By Chuck Kelley

    RIGA, Latvia – I thoroughly enjoy accepting invitations to preach in Latvian churches when I am in Latvia, so I was pleased when Pastor Elmars Plavins invited me to preach at Trinity Baptist Church in Ogre.  Elmers picked me up in Riga about an hour and a half before the service. We had a good conversation in which he told me about the good things that have been happening in his church in recent months. Ten or twelve people have come to know the Lord. On a personal level, after many years of service, this is Elmars’ last year as the chief chaplain for the Latvian army.  He is looking forward to when he will be able to devote his full attention to his church and the churches they would like to start.

    As we were pulling into the parking lot I noticed how clean the parking lot was. The snow pileup was over three feet.  He proudly told me that part of his exercise routine he shovels the parking lots several times a week.  It takes 3 or 4 hours.  It was very cold outside, but nice and toasty in.

    After heart felt worship and a children’s blessing, I was invited to preach.  At first I told the congregation a little bit about what we do in Latvia. I also shared about the importance of Baltic Pastoral Institute where I done a lot of teaching the last few weeks.  Two of my students, Dainis Pandars and Janis Rencis, come from this church.

    I love preaching from the parables, so I selected a message on the prodigal, “Surprised by the Father’s Love.” 

In the course of the message I described a meaningful moment when my wife's Grandpa took both of us in his arms. The occasion was the funeral of Nancy's Grandma, Anna. It took place in 1978.  As Grandpa held us tightly, he said that he was going to 'show us a real Jesus'.  He didn’t understand what he meant.

    Grandma's funeral service was very meaningful, but no one in the room was prepared for the way it would end. As the service closed Grandpa went to the open casket, placed one hand on Grandma's head and lifted his other hand to heaven and offered a stunning prayer, "Lord, thank you for Anna, for 58 years of being together. And thank you that she has been such a good wife, mother and grandmother.

But I really thank you that she is now with Jesus and one day not too far away I will be with her again and together we will be with Jesus." 

    Ever since that day it has been the goal of my preaching to show people a real Jesus. One way to do that is to preach his parables.

    The emphasis of the message is that the younger son and the older son in Jesus’ story were not all that different. The younger son wanted the Father’s money, but not the Father; the older son wanted the Father’s work, bu also not the Father. The tragedy is that only one of them came to his senses to go to the Father and say “I have sinned against heaven and before you.” It wasn’t the self righteous son.

   

The Lord blessed the message and the Holy Spirit moved in that place to draw people to come to himself, some for the first time and others to seek renewal or special prayer.  Elmars told me that six people gave their lives to Christ, one woman and five men.

    As Elmars drove me back to Riga we both rejoiced in the wonderful way the Lord has blessed this Valentine’s Day.