Pastor Petr is presented a Christian flag from the FBC Canton with 600 signatures.

In July, six people from First Baptist Church, Canton, Texas, went to Riga, Latvia for the first time with Bridge Builders International (BBI). I cannot tell you how exciting this trip was! The purpose of our trip was to pray and explore the possibilities of our church in Canton partnering with the Evangelical Church Of Riga (ECOR) to fulfill The Great Commission. Quite honestly, our team immediately fell in love with Pastor Petr Samoylich and his congregation. After much prayer and discussion our church, FBC Canton, felt led to enter into a partnership with the ECOR that involves four areas of support:


1) Prayer Support - We agree to pray for our sister congregation and they agree to pray for us. We are sharing requests via email.


2) Missions Education Support - We are developing a Wednesday night discipleship training class to educate people as to the needs of Latvia and our sister church. This class will equip people who are considering going on a mission trip to Latvia.

Members of FBC Canton team pose with campers at ECOR camp.

3) People Support - We have set a goal to send another group to Latvia next summer to assist our sister church in whatever way we can.


4) Financial Support - We have set a goal to sponsor at least ten children next summer to attend camp at the ECOR children's camp. It costs approximately 0.00 to send one child to camp. We believe we will exceed this goal. Also, we are studying the possibility of funding materials to construct cabins on a 120-acre site owned by our sister church in Latvia.

Canton team members in the home of an ECOR parishioner.

Words cannot express how this vision for worldwide missions has inspired and rejuvenated our church family. Praise God for BBI and the ministry they have of linking American churches and Latvian churches so we can all do a better job of fulfilling The Great Commission.





September, 2002