Christmas in Latvia

Hello Everyone,

We’ve spent our first Christmas season in Latvia. It is interesting to see how different cultures celebrate the holidays. Here there are similar decorations: trees with ornaments and lights, wreaths, etc. However, many people decorate trees outside so they also still prominently sell wax candles and candle holders with which to light your trees. Most trees are much smaller because so many people live in apartments. Fresh trees are available generally the week before Christmas as many have a tradition of decorating their trees on Christmas Eve.

Here are some other Latvian traditions:

- Family gatherings are usually held on the day of Christmas Eve and gifts are
opened then.

- Christmas music is playing in all of the malls. We often heard English tracks,
including Bing Crosby’s rendition of White Christmas. We recognize many tunes even when the lyrics are Latvian. They also openly hand out liquor samples in grocery stores as you are shopping.

- Santa looks the same, but when he shows up at a party here in “the land that
sings” (as Latvia is called), each child must sing a song to receive a gift from
Santa. Nate sang Jingle Bells (wonderfully of course) in English when Santa was at his preschool party.

- Gingerbread houses and cookies in all shapes are the featured baked goods.

- You cannot find boxes of Christmas cards. Christmas cards or postcards are sold individually – a testament to the cultural norm of tight and small circles of friends.

- There are very few nativity sets or scenes or even Christmas books about the first Christmas.

At the Reed house on Christmas Day, we were able to share our meal with some colleagues from Russia who came to Riga while trying to resolve some visa issues. Although we didn’t know them prior to this, we were so glad they had Christmas with us instead of spending the whole day in a hotel room.

We had a beautiful white Christmas and Nate has thoroughly enjoyed his first experiences with sledding.

It’s been a different season for us, a less frenetic one because we haven’t had all of the Christmas production rehearsals and performances, parties, socials, and other festivities that usually filled our December calendar. However, the salient theme of Christmas remains the same regardless of our location: celebrating the birth of a Savior, Christ Jesus our Lord!

Living in Our Hearts

Paul was gone the night of November 21, 2008. He was attending a retreat for prospective students interested in the Baltic Pastoral Institute. Nate and I were going through his normal bedtime routine: pick up toys, go potty, get into pajamas, brush teeth, read 2 books, read a Bible story and pray. However, this night Nate had a question right after we finished reading the Bible story. The conversation went like this:

Nate: “Mama, does Jesus live in Daddy’s heart?”
Mom: “Yes.”
Nate: “Does Jesus live in your heart?”
Mom: “Yes.”
Nate: “Does Jesus live in my heart?”
Mom: “Not yet.”
Nate: “I want Jesus to live in my heart, too.”
Mom: “Then you need to ask Him to come into your heart.”
Nate: “Mommy, can you ask for me?”
Mom: “No, honey. You need to ask Him to come into your own heart. First, you have to admit that you do things that are wrong, things that God doesn’t like. Then you ask Jesus to come in and change you.”
Nate: (immediately) “Thank You, God. (All of Nate's prayers start with Thank You, God.) I know I do things that make You sad. Please come into my heart and make me a good boy.”

Then he paused for a long moment, smiled, looked up at me and declared, “He came in.”

Now I don’t pretend to understand all of what was going in on the heart of our little boy. This was an unexpected exchange. Although talk about God and Jesus is a regular occurrence, we had not at all stressed any kind of personal decision Nate had to make. We’re not even sure where he got the phrase “live in your heart”. I’m grateful Jesus can read Nate’s heart and knows exactly what he is thinking and believing.

Jesus taught that you must receive the kingdom of God like a child (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). That child-like faith is precious. We’re not sure how much Nate understands but we believe that this is a significant spiritual event for Nate. It is obvious to us that God is at work in our young son’s life and that is a cause for rejoicing.

How would you answer Nate if he asked you, “Does Jesus live in your heart?” Becoming a follower of Christ is the most important and eternal decision a person can make. If you would like to know more about making this decision please contact us. We count it a joy and privilege to walk alongside those who choose to follow Christ.

Praising God for His love and grace,

Kathy (for Paul & Nate too)

A Busy Couple of Weeks

Hello Everyone!

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me in Latvia. One of our key leaders who does a lot of teaching for BPI was scheduled to teach four sessions at the end of November. Some things came up that caused him to remain in the States during that time so I was called on to teach during those four sessions. I taught two sessions of Understanding World View and two sessions on Understanding Other Faith Belief Systems. I enjoyed teaching and got good feedback from the students.

I also spent two days with perspective students for our next class at BPI. It was great to meet these men and get to know them a little bit. It appears our next class will be a little smaller but I believe that we have some great men coming in. It looks like we have at least three men who have expressed a call to church planting. Two of these have already identified places they believe God is calling them. Both of the towns they have talked about are high priority locations in the Baptist Union’s plan for church planting.

On December 1st I led a one day “Transition Retreat” for our current students. These students will complete their first year of BPI on December 18th. They will transition to full time ministry in January. I wanted to highlight some of the ministry that they will enter into. One of our students will immediately begin working on a new church plant. He has a vision to see 10,000 people hear the gospel in 5 years! Two other students have been called as pastors to “revitalization” work in churches that have a strong history but have declined significantly in that last few years. One of these students also plans to start a home group next summer in another part of Latvia. He hopes that a new church plant will be launched out of this home group in 2010. Another two students are beginning a ministry called “Another Option”. Their vision is to work in partnership with a local church to reach 14-18 year olds in the neighborhood. Another student plans to work through his position as a youth pastor to develop a region wide youth network aimed at reaching unchurched young people. Another student will be directing the Baptist Union’s Resource Center. This young man plans to work through the next several months to strengthen the existing Latvian churches by making church resources available. These are just some of the things that our students will be doing.

An area of prayer is that over the next six weeks or so I need to meet with each of these students. During the December 1st retreat they outlined a transition plan. In essence this is a strategic plan for the next 6-12 months. I will be working with them to develop these plans and begin to implement them. My desire is that God will make His plan clear to them and they will be encouraged to follow that direction. This first class of BPI will be the beginning of the work toward a church planting movement in Latvia. I hope to walk alongside them, especially during these first few months as they begin ministry.

On the home front all is well. We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving meal with some colleagues. We are looking toward a good time at Nate’s 4th Birthday Party on Saturday. We have invited five kids that Nate has met to come over and join us. There was an exciting development in Nate’s spiritual life that I will ask Kathy to write a post about in the next few days. I return to Budapest for a follow up with my surgeon on the 18th. I still experience pain everyday which makes it difficult to function at times. We continue to work through what this means and what adjustments we need to make in life and ministry.

Hope all is well with you and that the holiday season has begun with a sense of God’s peace and presence.

Seeking to serve,

Paul

More Snow...

Hello Everyone,

Well... we have officially survived our first real winter storm in Latvia! For about 12 hours, Sunday afternoon to Monday morning, there was heavy blowing snow with near white out conditions. Here are a couple of shots of the door leading to our balcony.




The snow was very thick and there were a lot of drifts that were a few feet deep. When we got up looking out the window the roads looked pretty bad. However, Riga is a city that is used to winter and snow. The city recovered quickly and everything was running smoothly, if slowly, by mid-morning. My tram ride to BPI was a little longer than usual when a tanker truck tried to make turn onto a small road and got stuck straddling the tram track.

On an up note, I got some new Nike's. Just so you understand I am also attaching another picture. And for those friends who are in warmer climes I thought you might enjoy the line up of our new standard footwear.



One final note regarding our "little man" Nate. In celebration of Latvian Independence Day Nate's preschool had a concert. We were told that the required dress was "concert black apparel". After several attempts at understanding European sizes we finally found, I hope you will agree, just the right outfit. Here is a picture of Nate on the morning of the concert.



I hope this finds that all is well with you! Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

Paul, Kathy & Nate

Snow, Snow, Snow

Yes everyone - we have snow! Last night into this morning we had our first snow. When we woke up Nate was so excited to see the blanket of white on everything. All he wanted to do was go play in it. On the way to school he said (several times), "We've never had snow like this!" or "This is a really snowy day!" This afternoon after school he got his chance and had a good time playing in the snow in the woods.

We spent the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. Some of the BPI students had met some leadership from Estonian churches at a conference in the Czech Republic. Those leaders arranged for all of our students to be invited and hosted for the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Conference in Tallinn. The Estonian churches paid all of our conference fees, provided lodging for the students and covered the lunch meal that was not part of the conference. It was a great conference and they even took up a special offering to assist Latvian churches to have a Leadership Conference in Latvia.

I would ask you to pray especially for Latvia this week. Yesterday Latvia celebrated the 90th anniversary of becoming an independent nation. Apparently Old Riga and the surrounding area were packed with people. As the snow fell there was a huge fireworks show. I would ask you to pray that a wave of true freedom, freedom from sin and freedom of eternal life, would sweep through this nation. Only in Jesus Christ will the Latvians find peace and fulfillment.

Seeking to serve,

Paul, Kathy & Nate

Treats or Jokes

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to write today about imported holidays here, one in particular. As we moved through October we noticed in Rimi, a sort of mini super Wal Mart store, where we do a lot of shopping, a few costumes, make-up and ceramic pumpkins. Of course we knew what this was about but not too many Latvians seemed to know, or for that matter be very interested.

On the night of the 31st we had just sat down to dinner went he doorbell began to ring frantically. I went to the door and was greeted by one of the children that I had seen around the complex dressed like a princess. She began to explain to me in Latvian why she was dressed that way. There were three other children in the hallway one of which was dressed like a bunny. Bunny was holding the one basket that they all seemed to be sharing. When I got that "I don't have the slightest idea what you are saying" look on my face, Bunny held up the basket and very seriously said, "Treats or jokes!" Then Princess said, "It's Halloween night!"

Fortunately Kathy had purchased a couple of packages of Skittles to do a project with Nate. I went to the cabinet, got the Skittles and when I went back to the door, dropped them into the basket. "Paldies!" Princess and Bunny said in unison. Since we are at the end of the hallway after my contribution they all ran toward the elevator.

As I returned to my dinner I wondered what I would see on the next imported holiday, "Valentine's Day"!

Hope the fall has been good as we celebrate the Lord's blessings.

Seeking to serve,

Paul, Kathy & Nate

Voting from Overseas

When you live overseas you become very aware of your citizenship and the privileges that are bestowed with that citizenship. As a guest in this country, we have few, if any, “rights”. We can’t open a bank account or sign a contract for phone service, Internet, etc. To do those things you have to have a “personal code number”, which is issued only to citizens or to those granted permission to live here with residency visas. We just received our one-year residency visas yesterday and can just now, after six months, operate more freely. It is clear, however, that as non-citizens we can never fully participate in this society.

When confronted with these realities on a daily basis, the privileges associated with citizenship become even more valued. We have both always been diligent to vote. Living ten time zones away in a different culture only increased our determination to vote in the US elections. We made the arrangements to have our ballots mailed to us at our overseas address. When they had still not arrived by October 20th, we contacted the Registrar of Voters office and were able to receive the ballots via email! We faxed our ballots back today. (For obvious reasons, when you fax your ballots in you have to sign a waiver to a secret ballot.) The Registrar of Voters even sent an email confirming receipt of our ballots, stating everything looked in order and that our ballots were being forwarded for counting.

We are grateful for the technology that allows us to vote from overseas. We appreciate the service received from the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office – they were great! But most of all, we are thankful to be citizens of a free country holding open elections. We hope you exercise your privilege to vote also.

This also reminds us that we are citizens of an even greater Kingdom. We should be just as determined to exercise our privileges of that citizenship. Prayer, ministry, service and sharing the gospel are all privileges that we should exercise each day as God gives us the opportunity. As we hope that you exercise your privilege as a citizen of the USA we also hope that you will, and encourage you to, exercise your privileges as a child of God.

Seeking to serve,

Paul, Kathy & Nate

Things you probably won't see...

Before I moved to Riga, Latvia, I spent most of my life in Southern California. Today as I went through the day I thought of several things that you probably won't see in So Cal in the middle of June. You probably won't see a forth straight day of heavy rain. You probably won't see an explosion of green, as plants rush to take advantage of the short summer. You probably won't see fog from your breath as you leave the mall after early evening shopping. You probably won't see Lays crinkle cut chips on sale, in Dill and Sour Cream flavour of course. You probably won't see a beautiful sunset or red, yellow and orange...at 10:30 p.m.!

As we continue to settle here in Riga we appreciate your prayers for our adjustments to all the big things and little things you probably won't see in Southern California.

Innocent Prayer

The chairs around the dining table in our apartment have a very narrow base. Nate has a tendency to move around on his chair and sometimes the chair becomes unstable. The other night Nate's chair slid away from him and he fell hitting his cheek on the side of the glass dining table very hard. We immediately put "ice" (a bag of frozen peas which we called "the pea pillow") on his cheek. Even so we were sure that Nate would have a significant bruise on his cheek and perhaps a black eye.

Later that night I was putting Nate to bed. As he laid his head down on the pillow he sat up suddenly, held his cheek, and said, "What is that!?" I told him that his cheek was bruised and it would probably hurt for a while but it would heal. He looked at me and said, "God will heal it?" I said yes. He immediately looked up and said, "God could you please heal my cheek? Could you heal my cheek because I don't want it to hurt. Thank you God." Nate laid down on the not bruised side and fell asleep.

As I went to bed later I prayed that God would answer Nate's prayer and demonstrate His power. In the morning when we all got up Nate was his usual active self. When I got a chance to look at his cheek (trying not to be obvious) there was only the slightest bruise. I asked Nate if it hurt and he said, "Not very much." I told him that God had answered his prayer and his cheek was almost all healed in one night.

I wonder how long it has been since we have felt a need, immediately looked up, prayed and believed God would immediately work. To me that is the innocent prayer of a child, my son Nate.

Its' Broken!

Hello everyone,

When Nate took an awkward fall coming off the slide a couple of weeks ago we knew something had happened because he cried hard for a long time. Nate usually cries a little bit and then gets over whatever was going on. When after a day and a half Nate was still complaining of pain we took him to the ER to get checked. They took an x-ray but did not see any fracture. However, the doctor told us that if symptoms persisted that we should follow up with a pediatric orthopedist.

Over the next few days Nate told us the pain was gone. Still, when he was walking and especially when he was running Nate would turn his injured left foot inward. I knew this was not a good sign. We called and got the first available appointment with a pediatric orthopedist which was last Thursday. A resident doctor examined Nate and then the orthopedist examined Nate. There was no pain but the orthopedist still wanted to do another set of x-rays. This new set of x-rays revealed that Nate had broken his first metatarsal. The fracture had already begun to heal but the doctor wanted Nate to be in a cast for three weeks. He should get the cast off April 1st. He has done well. However, the novelty had worn off by the end of the first night when he said, “I want to take this off.” It appears the "itching" has begun becuase Nate said this morning that "an ant" had gotten into his cast. We will be putting up a calendar so he can count off the days until it is removed.

Many of you know that our original plans called for our departure to Latvia on April 3rd. As of now we are officially on “Medical Hold”. After discussing this with the IMB Medical Department and the doctor’s office it looks like we should be able to leave on April 9th. We have asked that the orthopedist call the head of the Medical Department here tomorrow. We should have know as to whether or not we can receive preliminary clearance after that.

Please pray for quick complete healing of Nate’s foot. Also pray that we will be able to make an important meeting that has been scheduled in Riga April 12th through 14th.

As always, we are grateful for your prayer support!

Seeking to serve,

Paul

A Family Picture

Hi again Everyone,

I hope you enjoy this family picture of us at the International Learning Center. It is a picture we plan to use for our Prayer Cards.

Seeking to serve, Paul