May Newsletter

Dear friends,
The month of May marks the two year anniversary since we moved to Latvia as church-planting missionaries. We are thankful as God has been faithful to provide for all our needs according to His riches in glory. And we are trusting Him to continue the good work that He started here in Latvia. We are writing to share great news and to inform you of a great need we will have in May, 2009.

First of all, the great news: We have been studying through the Bible with twelve disciples (Vitaly and Christa, Janis and Marion, Sergey and Jelena, Leonid and Inese, Artis and Ieva, Agnese and Sveta). Currently I am teaching 1 Kings and our plan for 2009 is to finish the Old Testament. Last week, we moved our Sunday morning services to a bigger venue in the center of Riga and the rent is covered by those who are attending. Our evangelism team continues to give out many gospel tracts every week and we have also been invited to minister to orphans in a village where Sergey has been delivering humanitarian aid. So God is doing great things and we believe greater things are yet to come in the months and years ahead!

Now, we have a great need in the month of May... It's time to renew our residence permits for our 3rd year and one of the requirements is that we prove we have the "necessary substinance" (a minimum of $11,500). This is not the cost of the visa, it's the minimum Latvia expects to be in our savings account for our living/ministry expenses. Because of the economic crisis, some of our generous supporters have been out of work, so our savings falls short. The bottom line is, we will need an additional $8000 by the end of May.


If you are interested in helping to meet this need, the best way to help is to send a check any amount made payable to "Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay" and then mail it to 3001 Monterey-Salinas Hwy, CA 93940. Do not write our names on the check but include a separate note designating "for Latvia" and we will receive 100%. But if you want to donate by credit card online, you can conveniently give to our cause and we will receive 95.25% (because of credit card processing fees). If you can send a one time gift this month it will help us to renew our residence permits for the next year of church planting in Latvia.

Thank you all for your partnership in the gospel.
To God be the glory!
Brenten and the Powers family
www.calvarylatvia.com

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!

Residence permits recieved

We finally received our residency permits as religious workers. That means that we have the freedom to live and minister in Latvia for the next 12 months. We don't have to leave every 3 months like tourists do, and we can easily renew our permits next year. Praise the Lord for this answer to prayer. And thank you all my prayer warriors who have been praying for this to come together since our first exploratory trip to Latvia more than a year ago. Thank you also pastor Roger, Nate, Steve in Monterey for sending us, thanks to pastor Vadim and his church in Ogre that officially invited us and helped with completing the process. We look forward to more open doors for effective ministry! Stay tuned for more updates...

God answers prayer

• Thank God for answering prayers in August
  for residence permits (visas) giving us freedom to live here and preach publicly,
  for continued ministry to the kids that were saved at VBS,
  for good turn out at our English club (an outreach),
  for progression in language acquisition,
  for a new computer,
  
• For September, please pray:
  for Lena and I to have wisdom for raising our children....
  for our weekly ministries (English club, Evangelism, Discipleship of kids, Sunday Bible Studies and worship team...) that all our labors will be fruitful....
  for progress in church planting in this new season (freedom with residence permits yet challenges with the cold half of the year)....
  for Zane, our Latvian teacher, for God's will in her life, if she should join our ministry as a translator and worship leader.

Hurdles for Missionaries: Residence Permits

Today is the day we have been preparing for for the last year. The sun rose sometime around 3 am, so by the time we got up at 8 the sun was blaring straight through the windows and into our eyes. We were motivated to get to the Latvian Embassy in Tallinn and I am glad we were early because there was already a line forming outside. It is hard to get a residence permit to live in Latvia, especially as missionaries because of all the documents that are required for each person in the family. For those of you who want to be long-term missionaries in Latvia, here's a list of all the documents you need (some of which had to be reissued, notarized and then authenticated in Sacramento or Washington DC with an international seal known as the "Apostille")

1. Completed applications for each member of the family (10 pages each).



2. Marriage certificate (with Apostille).



3. Children's birth certificates (with Apostille).



4. My certificate of ordination as missions pastor (with Apostille).



5. A letter that we are sent by Calvary Chapel (with Apostille).



6. A letter that we are invited by a church in Latvia.



7. A copy of the Latvian church's registration certificate.



8. A rental agreement for 1 year proving we have a place to live in Latvia.



9. A letter from a Latvian Bank that we have $8700 of support minimum in our account.



10. Letters from a Radiologist that took our X-rays verifying we don't have tuberculosis.



11. Color copies of our passports and Apostille documents so we could get the originals back.

Praise the Lord that our documents were received without any problem, so within 30 days we should receive our official permits to freely live, evangelize, make disciples, and plant churches in Latvia. This is the culmination of a year of preparation, 2 short term mission trips, relationship building, a lot of diligence, and investing of personal and donated money, but the fruit of the long term ministry that is beginning will abound to all our accounts for eternity. As one missionary said to us back in February 2006, "There are a number of hurdles to jump to get religious work residency permits in Latvia... there are some challenges, but they are not impossible ones."

Trip to Tallinn, Estonia

We are in Estonia for a couple days to apply for residence permits at the Latvian embassy. This trip is essential to our mission because we had to apply outside of Latvia before our visa free time is up. We had all the documents ready and we were excited to see the capitol of Estonia: Tallinn!

We drove up yesterday with the Yeats family in a borrowed minivan to Tallinn, a 5 hour trip. With the exception of a tired, crying kids and some crazy drivers, the trip went smooth, especially on the newly paved highway that ran North through the forest and along the Baltic coast. Steven drove and I navigated our way to the apartment I reserved online. Last night, after we got our kids settled in bed, I walked around scouting for the Latvian embassy and found their hours for visa issues were only 10am to 12 noon. Then I walked up to the top of the hill where the old town is. It looks like you stepped back in time 6 hundred years to explore narrow cobble stone streets and quaint buildings overshadowed by majestic cathedrals. Then I found probably the best view over the city and took pictures until the sun set around 11 PM - so late because of the summer solstice and because Estonia is so far north.

Correction about Invitations

I also had an encourageing informative conversation about invitation letters with the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) couple who took the Pittsburg team to the airport. I said "I heard only the Jews, Orthodox, Catholic, Lutherns or Baptist Union are able to invite long term foreign missionaries. " They answered, "You have been misinformed. Accually any 'registered religous entity' [a church or organisation registered in Latvia] may write invitation letters. We have done it." YWAM Latvia usually only does it for other YWAM missionaries. But, they advised, develop a good trusting relationship with an existing church that may write the invitation letter. I asked, "Would it be better if it was in the same town we would live in?" Answer: Yes because you might run into problems if you ministered in a city that was different then the one you were invited to. However, we will be asked, "Why Riga?" Is it because it's more comfortable than the villages? What about many towns and villages in Latvia where there is just an old Baptist church or Orthodox church, if they want a another kind of church, it's too far and expensive to travel to Riga." They challenged us, "Pray about going outside of Riga". I told her, "we will pray and look into other places, but in the end we have to go where God leads us." So far we are drawn to Riga because there are a million people here out of the 2.5 Million in the whole country of Latvia.

Issues for long term missionaries

Thursday, I met with Bridge Builders president Chuck Kelley - an evangelical organisation building relationships mostly between churches in Latvia and the USA. The main thing I wanted to do was make contact and ask about the invitation letters .
We had some things in common, He accually was at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in the seventies during the tent days, is friends with Thomas Kinkade, has visited Monterey and has fascilitated a sister church relationship between a Calvary in Southern California and I think a Baptist Church here.
As far as who can issue invitation letters for religious residency permits, Bridge Builders cannot. According to Chuck, only registered religious confessions can: Baptist, Lutherin, Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish. [see the next post for what others say about this issue] So, what does that mean? Latvia makes it difficult for new groups/movements/churches to come in (at least officially for a long period of time). We can be here for up to 6 months a year freely (3 months between Jan-June, 3 months between July-Dec), but to be here year round, we need a residency permit. There are other kinds of residency permits like for business and such. It might be a possibility to work (whether money can be made is questionable) but if I have a trade it might open the door year round - with strings attached.
But my desire is to be free to focus on building up the body of Christ and my family, to pour my self out into reaching lost souls and discipling new believers and still have enough time and energy for daily necessities. The Baptists have helped others with the invitations provided that they approve of the work that is being reported to them. Perhaps some relationship building in this direction would be fruitful.

Please continue to pray for God's will concerning the invitation letter and future ministry here.

If it is God's will for us to be here long term as Missionaries, then He will open the door as we pray. I believe that God has been preparing us for this place for a long time. There hasn't really been any culture shock, it feels more like home. We have some really good connections so far and there is definitely a need for pastors, church plantors and evangelists. God may be putting together a team (there is another family who is praying about moving here from a Calvary Chapel in Russia). He has given us a heart for both the Russian people and the Latvian people. It is very helpful to already be semi-fluent in Russian as most of the people we meet can speak Russian, but many Latvians want to speak Latvian (which we are beginning to learn). It is interesting that children are required to learn English in school as a second language, but they also have the choice between Russian and German as a third.
Anyway, my time is running out...

I just want to add that I have been able to bring my guitar on the street and play worship in english and Russian but mostly being friendly has opened doors to preach the gospel. It is sad how many people there are who have no idea how to get to heaven, much less how God wants them to live here. However I would encourage you to read recent news articles about how Latvians are standing up against the homosexual agenda.

More soon, and keep praying for latvia!