Watch and Pray

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" Ephesians 6:18

1. Pray for our home fellowship in Ogre as we finish teaching Acts and Mark this month that we'd all be built up.
2. Pray for the lost that we may be reaching them with the gospel on our Friday afternoon evangelism in Riga.
3. Pray for more laborers to be called to the harvest, as Brenten goes to speakers week at the Bible college in Hungary November 10-14.
4. Pray for our families heath, as it gets coooold in Latvia, the kids are starting to get sick again. Healing.
5. Pray for our furlough November 25-December 29, that God prepare us to be used at CCMB and CC Santa Cruz and with our families.

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.

Happy Fathers Day

I hope you all enjoyed fathers day. I sure did. Lena and Caleb made me a cake for after lunch and we went out to dinner and ate ceasar salad and barbeque chicken wings. Then after the kids went to bed I finally put together some clips from our weekly family outings.

Merry Christmas from Latvia

May God bless you all as you celebrate the first coming of Christ, and as you eagerly await His glorious second coming.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
1 John 2:28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

We are enjoying this Christmas in Latvia along with our brothers and sisters in Christ here. Christmas eve, I led a choir in English, Russian and Latvian Carols at the Lutherin Cathedral in front of 70 people. I made many mistakes but I think Christ was glorified. We enjoyed Christmas day with our kids, opening presents and eating Jesus' birthday cake. Caleb gave Jesus a place at the table with a peice of cake, but concluded Jesus wasn't hungry for it yet. It was a simple family day but we were all content and thankful to God for the most precious gift of His Son.


We gave Lily this stuffed dog.


We read kid's books recieved from relatives.


Caleb played with his remote control truck.

Dreams of a white christmas come true.

There is Snow in Latvia

This is the day that Caleb has been waiting for the last 2 years. Finally, a chance to throw snowballs at Daddy. And there was enough snow on the ground to build a snowman and make snow angels.







We also went for a drive to the near by town of Ikskile. We are praying about starting a Bible study there too. There are many private houses in Ikskile (as opposed to apartment buildings).
And we found a nice park for the kids. And don't forget Lily, not as excited to be out in the cold, but she still enjoyed getting out.

October 31 Alternative

What is there for kids to do on October 31 in Latvia?

1. Get dressed as the dead and go out with friends to get candy or do pranks on people.
2. Nothing. Sit at home and be bothered by mobs coming to your door.
3. Or, celebrate good instead of evil at the missionaries house: free food, lots of candy, Christian music, fun and games.
   

The Bible says, "Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21) And "Flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart." (2 Timothy 2:2) So, we decided to host an alternative to Halloween for the kids from our childrens ministry, we called it "Reformation Day" and we explained how Martin Luther was a Christian who changed history by challenging evil in his generation and stood up for good. We encouraged the kids to glorify God not the devil and to celebrate life not death and to seek good not evil.



We provided Hot dogs, chips, cola and plenty of candy so that they wouldn't be tempted to go trick or treating. Our games included a pinjata, Uno, guess how many M&M's are in a jar, bobbing for apples and who could make their balloons stick to the ceiling after rubbing it on your head and finally. We connected our camera to a monitor so they could see themselves dance along with the David Crowder Band, singing "Your a Revolutionary Love" and "O Praise Him" and now we have this action packed video to show you:






October 31 Reformation Fun

Exploring Cesis Video

Cesis, Latvia

Cesis Photos 2

Cesis Photos

Here are some pictures from our family trip to Cesis, this is the the center or old part of town. I was impressed by all the people walking through and the feel of the city.



There was a giant statue of Lenin that was taken down after the fall of the USSR, the statue is now laying down in a coffin like box near St. Johns cathedral. Lenin is dead as far as Latvians are concerned.

Saying "Cheese" in Cesis, Latvia

We took a lovely trip as a family to the old city of Cesis (pronounced "Tsesis"). It was fun to explore the beauty as the golden leaves fell. There are so many people walking around the city center and I hope to return there on an outreach this week while students are on fall vacation.

Family Hike in Ligatne

Once a week, we take drive to another city to explore Latvia, spend time together as a family and get more vision for the rest of the country. Here is a music video from our walk in Ligatne National Park. I am singing "Father, I worship you" in Russian.


minute in ligatne.wmv

Seasons Change

"Only one life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last."
We took this picture for our fall newsletter that we are working on. We will to send it to our supporters soon. They have been very patient because we haven't been sending monthly printed newsletters as we intended. Thank you for being faithful to sacrifice your time and resources in prayer and support as we devote our time and family to winning souls for eternity. May God reward you with eternal rewards!
"He is no fool gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

New Prayer Requests

Thanks to those that pray for us, we need it. Please pray for the following:

1. For our devotion to God's word and prayer. I was convicted of my need to study the Bible for myself (not just in order to teach someone else) so I started in the beginning again, I plan to go through the whole Bible in chronological order this time, God has been renewing my focus in Him through my morning times. Lena continues to have her daily devos during the kids naps.
2. For our family, that the Lord would bless and use us together. We want to walk in the light and be a bright light to this country. Tuesdays we are visiting different cities as a family, It's nice to get out of Ogre sometimes and to get vision for outreaches in other towns. Pray that Lena and I keep connecting on all levels and be supportive companions.
3. For a Latvian/English/Russian translator to help with outreach, bible studies, website. Zane is still unsure if this is for her. Pray that whoever the Lord wants to serve with us in church planting will have a clear call from Him. We are still taking Latvian lessons, but without a translator we are limited in what we can say.
4. For Brenten's ministry. I am teaching through the book of Romans Sunday morning about 30 people are coming, even though the senior pastor is in the States for 6 weeks, I am in charge while he is gone and will continue to teach there until I finish Romans. We hope that our Russian speaking brothers and sisters will grow in the grace of God and be prepared to take over more ministry responsibility when the Lord makes it clear we should start our own Sunday morning services. Our Sunday nights have been pretty quiet, sometimes no one shows up, which is discouraging but we are praying for ways to reach more people.
5. For the people we are ministering to (the Russian church, the English club, youth on the streets, our Latvian friends). Pray for more people to hear the gospel, get saved and discipled and raised up for ministry.
6. For faithfulness in our relationship with supporters. For God to bless those who pray and/or financially support us from the Monterey Bay. For their faithfulness regardless of how often we communicate with them. Also on the other side of the coin, for us to communicate faithfully with them regardless of how much they support us. That all will serve as unto the Lord in view of the eternal rewards. This is important to keep in prayer, because it takes teamwork.

Reaching Latvia 1

This a video from our first trip to Latvia in July-August 2006.

New photos: Walking through Ogre

Ogre, Latvia May ’07