For over 450 years, a group of faithful Lutherans have been gathering in Sloka, Latvia. Enduring years of hardship and persecution, this body of believers has relied upon God to help them stand the test of time and share the Good News. Latvia, a Baltic state, shares a border with Russia and is across the Baltic Sea from Scandinavia. Historically a Lutheran nation, 46 years of communist rule brought about a decline of the church. Encouraging and building up our brothers and sisters in Christ in Latvia to create a vision and move forward takes on many shapes and forms. In the past, teams from St. Luke’s have provided “English As A Second Language” camps, performed concerts in the surrounding countryside, and offered workshops to inspire and develop leaders.
Saturday, July 26
Today was our final day of camp. We taught classes in the morning and early afternoon, and then we set up for the program.
During the program, students and staff all perform things they learned during the camp. Of course, since it is Latvia, we also sang a lot! The evening was finished with sausages and s’more’s.
Thank you for your prayers for us while we were in camp. Now, please pray for good health as several staff are struggling with illness.
Friday, July 25
Today was the last full day of camp and like always, we began with worship and devotions in the church sanctuary. After that many of the groups have begun doing culminating activities for the week. One of those activities for the preschool and Kindergartners is making homemade ice cream in a bag.
Another fun activity is water balloon fights. This is something truly, American and they love it!
Thursday, July 24
Labrit! This Latvian word means Good Morning!
Our day started today with rain and so we’ve been scrambling to move students out of the tents into empty spaces in the Sunday school building and in the church. Everyone has been great and adjusting as needed.
The onsite leaders of Concordia, Macungie PA; St. Lukes, and Sloka Lutheran met last night to discuss the future of the English camp. We are very excited about these initial discussions and know God will guide and direct us as we move forward. Also, we discussed the upcoming visit to PA and FL of the Sloka church choir. When they give their concert at St. Lukes, you won’t want to miss it (we will also need help housing them while they are in FL).
Wednesday, July 23
Yesterday was a wonderful day and we hope the weather cooperates and provides us with another beautiful day.
Our theme today is about Jesus feeding the 5000 and students will be learning about how Jesus provides for us and all our needs. We will learn more about this in science, English, and in religion classes.
Tuesday, July 22
Good afternoon !
Today was our second day of camp and we were able to fix some hiccups from the first day and everyone felt it was a very successful day.
Several teachers had students in their class who knew little to nothing about Jesus and we were able to introduce them to Him! We are so happy that we could be here and reach out to students who need to know Christ as well as those who want to continue to learn more and build a relationship with Him.
Monday, July 21
Today began the camp. We’re very excited to have 55 students join us for this week. Everyone was very excited to be here and many were returning students from previous camps.
Please pray for good weather for us this week!
Sunday, July 20
Today began with a great breakfast provided by our wonderful hosts. We also attended worship services at the church and reacquainted ourselves with the many congregation members and former camp participants.
The rest of the day will be setting up the camp tents and organizing materials and lessons.
Please pray that we would be eager to be God’s vessels pouring out God’s blessings and His Word to the people here in Sloka!
Saturday, July 19
Today the rest of the Oviedo group arrived in Riga. We are so thankful! The team today worked on getting rid of our jet lag and also got outdoors in order to visit a fairytale village in the forest.
Tonight we will work on unpacking the bags and start to get things ready for camp.
Please pray for the team and all the students who will be attending. We also ask that you would pray for us to have good weather as it is currently forecast to rain almost every day. It’s tough to teach outside when it’s raining.
