Greetings from Latvia,
Wings for Wheels – mission work among people with physical disabilities
Small group
This year our small group has been really small and many times we had to cancel it, because none of the participants were able to make it. Therefore the last two times have been really exciting times, because we have had two new people joining us who are still on the road to meet God in personal way.
Eight years ago Reinis had a car accident and after that he has spent most of his time in bed. He is able to sit in a wheelchair just for a couple of hours a day and is not able to move around without assistant help. This did not hold him back from joining our small group (even that no longer like an hour) and have possibility to have fellowship with Christians and hear Christian message. Because of his physical condition, he will not be able to join our camp this year, but maybe we can figure out something for future…
Lolita is a judge (and from our knowledge is the only judge in Latvia who uses an electrical wheelchair) who has lost her mobility because of a muscle illness. The theme of Kaspars’ Bachelor thesis is muscle illness and he needed to find some people with whom to practise. So, he met Lolita a year ago and they started a physiotherapy program. During this year Lolita has changed from close to being an atheist to calling herself a Christian now. Being an intellectual person, her challenge is to understand everything about Christianity before making her own decision. She joined our small group and will also be a part of our summer camp.
Physiotherapy Evangelism
In the last newsletter I wrote that Kaspars has started a new form of evangelism through physiotherapy. His Bachelor thesis and physiotherapy studies have opened a door to meet people with muscle illnesses – Lolita, Santa, Nadja, Gunta. With some of them Kaspars is working regularly and giving them the possibility to understand God. Lolita, Santa and Nadja are planning to join our summer camp (Santa is planning to take free time from work only for one day). Physiotherapy for people with muscle illnesses is such a rare and new thing in Latvia, that Kaspars has received phone calls from strangers who are asking expert consultation, even though Kaspars himself is only a student… It is 
showing how many possibilities and “open doors” we have for this ministry and Kaspars already dreaming to have a physiotherapy assistant.
Association for people with muscle illnesses
For most countries (Estonia among of them) has well working associations for different disabilities (muscle illnesses included). In Latvia have not been years any possibility for people with muscle illnesses to organize. Lolita and Santa asked for help from Kaspars and Ailita, and started the Latvian Myopathy Association “Sartorius”. This is one more opportunity for Wings for Wheels, because at the moment half of the “Sartorius” members are connected to W4W.
Camp
There will be a W4W summer camp “Challenge 2” in Talsi, 5-10 of July, 2009. The idea of it will be similar to last year, but we will have more participants (it would be really interesting to see how many people we would get if we actually would advertise our camp, because at the moment information is spreading only orally from person to person). At the moment is known approximately 20 participants and at least the same amount of staff. Like last year we (organizers) have the challenge of finances. We did not receive EU money that we hoped to and this is leaving us short in finances half of amount that we need. There is still time, and we have some ideas, but this is God who is able to make our camp possible. At least there is no crisis in Heaven!
Madara
Last week we visited Madara who had a birthday. Starting from last year’s camp, where the first time in her life, she tried painting (remember – the one who painted with elbow) and after that she has done it very regularly holding the brush in her mouth. She had prepared for us to take a look three big albums of paintings. She has talent to paint so that the pictures give positive feelings and a good mood. Mostly she paints flowers, but has started to do also landscapes. It is amazing how many details she is able to put on her paintings – I would not believe that she has done these by mouth and she has non-voluntary movements. We hope that one day it will be possible to open Madara’s exhibition in Riga. We bought her first paintings and this was the first salary she has ever received…
Administrative work and a Little Missionary
My (Evelyn) work outside of Wings for Wheels is going less and will stop for a while. June 20th I will leave to Hiiumaa (my home island) and will expect a little missionary to arrive in the end of July. He/she is really active and we guess that he/she would like to 
evangelize all “stomach-babies” if he/she physically would have this possibility. Even leaving for vacation I am officially still the summer outreaches registrar (even that most of these will not happen because of too less interest) and helping Kaspars, Ailita and Baiba to organize W4W camp.
Possibilities to pray:
• Lolita, Santa and Reinis – their way to God
• W4W camp – participants, staff, finances
• Kaspars’ ministry among people with muscle illness
• Full-time W4W staff, that we would be able to use all the “open doors”
• Arriving of the little missionary
Blessings,
Evelyn&Kaspars