Week 5

So far, we have been in Latvia for 5 weeks.  We have inspected almost all of the Methodist Churches and church related facilities.  We have gone to church services at 5 of the 10 churches.  (And have plans to go to a sixth church for services on Sunday.)  I thought people would like to hear a few of my observations.

  

Latvians are a kind courteous people with strong rural roots.  The fact that their largest national events are their national choir and folk dance festivals should tell you something.

It has been hard for Latvia to completely put 50 years of communist rule behind them, but, all things considered, they are actually doing amazingly well.   The same would apply to the Methodist Church in Latvia.   The three large churches that they got back in the early 1990’s, two in Riga and one in Liepaja, attest to the fact that there was a vibrant Methodist Church in Latvia in the 1940’s.  To me, the Methodist Church has had two big struggles to overcome.  The first is the fact that most things cost at least as much here as they do in the States, if not more, sometimes quite a bit.  This combined with the fact that the per capita income in Latvia is 60% less than it is in the United States does not leave a lot left over at the end of the month for the average person.  The second is the fact that the Methodist Church in Latvia had to almost start from scratch.  After Latvia got its independence from Russia, there was just a handful of Latvians that did most of the work to restart their previous congregations.   As you also know in the States things move slow in churches.  But they have a close church family and have lots of kids and youth participating in church, as well as many young ministers.   Like any other growing church family they also have some growing pains and one of them is how to deal with their current buildings.  Most of their buildings have some kind of heating problem.  Today, the standard has changed.  Young people don’t expect to sit in cold churches any longer and old buildings generally cost quite a bit more to heat.

I apologize that I have not taken more pictures at church services or during fellowship.

I did take some tourist pictures, if you plan to visit Latvia.  Clarence and I had Friday off so we rented a car from a local rental person, off the internet, and drove to two of the big tourist sites in Latvia – Turaida Castle and Rundale Palace.  As you can see for yourself both were very impressive.  

Courtyard at Turaida Castle

The Castle was built between 1214 and the 1550's - a section at a time.

A Picture Taken Across the Courtyard at the Tower

A Picture Taken from the 5 Story Tall Tower

 

Picture of Rundale Palace from the Corner

From the Rear Entrance

One of the Rooms in the Palace

The Palace was built in the 1700's - by a Duke in the Russian Court

This is all until next week.

Camp Wesley / Paplaka Trip

On Friday, we took our second trip to Liepaja.  This trip was to see Camp Wesley and the Methodist Church at Paplaka.  Reverend Inese Budnika was gone during our first trip to Liepaja.  She is the minister at the Paplaka Church, as well as being in charge of the camp.  Friday, we inspected both facilities.  On Saturday, we helped at a cleaning and maintenance day at the camp.  Sunday, we attended the Methodist Church in Liepaja at 11:00 am and service in Paplaka at 2:00 pm.  They were very nice services.  It was Mother’s day here also.

Church Service at Paplaka

The Paplaka congregation has been an active Methodist congregation since the 1990’s, but it is a rural congregation.  The church is located in the town’s cultural center, which was built during Soviet times.  The building also has the town’s store and space for residence to make traditional craft items. 

 

Paplaka Cultural Center & Church Location

Paplaka Sanctuary

Paplaka Fellowship Hall

Traditional Craft Room

Camp Wesley was dedicated in 2005 and has been making improvements each year since.   As you can see the camp was originally a vibrant farm.  The barn is named the Alabama Building because the Methodist Church’s Alabama Conference made a large donation to renovate the building – which now includes a commercial kitchen, dining hall, flush toilets and showers.  The Holston Conference also made a donation for work done on the house.  

Camp Wesley

Alabama Building

 Top Floor of Alabama Building

 

Dining Hall

Kitchen

Our Host Rev. Inese Budnika

Camp Wesley is looking for summer camp and construction teams to come.  They have several landscaping and construction projects they could use some help with.  One of them is to build 4 wood cabins.  They have platforms where tents are now set-up for the campers.  It would be better to have wood cabins, built on the platforms, for the children and youth to stay in.  On the coast, storms can blow in quickly and being in wood buildings would be reassuring for the campers. 

Let me know if you would like to help in anyway. 

Stay tuned for my next report. 

Resekne & Liepa Trips

Here is my report for this week.  We were asked if we wanted to go see a part of Latvia we might not otherwise see. Saturday, two of the pastors from the Riga 2^nd Church were taking a mother and her son up to see another son, Edgars, at a juvenile justice school near Resekne, close to the border with Russia.  They were taking a van so had extra room.  We said sure we would go.  It was a 3 hour trip each way.   The juvenile justice school was across the road from a very large lake and near a national park visitor’s site.  A couple of the things we did with Edgars was to go to the visitor’s site and to play the card game Uno. Uno is a game we play in the US also. Good thing we had learned our colors in Latvian.

The visitors site was a castle fortress build in the 1200’s, that was destroyed in the 1380’s. It was built on the top of this very large hill.  In 1875, Napoleon’s army was in the region and his painter painted a picture of the castle ruins.

Myself, Clarence, Rev. Kristine Rozefelde, Edgars mother, Edgars, Edgars brother & Rev.Abdris Vainovskis at Volkenberg Castle Site

Volkenberg Castle Ruins - only wall left

Yesterday, we made a quick trip to Liepa to see two flats that the church has use of.  One is used for small church services and Sunday school.  The other is use for an after school program for kids, where they can play and do their homework.  Liepa has lost half is population since 1991.  The major employer is a brick making plant.  During soviet times it made bricks around the clock – three shifts a day.  Today, it only runs one shift a day.  

Sarkani Church Flat

Their old stove, in the picture, is giving them trouble.

 

 

 

Sarkani Church Flat Building

 

Liepa After School Flat - Pictured Rev. Ilzita Ozola, Ilze the English teach and our interpreter and the couple that run the after school program

Liepa After School Flat Building

The train that brought us back from Liepa

Tomorrow we are taking a 7:05 bus to Liepaja to see the Wesley Camp and the space the church is renting at Paplka.  We will stay over and help them do spring cleaning and maintenance at the camp on Saturday.  Check back for more next week.

Liepaja Trip

On Monday we went to Liepaja.   It was a 3 ½ hour bus ride.  Liepaja is a sea port and industrial city.   Its largest employer is a huge metal works.  They told us Liepaja had over a 100,000 people 20 years ago, but now has 80,000 people.  A lot of communist controlled industries closed when Latvia became independent. They weren’t efficient enough to make it without government support.  There were a lot of Russians in Liepaja - some of them left and others stayed. 

Liepaja also has the largest Methodist church in Latvia with a very large building.  This can be a blessing, yet is also expensive to heat.

Liepaja UMC

 

Liepaja's Sanctuary

 

In the countryside is the small rural Matras church.   The same families that built the church in the 20’s came together to reopen it in 90’s.  The congregation needs its electrical service upgraded and would really like to get running water at the church.

Matras Church

Matras Fellowship Hall Sanctuary - that they use during the winter.

The third church we saw was the Tasi church.  It has grown from prayer groups 10+ years ago into to a two apartment church.  The apartments (flats) were given to the church by the local officials.   The flats were in rough shape before they started renovating them - 7 years ago.  The congregation’s next goals are to have some playground equipment and a formal church building one day. 

Tasi Church Sanctuary

Apartment Building that Houses Tasi Church

 

Our hosts for this trip were Ilze and her roommate, Lamma; both were great hosts.  Ilse translated for us and showed us all over town.  Lamma made us supper two nights.   They are both in college, on break.  Both are also Sunday school teachers - Ilze at the Matras church and Lamma in Kuldiga.   Lamma is from Kuldiga.  Her father was an engineer, but her parents are now retired and live outside Kuldiga on a farm.  Ilze's mother is a physics professor and her father works for the railroad.  

Ilze and Lamma our hostesses in Liepaja

 

A Large Lutheran Church In Liepaja

A Large Russian Orthodox Church in Liepaja

An Old Traditional Designed House in Liepaja

We left Riga on Monday after lunch and returned from Liepaja about the same time two days later.   We saw and did a lot in the two days and we were really tired, so Thursday we worked on reports all day.  This is a beautiful, interesting country and we've been meeting such great people.   They love to sing!