Gita's Story
Jesus' life attests to a greater call, a more complete life. We are empowered to begin an incredible journey here on earth. We do not have to wait for our "just" rewards in heaven.
Am I suggesting that all of you become involved in missions?...ABSOLUTELY!!! I am challenging you to take up the gift Jesus has given each and everyone of us. Claim the love that Christ filled you with and use the Holy Spirit
that is within you - just waiting to be used.
Just what is missions?
It is simply reaching out and sharing of yourself with your neighbors, not your next door neighbors either. It is letting the Holy Spirit within you witness to the great news of the Gospel. Action rather than words often most forcefully and fully spread Jesus' message. In order to be in a mission you must have a relationship with the people you are trying to help or your help must be more accurately called charity not missions. Missions must have a face attached to it - it is a giving of yourself. A releasing of the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you to do God's work.
Personally, I have been deeply enriched and blessed by being in mission with my brothers and sisters in Christ in Latvia.
I have witnessed countless lives being enriched and changed completely by their involvement in missions. Our God is so very, very good. He honors those who reach out to others - he blesses them tenfold! I could share
many stories - how people took tiny steps and tentatively reached out and were totally transformed - they got past the appetizer stage and were blessed with a deeper union with God through their giving of themselves.
It can happen to you too!!!
I urge you - open yourself up to the work of the Holy Spirit - take that first small step and God will do the rest.
Now - let me share a little about the country God has chosen for me to serve.
Latvia is a small country of approximately 2.5 million people. It is in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea across from Sweden.
I was born there toward the end of W.W.II. When I was less than a year old, my family joined a long line of refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet army.
My family was lucky because all but one escaped. My grandfather decided to stay behind. He said, Armies have come, armies go, I stay and guard our apartment and our things. You'll all be returning soon enough. Well, this army came but didn't leave. This army occupied the land for over 50 years. Our apartment and things were confiscated. When my grandfather died, he was buried in an anonymous pauper's grave.
Latvia has been repeatedly overrun by armies. Unfortunately, it sits strategically on the Baltic Sea and has one of Northern Europe's few year-round ice free harbors. It has been coveted by the Swedes because it would give them access to the mainland of Europe. Coveted by Russia because it provides a window to Europe for this land-locked giant. Coveted by Germany for its ice free seaport and access to Russia.
Over the centuries all of these countries conquered and re-conquered the land but none of the occupants were as devastating as the last - the 50 year Soviet occupation.
My family and most of the other fleeing families left their homes because to stay would have meant deportation to Siberia or worse. The Soviets tried to kill or deport anyone who could be identified as a possible threat to their totalitarian rule.
Anyone with higher education or who had become successful in his field was automatically seen as a threat because they were considered harder to manipulate. My mother a dentist and my father a principal of an agricultural school were automatically put on the list. Many of the country's professionals chose to flee the approaching front lines instead of waiting to be rounded up in the middle of the night and stuffed in cattle cars to be sent to Siberia.
Before the onset of W.W.II, Latvia had an astonishing 98% literacy rate and the second highest per capita enrollment in institutions of higher learning. It was a prosperous, modern country that already had women's rights, student loans and a social safety net in place - way before most other countries including the US.
The Soviets annexed Latvia into the Soviet Union and preceded to totally dismantle the country, and try to annihilate its culture and society. it encouraged neighbors who had grievances to accuse each other of anti state activities, it re-educated all teachers and re-wrote all the school books. My mother-in-law shares this
anecdote - one of her former professors who was a highly regarded educator came out of one of these re-training sessions where all history and science books were being re-written and muttered under his breath, "What a world this has become - they are peeing in our faces and telling us that it is raining."
Did you know that the telephone was invented by a Russian? If you went by the Russian re-written books. School children were questioned everyday They were asked to report what was asked at home. Was God ever mentioned? Children were encouraged to tell on their parents so that the state could help their parents see the "real truth."
The Soviets used up all they found without any attempt to modernize or keep up repairs in the ensuing 50 years. They tried to wipe out the language and culture of the people. Their goal was to produce a Soviet
citizen. Latvian was outlawed in schools, churches were either closed and remade into museums, sport clubs, planetariums, restaurants. Those churches allowed to stay open were constantly under surveillance and attendance highly discouraged.
Latvians were sent to different parts of the empire and masses of Russians were imported to dilute and hopefully, eventually swallow up the Latvian population. Latvia national holidays were forbidden, folk songs were not
allowed to be sung. Latvians were not given any managerial position unless they joined the communist party and agree to spy on others.
Latvians were sent to the back of trolley cars spit on and cursed. They became second rate citizens in their own country. The horrors of the Soviet years cannot be explained or understood in this quick summary. The effects of this 50 years are long lasting. Every time I think that I sort of understand, I am introduced to another fact of their horror. Living there now, the most I can say is that I understand that I don't understand.
Having grown up in the US and consciously being very proud of being an American, I never had any desire
to anywhere else. But God had different plans for me.
In 1990, my family took our first trip back to Latvia. It was the era of glasnost - perestroika. We flew to Stockholm and boarded a chartered ship to take us to Riga. The ship was full of Latvians many of whom had fled by ship 50 years earlier and would now be returning to the same dock. As you can well imagine emotions ran very high. For younger family members it would be their first glimpse of their parent's homeland.
We lived on board the ship for 10 days. Our comings and goings were monitored by the ever present Soviet army. Many of us were followed and many searched when we came back to board the ship. The cosmopolitan
Riga that my parents had fled was gone, instead we found a grey, often smelly, rundown city. The rest of the world moved ahead. Riga and Latvia had been used up and had gone backwards. my parents and
their generation were devastated. Where was the beautiful latvia of their youth?
Through its many centuries of foreign domination, Latvia managed to preserve its language and culture through its deep love for music and song. Latvia is said to have the largest documented collection of folk songs in all the world. Utilizing songs to keep alive its culture, a National Song Festival was instituted over 160 years ago. Every four years, the best choirs, orchestras and folk dance groups would come together for a week long national celebration.
During the Soviet occupation, the Song Festivals were allowed to continue but the traditional folk songs were banned and instead new songs were commissioned extolling the new Soviet citizen. The Song Festival of 1990 was the first time that traditional Latvian songs were again allowed to be sung and we were fortunate enough to be there that week.
Let me share a moment of incredible majesty that I had the honor of witnessing. The closing concert of the week-long festival was held on the outskirts of Riga. A special stage had been built to accommodate the 30,000+ singers. There were approximately 125,000 in the audience and most of the rest of the Latvian population was watching it live on TV. The concert began about 6 o'clock that july Sunday night. Around midnight as the Northern Sun was finally beginning to set, the choir members each lit a candle they were holding. The audience grew completely still in anticipation of something special.
Picture this scene - the sun setting behind the choir high above, a breeze is fluttering the newly allowed Latvian flag. It is that quiet time of day as darkness overtakes the light. 30,000 singers stand - their candle lights weave a magical spell.
The orchestra starts to pray - the choir begins to sing - begins to sing the Lord's Prayer.
The Lord's Prayer in an atheist, communist-held country - at a huge public gathering - seen live on TV. WOW!!! These people had defied not only the local communist party but by this public display, taken on Moscow as well in insisting that they had the right to include this prayer in their concert.
Truly, I can't even begin to describe how reverent and spiritual those moments seemed. As the last notes were sung and played, a deep silence engulfed the park - it was as if all 125,000 of us and the whole choir were in silent prayer. Time seemed suspended. It must have been atleast 5 or 10 minutes before the choir and audience were capable of continuing.
My American born sister-in-law sitting next to me was shivering from the emotions she was experiencing. No explanation was needed. We all felt so privileged to have been in the audience that evening.
A year later, in 1991, latvia declared its independence. Latvians had decided that it was time to stand against the nighty Goliath and proclaim their right to exist. In anticipation of the onslaught of Russian troops and tanks, farmers from all over Latvia drove their tractors into Riga and used them as barricades to protect the TV station and parliament building. The signers of Latvia's Declaration of Independence were all camping out in the parliament building hoping to preserve the seat of government in their hands.
Latvian men manned the barricades day and night. latvian wives, mothers and sisters brought hot food and drinks and manned the bonfires. Skirmishes broke out. Tensions ran high for weeks. Moscow however
never issued that full attack order. Gorbachev was too busy with his own headaches. Some months later, the Soviet Union collapsed and Latvia gained its independence without massive loss of life.
But Latvia's problems did not end, they had only become different and at times more challenging. Latvians had no leadership skills. The only people with any leadership experience were members of the communist party. Latvia had no trained policemen, army, navy, no fireman or civil servants.
Latvia had no money to fund social programs, schools, hospitals or pensions. Russia had taken all the money, all the equipment it could transport. Factories were stripped bare. Anything of value that could be moved was taken. This left the country in dire straits.
Senior citizens are especially hard hit. Before the fall of communism, that had a pension, medical care was free. Rent was free, utilities were free and food was very cheap. It did not matter that the health care was primitive
and often unsanitary, it didn't matter that their apartment was one room with a communal toilet and often no bath or shower. It didn't matter that you had to wait in long lines to buy food or that there was nothing to buy with
your pension money. You knew that if you kept your mouth shut, minded your own business, melted in the woodwork, you had a secure old age.
Now the government can only afford to pay almost subsistence level pensions. Health care is much improved and very cheap by our standards but nevertheless at a cost, the apartment cost money, the utilities must now be paid for. The grocery shelves are now full of food and the lines disappeared, but the seniors can afford very little of the brightly packaged enticing food stuffs.
Many seniors have just enough for food and rent. Many can't afford to heat their apartments. If they need to buy medicine, it is often a choice of that or food. Some have turned to begging. It is rare to walk down any downtown Riga block without seeing the elderly begging for pennies. It is heart-wrenching. Often they sit huddled in a doorway, totally dejected looking, trying to stay warm with a small dish in front of them. It would be easy to block them out and get so used to their presence that they become invisible. But the Latvian people have
not. I am constantly amazed at how many school children, teens, young adults as well as the middle age stop and drop money into those dishes. The elderly's poverty is an ache in everyone's conscience.
Besides the elderly, those living in the country are also very poor. Farming had all but collapsed. There is a huge influx of cheap food stuffs from Ukraine and Georgia. The farmers are having a terrible time competing with these low prices. Often they cannot sell their products at a price that would earn them a subsistence living.
Most rural families end up sending their children to government sponsored boarding schools. This ensures their children of regular hot meals and a warm room.
Alcoholism is also a huge problem which contributes to the poverty of the farmer. Many are suffering from
depression and turn to the bottle and drink away whatever little the family has...leaving the rest of the family penniless.
The middle aged people have a very difficult time finding employment. Many worked in the industries that were cannibalized by the Russians as they retreated leaving them with no jobs. There is very little demand for older workers. Most jobs are now being offered to the young, bilingual applicant.
Drugs are becoming a huge problem. Within the last two years, drug use has sky-rocketed. Someone has a
marketing strategy to flood Latvia with extremely cheap heroin. The 14-18 year olds are targeted. heroin is as cheap as candy at the present. Latvia faces many, many problems but they are a country of deep spiritual roots...a country that has suffered much but has refused to die or be pushed into non-existence. It is a country that desperately needs a helping hand and caring heart.
The Methodist Church in Latvia was begun by a Methodist Bishop from Zurich in 1921. He opened up clinics and soup kitchens. Soon the people who were manning the kitchens& clinics became Methodists and started congregations. By the out break of W.W.II, just 17 years later, there were over 3000 Methodists and 26 congregations. The American Methodist Church had bought three buildings - two churches and a seminary. When the communists took over, they closed all Methodist churches declaring them to be CIA agents. Fifty years later, only four Latvian Methodists were still living in Latvia. Methodism had successfully been eradicated from Latvian memory.
Today, GBGM
(General Board of Global Ministries) has gotten back its three buildings and there are eleven congregations plus another one already to be consecrated. The Latvian Methodists are fighting to be recognized as a
mainline denomination. Many have never heard of Methodists and view them as another section. Many Latvians do not attend church but want their children to attend...but they worry about who these Methodists are and what they would teach their children. The youth of the country are the huge bright spot. Like youth everywhere, they are eager to learn about life...about God! They are such incredibly enthusiastic new Christians. We have over 250 children in the Sunday School program and it is growing rapidly. The new congregation which is just getting ready to be consecrated has over 20 children ready to join the Sunday School. The Latvian Methodist church desperately needs new Sunday School teachers, training for the existing teachers, new pastors, Sunday School material and help in funding transportation costs. The congregation s want to reach out to those in their own communities but are themselves subsistence level. Many of their own members have a hard time affording the transportation to church and back home.
They are praying for help to open up food pantries. Many people stop by the churches asking for bread, but they have none to offer. They dream of someday opening up soup kitchens and feeding their needy but this would require a working kitchen. They dream of offering a hot bath, shower or washing machine for those without, but that too requires investment. Their hearts are caring, their energy and dreams limitless but present day reality is harsh.
Let me share a story I heard my first week in Latvia. It was at our annual district conference as each congregation was presenting their report.
An elderly lay leader stood up and was describing her community and the hardships they were suffering. Her particular congregation had found funding for a bread program. Every service, everyone who attends is given a loaf of bread to take home. This particular Sunday, as she was handing out the bread loaves, this person grabbed the loaf and hurriedly standing right there in front of her wolfed it down, cellophane wrapping and all. The lay leader in a sobbing voice told us that she knows we are all a little hungry all the time but she has never before seen such a need. She said that she will never forget what she witnessed. There have been many heart-wrenching moments and stories and sometimes it becomes overwhelming but there are also incredible bright spots. The dedication of the Christians there. Their simple, uncomplicated faith in God. The wonderful youth. Watching the country slowly get back on its feet.
I''ve also been blessed to meet wonderful Methodists who have become involved and transformed by their reaching out.
A men's choir from Maryville, Tenn. came to Latvia and shared of themselves and their songs and were completely transformed by the experience. Congregations in the US have become sister or partnership churches with the Latvian churches. They have reached out and shared their skills and gifts and have been blessed in return. Let me share just one example of how an act of kindness made a big difference.
I had visited the church they were going to the summer before. The elderly pastor of the church had lamented - look at these dirty windows what a disgrace. These windows - huge, double hung brittle
monsters - have not been washed in 50 years and every time we worship in our sanctuary, we are reminded of how inadequate we are because we are just too old to get up on high ladders to wash these windows. God deserves better than this and yet we can't do anything about it. Her other problem was the heating system which was too expensive to run. She said that she would probably have to close the church soon.
Well, the heating system was replaced by a caring congregation in Tennessee. The windows were tackled by 14 VIM women. The local pastor could not believe and accept that these women, many of whom were past their climbing years, were really going to wash these windows. She tried to entertain them and divert their attention. Finally, Nancy the leader said, "Milda, we are here to wash windows and wash them we will." As they
finally got to do their task, being the Methodists they were, they began to sing and sing and sing! So passerby's, many of whom had never paid any attention to the building stopped by and stayed to watch and
listen. Many spent the afternoon and thanked the "angels" for their singing at the end of the afternoon. The windows now sparkled and God's light could shine into the sanctuary. The VIM team was filled with the
Holy Spirit and the sense of having been used by God for His work. Many now know of the little church with the clean windows and singing angels and every Sunday, Milda and her elderly congregation remember the caring hands that reached across the ocean to give them a true glimpse of God's abounding
love and care.
God called me to return to Latvia to leave the comfort of my life, friends and family and to serve Him in the country of my birth.
I spoke to my husband who is also Latvian by birth and we both agreed that we have been greatly blessed. We have had our nice house, our 2 cars and lots & lots of stuff. Now it was time to start sharing& giving
back. Unfortunately, or fortunately God did not provide us a blueprint or any pan of how to get there or what to do when we are there. It has taken us 10 years to finally make the move.
In the meantime, I have worked with the General Board of Global Ministries, I've attended seminary, gone through the candidacy process and local pastors school.
What do I think I can contribute to the Latvian Methodists? What do I think you could contribute? I have been richly blessed. God saved my family. I have been privileged to grow up in a country that is free. I grew up never fearing that when I woke up, my parents and family will be gone. I grew up never fearing a knock on the door. I grew up in a loving home, a caring church, amidst wonderful friends. I grew up in an atmosphere of love and trust. I grew up in a society where I could express my opinions without fear. In a country where I fully expected to be treated justly. I had the privilege to raise my children in the same
atmosphere with the same expectations. I know nothing of fear, of hunger, of suspicion of entrapment, of a society that is against you instead of being for you. I am not saddened with such heavy burdens.
Our brothers and sisters in Latvia, know nothing of our freedom.
All the things that we so easily take for granted and never even think about, they have to learn to take for granted. They have to learn to trust each other. They have to learn to think free and be free. They have to
learn to allow themselves the freedom to experience Christian fellowship and love. They have to learn to help each other.
I think that it is my mission and I invite you to make it yours too, to show them that we love them as fellow Christians and through our example help empower them to love back and to love each other. And hopefully, this freedom to love and trust will expand throughout the church and beyond.
Christ has taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that starts small and then grows into a mighty tree. Our mission is to plant a small mustard seed of love which God and all of us can water and nourish through our love, prayers and helping hand.
-Gita Mednis
Am I suggesting that all of you become involved in missions?...ABSOLUTELY!!! I am challenging you to take up the gift Jesus has given each and everyone of us. Claim the love that Christ filled you with and use the Holy Spirit
that is within you - just waiting to be used.
Just what is missions?
It is simply reaching out and sharing of yourself with your neighbors, not your next door neighbors either. It is letting the Holy Spirit within you witness to the great news of the Gospel. Action rather than words often most forcefully and fully spread Jesus' message. In order to be in a mission you must have a relationship with the people you are trying to help or your help must be more accurately called charity not missions. Missions must have a face attached to it - it is a giving of yourself. A releasing of the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you to do God's work.
Personally, I have been deeply enriched and blessed by being in mission with my brothers and sisters in Christ in Latvia.
I have witnessed countless lives being enriched and changed completely by their involvement in missions. Our God is so very, very good. He honors those who reach out to others - he blesses them tenfold! I could share
many stories - how people took tiny steps and tentatively reached out and were totally transformed - they got past the appetizer stage and were blessed with a deeper union with God through their giving of themselves.
It can happen to you too!!!
I urge you - open yourself up to the work of the Holy Spirit - take that first small step and God will do the rest.
Now - let me share a little about the country God has chosen for me to serve.
Latvia is a small country of approximately 2.5 million people. It is in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea across from Sweden.
I was born there toward the end of W.W.II. When I was less than a year old, my family joined a long line of refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet army.
My family was lucky because all but one escaped. My grandfather decided to stay behind. He said, Armies have come, armies go, I stay and guard our apartment and our things. You'll all be returning soon enough. Well, this army came but didn't leave. This army occupied the land for over 50 years. Our apartment and things were confiscated. When my grandfather died, he was buried in an anonymous pauper's grave.
Latvia has been repeatedly overrun by armies. Unfortunately, it sits strategically on the Baltic Sea and has one of Northern Europe's few year-round ice free harbors. It has been coveted by the Swedes because it would give them access to the mainland of Europe. Coveted by Russia because it provides a window to Europe for this land-locked giant. Coveted by Germany for its ice free seaport and access to Russia.
Over the centuries all of these countries conquered and re-conquered the land but none of the occupants were as devastating as the last - the 50 year Soviet occupation.
My family and most of the other fleeing families left their homes because to stay would have meant deportation to Siberia or worse. The Soviets tried to kill or deport anyone who could be identified as a possible threat to their totalitarian rule.
Anyone with higher education or who had become successful in his field was automatically seen as a threat because they were considered harder to manipulate. My mother a dentist and my father a principal of an agricultural school were automatically put on the list. Many of the country's professionals chose to flee the approaching front lines instead of waiting to be rounded up in the middle of the night and stuffed in cattle cars to be sent to Siberia.
Before the onset of W.W.II, Latvia had an astonishing 98% literacy rate and the second highest per capita enrollment in institutions of higher learning. It was a prosperous, modern country that already had women's rights, student loans and a social safety net in place - way before most other countries including the US.
The Soviets annexed Latvia into the Soviet Union and preceded to totally dismantle the country, and try to annihilate its culture and society. it encouraged neighbors who had grievances to accuse each other of anti state activities, it re-educated all teachers and re-wrote all the school books. My mother-in-law shares this
anecdote - one of her former professors who was a highly regarded educator came out of one of these re-training sessions where all history and science books were being re-written and muttered under his breath, "What a world this has become - they are peeing in our faces and telling us that it is raining."
Did you know that the telephone was invented by a Russian? If you went by the Russian re-written books. School children were questioned everyday They were asked to report what was asked at home. Was God ever mentioned? Children were encouraged to tell on their parents so that the state could help their parents see the "real truth."
The Soviets used up all they found without any attempt to modernize or keep up repairs in the ensuing 50 years. They tried to wipe out the language and culture of the people. Their goal was to produce a Soviet
citizen. Latvian was outlawed in schools, churches were either closed and remade into museums, sport clubs, planetariums, restaurants. Those churches allowed to stay open were constantly under surveillance and attendance highly discouraged.
Latvians were sent to different parts of the empire and masses of Russians were imported to dilute and hopefully, eventually swallow up the Latvian population. Latvia national holidays were forbidden, folk songs were not
allowed to be sung. Latvians were not given any managerial position unless they joined the communist party and agree to spy on others.
Latvians were sent to the back of trolley cars spit on and cursed. They became second rate citizens in their own country. The horrors of the Soviet years cannot be explained or understood in this quick summary. The effects of this 50 years are long lasting. Every time I think that I sort of understand, I am introduced to another fact of their horror. Living there now, the most I can say is that I understand that I don't understand.
Having grown up in the US and consciously being very proud of being an American, I never had any desire
to anywhere else. But God had different plans for me.
In 1990, my family took our first trip back to Latvia. It was the era of glasnost - perestroika. We flew to Stockholm and boarded a chartered ship to take us to Riga. The ship was full of Latvians many of whom had fled by ship 50 years earlier and would now be returning to the same dock. As you can well imagine emotions ran very high. For younger family members it would be their first glimpse of their parent's homeland.
We lived on board the ship for 10 days. Our comings and goings were monitored by the ever present Soviet army. Many of us were followed and many searched when we came back to board the ship. The cosmopolitan
Riga that my parents had fled was gone, instead we found a grey, often smelly, rundown city. The rest of the world moved ahead. Riga and Latvia had been used up and had gone backwards. my parents and
their generation were devastated. Where was the beautiful latvia of their youth?
Through its many centuries of foreign domination, Latvia managed to preserve its language and culture through its deep love for music and song. Latvia is said to have the largest documented collection of folk songs in all the world. Utilizing songs to keep alive its culture, a National Song Festival was instituted over 160 years ago. Every four years, the best choirs, orchestras and folk dance groups would come together for a week long national celebration.
During the Soviet occupation, the Song Festivals were allowed to continue but the traditional folk songs were banned and instead new songs were commissioned extolling the new Soviet citizen. The Song Festival of 1990 was the first time that traditional Latvian songs were again allowed to be sung and we were fortunate enough to be there that week.
Let me share a moment of incredible majesty that I had the honor of witnessing. The closing concert of the week-long festival was held on the outskirts of Riga. A special stage had been built to accommodate the 30,000+ singers. There were approximately 125,000 in the audience and most of the rest of the Latvian population was watching it live on TV. The concert began about 6 o'clock that july Sunday night. Around midnight as the Northern Sun was finally beginning to set, the choir members each lit a candle they were holding. The audience grew completely still in anticipation of something special.
Picture this scene - the sun setting behind the choir high above, a breeze is fluttering the newly allowed Latvian flag. It is that quiet time of day as darkness overtakes the light. 30,000 singers stand - their candle lights weave a magical spell.
The orchestra starts to pray - the choir begins to sing - begins to sing the Lord's Prayer.
The Lord's Prayer in an atheist, communist-held country - at a huge public gathering - seen live on TV. WOW!!! These people had defied not only the local communist party but by this public display, taken on Moscow as well in insisting that they had the right to include this prayer in their concert.
Truly, I can't even begin to describe how reverent and spiritual those moments seemed. As the last notes were sung and played, a deep silence engulfed the park - it was as if all 125,000 of us and the whole choir were in silent prayer. Time seemed suspended. It must have been atleast 5 or 10 minutes before the choir and audience were capable of continuing.
My American born sister-in-law sitting next to me was shivering from the emotions she was experiencing. No explanation was needed. We all felt so privileged to have been in the audience that evening.
A year later, in 1991, latvia declared its independence. Latvians had decided that it was time to stand against the nighty Goliath and proclaim their right to exist. In anticipation of the onslaught of Russian troops and tanks, farmers from all over Latvia drove their tractors into Riga and used them as barricades to protect the TV station and parliament building. The signers of Latvia's Declaration of Independence were all camping out in the parliament building hoping to preserve the seat of government in their hands.
Latvian men manned the barricades day and night. latvian wives, mothers and sisters brought hot food and drinks and manned the bonfires. Skirmishes broke out. Tensions ran high for weeks. Moscow however
never issued that full attack order. Gorbachev was too busy with his own headaches. Some months later, the Soviet Union collapsed and Latvia gained its independence without massive loss of life.
But Latvia's problems did not end, they had only become different and at times more challenging. Latvians had no leadership skills. The only people with any leadership experience were members of the communist party. Latvia had no trained policemen, army, navy, no fireman or civil servants.
Latvia had no money to fund social programs, schools, hospitals or pensions. Russia had taken all the money, all the equipment it could transport. Factories were stripped bare. Anything of value that could be moved was taken. This left the country in dire straits.
Senior citizens are especially hard hit. Before the fall of communism, that had a pension, medical care was free. Rent was free, utilities were free and food was very cheap. It did not matter that the health care was primitive
and often unsanitary, it didn't matter that their apartment was one room with a communal toilet and often no bath or shower. It didn't matter that you had to wait in long lines to buy food or that there was nothing to buy with
your pension money. You knew that if you kept your mouth shut, minded your own business, melted in the woodwork, you had a secure old age.
Now the government can only afford to pay almost subsistence level pensions. Health care is much improved and very cheap by our standards but nevertheless at a cost, the apartment cost money, the utilities must now be paid for. The grocery shelves are now full of food and the lines disappeared, but the seniors can afford very little of the brightly packaged enticing food stuffs.
Many seniors have just enough for food and rent. Many can't afford to heat their apartments. If they need to buy medicine, it is often a choice of that or food. Some have turned to begging. It is rare to walk down any downtown Riga block without seeing the elderly begging for pennies. It is heart-wrenching. Often they sit huddled in a doorway, totally dejected looking, trying to stay warm with a small dish in front of them. It would be easy to block them out and get so used to their presence that they become invisible. But the Latvian people have
not. I am constantly amazed at how many school children, teens, young adults as well as the middle age stop and drop money into those dishes. The elderly's poverty is an ache in everyone's conscience.
Besides the elderly, those living in the country are also very poor. Farming had all but collapsed. There is a huge influx of cheap food stuffs from Ukraine and Georgia. The farmers are having a terrible time competing with these low prices. Often they cannot sell their products at a price that would earn them a subsistence living.
Most rural families end up sending their children to government sponsored boarding schools. This ensures their children of regular hot meals and a warm room.
Alcoholism is also a huge problem which contributes to the poverty of the farmer. Many are suffering from
depression and turn to the bottle and drink away whatever little the family has...leaving the rest of the family penniless.
The middle aged people have a very difficult time finding employment. Many worked in the industries that were cannibalized by the Russians as they retreated leaving them with no jobs. There is very little demand for older workers. Most jobs are now being offered to the young, bilingual applicant.
Drugs are becoming a huge problem. Within the last two years, drug use has sky-rocketed. Someone has a
marketing strategy to flood Latvia with extremely cheap heroin. The 14-18 year olds are targeted. heroin is as cheap as candy at the present. Latvia faces many, many problems but they are a country of deep spiritual roots...a country that has suffered much but has refused to die or be pushed into non-existence. It is a country that desperately needs a helping hand and caring heart.
The Methodist Church in Latvia was begun by a Methodist Bishop from Zurich in 1921. He opened up clinics and soup kitchens. Soon the people who were manning the kitchens& clinics became Methodists and started congregations. By the out break of W.W.II, just 17 years later, there were over 3000 Methodists and 26 congregations. The American Methodist Church had bought three buildings - two churches and a seminary. When the communists took over, they closed all Methodist churches declaring them to be CIA agents. Fifty years later, only four Latvian Methodists were still living in Latvia. Methodism had successfully been eradicated from Latvian memory.
Today, GBGM
(General Board of Global Ministries) has gotten back its three buildings and there are eleven congregations plus another one already to be consecrated. The Latvian Methodists are fighting to be recognized as a
mainline denomination. Many have never heard of Methodists and view them as another section. Many Latvians do not attend church but want their children to attend...but they worry about who these Methodists are and what they would teach their children. The youth of the country are the huge bright spot. Like youth everywhere, they are eager to learn about life...about God! They are such incredibly enthusiastic new Christians. We have over 250 children in the Sunday School program and it is growing rapidly. The new congregation which is just getting ready to be consecrated has over 20 children ready to join the Sunday School. The Latvian Methodist church desperately needs new Sunday School teachers, training for the existing teachers, new pastors, Sunday School material and help in funding transportation costs. The congregation s want to reach out to those in their own communities but are themselves subsistence level. Many of their own members have a hard time affording the transportation to church and back home.
They are praying for help to open up food pantries. Many people stop by the churches asking for bread, but they have none to offer. They dream of someday opening up soup kitchens and feeding their needy but this would require a working kitchen. They dream of offering a hot bath, shower or washing machine for those without, but that too requires investment. Their hearts are caring, their energy and dreams limitless but present day reality is harsh.
Let me share a story I heard my first week in Latvia. It was at our annual district conference as each congregation was presenting their report.
An elderly lay leader stood up and was describing her community and the hardships they were suffering. Her particular congregation had found funding for a bread program. Every service, everyone who attends is given a loaf of bread to take home. This particular Sunday, as she was handing out the bread loaves, this person grabbed the loaf and hurriedly standing right there in front of her wolfed it down, cellophane wrapping and all. The lay leader in a sobbing voice told us that she knows we are all a little hungry all the time but she has never before seen such a need. She said that she will never forget what she witnessed. There have been many heart-wrenching moments and stories and sometimes it becomes overwhelming but there are also incredible bright spots. The dedication of the Christians there. Their simple, uncomplicated faith in God. The wonderful youth. Watching the country slowly get back on its feet.
I''ve also been blessed to meet wonderful Methodists who have become involved and transformed by their reaching out.
A men's choir from Maryville, Tenn. came to Latvia and shared of themselves and their songs and were completely transformed by the experience. Congregations in the US have become sister or partnership churches with the Latvian churches. They have reached out and shared their skills and gifts and have been blessed in return. Let me share just one example of how an act of kindness made a big difference.
I had visited the church they were going to the summer before. The elderly pastor of the church had lamented - look at these dirty windows what a disgrace. These windows - huge, double hung brittle
monsters - have not been washed in 50 years and every time we worship in our sanctuary, we are reminded of how inadequate we are because we are just too old to get up on high ladders to wash these windows. God deserves better than this and yet we can't do anything about it. Her other problem was the heating system which was too expensive to run. She said that she would probably have to close the church soon.
Well, the heating system was replaced by a caring congregation in Tennessee. The windows were tackled by 14 VIM women. The local pastor could not believe and accept that these women, many of whom were past their climbing years, were really going to wash these windows. She tried to entertain them and divert their attention. Finally, Nancy the leader said, "Milda, we are here to wash windows and wash them we will." As they
finally got to do their task, being the Methodists they were, they began to sing and sing and sing! So passerby's, many of whom had never paid any attention to the building stopped by and stayed to watch and
listen. Many spent the afternoon and thanked the "angels" for their singing at the end of the afternoon. The windows now sparkled and God's light could shine into the sanctuary. The VIM team was filled with the
Holy Spirit and the sense of having been used by God for His work. Many now know of the little church with the clean windows and singing angels and every Sunday, Milda and her elderly congregation remember the caring hands that reached across the ocean to give them a true glimpse of God's abounding
love and care.
God called me to return to Latvia to leave the comfort of my life, friends and family and to serve Him in the country of my birth.
I spoke to my husband who is also Latvian by birth and we both agreed that we have been greatly blessed. We have had our nice house, our 2 cars and lots & lots of stuff. Now it was time to start sharing& giving
back. Unfortunately, or fortunately God did not provide us a blueprint or any pan of how to get there or what to do when we are there. It has taken us 10 years to finally make the move.
In the meantime, I have worked with the General Board of Global Ministries, I've attended seminary, gone through the candidacy process and local pastors school.
What do I think I can contribute to the Latvian Methodists? What do I think you could contribute? I have been richly blessed. God saved my family. I have been privileged to grow up in a country that is free. I grew up never fearing that when I woke up, my parents and family will be gone. I grew up never fearing a knock on the door. I grew up in a loving home, a caring church, amidst wonderful friends. I grew up in an atmosphere of love and trust. I grew up in a society where I could express my opinions without fear. In a country where I fully expected to be treated justly. I had the privilege to raise my children in the same
atmosphere with the same expectations. I know nothing of fear, of hunger, of suspicion of entrapment, of a society that is against you instead of being for you. I am not saddened with such heavy burdens.
Our brothers and sisters in Latvia, know nothing of our freedom.
All the things that we so easily take for granted and never even think about, they have to learn to take for granted. They have to learn to trust each other. They have to learn to think free and be free. They have to
learn to allow themselves the freedom to experience Christian fellowship and love. They have to learn to help each other.
I think that it is my mission and I invite you to make it yours too, to show them that we love them as fellow Christians and through our example help empower them to love back and to love each other. And hopefully, this freedom to love and trust will expand throughout the church and beyond.
Christ has taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that starts small and then grows into a mighty tree. Our mission is to plant a small mustard seed of love which God and all of us can water and nourish through our love, prayers and helping hand.
-Gita Mednis