Afterthoughs.

We made it back to the U.S. without any major issues! We can't thank you enough for following us on here and for your prayers! It would never have been the same without you!

We spent the last week in Latvia just saying goodbye to each person we met and getting e-mails, pictures and hugs! It was bittersweet-- we really wanted to stay longer, but all of us were also ready to see family and friends again. Since our return, I wake up daily and think about the friends we have made and how much I want to see them again. I'm sure everyone else is doing the same.

The week before we left was filled with invitations from friends for dinner and tea. Everyone was so happy to have met us. I have never made so many close friends in just one month before. I feel sure that if any of us went back to Latvia in five to 10 years, every friend we made would welcome us into their home like we never left!

We spent the last two days in Riga, Latvia's capital. The first day, we explored the Old City (it's really old... like 800 years). That night, we went to Lido, Latvia's traditional food restaurant, for Trey's birthday. After that, the boys got SICK. It wasn't the food; they had been teetering on the edge of being sick for almost a week. The last day in Latvia, Robyn and I did all of our souvenir shopping while the boys stayed in the bed at the hostel. That night, some missionaries in Riga had us over for soup and good conversation. When we got back to the hostel, we all prayed for the big trip over the Atlantic the next day-- and we made it back with limited flight delays and no accidents for the boys! Whew... God is good!

We are sending out an e-mail with more specific prayer requests-- if you would like to receive it, just leave your e-mail and I'll send you one!

THANKS SOOO MUCH!!!!

A family helping another family

Today, Trey and I went to visit a family affected by extreme poverty and alcoholism. There are seven children in the family, and the father left ten days ago. They don't know if he is coming back or not. We brought them groceries: bread, milk, diapers, potatoes, bananas, hot dogs, cereal, baby food. I brought my camera and they loved posing for me as well as being able to take pictures themselves! Trey got a ball out of the van and kicked it around with them. They laughed and laughed, ate, played and smiled. When we first arrived, the whole family seemed discouraged and downtrodden. I could tell there wasn't much happiness involved with daily life. But as Pastor Slava led them in a prayer and sang songs about Jesus with them, life began to dance in their eyes. Smiles formed as they gobbled up the bananas. We got huge hugs and toothless toddler grins as we said goodbye, gratitude oozing from each of them. 

The situation is sad, but there is a positive side to the story. There is a story of another family: Pastor Slava, his wife Irena and their five children. This family is not rich, but they see the importance of caring for those less fortunate than they are. I learned later today that this family along with others in the church make sure that these kids and their mom get the gospel, food and love every week. They seem to grasp the concept of consistency in ministry in a way that I have seldom seen. Irena began a ministry for mothers in Daugavpils, and she disciples and prays with most of them individually, even though they are not believers. She sees these women, aging from 17 with brand-new babies to women with 20-year-old children, every week. She has another moms' group in Kraslava, a nearby town, and wants to begin groups like this in two other cities. This family's dedication to ministry has touched my heart deeply. We went to their house for dessert last night, and every time we complimented them or thanked them for anything, they quietly nodded and pointed upward: "Slava Bogu"-- Praise God. 

There is a lesson to be learned from this family. We often think we don't have enough to give to others-- enough money, time, energy, education or talents. This family makes time. They find energy. They praise God. What an inspiration-- and what a wake-up call. Pray for Slava and Irena and their children. Pray for their church and their ministry.

Irena at the mothers' ministry

Isaiah 58:9-12
When you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
The Lord will guide you continually,
giving you water when you are dry
and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like an ever-flowing spring.
Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
and a restorer of homes.

It's Sunday night, and we're just relaxing today! A much needed rest for sure! We went to church this morning, and we'll play volleyball tonight!

The kids in Rezekne are still enjoying the stories. We will go back on Thursday. They can hardly wait (and neither can we)! 

Friday, we got to see a lot of friends and really get to know them better. We even had two of our friends and two of their friends we had never med over for dinner Friday night! Cole and Trey cooked the awesome meal, and Robyn and I stayed in town, met everyone and brought them to our place. They really enjoyed it, and we had a good time as well!

After dinner, we were able to ride the bus back to town and watch Latvian folk dancing! Many Latvians are just so artsy and talented, and it shows in their native dancing! Everyone had so much fun watching the dancers. There were several different groups, ranging from tiny preschoolers to adults. Here are some pictures!

On Saturday, we had the privilege of attending a friend's college graduation. She just finished her Master's degree. We felt special to be able to attend. Graduations here are different. Instead of the typical calling out of everyone's name and watching their tiny silhouettes walk across the stage from what seems to be a mile up in the stands, meeting them after the ceremony, the family and friends of each graduate get to go up during the ceremony and give flowers and take pictures. Since there are only about 200 graduates, there is time to call a few names, allow them to line up at the front of the stage and then let the graduation music play louder, indicating to the congratulators that they may file up to the stage. Each parent, sister, boyfriend or grandparent comes up, bringing at least one flower. Imagine how many flowers the graduates (boys and girls) leave with! 

It's been a great few days. We appreciate your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement! We hope everyone is doing well, and we can't wait to hear YOUR stories from the month of June as well! Remember that missions isn't only overseas! Make the most of every day! Thanks for keeping up with us!

Love, CJRandT!

A great few days!

We are having such a good time!

On Sunday, we went to church! It was great to meet other Christians here! Robyn and Trey shared their testimonies at the Baptist church downtown while Cole and I went to Gary and Cathy's church plant. It was so encouraging to hear testimonies of how God had changed these people's lives in such a radical way, just as he has changed each of ours. It is so touching to listen to someone speaking Russian and hearing the emotion in their voice, and then to have it translated into words that you relate to with all of your heart. We are witnessing that God truly is the God of every language. He transcends differences in cultures, traditions and personality and affects each of his children in such a way that they are never the same.

We have gone to a town called Rezekne for the past two days. It's about two hours away, but definitely worth the bus ride. We've been able to hang out at a youth center there and talk to kids ages 9-20 (give or take a few years). They are so smart! Most of them speak Latvian, Russian and a few words in English. We have been so impressed! We stayed there for a long time yesterday and played with them. We slept REALLY well last night!

Today, Trey told the story of creation to them and the leader of the youth center translated into Latvian and Russian. All the kids were very interested and had feedback and questions.

Tomorrow, we will go back and Cole and I will stay at the center while Robyn and Trey go to the park to try to meet more people. Cole will tell the story of how evil entered the world. The next time we go, we'll talk about Jesus. What a great opportunity!

We (by we, I mean Cole) cooked a nice meal tonight-- chicken, kuskus, veggies and of course, hot tea! We have definitely learned to appreciate hot tea here. It is so good! Even the kids at the center have hot tea with their snack!

Latvia is amazing. We are settled in and are really enjoying life here. We are busy, but very content!

Today was incredible! Gary showed us how to catch the bus to downtown... and then left us to explore all on our own! Don't worry moms, we all stayed together. :)

While we were in Daugavpils, we met lots of people, got some phone numbers and we made plans to meet up again with three different people! We are so excited. We have friends! Yay!

I have no idea how we ever got the courage to talk to anyone. This morning, I kept thinking about Moses being nervous to talk because of his poor speech abilities. I was overcome with emotion with the thought of how much God used Moses, and how much he could use us despite our lack of language skills. Some friends of ours wrote down a verse a day for us to read, and today's was 2 Timothy 1:7-8 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, of love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord." What an appropriate and encouraging verse for our first day out on our own!

The people here are different than Americans, but they are a special people for sure. They are sincere, direct, intelligent and helpful. I have a feeling we will leave here with lifelong friends.

Grace and peace to all of you-- thanks for keeping up with us! Keep us in your prayers!

Funny story of the day:

Cole paid 1 lat (equivalent to about $2) to sit in a massage chair at the mall today. We started talking to a guy (who spoke no English by the way, but gestures and a word here and there will get you a long way!) and Cole's chair stopped the massage. An older Russian lady came up and yelled at him in Russian until he got out of the chair! The older women here are definitely NOT afraid to tell you when you're doing something wrong!

First full day in Daugavpils

Well, we made it! We have been out in the surrounding area of Daugavpils learning about the cultural and religious history of the people of Latvia today. We walked around downtown Daugavpils and met a girl at the university, traveled to Aglona to see a Catholic basilica (and got a tour-- in Russian of course) and stopped at a cemetery.

Daugavpils is nice. People seem to love to just sit and enjoy the fresh air here. There are lots of city parks, and people go there daily just to sit. Walking on the grass in the parks is prohibited (you'll get a ticket if you do it)! We stopped to eat and enjoyed beet or mushroom soup, these little pork meatloaf type things, veggies, crepes, and bread, along with homemade fruit juice (they make it in the restaurant and put real fruit at the bottom of your cup).

We met a nice girl at the university who Gary already knew, and we are meeting to talk with her on Monday.

After our tour of Daugavpils, we drove to Aglona to visit a famous basilica and to discuss Polish Catholocism and Russian Orthodox traditions (what seems to be the two most common religious heritages here) on the way.


Here are some (condensed) facts about both:
**Note- these are not solid facts out of books; only what we learned on the first day. If any of this information is wrong, I apologize.

Polish Catholocism
This branch of Catholocism differs from the Catholocism that is prevalent in America. The biggest difference seems to be the emphasis they place on Mary. In certain types of this kind of Catholocism, Mary is considered a part of the holy trinity, with God being the more strict, fatherly figure, and Mary being the compassionate intercessor. Jesus simply paid for our original sin and his role seems to end there. My impression was that when they pray, they usually pray to Mary.

Russian Orthodox
The most interesting thing to me about the Russian Orthodox is the the importance of icons in their worship. They seem to believe that to talk to God, they must look at an icon (essentially a painting) either in a church or in a corner of their homes. These icons are considered holy writings, like scripture. There is also an extremely important set of traditions they practice that are separate from scripture. Another interesting aspect of the Russian Orthodox faith is that they believe that it is able to communicate with the dead through a picture on their tombstone. When we visited the cemetery, almost every tombstone had a beautiful, detailed picture of the deceased person etched onto it. Every year on the day of Pentecost, most of the Russian Orthodox believers come to the cemetery and talk to their loved ones. The graves are absolutely beautiful. Each one has a permanent flower bed (see picture) in front of it, and most of them are extremely well taken care of. I have never seen anything like the cemetery here. Below is a picture of one of the graves from WWII, or as the Soviets called it "The Great Patriotic War." There was a whole section of the cemetery dedicated to Soviet Union soldiers. They all had the Red Star on them, like this one.

After the cemetery, we went grocery shopping at the iki (grocery store). We all met down in the boys' apartment and made spaghetti together.

Here's a funny story to end with.

While we were cooking the spaghetti, Cole asked me where the salt was. There was a cup of a white, grainy substance, so I pointed to it. He sprinkled some in the noodle water and the spaghetti sauce, and none of us thought anything of it. When we took our first bite of "Latvian spaghetti," we all said, "hmm, tastes a little different." A few minutes later, Trey said, "It kind of tastes sweet!" We still thought nothing of it. While we were doing the dishes, Robyn looked at the cup (she wasn't there when we were cooking) and said, "Oh good, we have sugar!" Cole and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. We explained that we thought it was salt. Everyone had a good laugh for about five minutes! We put sugar in the spaghetti!

Commissioning

We went to our commissioning service in Montgomery yesterday!

Everything is pretty much final, so as long as we make our flight, we're going! This has been a long process, and June 9 is quickly approaching. Pray for us as we prepare our hearts, our bodies and our suitcases for the month overseas. We are eager to leave, but I pray that during these countdown days, we will not lose sight of the ministry God has given us here in Auburn.

"Wherever you are, be all there."
--Jim Elliott

"Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

"Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously."

--Matthew 10:5-8 (Msg)