August 2008 Prayers

Please keep us in your prayers this month as it is full of ministry opportunities:

1. Pray for our time at the Calvary Chapel conference in Denmark to be refreshing, encouraging (July 30-August 3)
2. Pray for traveling mercies for our family and for our next team (Mitch, Dennis and Frank)
3. Pray for our evangelistic outreaches from August 5 -18.
4. Pray for Caleb to integrate into kindergarden starting August 18
5. Pray that God opens more doors to start Bible studies in other cities.

P.S. Praise God for providing all the finances and documents we needed for visas, we should get them August 14.

Vacation Bible School

This is our second year doing VBS in Ogre with a team from Tennessee. I have been the music guy as well as overseeing all the translators. The first two days went well, setting a foundation of who Jesus is, we are praying that the kids will continue to be receptive in the last three days as we challenge them with the rest of the gospel, calling them to become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Baptism in Ogre river

Baptism in Ogre river, Latvia

Last Sunday, Kaspars was water baptized by pastor Vadim Kovalev and the members of Ogre Evangelical Church came to witness this event with Kaspars' family. It seems that one member was added to the church and another was sent out. At the end of this slide show are pictures of us praying for Anatoly on his last Sunday here before moving to Scotland. I had raised him up to take over worship ministry but it he believes God is opening the door to find work in the West, learn English and serve with a Russian speaking church in Glasgow, Scotland.

God is Always Right On Time

Having just received our last 3 required documents from different sources, this book title came to mind as I raced into the immigration office an hour before our deadline to renew our residence permits: God Is Never Late; He Is Seldom Early; He Is Always Right On Time.

The editorial description: ’GIVE ME PATIENCE, GOD - BUT HURRY!’ When we’re waiting on God to answer prayer, our timing and His timing are rarely the same. Sometimes it seems like God is in a different time zone altogether. We sometimes feel like we picked one of those numbers in the bureau of motor vehicle line and there are 78 others ahead in line.But we need God to wait on us--right away. This book is about trusting God even when it seems He is running late. It’s about God ’s perfect control over the times and events of our lives--and about His perfect power to order those events in a loving and meaningful way. Despite our anxiousness, impatience, and worry,God is faithful to work in our lives at just the right time. He’ll never be late. God’s Never Late is the third book in a popular trilogy including: God Has Never Failed Me. . . But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times The Buzzards are Circling, But God’s Not Finished with Me Yet

In answer to prayer, we got everything in on time with no problems. The certified letter from CCMB arrived by mail at 12pm, Lena got back from the US embassy with Caleb's new passport at 4pm and I got a required document from our bank at 5pm. With one more hour before the immigration office closed, the director received our application, checked all our documents and was in an surprisingly better mood than ever before. Perhaps it was the fervent effectual prayers of the righteous (you guys) that availed much, perhaps our desperate cries to the Lord for mercy, perhaps it was a coincidence that Christian radio was playing softly in her office, but mostly I believe it was just God's grace and providence. She said everything was in order and we will return to get our new visas/residency permits on August 14, 2008. Apparently, God is not finished with us here yet. (: Thank you Jesus!

2 saved today

Today, I went out in the center of Ogre to share the gospel with Agnese. She is a good translator with a heart for evangelism who is faithfully serving the Lord. Below is a picture of us on an outreach.

So today we shared the gospel in Ogre with about a dozen different people and two girls received it, turning from sin and putting their faith in Jesus to be saved and begin a Christ-centered life. We prayed that God would lead us to people who were open and give us the words that they need to hear. The two girls are about 16 years old, we walked up to them and introduced ourselves and asked if we could ask them some spiritual questions. They were very open, one didn't believe in God at first and the other believed He exists but didn't know who He is. I can't explain it here exactly as it came out earlier but we shared how God created man good but the problem is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) but that Jesus came to reconcile us to God by taking the punishment for our sins on the cross (Ephesians 2:16) and He rose from the dead so that God could freely give eternal life to all who believe. We also shared what it means to become a Christian and about the Christ-centered life that begins when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in born again believers. After sharing the gospel, we asked, "Do you believe Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead? They said "yes" Then I asked them, is there was anything keeping you from receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior? No. Do you want to repent and pray now? Yes. So we sat down at a park bench and I shared an example prayer that I could lead them in or they could pray in their own words. They wanted to repeat the prayer after me, so we prayed together. Then I asked if they understood everything they prayed and they said yes. Good. Then I encouraged them to go to a good Bible teaching church in order to grow. I gave them my contact info and told them about our church in Ikskile and they said that they would go Sunday. We rejoiced and said goodbye. So praise the Lord and please keep our new sisters, Jolanta and Sintija in your prayers.



Also praise the Lord for Ieva, our new Latvian teacher and one of our translators, and her sister (above photo) who have been coming to Sunday services and are being blessed by the simple verse by verse studies through the Bible. May the Lord keep these services "real" and deepen our fellowship with these sisters.

Prayers for July 2008

Praise God for answering our prayers last month: saving many youth at camp, meeting financial needs, Caleb is signed up for Latvian kindergarten, our new Latvian teacher, our 8th wedding anniversary...

Please pray for

1. The teens from youth camp to continue in God's grace, opportunities to disciple them
2. For smaller kids and parents to be reached at next Vacation Bible School in Ogre July 21-25
3. The process of renewing our residency permits, for all documents to be ready by July 14
4. For Sunday and Wednesday Studies in Ikskile, that the Lord would build up the saints
5. Mitch, Dennis and Frank coming to serve, evangelize and encourage August 5-18