Change Is In the Air

Ohio doesn’t usually get a good snow before the first of the year, but this is our second good pummeling in December this year. I enjoy it, of course. It’s a nice change and reminds us of home in Latvia.

Chris went out yesterday to help day chop wood for the stove, in snow. Hard work will keep you warm, though. I went out for a bit, but since I’m really trying to not get sick, I didn’t stay out long. It was very refreshing though. I love the smell of snow, the crunch of it under my feet, though. I don’t care if everyone thinks I’m crazy, I like winter.

I guess this is the time that makes me wish I had kept up with my blog more often. I would have written about the fun we had in Pennsylvania, catching up with really old friends, and the amazing time in Louisiana with some of our closest friends ever. I would have shared pics and would be smiling.

But now is not that time. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last day, you’ve no doubt seen or heard about the shootings in Colorado. In the early morning 4 were shot at YWAM Denver. 2 have since died. This hit us hard as we did our training with YWAM at this base and know the majority of the staff there. The 4 that were shot were new to the base, so we did not know them, but all of our friends there are reeling from the tragedy.

This morning we got word from our friends in Latvia that our National Director, Maris, died this morning. Even though I’m writing that, I can’t comprehend it. He was not old; nearing 50. They seem to think that it was a heart attack, but are not sure at this moment. Chris and I are spinning right now. We can’t make any sense out of this. Maris was a friend of ours and Chris’ immediate supervisor. We often would visit and trade meals. I would make him lasagna and he would cook his amazing šašlik for us. I will miss him tremendously. YWAM Latvia, as a base, will feel this strongly, as well. Please keep us in your prayers.

In the last few days I have been admonished (in love) to update my blog more often… so… Ang, Sher… this is for you! (But now you guys have to comment!) :)
So, I’m in America… we’re staying with my parents in Ohio right now. Since we’ve been here, we’ve had fun on the 4-wheeler and at Cedar Point, we’ve started visiting some friends and spent time hanging out with family (including a lot of scrapbooking!), and also said goodbye… to Ieva as she went to Orlando to Discipleship Training School, and also to Metro, my grandmother’s husband, who died last week.

Life in America is… strange. The availability and ease of getting things here amazes me. I’m also in shock over how much cheaper things are and how much more money there is here, but how so many people seem to not have any money. Sorry if this sounds condescending or that I’m complaining… I’m not… just observations I’ve made… my opinions. And since it’s my blog, I guess I can do that. :) So, yeah, it’s strange for me here. Kinda like putting on those old shoes you used to have. You loved them and wore them everywhere, and even if they didn’t always look so good, they were comfortable and your favorites. But then you got some new shoes and wore them a long time. One day you go back to your old shoes, and they’re familiar and you feel some nostalgia when you wear them, but your foot has changed and they’re not so form fitting anymore… and if you pull out those shoes, you have to wear them with your old high school sweatshirt from a decade ago… you tend to slip into old ways… that’s how it is for me being back here. Not bad, but just doesn’t totally fit anymore.

Everyone is asking us when we’re going to start traveling, and I wish I could answer that question. We have one or two major things that we’re waiting to get solidified, then we’ll know when we’ll start traveling. Our traveling plans include California, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico, to start with.

So, there you go… I’m a little caught up for now… I guess a late-night scrapbooking evening turns out more than just some new pages. :)

Well, we’re here in America and been having “fun”! We’ve done a lot of culture stuff since Ieva’s been here, including the high school homecoming football game, 4-wheeling in the creek and helping re-roof the house! Ieva also got to spend a day at the high school, shadowing another student. We’ve been hanging out with some friends and just spending some time actually RELAXING! It’s been great!

People are asking already… how did you get so dirty on the 4-wheeler? Ieva and I were riding in the creek… not deep, only about 2-3 inches of water in most places. We were going to ride it back down to my parents’ property, but saw that our Amish neighbors had strung a wire fence across the creek. So, we turned around… we were going through the water, from dry to dry, and I guess we hit it at the wrong angle, slid, and got stuck… and sank. Most of the creek is sand and small rocks, so, the more we tried to get it out, the more we buried it. After an hour of digging out the wheels, getting sprayed with mud (I wish I had a picture of that!), trying to lodge large rocks under the wheels for traction… we finally gave up and I climbed the hill to the Amish neighbors and humbled myself and asked for help… so yes, we asked the Amish neighbors to help us pull out our 4-wheeler… strange. By this time, we had literally BURIED the back wheels in sand… we couldn’t even start the thing anymore for all of the water in the exhaust. Fun, fun. But, it worked and we got out and it was some of the best fun I’ve had in a LONG time! My dad laughed when we told the story and my brother almost cried… he said it was from disbelief… I think it was jealousy! LOL

Yes, we re-shingled the house, too. It was fun. Between Me, Dad & Chris, we did within 3 days… mostly only working a few hours a day because it was just too hot. It was actually kinda fun… nice to do something you can point at and see accomplished.

Ieva left for Orlando today to start DTS. We’re so proud of her, but we’re gonna miss her!

I’m not sure what to call the US anymore. It’s not really home, as I truly feel at home in Latvia, but it still is in some ways. “Historical home” just doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily. Ok, let’s try this again…

I’m headed back to the US. Ieva’s brother will be here in about 2 hours and will take the 3 of us to the airport. Our plane leaves around 7am, so we need to be there at 5am, so, we leave here at about 3:15am. Crazy.

Chris is napping on the loveseat, the Travel Channel is playing in the background, and in all of my years of packing and traveling, I’m experiencing something right now that is truly a first… I’m done ahead of schedule! I’m leaving in mere hours and I have free time! I’m trying hard to stay awake so I can sleep on the plane, though.

I had this insane task of, not only packing us for 6 months in the US, but also of somewhat packing up our house so our friends could move into it while we’re gone. Someone has to take care of our psycho cat! So, in 2 days I’ve sorted, cleaned and packed the two of us, on top of doing a million other things. Honestly, I’m not 100% packed. I have to do my carry-on and I have one more backpack to do, but I really need our toiletries to pack that one, and we’re both going to take showers yet tonight, so I’m waiting. But, everything is sitting here ready to jump into the bag!

I’m not exactly sure what I’m expecting from this trip. Sure, some time with family and friends, support raising, sharing with people what God is doing here… my dream is to go on vacation over our anniversary. In January, Chris and I will be married 14 years and we’ve never been on vacation, just the two of us. Didn’t even go on an actual honeymoon. But, yeah, I’m not sure what to expect will happen. Jetlag? Culture shock (yes, even in America)? Yes, I’m sure, and I’m sure there will be more.

I think I’m looking forward to it, though, it’s hard to even imagine right now… I mean, it’s hours away, but the last few weeks have been so totally hectic and busy I haven’t had a chance to think about the trip at all, let alone that it was so soon and will be for so long.

We’ve received many “farewells”, both verbally and in message form, and I have very mixed feelings about them. I’m happy that people here will miss us, because that means we’ve effected their life, but it makes me so sad over how many people either don’t think we’ll return or beg us to promise to come back. Of course we’re coming back! I guess it’s just hard for them to believe.

So, for all my American friends… keep your eyes open for for us! We’re going to be all over the country! If you have some free time & wanna get together, let us know! And those of you in Ohio… you may get the chance to meet Ieva, as well, before she takes off to Orlando.

See you soon!

PS Geesh… that’s random! Can you tell I’m tired?

This morning I found myself getting up much earlier than I usually do (I even used an alarm), getting and ready and heading to the base. Our lecture room slowly filled up with staff on their laptops, connecting to the internet, and Janis and I realized that this was the most people the base has ever had connected wirelessly, at one time. (There were 9 of us… ok, that’s not so many by American standards, but for us, it actually slowed down our internet quite a bit… it was monumental.)

So, what was all of this for? I was teaching a seminar about blogging. Blogs are something that our staff have been interested in for some time. Chris has been working diligently to set them all up and today I spent the morning showing our staff how to customize their blogs, as well as the basics of how to write a post, add pictures, etc. We used to projector and I walked my group of students through the process, step by step. It was a challenge, but we did it. I was proud of all of them. They all learned the basics and got started on their way into the world of blogging!

I’m sure that I’ll be getting a lot of questions in the not-so-distant future, but it’s not so bad.

Oh, did I mention we leave for America in 10 days? We have a friend, Danka, from Czech, coming tomorrow for about a week, and a band coming from England that Chris is hosting… a lot going on and a lot to do in our last 10 days before we leave.

I recently read an article in The Baltic Times about how Latvia is trying to combat Sex Tourism in the country and in Riga, specifically. You can read the whole thing here. Part of it really stuck out to me. It said:

“STOP Sex Terrorism” is a massive advertising campaign aimed at stopping this from going any further. It’s the brainchild of Re!Action, a non-governmental organization, put together in conjunction with the Alfa Center advertising agency. The campaign is sponsored by Riga Airport and more than 20 other businesses based in and around the capital. The campaign is, somewhat unconventionally, not aimed at the sex tourists themselves but at the Latvian women who participate in sex tourism by agreeing to one night stands with the revelers. It hopes to reach those women who can be found sitting with a lonely expression on their faces at the edge of the bars of the popular tourist night clubs, waiting for a foreigner who can afford to buy her the most expensive cocktail on the menu and whisk her away – for a few hours, anyway – without resorting to outright
prostitution.

“Its goal is stopping the nonchalance toward this problem, as well as raising the self-esteem of the society and younger women in particular, by making one think about whether it’s worth it to have a one-night stand for a glass of cocktail,” the Re!Action Web site says…

A recent survey conducted by the popular Internet news Web site tvnet.lv addressed the most common reasons that a woman would have a one night stand with a foreign tourist who buys them drinks. Of the 1,504 respondents to the survey, 53 percent thought that it was an issue of self confidence. Nineteen percent thought that the problem was the women’s financial situation, and 17 percent thought that the problem is the attitude of Latvian men towards women. The remaining 10 percent considered the problem as merely one of social circumstance or cited other factors.

Self confidence?!?! While I have a hard time reconciling this, deep inside I think it is true. I guess it just drives home to me one more reason why I want to show these young women that I’m friends with just how important they are and how much God loves them! I pray that they will come to a true understanding of that, really believe it, and therefore not be tempted into this lifestyle.

You know, when you look on a map, there’s always this black line between countries. This is especially noticeable if you’ve even drive across the border of a country. Rarely are the borders back to back… usually you leave one country, drive some distance (maybe feet, maybe a mile) and then you drive into the other country. I remember years ago traveling, I believe, between Czech and Austria. There was quite a distance between the borders… maybe a mile. My friend Laurie and I began to think, “So, where are we? We left Czech, but we’re not yet in Austria… what we we did here, or what it a baby was born right here, where would the be born? Where the heck are we? We’re on The Black Line!”

Yesterday, Chris and I took a trip to The Black Line between Latvia and Lithuania. There was an outreach team from Norway working there with YWAM. The one girl leading it, Benedicte, is a friend of ours and is leaving Latvia after this outreach, so we went to hang out and say good bye. Also, one of their translators is our friend Eduards. It was his first time doing actual official translating, so we went to check up on him, as well as just to get out of the area and take a break from everything going on in Talsi.

So, we headed to Ruba. The last 20km or so were dirty, dust gravel roads. We wondered how they chose this village to go to. First we saw “The Black Line” sign, which declared we were entering the “borderland”. The next sign we say said, “Lithuania – 4km” Ok… so we must be getting closer. We turned off onto yet another dirt road and drove through what looked like it was an abandoned factory zone… we later figured out it used to be the border station. We kept driving and then… “beep beep beep”… our cell phones alerted us that we had a new message, which read, “Welcome to Lithuania… we hope you enjoy your stay!” Ok, well, we MUST be getting close! We did eventually find the village & team, which were working at a camp at a local school. I guess when it’s winter and the trees are bare, you can easily see the Lithuanian side of the border.

After our 2 1/2 hour drive, we had a good lunch, toured the village school, which used to be the mansion of a Baron back in the day. It was beautiful. As were the gardens around it. The 4 of us had some time to just hang out, have fun and chat. Before we knew it, it was time for them to go to dinner and get ready for the evening, and for us to leave on our 2 1/2 hour drive home. Maybe it was a long way to go for a 3 hour visit, but I think it was worth it, for everyone.

And besides, it was cool to hang out on The Black Line! *smile*

Well, Sunday was my birthday. I’m now… one year older than I was last year. I’m actually in that age frame that people begin to stop fighting that “I’m not old” comment. Where you’re finally “too old” to do various things. Hmm… eh, maybe 34 won’t be so bad… dang it, did I say that out loud. Oh well, now it’s out… yes, I’m 34 now.

Chris, Ieva and Elita made lunch after church, which was so nice not to have to cook… and it was so good! They also did a good job planning a somewhat surprise party for me on Sunday evening. It’s not their fault that, when Knesis called to say that his hitch-hiking venture to get here wasn’t going well, that he spilled the beans. “Oh, there’s a party?” I actually didn’t know. While I took a nap on the couch, and Elita crashed in her room, Chris and Ieva ran to the store to get some last minute things… and people arrived while they were gone. Kinda strange since I didn’t know what to do with them!

In the end, Chris, Elita & Ieva were here, Knesis did finally make it, spending about 8 hours hitch-hiking from a city 2ish hours away… (bless his heart), and Kristaps, Egita & Martiņš came from Talsi. I looked around at one moment and realized that, other than me & Chris, the next oldest person was… about 20. Hmm…

Andis is in England working so he couldn’t make it… Peteris is in America, but he did call me, which was so sweet! I did get text messages/sms’s all day long, too, which was really nice.

So, there you go. Another birthday. I wonder when I’ll have another in America… seems I’m always headed there at the wrong time.

I don’t know why I’ve been staying up so late. Last night I was up talking to Ieva until 4am. And, if you were wondering, the sun is indeed starting to come up around that time.

Yes, Ieva’s home. Yeah! Chris and I took Elita and went to the airport to meet Ieva and Daiga on Wednesday night for their 11:30pm flight arrival. So nice to have them back. Attempting to be good Latvians, we need we needed to have flowers to give them. (Flowers are a very big thing here.) Well, we forgot to buy them before all the stores closed. Elita’s dad said we should just pick some along the road on our way. I don’t know if he was joking or not, but we went for it. In the progressing dark and drizzling rain, Elita and I would jump out of the car whenever we saw a patch of somewhat usable wildflowers. We pulled in to the town of Pūre, and saw a gas station and thought to check there to see if they had any for sale. While we waited to ask the lady, through the glass window, Elita & I noticed that they had some nice flower boxes full of pretty flowers. We half joked about using those as a back up. When the lady said they had none for sale, I encouraged Elita to go for it… so she asked the lady if we could cut 2 flowers from each of the 2 kinds they had there. The lady working was a little surprised, but said, “Well, just do it so they look good, so it doesn’t look like you cut them off.” So, we did! Talk about fresh flowers! We laughed about that for quite sometime. Can you imagine pulling that off in America? Only in Latvia!

Elita… she’s been staying with us this past week and will stay another week, I think. She’s a young friend from Riga and also Peteris’ girlfriend. We’re kinda doing an “immersion English” type thing with her. It’s going ok. Nothing formal, but just getting her to speak all the time and correcting her as we go. She’s pretty good overall. It’s been nice for her, too, as she, her parents and her brother and sister all share a 1 bedroom (2 room) apartment in Riga. She’s essentially got her own room here (as Chris’ office) and a spare computer, so she’s living the high life.

If only our hot water would get turned back on…

Yeah, so Ieva’s home and it’s so nice.We’ve spent time with her each day, and most of the evenings until late. (Chris just took her home, now, at 1am.) I’m loving hearing her storied about her first missions trip and what God showed and taught her. Now she’s focusing on pulling together the support she needs for DTS. It’s a tall order, but she’s got the faith for it. Check out the video Chris did for her here. Pray for her… she needs about $2000 in about 3 weeks.

Going to bed… I have a feeling something is going on tomorrow… later today. I’m just not sure what. :)