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he VBS camp was held in the town of Varaklani, in an overwhelmingly poor and spiritually dark region of Latvia. One source told us that out of the 2,700 inhabitants, 2,000 are Catholics, 50 are Lutherans, and the rest are gypsies, Jews, Orthodox, non-believers, some evangelicals, and "others."
The seven of us from Highland Community Church, in Renton Washington; Mike Thomas, Ernestine Cooper, Liz Shimaura, Stephanie Peterson, Chase Irish, and Larry and Ruth York, worked together with 17 young people from the Riga Reformed Church. The leaders of the camp were Anda and Inese, both very mature young ladies, about 24 years old, who were not only beautiful on the outside, but inside too. Our objective was to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the 80 children, ages 7-14, at the day camp. In the process we grew together as one.
The Latvians organized the camp and for the first time, stepped out in faith and led the children's Bible studies. There were many children who had been at the camp last year and it was very obvious that they were very comfortable with the Bible and knew where to look up the verses. The last day, the children were asked to write a letter to God their Father and express their thankfulness and gratitude for giving them new life.
Many children who made confessions of faith last year did so again this year. Several first-time attendees accepted Christ. I wish I knew the exact totals, but we were not counting - that is God's business. Some of the Latvian helpers were also brand new Christians. Iveta had been a Christian only for four months. Another teacher/helper, Inara, expressed the desire to be baptized as a public affirmation of her faith when the camp was over. The baptism was going to take place soon.
The Americans helped with worship, sports, games, and taught English classes and arts and crafts. Mike Thomas, who was in charge of the sports, told the children that even though he loved baseball, he loved Jesus Christ more. The last day was set aside for the "event of the year" in Varaklani - the championship baseball game. The morning was very cloudy and rainy, so the teachers and Mike led the children in prayer for the sun to come out. A half hour before the big game, the sun started to shine and the children were overjoyed and were exclaiming, "God answered our prayers!" The teams had even cheerleaders who had made their own pom-poms and cheered for everyone on all teams. They were truly the encouragers.
Another positive aspect of the camp was the "mailboxes" - styrofoam cups marked with names of the kids and teachers taped to the wall. Messages, Bible verses, candy, etc. were sent and received and everyone participated. In the English class, one of the main focuses was Bible memorization. The children memorized Bible verses from the booklet Steps to Peace with God.
The Latvians are very artistic and musical, and love their crafts. Ernestine incorporated the Bible verses and simple Biblical teachings with the crafts. They painted t-shirts, did silk flower arranging, and candle crafts, and decorated frames with Bible verses.
Larry taught an adult Bible study in the evenings. The Latvia team put out posters all over the village, but we later learned that all the posters were torn down. Nevertheless, the first night one 70-year-old woman, named Valentina, came. She said she had a Baptist background, and it was obvious she was hungry for fellowship. The next night, three more people came, a Russian lady, named Karina, with a Pentecostal background and her neighbor, a young Latvian man, and a mom of one of the kids. They, along with our team made up the nucleus of our group and we grew together as one. The prayers were in English, Latvian and Russian. The last night, Valentina brought ice cream for everyone. This was a huge sacrifice since she was very poor. Karina brought tears to everyone's eyes when she offered Larry a 0 bill as her tithe in appreciation for the Bible teaching. The money was given to the Latvian team and will be used as seed money for next year's camp. The small group promised to meet together in the future, pray with each other, and to welcome other people who would like to come.
Chase, Stephanie, and Liz mingled with the Latvian children and made many friends. Stephanie said that a 13-year-old girl, Ilze, reminded her of her sister and she can't wait to start corresponding with her. Chase was constantly followed by a group of grade school girls and some boys. Right before we left for Riga, a teenage girl named Agate chained her arm with Liz's and said that either Liz stays or she goes with Liz.
The parents of the children were very supportive and informed us that the nuns in the town were wondering what was happening at the camp. The parents said ,"We told them that they were learning about the Bible and we like everything they do." They asked the nuns and the priest not to say anything so we would keep coming back. Even the town newspaper sent a reporter to interview us and to take pictures.
The parents supplied us with wild blueberries, strawberries, homemade cheese, honeycomb, and other delicacies. Can you imagine a wonderful breakfast of wild blueberries with milk and honey, strawberries, cheese, sweet rolls, rye bread and coffee? It was enough to start planning for another trip next summer.
Another exciting event was when Larry was taken to the local village hospital in an ambulance one evening. After the camp the teachers were playing tag in the school halls and Larry accidentally hit his head on the corner of a bench. He bled a lot, even though he wasn't too badly hurt. The ambulance came and since Larry had a head wound, and they decided that he was an older gentleman, they whisked him off to the hospital. Iveta, who has huge, gorgeous blue eyes, sat in the ambulance and held Larry's hand while looking into his eyes. Larry later told me that he thought he had already died and gone to heaven.
After the camp, our American team was taken to the beach near Riga, the Latvian Riviera. Actually the place is an orphanage, which is being cleared out since the government will not renew the orphanage's lease. As a result, we were able to rent rooms very cheaply in a resort area, and take advantage of playing on one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world, right across the Baltic Sea from Sweden.
Our son, Erik, came to mentor us with Campus Crusade-type evangelistic talks on the beach, on how to evangelize on the beach. What we did not know was that the Latvians were preparing for their own church retreat, and very few people were available after the children's camp. So, we spent some time talking to our Russian neighbors (other renters at the orphanage, who were filming a WWII movie on the beach) and explaining to them why we were there. Erik spent a lot of time talking to the Campus Crusade people in Latvia about their ministry. We also spent some time with Ugis Pallo, a Baptist pastor whom HCC is partially supporting. But this is another story...
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