was the last day of Orphans’ Camp. We haven’t really been involved, but the band has led worship twice, so I was there as well. Today was the last service and boy, did God move and did people respond. Andis shared his testimony about how he gave his life to Christ at camp last year, so today is his birthday. The band played, the altar was full, and the tears flowed as the band sang the song that, for me, is so representitive of their hearts.

I’m giving you my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you my King
I’m giving you my dreams, I’m laying down my rights
I’m giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you

I’m singing You this song, I’m waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain

I was so proud of all of them, abandoning themselves in worship to their King, not caring what anyone else thought… it was just them and Jesus, and you could tell by the looks on their faces.

It was so awesome for me to see so many of my students there. Many were at camp as staff, but God touched them in a mighty way, too. The beginnings of reconciliation happened here, too, and I can’t wait to see what God does in these lives.

I’ve been walking around today asking people what country I’m in. Now, those of you who have known me for quite some time might not think that’s a strange question, because you never know what country I’ll end up in in a moment’s notice. But, no, I haven’t left Latvia, at least, not that I know of. Everything still looks the same, sounds the same… maybe I’m in the Twilight Zone…

Go ahead, ask.

Question: “Then why are you asking what country you’re in?”

Answer: “Because it’s SO DANG HOT!” How did this happen? I thought I was moving to northern Europe, you know, that place on the globe toward the top, when you start to get frighteningly close to the Arctic Circle. (We’re only 645 miles south.) The place that people start to think where the snow never melts and you have penguin crossings in town (if there are any towns at all… I mean, everyone lives in igloos, right?).

Now, I knew it wouldn’t be that cold all the time. But come on!!! It hit 90ºF today!!! (For my friends in the rest of the world, that would be 32ºC.) What is this? It’s not supposed to be that hot here! That settles it… I now refuse to feel guilty for eating ice cream for dinner.

Ok, the other weird thing… it doesn’t seem to ever rain here. I mean, sure, we get some sprinkles now and then for a couple of minutes, and in all honesty, it must have done something last night because the parking lot was wet this morning, but… I mean, we had our windows open last night and I don’t sleep that deeply, so it really couldn’t have rained much. Oh, for a good Ohio thunderstorm right about now! So, yeah, I’m not sure how anything grows here since it doesn’t seem to ever rain. The only thing I can think of is that all the snow we get raises the water table so much that we don’t need the rain. (Sure, that sounds good, but I’m waiting for someone to comment that this is not quite how it works. If it’s not, then how does anything grow here!?)

I’m not angry, so please don’t read this blog that way… I’m just hot. I’ve never been one to enjoy the heat… ever. I got heat stoke in northern Florida in April one year. Ask my outreach teammates how I fare in hot weather… wait, THIS IS THE SAME TEMPERATURE AS IT WAS IN CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA!!!! ACKK!!! On that trip I got voted “The one most likely to be confused with a polar bear.”

Rumor is that it’s going to be hot like this for the next couple weeks. In the words of my brother, Adam, “Oy vey.”

I’m off for more ice cream…

Yesterday was Ieva’s 18^th birthday. We all wanted to do something special for her, so we started planning weeks ago. First we had the idea to kidnap her and take her out of the country (because when you’re 18, you can travel without your parents). We even found CHEAP (like REALLY CHEAP) airline tickets and thought to take her to Stockholm, Sweden for the weekend. Unfortunately, getting to Sweden is the cheap part, but staying there is another story. For many reasons, that fell through. So did plan B, and I think plan C. In the end, we went with what we actually did yesterday…

Actually, everything started the night before. We were all at the bi-weekly Musician’s Night, which doesn’t start until 9pm and has a history of going well past midnight. At midnight we broke out in a “Happy Birthday” song, and completed the Latvian birthday ritual… which is to put the birthday person in a chair and then they are lifted/thrown in the air as many times as their age. Since we were in a church… we used the whole row of 4 chairs… good thing Ieva’s little!

“Leaving Exams” are a big part of a Latvian student’s life. You have to pass these big exams to graduate from high school (something kind of equivalent to our SAT / ACT tests in the US, but this isn’t to get into University, but just to graduate). So, we thought to give Ieva a “Childhood Leaving Exam”, full of important things every adult needs to know. Peteris, Andis, Chris and I all met her at her house at 9am to begin the exam. She had no idea what she was in for. We started with some basic questions… Could she dress herself? Did she know her phone number? We then went on to things that are a little more difficult… could she cross the street alone safely? Ride a bike? Put gas in a car? Chop wood? Prepare food? Of course we made her prove that she could do all of these things (and more)… To show that she understood how difficult it is to earn money, we took Chris’ guitar and had her stand near a local shop downtown and play & sing. We also wanted to see if she could drive, which I would say was the only part she failed. We ended this part of her party by blindfolding her and putting her in the car. When we took the blindfold off, we were at the local paintball field! It’s something she’s talked about for a while, and the 5 of us had a BLAST! I think Chris forgot how competitive I can be! The first time I got shot was on the back of my shoulder, which REALLY hurt and I have a nice welt from it (thank-you Peteris!), but I think it just made me want to win! It was me, Ieva & Andis against Peteris and Chris. They won the first time, but we won the rest. The last round was me against Peteris… to bad he ran out of paint balls before I did!!! We had SO much fun!

We all went home for some lunch and to get ready for 12th grade graduation. Ieva and Andis had to help with it (since they’re in 11th grade) and Chris was playing with Arta & Kristine for the music. Oh yeah, and I’m a teacher, so I had to go, too. (I keep forgetting that part.) Afterwards, we hung out and ate and then went back home again to change, again. Then, for the last part, we got some snacks and the cake, some blankets, a frisbee, a soccer ball and the guitar (of course) and headed to the beach in Roja. Ieva loves the beach. We thought to go to one we knew of and had been to before, but for some reason it was just not so great that day. The mosquitoes were crazy and the coast stunk, literally… so we headed into town to the main public beach. It was so nice. We played, ate, walked in the water, walked down the seawall to the lighthouse (if you ever go there, wear shoes!!!) and watched the sunset around 10:30pm which was amazing. Around 11:30pm we were all getting cold, so we headed home. It was so strange that even at midnight, you could still see colors in the sky. Beautiful. A birthday prayer of blessing ended our “24 Hour” party as we split ways. A great end to a great day! We love you, Ieva!

How can I even begin to sum up this camping trip? I admit, I was a bit nervous as to how it would go, but that fear was quite unnecessary! It was some of the greatest fun I’ve had in a LONG time! And I should have known that it would be, since I was spending the time with my closest friends in this country! We just returned from our 3 day adventure last night, and while I was more than happy to finally have a shower, I was sad to have to return to the regular world.

There were 6 of us… and our little 2-door car only holds 5, and tightly. In order to get there with our gear, 2 of us went on the bus and the other 4 in the car. On the way to Sigulda, Andis and I took the bus (Ieva & I took it home), and by the time we arrived, the others had not only found an awesome place to camp, but also had a good amount of things set up and everything. We were impressed… they had found this site in the middle of nowhere but it was perfect! Secluded, near a little lake (though the cleanliness of it was questionable) yet somewhat close to everything we wanted to do & see. We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather, either. It was in the high 80’s the whole time… quite a blessing in Latvia!
Save a short cultural meltdown that Chris had (check out his blog), I think everything went great. We cooked Å¡aÅ¡lik (like pork shish kabobs, but so much better) over the fire, played some soccer (yes, even me!) laughed a ton, had some great talks and, of course, with a band, you have to have worship around the campfire at night! (Actually, it seemed everywhere we went there was singing! They even got a small audience and applauds while singing in the castle tower!) Chris and I challenged everyone to turn off their cell phones while we were there… somehow I ended up with possession of Peteris’ & Andis’ phones… There were a few times they suffered through some withdrawal issues, and I admit I may have had a little too much fun keeping them from them, but it was really good for all of us.

Touring the castle and such was fun, though not the real reason we went. Weeks ago we all realized we were going to be going 30 different ways all summer. Peteris is leaving in about a week for the rest of the summer (going to America!), we’re all working with different camps and teams, I’m directing this 5-week TESOL school, and Chris is staffing a Music Ministry seminar for 6 weeks (which Andis & Ieva are now going to attend!)… life was going to get crazy, so we all wanted to get away together (and out of our area) before that happened. We’re all so glad we did it! Being able to escape the rest of the world and just be together for a while. I will forever remember this trip with a smile… I’m so thankful for these friends that God has given us.

Some would say that we’re here in Latvia for them, to help them, to encourage them and such. While I think I would agree with that, I would say that’s only half the reason. I’m finding that the longer I’m here, the more I need them. They teach me so much (and not just Latvian). I do need them, and I find myself loving each one of them more and more.

(More pictures are in our website gallery.)

Yesterday was the official last day of school. In honor of this, we had a church service, and the worship team Chris is on (and our friends) led worship for it. It was so cool to watch them!

I’m somewhat relieved school’s done. I’m ready for a change. I thought I would get a break this summer, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen… our summer is already practically full. We do have some fun things planned, like a camping trip with the crew in a week or two, but other than that, it’s going to be busy!!!

I still have some mixed up issues about next year to deal with… prayers appreciated.