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

This weekend was FUSION’s first official concert. (By the way, FUSION is the name of the band that the most important people in my Latvian life are in… Chris (my husband), Andis, Ieva, Peteris & Eduards.) Since there are 6 of us, because I refuse to let them go have fun like this without me, and our little 2-door car only holds 5, or 4 people and 4 guitars, we have to split up when we travel. This time we were off to Ergli and then on to Madona.

Phase 1 – Travel

1. Andis & Lydia leave Talsi by bus at 11:30am, headed to Riga.
2. Chris, Peteris, Ieva & 4 guitars (and all the other gear) leave Talsi at 1:00pm, and pick Eduards up in Stende at 1:15pm. Destination, Ergli.
3. Andis & Lydia arrive in Riga, kill an hour in town and board bus #2 headed for Ergli. Highlight – the 2 drunk guys in the back of the bus that almost got into a fight.
4. The car arrives in Ergli at 5:15pm, while the bus arrive at 5:30
5. We’re met by Kim & Bruce Thompson who are acquaintances of ours and work at the camp we’re headed to. We throw Eduards & Andis in the back of their pickup truck and head to camp. Arrive at 6:15pm.

The Agenskalns Church in Riga had asked us to come and play for their youth retreat. Everyone was nervous, being the first concert. Of course we had problems and miscommunication, but it all went really well. My biggest concern was the floor… we were on the second floor of a log cabin-type building… when the jumping and dancing started, I found myself thankful I was against the wall where there was a bit more stability! The concert was about an hour long.

We had alot of fun together. Eduards is new to the band, so it was cool to hang out with him and get to know him better, though he’s already friends with the other 3 from school, and he’s one of my students. He and Chris don’t know each other very well, though, and it was just cool to be in a different environment and all of us be together. That night we stayed in the meeting hall on the floor.

Phase 2 – Sunday Prep

1. Finally get to sleep at 3:00am. Must remember not to sleep so close to teenaged boys again!
2. Got up at 8:00am, desperately searching for coffee.
3. No coffee, but Bruce meets us with his truck at 8:30am to take us to his & Kim’s apartment for breakfast and to get ready for church.
4. COFFEE!!! Thank you God! Kim made us a wonderful pancake breakfast & treated us to showers & some old 007 movie for the guys.
5. More coffee :-)
6. Load the cars at 10:45 and head to Madona, about 45 minutes away. Since FUSION was in the “neighborhood,” we were also invited to lead worship at Madona Baptist Church. (The pastor is the camp director.)

A little different set than last night, but still very cool. The church was a split of elderly women and 16 – 30 year olds. Interesting. The church loved us & blessed us and invited us back! After a bit of potluck Latvian style (no hot dishes, but lots of sandwiches and yummy sweets) it was time for Phase 3.

Phase 3 – Travel, again

1. We say goodbye to Kim & Bruce and the church, and Chris drives me & Andis to the bus station. Our bus leaves at 3:00pm.
2. Since we were the last ones to get tickets and everyone ahead of us decided to disregards the numbered seats, we were split up. Our driver must have been either ex-military or a prison guard in his earlier years. So strict and demanding. Very un-Latvian.
3. Car with 4 people and 4 guitars leaves Madona at 3:20pm
4. Half way through our trip we stop for a break and Andis asks the girl next to him if she would switch with me so we could sit together. For reasons that will remain a secret (I think it had something to do with a Latvian girl flirting with him), he refused to speak Latvian and when his seatmate didn’t understand his English, he asked another passenger to translate for him! *rolling eyes* Boys. His seatmate did eventually switch with me which made the rest of the ride to Riga much more enjoyable.
5. Arrive in Riga at 6:15pm. We had 45 minutes to kill, so we head to the movie theater close by to use the restroom. At 6:45 we were waiting at the bus platform for our bus to come and leave at 7:00pm.
6. 6:50 – Waiting
7. 7:00 – Waiting. The car arrives in Talsi after dropping off Eduards in Stende.
8. 7:15 – Waiting
9. 7:20 – Andis spots another bus in the “waiting zone” that says it’s going to Talsi. He goes over to talk to the driver and find out what’s going on. Seems that somehow we missed our bus. The driver of this bus was very nice though, and talkative and said that, while he didn’t have to, he would let us ride his bus to Talsi and not charge us.
10. 7:45 – Our bus finally leaves Riga. It was pretty empty, which was nice, but took the long way to Talsi.
11. By 9:00 I have a serious problem. Not only have I drunk a whole bottle of water, it’s late, which makes my slap-happy, but we’re also telling funny stories and the roads are very bumpy, and I have to pee like mad! To make matters worse, there is a toilet on the bus, but the door is locked. Grrr… it was like it was taunting me, teasing me! “I’m here, but you’re not allowed to use me! Hahaha!” I finally swallow my pride and let Andis ask the driver if he’ll pull over for a “green stop” for me. I was so glad it was dark… not only could no one see me squatting in the woods, but they couldn’t see my blazing red face of embarrassment.
12. 10:00pm – We finally arrive back in Talsi. So tired. Everyone else has had dinner and is on their way to bed, while Andis & I have just arrived in town. Chris met us and took me home.
13. 11:30 – I finally head to bed. I have school in the morning and Chris is leading worship for DTS at 8:30am. :)

It was a great trip. The stars were beautiful that night. I had some great conversations with firends & the band did a wonderful job. I was so proud of them. They’re excited and ready to find out what’s next. So am I. Ieva thinks I should get a t-shirt that says “I’m with the band”! Sounds good to me!

So I caved this weekend and joined into the MySpace revolution… I really didn’t want to do it, but more and more of my friends have joined and I was starting to feel left out… (thank you Chris, Lizzy, Emiy, Jim, Andis, Ieva…) so I did it. I admit it has been interesting to find some old friends from high school, DTS & such on there, and yet…

Yesterday I was walking thorugh town with a friend and I was feeling kinda blue. I wasn’t sure quite why. We sat in the park on a beautiful day and as we chatted, it hit me. Monday night I had been on MySpace, looking up some old friends, and I found some, some that I had been searching for, for quite some time. These were people from years ago, people I went on missions trips with who had such an impact on my life. When I found their sites, I was shocked. It was obvious to me by what they wrote that their lives had taken quite a diffferent path than they or I had thought they would. It made me so sad. What happened? I didn’t, and still don’t, understand it. How can someone be living so whole-heartedly for God, and then turn away? Sure, in my mind it’s sudden, but for them I’m sure it was a gradual thing, but still… how does this happen? I’ve never experienced that before, so I don’t understand it. For me, at times I’ve felt like I WANTED to turn my back on God, for various reasons, but I couldn’t do it. It was like there was the tangilbe hand not letting me go. So, I really don’t understand how someone can live for God one day and turn their back the next. Is it a consious decision they make like, “Should I wear the blue shirt or the green shirt today? Should I live for God or not today?” Or is it a series of little things, small decisions that are made every day that slowly draw one farther away? I would imagine (and hope) it’s the latter, but even still, why wouldn’t that person want to go back to Christ? I just don’t get it.

Please don’t think me young and immature. I’m not new to Christianity. I’ve been through my share of hurt and heartache and have been given plenty of good chances to turn away from God. I don’t think myslef to be more holy or a better person than anyone else, and I’m not trying to be condemning. I’m sad. I’m somewhat hurt. And I’m confused, because I don’t understand it.

I guess the good thing to remember is that one can always come back… He’s still waiting and loving and missing you.

“You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you.” Duet. 34:14 (NLT)

PS Yeah, that’s me in the back row… 15+ years ago. :)

Life has totally gotten away from me, lately. I realized today that, not only have I not written a newsletter in ages, but I’m behind on so many other things that I don’t even want to think about.

Our friend, Lizzy, is still here & thankfully helping with dishes and laundry and such, but only for one more week. (This is surely not something I want to think about, though, or I’m sure to cry). We have another friend here, too, that was in my & Lizzy’s TESOL. Emily has been living in Portugal, studying Portugese to minister in Mozambique. She needed to get out of country so she came to visit for a week. So, it’s been a full house and a busy time.

This weekend was fun though… after school on Friday I hung out in town with Andis waiting for Peteris to finish a meeting and did some errands. After we got Peteris, we found out that Ieva’s dad was missing & last seen drunk. Not cool. She finally got a call that he was at his parents house (her grandparents). That evening we also had a big party at our place (hosted by Lizzy) and a “FUSION” band meeting. It was a but difficult because we had to talk/vote about asking Agnese to leave (she wasn’t here, but it was still hard). We also invited a new member, Eduards, to join playing bass. Eduards is in Ieva & Andis’ class, which means he’s also in my English class. I’ve been hoping to have a chance to get to know him. It was a good time, but it was a long and hard & late night.

Saturday we slept late and then me, Chris, Lizzy, Emily & Andis headed to the beach. We were going to go to our favorite beach in Roja (just so Emily could see the sea) but we ended up going to the point/cape of Latvia in Kolka which was SO cool. It’s where the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga come together, from two different directions. The waves were crashing against each other! It was really windy, and sometimes a wave would come from the right, but the wind would blow from the left and blow the mist off the top of the wave. It was amazing! We came back and dropped Chris & Andis off in town to go to a movie and hang out and we picked up Ieva and came home and had girl’s night until 1am.

Sunday we slept a little late, but Chris started off the day by taking Ieva to the hospital to see her dad. He had fainted/passed out at her grandparents’ house, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. We all had to be in town at 3pm for band practice before youth group. It was sure to be a hard practice since it was Eduards’ first one, the first one without Agnese, and the first one in general in like 2 months or more.

Like I said, school started today in earnest. Lizzy & Emily went to school with me today and hung out in my class. It was cool to have them there. This afternoon we also found out that Ieva’s dad will be in the hospital for a while yet. He’s been moved to the Nerve Center of the hospital for loads of tests. I don’t understand all of it, but I guess it’s pretty serious. Ieva’s pretty worried about him, so instead of her staying home by herself, she’s staying with us. So, there’s 5 of us staying in our little 2 bedroom apartment. Lizzy & Emily will be sleeping on the couches in the livingroom so Ieva could sleep in the office on the sleeper couch since she has school tomorrow. She’ll be here until everything is ok with her dad. We’re happy to have her.

We also found out this weekend a little more sad news. We had asked our landlords if they wound be interested in selling the apartment we live in. We’d love to buy a place and we love this apartment. Well, they said no. So, we’re back to square one, looking for a place. They’re not throwing us out or anything, but we just hate renting, especially since we plan to be in Latvia for a long time. Nothing is cheap here… often a 2 bedroom apartment will be about $60,000, and still need some updating. Please pray for us, for wisdom, for a great place and for a great price!!!

Emily leaves tomorrow, so we have a somewhat early morning to get her to the airport. Have a goodnight!

School is back in session. While it officially started on September 1, today was my first class. It was quite strange being back there again. I had stopped in at school on Monday and was hanging out in the lounge/foyer when Andis & Ieva walked in… weird feeling. Ieva attacked me with a hug, which felt normal, but it was just odd to be back again.

So today was my first class. I’m only teaching 12th grade this year (plus doing some conversation classes), which really lightens my load, and I’m glad. I was almost late to class due to a mix-up as to when class actually started. Then when I got there, there were 2 classes scheduled for the same room at the same time. Minor crisis, but we worked it out.

Today I basically just had everyone tell me about their summer, really just to get them speaking again. I know it was weird for Ieva & Andis (as it was for me) since everything any one of us did this summer, we all did together. Ieva started off with “Well, I went camping with my friends (smirk, stifle laughter, don’t look at the teacher), and then…” Yeah, that was a good trip, wasn’t it? :) Andis said, “I pretty much did what Ieva did all summer.” I was really proud of him, though. He added, “but also this summer I really grew in my faith with God” which was really bold of him to say infront of his whole class. Not something he would have done last year. So cool.

It’s not going to be easy being their teacher and friend at the same time, though. I have to balance not favoring them with not neglecting them. Quite strange & difficult. But, it’s worth it. I was kinda bummed that I couldn’t also teach 11th grade, but now I’m happy. I can just be friends with them.

Major mixed feelings when some of the 11th & 10th graders (my old students) came to me and said they didn’t like the new English teacher and the wished they had me back. I felt bad for the new teacher and tried to encourage them to give it time and such, but deep inside, I admit it felt a little bit nice. They missed me. :)

Off to the airport tonight. Lizzy is still here (yea!!!), and our mutual friend, Emily, flies in tonight for a week. She’s been living in Portugal and is coming for a week to hang out and visit. (Ok, she had to get out of Portugal for visa reasons, too.) She lands at 11:30pm. We might get home by 1:30am… I have class tomorrow, too. Oh, fun. I think I’ll give them a quiz. :)