God is great!

Hello again from Riga!

The last week or two since I've updated have been sort of crazy! We've traveled around quite a bit so that's been a little hectic.

This past week our team went to Ventspils, a small town of about 45,000 people just a few hours outside of Riga. We went with a girl who heads up Freedom 61 (Kristina) here and met up with a few other YWAMmers once we got there. Our purpose for the trip was to reach out to people of all ages and minister to their needs. We went to this orphange combined with an old folk's home. The first 3 floors were for the elderly and the top floor was an orphange. Most of the kids in the orphange have parents, they just aren't capable of taking care of them due to addictions and sorts. We went to that place a few times and it was incredible. With the old folks, we sang worship songs and prayed with them and chatted with them. One of my team members, Manuela, was able to pray for this woman who was blind in one eye. The woman asked if she could pray for her sight, so Manu did. After the prayer, the woman said her eyesight didn't get better, but immediately after Manu started praying, the pain in her broken arm left her body. The woman was so encouraged by that she asked Manu to pray again. This time Manu (like a pro!) put her hands over the woman's eyes and prayed for them. Once she finished, the woman said she could see more clearly now. We came back a few days later and the woman testified that she believed Manu was a miracle from God sent to her specifically to pray for healing for her. It was incredible. I was sitting right by Manuela when she was praying for her and was able to support her in prayer. It was incredible to watch. At the orphanage, we were able to sing worship songs and play games with the kids. I didn't personally connect with any of them super well, but it was really sweet to see my teammates step it up and lead out in games and songs and connect with the kids. That was also really fun to be a part of. Another thing we were able to do was go into high schools with Kristina and talk about human trafficking with them. We did a prevention program which looked like this: Kristina introduced herself but didn't say she was part of Freedom 61, then introduced myself and Katie. Either her or I would go up and tell the youth that we were from America and were looking for people to come work for an organization back there which would provide them with further job qualities and was absolutely free, and they'd get paid! All they had to do was sign a document and we'd take care of the rest. Then we'd ask for one guy and one girl to volunteer to go and we'd ask them to come up on stage. Then Kristina and I would bind their wrists with rope and she would tell them that the boy had just been trafficked into a factory where he worked 17 hours a day with no pay and little food or water. The girl had been trafficked into a brothel where she was forced to sell her body for her pimp's profit. This was all fake of course, but Kristina went in to explaining human trafficking and how easy it is to get tricked into it. Most girls who work in brothels in Western Europe are trafficked from Eastern Europe. Then we'd read of some statistics on human trafficking and show a video of a girl who was trafficked from Riga. Kristina would end the presentation by handing them an information card about the organization and with a human trafficking hotline numer on it. The presentations were powerful and I think really beneficial in raising awareness of this issue. One team got to pray for this guy who was traveling to do missions work with an organization like Freedom 61. That was sweet!

Another thing we got the privilege of doing was sharing testimonies and leading worship and different churches around Ventspils. Most of the time we were put on the spot and had to think of testimonies to share right then and there. But it was sweet to see God work through that and in our unpreparedness.

We stayed at this man's house who we did a lot of church ministry with. We originally were staying at a church but some stuff didn't work out so we had to leave, and this man graciously offered his home to us for the week. He had 6 kids and one on the way, and opened up his home to us like it was our own. He was the most generous man I've met. The first night we arrived there, he went out and bought us all really nice scarves because he thought we looked cold. And throughout the week he bought us chocolates and drove us everywhere we needed to go. Seriously, I admire him so much. His name is Juris and his family is beautiful. He sort of pastors this Roma (or "Gypsy") church and their worship style is incredible. They go for hours and just worship their brains out. It's really cool to be a part of. We also got to hang out with a lot of young people our age there and are still trying to stay connected with them.

Overall, that week was incredible! We came back a bit exhausted, but we're still going! We have 2 weeks left in Riga and then we're heading to Moldova for the last 3 weeks of outreach and then back to Australia for debrief/commissioning week! I'm really excited for the rest of outreach to see what God's going to do!

In other news, God's been developing my love for His Word more and more recently. One of my friends Emma affectionately calls me the Bible guru because I tend to know a lot of verses and references and stuff. I want to memorize more and have a deep knowledge of God's word and know how to interpret it and apply it and know where passages come from and all of that. I think I'd love to take theology classes or something when I'm back from DTS. I read the Beatitudes the other day and I was pleasantly enlightened by them. I also assumed that the context of the people talked about was bad. Like the poor in spirit, and the meek and all of that. But really they are all in the context of being at this incredible humble stage before God. Poor in spirit meaning you recognize your sinful condition and you know that there is nothing you can do on your own to change it, but you also recognize God's immense power and grace and mercy in relationship to your state. I just never thought of it like that, and I love how something so simple and something I've read dozens of time gave me a new perspective on things in the word. So cool!

God's also been speaking to me about my future after DTS. Germany is still on my heart a lot and I'm excited to jump into learning the language when I get back home. I can't wait to see where God leads me with my desire for there, but I'm sure it will be something mind blowing!

I'm excited to get back and see you all again, as I miss you heaps. Love you guys ton. Keep in touch!

Also, some prayer points:

-I'm a bit homesick--pray that I can focus solely on my mission here and make the most out of it as I'll never get this time back.
-Unity in our team
-People we come in contact with and minister to
-Safety as we travel to Moldova

Love you all.
xoxo,
Laura