Last February I made my 19th trip to Latvia over the last 15 years. Below are some photos with captions from my trip, along with a summary of the trip.
One of my main projects for this trip was to lead workshops for Latvian Lutheran Pastors on alternative preaching methods. I led two such workshops.
Dr. Sandra Gintere is not only the Assistant Dean of the Lutheran serminary in Riga Latvia, but she is an extremely gifted translator, and a good friend. Sandra invited me on behalf of the seminary to teach a series of classes to their pastoral students on preaching in a postmodern culture. Adapting preaching methods to our changing culture is a topic that currently receives almost no attention in The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (and often does not receive enough attention on this side of the Atlantic either).
I had the opportunity to preach both Sundays I was in Latvia. One of those Sundays I served at my host congregation outside of Riga, Sloka Lutheran Church. Their new pastor is a long time friend who first invited me to preach at his churches while I was still in seminary. Janis is the pastor of Sloka, as well as a smaller church out in the country. In Sloka I also had the blessing to meet with his youth to talk about worship and preaching from the perspective of youth, and to debrief my youth-oriented sermon I had shared that morning.
One thing I try to do each trip to Latvia is make it down to the orphanage / hospital / school for disabled children in Baldone and do a concert for them in Latvian. This is one of the most important and meaningful parts of my trip.
Thank you for walking through my trip with me. The full summary of my trip to Latvia is linked below as a Word document.
Each year my Latvia trip has been built around a specific invitation to do a specific presentation. In 2008 I was invited along with my colleague, friend and team mate, Jim Valentine, to lecture on neo-paganism in our postmodern culture as seen in books and movies. We talked about a wide range of examles. While there, I did what I always do. I teach and preach, and visit the orphanage in Baldone to visit and sing. The summary of that trip and the topics of our discussions is below.
My trip in 2009 was very different. For the first time since my first trip in 1992 I went to Latvia without a specific invitation to do a specific presentation. Instead, I went to Latvia this time to be about all the other things I normally do around the specific visitation. So there was no "big thing" this trip. As with 2008, I did not return with any usuable photos. <sigh> But most of my time was spent with youth groups and movie nights. Three times in three churches we did Movie Night using "Ironman", complete with Latvian subtitles. So my friends in the youth groups of the three churches blessed me by sending photos of their youth groups for me to share.
Sloka has been my "home church" in Latvia since 1992. Inese, whom I first met as a little girl is now halfway through college! She's the blonde in front as they "Vogue." Below is the larger group at a canoe trip.
I have maintained contact over the years not only with the orphanage in Baldone, but also the Baldone Church. That is where the high school youth in 2002 did their renovation work. The president there has become a good friend. Their pastor was one of the first people I met in Latvia in 1992, when he was in college.
This trip I got to meet and work with the young people at the church of my friends, Pastor Janis and Dr. Sandra Ginters. Their daughter, Sarma went to elementary school in the USA while Sandra was getting her doctorate. Sarma acted as my translator for the Movie Night. It is here at New Gertrude's Church that high school students (including those from St. John's) will be doing renovation work the summer of 2010 with Youth Encounter. I am very happy that my students at St. Johns will get to meet and work with my new friends from New Gertrude's and Baldone, as well as my long-time friends at Sloka.
In addition to preaching at New Gertrude's, I had the opportunity to sing a solo during worship. Singing in this large cathedral space was a very new and powerful experience for me.
I hope you have enjoyed my picture tour of the youth groups and churches I visited in Latvia in September of 2009. The summary of my trip is linked below.
