Latvia

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We are soon to lead our next mercy mission trip to Latvia and the report of that trip will appear on these pages. In the meantime this is the report of our 24th mercy mission to Latvia.Riga

It's hard to believe that so much takes place in a short period of time - 24 visits in 11 years (probably the 43rd mission to Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and 1000's of needy people are now in God's kingdom. It's been worth it, to know that many more people are going to Heaven and far less going to hell.

In Latvia this time, I had a small team of eight but God enabled us to cover a lot of ground - into 4 major prisons, many orphanages, the large Russian youth camp and also many needy churches full of people very hungry for God's word. The team met at our base in Brighton, England for the training and were rather nervous, but were willing to learn how to reach and help this poor nation. The team consisted of Australians - David & Gail Parkinson - farmers from Albury; their daughter, Tania Parkinson - a teacher in London; Pastor David Armstrong from Canberra; Denver Brodsky - a builder and prison chaplain from Brisbane; Cheryl Ruf from Massachusetts USA and Peter Wallace - a worship leader from a great church in Canterbury, England.

We were joined by Susan Sand, from a wonderful church in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who'd come to work with the orphanages for six months (Susan did a wonderful job in helping the young people to grow in confidence and in their faith), and also Kyleigh Russell from Perth, Australia who works in Riga. Kyleigh was a great blessing and help to us. One very precious team member joined us during the mission while visiting family in Latvia - that was Mrs. Maija Purins, the mother of Aldis Purins from Perth, Australia. Aldis is a precious colleague of mine who came to minister in Latvia with me four years ago. Maija was a huge blessing as she ministered especially in the Mission Church.

As a team we were exceptionally blessed by an Australian business man operating in Latvia, when he rented a 9-seater bus in Latvia for us to use in getting around the country. this is the first time that has happened. It was a huge provision that enabled us to move around freely and convey team members to outlying venues to reach so many more people.

On the first weekend in Riga, the capital, we saw so many respond to God's Word in the large Word of Truth Word of Truth ChurchChurch, and pour forward to receive Christ and be set free to serve Him. The prayer ministry was overflowing with God's power - we saw many saved, dramatically healed and many set free from demonic bondage's and sinister habits. The team's comment was, "Why is it so easy to minister to the people here and yet so tough in Australia?" The answer is: in these broken, humble nations the people are hungry and there are very few distractions." Our special friends and colleagues Bishop Nikolai Grib and Pastor Nikolay Latyshevich hosted and opened so many doors for us.

August 2007 report Next Page

Updated 18 September, 2007