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Thank you for your kindness in helping us with this
ministry over so many years. In the light of all the
expenses the orphanages have at this point in time and
the mercy missions we’ve just had, your kind giving
has blessed us and many others through in a huge way.
Bless you for your kindness and help at this time.
Thank you for your wonderful generosity and kindness.
We do appreciate you. Here’s a report for you on
our recent Latvian Mission.
Bless you for your encouragement to us. You are a blessing
to us and so many needy children and people through us.
I’ve just returned from Latvia from an intensely
busy programme where so many people in church services
(weekend and mid week), prisons and orphans camps are
coming to Jesus. Most of those men at the prison meeting
were new inmates – hungry for the Word. We provided
many new Bibles for them and many teenagers who came
to the Lord at the youth camps.
The
Jelgava Men’s Prison where over the last six
years so many hundreds have come to the Lord in a very
positive way. There are two big prisons in this area
where we’ve been privileged to minister the inmates
and prison authorities. Through friends we’ve been
able to provide Bibles to everyone making a commitment
to Jesus, as well as resources to help the men learn
a trade and be skilled for work on the outside when they
are released.
 Here
is a photo of one of the camp for the Chernobyl Orphans
who have battled with the effects of the radiation in
their area. Many have malignant tumors as a result. They’re
in the green shirts in the altar call at the Word of
Truth Church. You know we bus two orphanages of about
200 children, from the Chernobyl area to Latvia each
year for a great spiritual camp. It’s worth
the expense, to see these young live changed by the power
of God’s love. and prepared as leaders of the future.
The heating system at the Likumi Children’s Home
near the Russian border, blew up. I visited there  and
saw the damage. It was extensive as you can see from
the photos. It will cost about $10,000 US to repair and
replace the damaged fixtures and electrics. The place
literally exploded. I’m so glad that nobody was
in the building or nearby. They would have been killed
in the explosion and incinerated in the fire. The strength
of the blast blew the doors off and burned the wooden
fittings. I hope to be able to get that all repaired
and in operation before the cold weather arrives in late
September.
We had a very sweet meeting
with the children and so many of them openly committed
themselves to Jesus. They received the toys, clothes
and books with genuine joy. The little girl, Andra, I
am praying with, only has one kidney. She struggles but
with no complaints.
The Bulduri Spriditis Children’s Home for crippled
and retarded children is doing well. I had a beautiful
time there playing with the children, especially the
little blind girl, Viktoria (12 years), and the crippled
girl, Kate (7 years) who writes with her feet. These
children are precious.
Though the kind help of dear friends we were able to
provide a minibus to ferry the children around, especially
in the winter snows when they were walking a 12 km
round trip to the shop each day to buy bread, milk
and eggs. This was treacherous in the winter blizzards.
Now they can ride in safety.
There is so much more which I’ll share in the next
newsletter coming out soon.
Love and blessings to you. Thanks for your concern,
especially for the children for whom you have a huge
compassion.
Dave & Margurita Smethurst
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