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

The last week has been such a whirlwind. Sunday morning me, Chris, Ieva & Andis piled into our car and took off for Riga. Our friend Jim Baker was flying in and was bringing his friend Mark Krebs with him. We spent the day in Riga… Jim sang at church & we had a small reunion of sorts with many of the Music Ministry Seminar people. It was cool to hang out with them again.

The week went on as normal for me – school, preparing for school, meetings, etc. – but I also had 2 extra people living in our apartment. Always fun. It wasn’t so bad, though. I just really felt bad for Mark… no one knew he was allergic to cats. Not cool.

Jim & Mark did bring presents for us, though. We were overwhelmed & humbled by the generosity of people, some that don’t even knows us, to be willing to donate for these things. Chris was the happy recipient of a load of electronics for recording… my understanding is he can now record & produce some fairly good quality music. Very cool. The big part of that was a new laptop for him… an Apple, which are considered very good for working with media.

I was blessed as well with things like Apple Cider mix, brown sugar, M&Ms, hot chocolate, marshmallows, peanut butter, BUTTERFINGER BARS… should I go on? My kitchen is very happy as am I. :)

We also went through a roller coaster of emotion and activity with the prospect of buying an apartment. We still feel like we did the right thing in pursuing it, but in the end we just couldn’t do it. Though we have learned a lot about how the system here works, so when we do actually buy one, we’ll be one step ahead.

The guys took a number of trips to various places in Latvia… Riga, Kolka, Liepaja… it was good for them to see some of these places and good for Chris to get some “guy time” in.

We also had some great times of talking, praying and worship in our home. It’s been a rough week with one of my Latvian friends, too, so we’ve all been dong a lot of praying for them.

Wednesday we all took off again to Riga to celebrate Jim’s birthday. We met up with a bunch of our friends again and all went out to Lido, a wonderful buffet type Latvian restaurant. SO good! They also had everything decorated for Christmas, which thrilled me!

Thursday was Thanksgiving #1. We spent it with at the home of our National Director, the Dzelzs family. It really was more of a “foreigners” celebration than an American one, which was fine. We had Americans, Canadians, Norwegians, Brits and Latvians. Very cool. Also on Thursday afternoon, Chris, Jim & Mark came to my English class. I had asked the students before hand to write some questions for Mark & Jim to answer. They did, while they also entertained my class. I had some great feedback from my students afterwards.

Friday was Thanksgiving #2. It was the first time I’ve made the whole dinner myself. I did have a bit of assistance from Ieva, though. She’s good at shopping up veggies and such. I like teaching her how to cook. We did have chicken, though, since turkey is very har to find here & generally doesn’t taste good. My pumpkin pie even turned out fairly good, though Ieva didn’t care for it. Pumpkin here is eaten more as a vegetable, not as something sweet.

The guys took off for Riga Friday night to catch an early plane Saturday morning to head home. Ieva stayed with me at our place and we welcomed the Christmas season by breaking into the monster-sized bag of Christmas M&Ms the guys brought for us and by watching “A Christmas Story”… go ahead, say it… “You’ll shoot your eye, kid!”

Somewhere in the busyness of the week I managed to get a really bad sore throat. Right now it’s like knives when I swallow. Thankfully we have Monday – Wednesday off of school. It’s a government holiday since the NATO summit is being held in Riga. For me it just means a few extra days to get better… and sleep. So ready for sleep…

Pictures 1 & 3: Mark Krebs; Pictures 2 & 5: Jim Baker; Picture 4: Andis Senkans

I never seem to know anything that’s going on around here until right before it happens. I guess I should just be glad I find out at all. ;)

So I was at school yesterday and Andis was going to help me take our cat to the vet (the vet is his god-mother) but said he didn’t have alot of time. Always curious I asked him why, and I got the news, well, some of it… He had to be back and dressed up because 1t 4.30pm he had to be at the monument by the lake because the president was coming & we was one of the 3 guys from our school that would hold a flag. Cool… the president.

After we made it back to town, I met up with Ieva and we walked down to the monument for the 4.30 event. We were quite surprised when we got there and there were very few people… we waited and waited and realized that maybe it started at 5.00, and Andis was confused because maybe he had to be ready by 4.30. OK, so we walked back into town to get some food. On our way back to the lake, we met up with Andis, Eduards & Maris, the “Talsi Christian School Flag Holders” for the day. (No, it’s not an official title or position… in fact, when I asked why they got to do it, Andis responded that they were the tallest & best looking guys… oh the sarcasm.) We walked back down to the monument, and there were more people there this time, but it seemed like no one really knew what was going on… there were no places roped off for spectators or anything… there were a few military guards and some dogs, but that’s about it. Not what I was expecting with a president coming. Ieva and I just kinda crowded into a group with the best view we could get and waited. And waited. And waited. Yeah, it started at 6.00. :)

It was pretty cool though. President Vaira VÄ«Ä·e-Freiberga (yes, the Latvian president is a woman) spoke and, though most of it was in Latvian, I felt pretty inspired and proud. I was really excited when she gave part of her speech in English, as well. That was for the benefit of visitors from Talsi’s sister cities in Lithuania, Estonia & Turkey, but I didn’t care… I pretended it was for me. I was VERY impressed by her as she gave her whole speech, some of it in 2 languages… with no notes, no teleprompter… only from memory… this from a nearly 70 year-old woman. Very cool.

There were some other things… choirs singing, other people speaking, and such… it was all in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the monument which was erected just before Independence Day and in honor of it.

I’ve heard the Latvian national anthem sung more times in the last few days than ever before, and I’ve decided I really should learn it. Ieva’s going to help me.

It’s a strange thing feeling so proud and feeling such a part of two different countries. I never want to give up my American citizenship, but I feel so proud being here and celebrating Latvia and have a small burst of excitement when people speak to “Talsinieki”, or “residents of Talsi”. I guess I REALLY do have 2 homes.

PS Remember, if you click on the pictures, they’ll get bigger and you can see them better.

Chris and our friend Peteris just finished up a new video for the Christian school that I teach at. If you’d like to see it, along with some of my students, check it out here:
Talsi Christian School video

All 4 of the “hosts” are or have been students of mine, so I’m pretty proud of them for doing this in English! Let us know what you think of it!
Note: You will have to download it onto your computer and play it from there.

Chris and I write a newsletter most every month. (Ok, I admit it, I actually do most of the writing, but it’s about both of us.) We started writing newsletters about 10 years ago (maybe more) and have written them monthly for all but about 2-3 years of that time. In all that time, I have never received as much feedback on our newsletter as I did this one. Here’s the excerpt most people commented on:

About a week after that, life felt like it was starting to fall apart, piece by piece. On top of Chris and I fighting (yes, even missionary couples fight) and going through some other struggles, various members of the band (who are also our friends, my students and our mentorship-group) started going through all kinds of stuff. One was questioning their calling and talent as a musician; another was frustrated with God because he wasn’t getting answers to his prayers about anything and was starting to doubt God’s existence; another stormed out of a band prayer meeting and in the subsequent week or two made some pretty bad choices and decisions, making his road to come back to God a very long and hard one. We were all being attacked in a major way, and we knew it. If there is one thing we’ve all learned during this time it would be the faithfulness of God and the value of solid friendship. I can’t tell you the hours Chris and I have spent online chatting with some of these, encouraging them, praying with them. When one of them was at the lowest point and didn’t show up for school, I searched them out, looking at all their favorite hiding places, and finally found them. After a long walk and even longer talk, things started to look a little brighter. But we all knew it was still a long road ahead for some of these situations. So much time, encouraging and praying… yes, it really gets hard sometimes and during this past month we have both asked ourselves, more than once, if it was worth it. I mean, often the things we do, our ministry here, is not a 9-5, 40 hour a week job (don’t we wish…). It’s not the kind of thing you can put in a schedule or even describe very easily. Some don’t even see it as ministry, but more like we’re just hanging out with some friends. When we asked ourselves if it was worth it, we knew the answer was yes. Not an easy, smiling, resounding “yes”. It was more of a yes filled with pain, yet mixed with hope, with tears running down our faces mixed with this mad desire to be able to quit and yet knowing there was no way we could. Yes, these teens, and so many more, are worth it. They’re worth our evenings, our weekends, the late nights, the long walks, the money, our love. They’re worth it to Jesus, so they are worth it to us. Someone commented to me that it must be nice to have a week off of school for Fall Break and not have kids to deal with at home. I replied, well, you’re right, we don’t have biological kids at home, but sometimes it feels like we have 4-6 17-18 year-olds. *smile* So it’s been a tough month, and we’re still dealing with some of these questions, walking through these issues with some of them, but I believe that as long as they want to find God, they will.

I admit it, this is one of the most honest and vulnerable newsletters I’ve ever written, and that’s what most people said:

Thanks so much for that newsletter. I think it’s great that you are transparent about you & your hubby’s struggles and even how you feel about ministry (staying there). Wonderful. We need more missionaries who would feel secure enough to communicate that.

Your honesty in the doubts that the enemy tends to throw at you and the frustration you deal with and the fact that weather it is worth it is very courageous of you and it speaks well. People need to hear that, to know how to effectively pray on your behalf.

Good to hear from you guys. I appreciate the honesty you present in your letters Lydia. I also am encouraged by your commitment to your purpose in the midst of its judgment as unorthodox. The Kingdom is built on relationships, and it requires Believers to be there. I support you and Chris, and I’m thankful for your service. I pray for you guys.

What an amazing update. I hope and pray that people would catch the vision that God has given you and how vital it is to simply (but not so simply) live alongside these people. It was so encouraging to read your update, not that it was exactly an uplifting email, but your honesty and seeing God in that honesty was the encouraging part.

It has been rough, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up, really. This week already I’ve gotten news that my grandma (in America) is really not doing well & I’m having some major issues in my English class, among other things. But God is still in control and still faithful. I’m so glad.