A LABOR OF LOVE
God provides three special miracles in Tilza
By Dan Schneider
Editorial comment: Christmas Valley Community Church has been sending construction and ministry teams to the remote Eastern Latvia village of Tilza for several years. This church's devotion and effectiveness in ministering to the Tilza Baptist Church and the Evangelism Training Center is a wonderful example for other mission-minded churches to follow.
On March 12, six people from Oregon left for a trip to Tilza to work for two weeks. There was Tim and Paulette Warkentin, Kathleen Roth, Nathaniel Roth, and Allison Hand, all of Christmas Valley, Oregon. Dan Schneider was from Lebanon, Oregon. For three of us it was the first time in Latvia. For all of us it was a time of hard work and resulting gratification and joy to see how God blesses serving hearts.
We were blessed on the first night in Riga to meet Dustin and Kristina Peterson and Kristina's parents. They shared a meal and a bed, which was a welcome sight for sleepy Americans adjusting to a ten-hour time difference and a very long flight.
After being fed a wonderful breakfast the next morning, we took a four hour car trip to Tilza and were introduced to a community of 800 people, in some ways not unlike small rural communities of Oregon. We were assigned our rooms in the upper floor of the church, and within an hour of our arrival were beginning work that evening on the many tasks before us in the Youth Center building.
Dan and Katie Roth were there to greet us and generally supervise and chase after materials needed for our projects. They also directed and participated in the Youth conferences.
Among the many tasks to be done were:
1. Build a kitchen facility from a bare room.
2. Remove (down to the dirt) and replace a floor in the dining room.
3. Install vinyl floor and plumb a bathroom.
4. Wallpaper, clean, install drapes in numerous rooms (10+? rooms).
5. Miscellaneous jobs such as:
- paint hallway
- install molding around various windows and doorways
- electrical wiring of plugs and fixtures
6. Build a 20 foot x 40 foot woodshed.
By God's grace and many long hours we were able to complete jobs 1 through 5 by late Saturday night (March 21st). Thinking we were going to have a well-deserved day of rest on Sunday, we were only deceived, because around 30 people were due to arrive by 3:00 PM for a 2-day Youth Conference. The American ladies were assigned to cook for the conference. Many preparations were still to be made for the first meal to be served in the new kitchen.
Now comes the first miracle God gave us. All week we struggled with electrical power problems in the Youth Center. If you plugged in the coffee pot, the lights would dim and even sometimes go out. Something was seriously wrong, so the power company was called, but they didn't come, and we thought we would somehow have to get by with only the power available. However, on Sunday at 1:00 PM (two hours before the conference was to start) the power company people showed up to look at our problem. They checked numerous boxes, connections, breakers and grounds but concluded at the end that they had fixed nothing, however, when we checked the power in the Youth Center everything was working. We had plenty of power for everything. God performed a miracle just in time.
So, the second week was exciting, seeing all the teens, youth leaders (and their children), speakers, music was invigorating. We Americans saw that Latvian youth were no different in their basic needs. They need acceptance and love. They need Christ.
After a one-day break (Wednesday) the second youth conference started. Now comes the second miracle. We were told that this second conference would be smaller and not to count on as many people to feed as the first. However, when people began arriving, over 50 showed up! A box of potatoes showed up, people were sent to the grocery store, and somehow when we passed the "loaves and fishes" all people were fed. We didn't need to panic; God was in control.
In the meantime, while the women were in the kitchen trying to feed all the people, the men were building a woodshed. Time for an answer to prayer. All the first week the weather was mostly overcast and cold (subfreezing), but on Monday of the second week, the sun came out and by the end of the week we were working in our shirt sleeves. It had actually gotten hot! Perfect weather for working outside. Although we had limited tools, limited skill, some unevenly cut lumber, somehow we were able to frame up and put a roof on this large building. Local people would come by and ask us if were building a house, because they would never have used that much material to build a woodshed. But God blessed our efforts and He allowed us to complete our task once again.
The last of the Youth Conference attendees left Sunday morning, but as Aigars (the Tiza church pastor) was returning teens to Balvi in the church van, a gravel truck passed by and tossed a big rock through the windshield. No one was hurt, but when Aigars returned there was no windshield in the van. This is the van that we were to travel to Riga in the next day for our trip back to America! It looked like we were either going to have to make a very cold and wet trip to Riga or we would be delayed for several days getting back to Riga.
Time for another miracle and some Christmas Valley ingenuity. There was another Volkswagen van parked near the Youth Center that was just being used for parts. Tim Warkentin and Nathaniel Roth were able to clean up the gasket from the broken window, remove the window from the "parts" van, make a "special tool" to install the window and, finally, to install the window. They did it in less than two hours, before the sun went down, and with a smile on their faces. Thanks to God for blessing us again.
We were able to travel to Riga the next day in comfort and even had a little time to tour downtown Riga and pick up a few souvenirs. We spent one night in the Radisson Hotel and had breakfast the next morning with Chuck Kelley and Almers Ludviks, the Latvia Director of Partners Foundation. We flew out that afternoon.
God richly rewarded us with a great and memorable trip to Latvia!
23 April 2003
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