[:en]Greetings from Riga,
So many things have happened during the last couple of months that I decided to write two newsletters – one speaks about our ministry before moving to Riga and next one will speak about our ministry in YWAM Riga. Otherwise it would be a super long e-mail and not everybody loves to read so many words.
Ministry for people with disabilities
During the last two months in YWAM Valdemarpils, we continued small group ministry for people with disabilities. Kaspar also started to do physiotherapy for one of our small group members and Ailita’s strength started to improve; even that usually there is no improvement for person with muscle dystrophy. Because of his bachelor thesis, Kaspar will regularly do physiotherapy for more people with muscle dystrophy. This is a really good way to get to know more people. We also started more intensively to prepare for the camp for people with disabilities which at the moment is called „Challenge“ and will take part in Talsi Christian School from 29. of June still 5th of July. There are not all details in place yet, but sure there will be seminars, art workshop, rope course, fun, games, sport, fellowship, music etc. At the moment we have 17 participants, but our limit is 20. We do not have all of our staff (we need for example a chef and a medical person), but slowly things are working out. We have some problems with finances for the camp (it means, at the moment we do not have any), but we have written a project and hope that it would be at least partly covered. If you are interested to receive this project or to support this camp, please contact us.
International Christian Social Project in Balvi (close to Russian border), Latvia
There was a humanitarian and evangelisation project organized by YWAM Sweden, YWAM Latvia and local government from 24th of February still 3rd of March. My part in leadership was to find and registrate Latvian participants and help with paperwork. We had 127 participants (16 different nations: Estonia, Latvia, Iran, S-Korea, Norway, Australia, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Ghana, Zambia, America, Canada, Philippines, Germany and Sweden) teams with four-five people in it and sent them for different ministries. Because we had too less Latvian translators, around 30 local students from age 14-18 joined us. Most of them were non-Christians, but in the end of project many of them gave their heart to God and at least half of them have written to me asking to participate in the next year’s project.
This year’s statistics: we ministered to about 118 children and most of them received Christ in their lives. We ministered to 250 visitors during the 3 evening meetings. We made a total of 560 food bags – we visited 413 houses; about 100 food bags went to the village and we left about 26 bags to a kindergarten. We gave 30 food bags to the social department and we left 17 bags in the rehabilitation centre. We handed out clothing to about 1500 people; we also brought 40 bags of clothing to the village. We visited old-peoples home that housed 250 people. We went around with groups of 3 people and we prayed for all of them. We brought 35 bags with clothing, 24 cakes, lots of candies and chocolate. We saw 118 people making a commitment to the Lord. We prayed with many physical sick people, about 12 got immediately healed. We had a love feast with about 160 people.
For the first time (this project has been in Latvia more like 10 times) we reached out to the people with disabilities. Me and Kaspar were responsible for this program, where took part 7 guests with disabilities. We took 3 of our small group members and brought them to Balvi. Two of them gave really powerful testimonies; we also had short preaching, music, game and a fellowship. Because in this area was no handicap transport, our team decided to buy it from Stockholm and after program we gifted this van to the local social department. It was a really touching moment, because social worker had no idea what we are doing. It was a really good time, especially for our small group members who where able to give and take part from ministry.
Left over time in YWAM Valdemarpils we tried to finish up our projects we started during these six years in YWAM Valdemarpils (but actually I am still responsible for YWAM Valdemarpils library until they will find other person to take it over). Kaspar was also completing his sport education session in university and during this academic year he has only one session left. Of course all this time we tried to find apartment in Riga or in Riga’s region, but didn’t find it still we actually moved out. We lived shortly in Kaspars temporary apartment in Riga and I spent some time in Estonia. Starting from 30th of March we are living in Riga and we have joined YWAM Riga. More details next time.
I have left the best news to be the last one. During a couple of newsletters I have been speaking about Viktorija, whom Kaspar was teaching English, who was 2 years ago atheist, but during these lessons got close to God. She had really a lot of theological questions (she still does) and it took a lot of time to get so far, but during this Easter she gave her heart to God. This was really great news and shows that God can use us even if our primary activity is not evangelization. Thank you everybody who prayed for her!
Prayer requests:
- Give a praise for Viktorija
- Give a praise for our apartment in Riga
- Give a praise how God was working in Balvi
- „Challenge“ – camp for people with disabilities and finances
- Kaspars studies
- Personal financial situation – during a couple of months we have had a lot of irregular incomes and life in Latvia has become more expensive.
Blessings,
Evelyn&Kaspars Apinis[:et]Tervitusi Riiast!
Kuna pikka aega ei ole uudiseid kirjutanud ning toimunud ja toimumas on palju erinevaid asju ning ülipikka kirja ei viitsi mitte igaüks lugeda, siis selle kirja uudised räägivad ajast enne kolimist – sellest ajast, kui töötasime Valdemarpilsi Noorte Missioonis ning enne liitumist Riia Noorte Missiooniga.
Töö puuetega inimeste keskel
Kuni kolimiseni jätkasime tööd puuetega inimeste keskel Riias. Kaspar hakkas ühele meie väikegrupi liikmele füsioteraapiat tegema ning juba lühikese ajaga muutus Ailita tugevamaks ning suutis ennast rohkem liigutada. Ütle siis veel et, lihashaiguse progresseerumist saab vaid tagasi hoida, aga mitte parandada. Treeningutele lisaks jätkasime väikegrupitööd. Samuti hakkasime aktiivselt plaanima suvist laagrit. Laager puuetega inimetele kannab praeguse seisuga nime „Väljakutse“ (inglise keeles „Challenge“ kõlab küll paremini) ning toimub Talsi Kristlikus Koolis 29. juunist 5. juulini. Kõik ei ole veel detailideni paigas, kuid kindlasti saab laagris toimuma seminare, sporti, mänge, kontserte, ekstreempäev, kunstitöökoda jne. Praegusel momendil on teada 14 osalejat ning kuna ruumide arv on piiratud, siis arvatavasti üle 20 inimese me vastu võtta ei saa. Osalejatega meil üldiselt probleeme ei ole, aga personalist on veel mitmeid inimesi puudu. Praegu näiteks ei ole meile veel kokka, med.õde (või arsti), isiklikke abistajaid jne. Samuti on meil praegu finantsiline olukord laagri korraldamiseks väga puudulik (ühesõnaga finantse ei ole). Oleme kirjutanud projekti ja loodame, et see vähemalt osaliselt rahastatakse, aga kui keegi teist soovib laagri õnnestumiseks annetada, siis võtke meiega ühendust.
Rahvusvaheline Kristlik Sotsiaalprojekt Balvis (Vene piiri ääres)
24. veebruarist 3. märtsini toimus Balvis humanitaarabi ja evangelisatsiooni projekt koostöös Rootsi ja Läti Noorte Missiooni ja Balvi sotsiaalabiametiga. Mina olin üks Läti poolsetest koordineerijatest ning minu ülesandeks oli leida ja registreerida läti osalejad ning koha peal aidata kaasa paberitöödes. Moodustasime 127 osalejast (16 eri rahvust – Eesti, Läti, Iraan, Lõuna-Korea, Norra, Austraalia, Holland, Taani, Soome, Ghana, Zambia, Ameerika, Kanada, Filipiinid, Saksamaa ja Rootsi) nelja-viieliikmelised erirahvusest grupid. Kuna meil oli liiga vähe lätlasi, siis projekti raames ühinesid meiega umbes 30 kohalikku 14-18 aastast õpilast. Suurem osa neist olid mitte-kristlased, kuid projekti lõpuks andsid mitmed neist oma elud Jumalale. Vähemalt pooled neist on mulle kirjutanud ning soovivad osaleda järgmise aasta projektis.
Selle aasta statistika: meie lastetööd külastas umbes 118 last ning paljud neist said päästetud; evangeelsetest üritustest võttis osa umbes 250 inimest. Me panime kokku 560 toidukotti ning jagasime neid 413 kodus, 1 lasteaias, rehabilitatsioonikeskuses, ümberkaudsetes külades ning ülejäänud 30 jätsime sotsiaalabikeskusesse. Humanitaarabi riideid jagasime umbes 1500 inimesele ning sellele lisaks viisime riideid ümberkaudsetesse küladesse. Külastasime vanadekodu, kus elab 250 inimest ning kolmeliste gruppide palvetasime igaühe eest. Me viisime neile 35 kotti riideid, 24 kooki ning rohkelt komme ja šokolaadi. 118 inimest tegi selle projekti jooksul otsuse võtta Jeesus vastu oma südamesse. Me palvetasime paljude haigete eest ning 12 neist said koha peal tervendatud. Meil oli armastussöömaaeg, kus osales 160 inimest.
Esimest korda selle projekti raames (projekt on toimunud erinevates Läti linnades üle 10 korra) toimus programm puuetega inimestele, mille vastutajad olime meie Kaspariga. Et kohapeal ei olnud invatransporti, siis grupina otsustasime selle osta Stockholmist ning kinkida kohalikule sotsiaalabiametile. See tuli neile suure üllatusena ning oli väga liigutav näha sotsiaaltöötajat võtmeid vastu võtmas. Meie programmist võttis osa 7 puudega inimest. Tunnistasid kaks meie väikegrupi liiget (ning kolmas oli julgustuseks kaasas) ning kõik osalejead said puututatud. See oli võimalus ka meie väikegrupi liikmetele olla andjad, mitte ainult saajad. Sellele lisaks oli meil mänge, muusikat, lühike jutlus ning kohviosadus.
Ülejäänud aeg Valdemarpilsis lõpetasime oma igapäevatöid – mina kontoris ja raamatukogus (kuigi osaliselt jääb raamatukogu ikkagi minu hallata, kuni uue inimese leidmiseni) ning Kaspar praktilises töödes samal ajal läbides järjekordset kehakultuuri sessi. Samuti otsisime pingsalt Riiga või selle ümbrusesse korterit, aga ei leidnud enne kui olime juba pidanud sõprade korterist välja kolima. Mõni aeg elasime Riias Kaspari korterikeses, kuid alates 30. märtsist elame Riia kesklinnas, aga sellest juba järgmistes uudistes.
Viimaseks jätsin meie parima uudise. Olen juba mitmes kirjas kirjutanud Viktorijast, kellele Kaspar käis inglise keelt õpetamas ning kes tänu sellele hakkas kirikus käima ning Jumalat otsima. Ülestõusmispühade ajal tegi ta otsuse võtta Jeesus vastu oma isiklikuks päästjaks. See on ime, kuidas Jumal töötas läbi Kaspari ning leidis nõnda tee Viktorija südamesse! Aitäh kõigile, kes te palvetasite!
Palvesoovid:
- Tänupalve Viktorija ja Riia korteri eest!
- Tänupalve selle eest, kuidas jumal töötas Balvis
- Puuetega inimeste suvelaager Talsis ning selle finantsid
- Kaspari õpingud ja bakalaurusetöö kirjutamine
- Isiklik finantsiline olukord – meil on olnud paari kuu jooksul väga palju erakorralisi väljaminekuid.
Õnnistusi,
Evelyn&Kaspars
[:LV]Greetings from Riga,
So many things have happened during the last couple of months that I decided to write two newsletters – one speaks about our ministry before moving to Riga and next one will speak about our ministry in YWAM Riga. Otherwise it would be a super long e-mail and not everybody loves to read so many words.
Ministry for people with disabilities
During the last two months in YWAM Valdemarpils, we continued small group ministry for people with disabilities. Kaspar also started to do physiotherapy for one of our small group members and Ailita’s strength started to improve; even that usually there is no improvement for person with muscle dystrophy. Because of his bachelor thesis, Kaspar will regularly do physiotherapy for more people with muscle dystrophy. This is a really good way to get to know more people. We also started more intensively to prepare for the camp for people with disabilities which at the moment is called „Challenge“ and will take part in Talsi Christian School from 29. of June still 5th of July. There are not all details in place yet, but sure there will be seminars, art workshop, rope course, fun, games, sport, fellowship, music etc. At the moment we have 17 participants, but our limit is 20. We do not have all of our staff (we need for example a chef and a medical person), but slowly things are working out. We have some problems with finances for the camp (it means, at the moment we do not have any), but we have written a project and hope that it would be at least partly covered. If you are interested to receive this project or to support this camp, please contact us.
International Christian Social Project in Balvi (close to Russian border), Latvia
There was a humanitarian and evangelisation project organized by YWAM Sweden, YWAM Latvia and local government from 24th of February still 3rd of March. My part in leadership was to find and registrate Latvian participants and help with paperwork. We had 127 participants (16 different nations: Estonia, Latvia, Iran, S-Korea, Norway, Australia, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Ghana, Zambia, America, Canada, Philippines, Germany and Sweden) teams with four-five people in it and sent them for different ministries. Because we had too less Latvian translators, around 30 local students from age 14-18 joined us. Most of them were non-Christians, but in the end of project many of them gave their heart to God and at least half of them have written to me asking to participate in the next year’s project.
This year’s statistics: we ministered to about 118 children and most of them received Christ in their lives. We ministered to 250 visitors during the 3 evening meetings. We made a total of 560 food bags – we visited 413 houses; about 100 food bags went to the village and we left about 26 bags to a kindergarten. We gave 30 food bags to the social department and we left 17 bags in the rehabilitation centre. We handed out clothing to about 1500 people; we also brought 40 bags of clothing to the village. We visited old-peoples home that housed 250 people. We went around with groups of 3 people and we prayed for all of them. We brought 35 bags with clothing, 24 cakes, lots of candies and chocolate. We saw 118 people making a commitment to the Lord. We prayed with many physical sick people, about 12 got immediately healed. We had a love feast with about 160 people.
For the first time (this project has been in Latvia more like 10 times) we reached out to the people with disabilities. Me and Kaspar were responsible for this program, where took part 7 guests with disabilities. We took 3 of our small group members and brought them to Balvi. Two of them gave really powerful testimonies; we also had short preaching, music, game and a fellowship. Because in this area was no handicap transport, our team decided to buy it from Stockholm and after program we gifted this van to the local social department. It was a really touching moment, because social worker had no idea what we are doing. It was a really good time, especially for our small group members who where able to give and take part from ministry.
Left over time in YWAM Valdemarpils we tried to finish up our projects we started during these six years in YWAM Valdemarpils (but actually I am still responsible for YWAM Valdemarpils library until they will find other person to take it over). Kaspar was also completing his sport education session in university and during this academic year he has only one session left. Of course all this time we tried to find apartment in Riga or in Riga’s region, but didn’t find it still we actually moved out. We lived shortly in Kaspars temporary apartment in Riga and I spent some time in Estonia. Starting from 30th of March we are living in Riga and we have joined YWAM Riga. More details next time.
I have left the best news to be the last one. During a couple of newsletters I have been speaking about Viktorija, whom Kaspar was teaching English, who was 2 years ago atheist, but during these lessons got close to God. She had really a lot of theological questions (she still does) and it took a lot of time to get so far, but during this Easter she gave her heart to God. This was really great news and shows that God can use us even if our primary activity is not evangelization. Thank you everybody who prayed for her!
Prayer requests:
- Give a praise for Viktorija
- Give a praise for our apartment in Riga
- Give a praise how God was working in Balvi
- „Challenge“ – camp for people with disabilities and finances
- Kaspars studies
- Personal financial situation – during a couple of months we have had a lot of irregular incomes and life in Latvia has become more expensive.
Blessings,
Evelyn&Kaspars Apinis[:]