Hello,
Again I haven’t written for a long time, but now I’m trying to give an overview of what changes have taken place and what not (no Ukraine – not enough participants & no Denmark team) during this summer.
I (Evelyn) finished my everyday work in the office in the end of June. This gave me an opportunity to focus on my Latvian studies and to be a companion for my Estonian support-child Maks in martial arts for children with physical disabilities camp. It has been his dream for a while to learn martial arts, but because he is in wheelchair, he didn’t think it is possible. In the camp he understood that wheelchair is not an obstacle and he showed up such a passion to study, that he was gifted with a bokken (wooden sword), he got personal trainer and now, two months later, he is able to make his exercises on a chair (before he had balance problems) and his trainer thinks it is possible for Maks to train himself out of wheelchair. It is so good to see that he is making a progress and hopefully will be able to live on his own after he needs to leave orphanage.
We had vacation in August and most of it we spent in Hiiumaa, Estonia. We also shortly visited Finland. In Hiiumaa we took part in mission week and were there when the new church house was opened for my congregation (actually it is restored old one, but this house was taken from us after WWII).
Kaspars successfully finished first year in the university and is continuing his second year. During this semester he has physiotherapy four times a week and it made clear that Kaspars is not able to continue to be YWAM centre’s maintenance team leader. He is now helping in the centre just once a week, but the summer for him was really busy.
31st of August till 1st of September we organized a camp for people with
disabilities. It is not very easy to find a suitable place with wheelchair access in Latvia and for this reason this camp got a little extreme. We rented a camping ground that had temporally ramps, no toilet and washing facilities inside of the rooms and adding for this – real cold weather. Anyway people seemed to like the camp and said that contents where more important than maybe not so good exterior part. This year the camp was small – just 9 participiants – but main idea was to get together, to get to know each other, to have a fellowship, some fun and to get ideas for the next summer’s long camp. At the moment plans are, that the camp will be in the end of June or in the beginning of July in wheelchair friendly building close to Lithuanian border (it wasn’t ready for this year) and that camp will last a week. This year we organized the camp alone (with some helpers), but for next year we definitely need more help and financial support, because people with disabilities here in Latvia are not able to cover all the cost. It means if you want to join us or help in some other way, let us know. We are also planning to start small groups for people with disabilities in Riga. Most of these nine people taking part in the camp where Christians, but many of them have problems to visit church and are lacking Christian fellowship.
6th of September we moved to Pastende (very close to Talsi) to a three-room comfortable apartment to be six month “cat-sitters”. We are enjoying space, TV, washing machine, bathroom, toilet and mailing address (all this we didn’t have before). 6th of March our friends will be back from US and we would need to move out. We gave away our studio-apartment close to Valdemarpils and at the moment don’t have any idea where to go. We would like to stay in Talsi, but Kaspars’ school and our work is at the moment in Riga and there can be a need to move closer to Riga, but renting apartment there can be expensive. We really need clarity from God.
Two weeks ago I had honour to share our work in mission conference in Estonia. I met other Estonian missionaries, many pastors and got encouraged. It was really a good time to hear what others are doing and to be able to pray for others and to get prayed for.
Prayer requests:
- Thank God for changes that have happened in our lives, especially that we were able to start new ministry for people with disabilities.
- That we would get clarity where our place from March is and that we would find cheap, but good apartment
- Work among people with disabilities in Latvia – small group, next camp, equipment, and other possibilities.
- Kaspars studies
- More ministry possibilities for Evelyn
Thank you for praying!
Blessings,
Evelyn&Kaspars Apinis