Hello,
Greetings from Latvia! How are you doing? We are doing well! We are soon off to our Christmas break at Hiiumaa, Estonia, but before that, here is an overview of our past two months.
Rasmus 
Rasmus has got used to going to school. His reading and writing skills are better and he passed all the subjects in the first semester. He is still struggling a bit with Latvian, but it is nothing serious. He is also acting out his Christianity in a non-Christian school. During their Christmas party, an old Latvian animism tradition was practiced in school and Rasmus refused to be a part of it. We did explain where it came from and how people nowadays see it just as a tradition. He made the decision himself – the first of many decisions to make in the future.
Charity Concert
On November 27, 2016 Wings for Wheels organized a charity concert that took place in Riga Pentecostal Hope Church. Its aim was to continue fundraising to buy an adapted van needed for disability ministry. The concert was given by the Hand Bell Choir from Cesis Baptist Church, and their performance created a special celebration feeling. We are grateful to all who attended the concert and, with their donation, helped us to get one step closer to the goal. We also got to know that before the next spring we will be given a big donation towards the van. It means we are planning to buy the van in April or May next year. Thank you so much for the prayers. More photos can be seen here.
Conference and Prize
On December 3, the International Day of People with Disabilities, the Ombudsman together with the Association of Disabled People and Their Friends “Apeirons” and the Latvian National Library organized a conference called “Accessibility of Education”. Along with the program of the conference that you can see at www.tiesibsargs.lv, exhibition of various disability-related organizations took place. Wings for Wheels was also invited to participate in this exhibition. It was a good chance to represent ourselves and to get to know other organizations working in the disability field. The long term gains from participating in this conference and exhibition are publicity, new contacts and Acknowledgement Certificate of the nomination “Social Campaign 2016”. This makes us feel pleased and motivates us to keep working. More photos can be seen here.
Banquet at Dec 5
For the second year in a row Wings for Wheels delighted people with mobile disabilities by inviting them and their assistants, friends or family members to participate in an event devoted to the International Disability Day. The event started with a tour of the Latvian National Library, and continued with a delicious dinner. We enjoyed beautiful songs performed by Diana Ponaskova, and Olegs Jermolajevs, Pastor of Cesis Baptist Church, invited us to think deeper about the historical significance and the main message of the Advent season. All guests received nice gifts from our sponsors. Thanks to all the supporters of the event! More photos can be seen here.
Evelyn’s Web Design studies in London
From December 11 to 18, Evelyn was in YWAM London Urban Key media house at Wembley and took part of a web design internship week. This internship actually lasted for 6 weeks, but Evelyn joined them just for a week. During this time she got to learn how to use web design and reach the desired audience. During the time when others worked with the Urban Key website, she got personal tutoring for the YWAM Latvia and YWAM Riga pages. She learned to backup, update and fix errors and also got advice on how to continue with design. It was an intensive week, but she did have some time to take walks in the surrounding area and one evening she visited Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Being abroad and travelling 
alone also gave her a much needed break from the everyday routine and new perspective for the future of ministry. Even though she did not live in the community for very long, she felt homey and belonging there. It was the longest time so far for Rasmus and Kaspars to be alone, but they managed well.
Now we will be off to our Christmas break.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Blessings,
Kaspars, Evelyn and Rasmus