Sunday Morning

Today we'll be headed to church at First Riga. But fist, here's what happened on Saturday...

Yesterday was the Apple Festival! We went out to the Wesley Camp, where about 50 children, youth and adults from the Latvian churches gathered for the apple harvest.

We picked apples by the bucket, while the older ladies sat in the dining hall peeling and coring them. Some people were tasked with pulling weeds in the flower beds, some with picking up the apples that had already fallen and couldn't be eaten to put in the compost pile. Some of the older men were gathered around a campfire cooking apples in a big pot (presumably for apple preserves). Others helped prepare the camp for winter by covering wooden platforms with tarp… and, sadly, the sign at the entrance to the camp was stored in the hay barn before we could get a picture of it.

Some of our team gathered near the kitchen to make batches of apple crisp from the recipe that Rachel Bell donated to the UMW cookbook. This was our contribution to the feast. It turned out great!

At some point, the work came to an end and we gathered upstairs for worship and fellowship. We got to know each other a little better by playing a game where everyone gathered in a corner of the room with others they had something in common with… age, music preference, dessert preference, etc.

We sang a couple of songs, and then people shared testimonies of how God had worked in their lives. Then we gathered in small groups for prayer.

We ended with rolling apples down the ramp. You roll your apple and then stand by it. When everyone was at the bottom of the ramp, they took a picture.

Then, it was time to eat! We gathered in the dining hall with the pastors from all the churches and listened while they shared their joys, challenges and dreams for ministry. This is a passionate group. They are excited about their ministries and hopeful for the future, but they do face great challenges, both in the communities they serve and in the church itself. I believe that they feel the same generation gaps we do, but they are amplified because of the small numbers. They also struggle to overcome the problems related to alcoholism and drug addiction in their communities. And, of course, there are the personal struggles with balancing home life and pastoring a church.

It was a great time of fellowship and sharing. The Latvian church is blessed to have such committed leadership.

After wrapping up things at the Apple Festival, we loaded up the bus and our two vans and started the 3-hour drive back to Riga. Conner and Madeline rode with the youth on the bus, and had a wonderful time of fellowship, singing, and learning more Latvian words!

Judy summed up the day in three words: “I was blessed.”