Our First VBS

We game planned last night for our first vbs(vacation bible school). But like our beloved Browns, we had to make "half-time " adjustments. Sunday started out with worship at Matthews Church in Riga. I can see now why the Germans were so excited when Martin Luther translated the Bible into their native language. Attending a worship service in a language other than your own was interesting but hard to get into. We watched and listened and prayed and communed . The Baptist service featured a praise team as well as some traditional hymns. This is the home church of Dazne (n0t sure of spelling), our Latvian tour guide.
Our motor coach then took us to Jumala Spriditis Orphanage. We had boxes of shoes, hats, medicines, vitamins, candy and toys. We were prepared to offer our vbs on "The Full Armor of God." This is where we had to alter our game day plan because there were less children at the orphanage than anticipated. So we re-organized our missionaries to accomdate smaller groups and held the vbs. My group which included two other men,including our own Mark Zimmerman, shared the Gospel with 6 high school boys and Jackie's group of women had 6 , six to ten year olds. The other missionaries formed groups to minister to other age groups and to pass out the shoes.
The young men we witnessed to were a little standoffish at first but warmed up to us and seemed to understand what we were sharing, through an interpreter, each group had an interpreter to help along. One of our young men, named Janos, showed us his room. It's size reminded us of our college dorm rooms.It was small but clean . The orphanage was well kept but well worn and in need of redecorating. Jackie's group included a little blind girl who loved to sing. The kids seem to enjoy our attention. Some of the guys tossed snowballs with the young men. Mark Zimmerman was a ring leader. It was fun and you could feel God honoring all the hard work put in by the missionaries, Buckner staff and local interpreters.

Tomorrow we are moving out of the Raddison for a few days and visiting orphanages in Liepaja, Latvia. We will be honing our vbs skills and taking up residence in a new hotel.

You can feel the Holy Spirit working with us. The resiliency of the group who is still tired and feeling jet lag is amazing. The ability to adjust to changes in plans on the fly and still smile and show love to the children is very special.

Their acts of kindness followed by a presentation of the Gospel, honors God and will surely help lead one of these children to Christ.

Mark and Jackie