Hello blog readers!

Hello blog readers!

My apologies for the long delay in writing, but due to the transition of moving to a new country and setting up life there, the blog unfortunately has been neglected. Please look for new posts shortly about our life and ministry here in Latvia!

Kрещение

Greetings blog readers!

Not long ago in late January, Chara and I accompanied some friends to the annual day of Kрещение (kre-she-nye -- which means "baptism"). Although it was a not-so-warm -2 F outside, about 100 or so people gathered at a little creek to watch the orthodox priest give a short message and bless the water in a large cross cut out of the ice. After the priest blesses the water, many people dressed only in bathing suits take turns jumping in and dunking themselves 3 times. Paramedics are literally within a few hundred feet of the creek just in case someone goes into hypothermic shock, but amazingly this doesn't stop many people from participating. 

Some participate only for cultural reasons. Some participate because they really think dipping in water blessed by a priest will pardon their sins. We pray for both, that they will come to a knowledge of the truth and realize that water baptism is but a reflection of the repentance and new heart we have received inside. 

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life." Romans 6:4

Below is a short video of the priest blessing the water. It would be longer but my phone shuts off quickly when the temperature is very low!

Christmas at a Glance

Greetings Blog readers,
Overall we had an excellent Christmas holiday. We ate Christmas lunch at TGIF and then went and saw an interesting Disney movie titled in Russian "Cold Heart", I think it is "Frozen" in the US. The movie is quite apropos here, and we got some great listening practice.

Chara's parents came in for New Year's, but unfortunately, the flu bug traveled over with them and we spent New Year's with a fever and cough. We still tried to be a blessing to those in our apartment building, making gift bags and baking cookies (washing our hands many times in the process!)

Even more importantly, we feel extraordinary blessed to have had multiple opportunities to share the gospel with people. We did a candlelight service for one of our ESL classes and encouraged people at the end to "make room in their hearts for Jesus", and not to say "no room in the inn." Several new people were there who we had never seen before, so we hope they will come to the ESL classes when we start again this coming week.

We  continue to prepare and pray about starting our first small group. Pray with us and we'll continue working toward this goal over the next few weeks.

Here are a few photos from a winter festival we visited in downtown Krasnoyarsk: