Life for Luke this year looks a lot different than it did last year! Back in the spring, he was asked if he would like to participate in the Baltic Pastoral Institute (BPI) for the coming school year. This institute is run by the Latvian Baptist Union and its purpose is to provide the education and training necessary for future pastors and church planters. It is a three-year program, with the first year being full-time study at the Baptist building in downtown Riga. The second and third years are comprised of internships or practicums, as well as periodic symposiums. While Luke has of course, already completed his seminary degree in the States, this is a wonderful opportunity for him to be in full time study (all in Latvian), to see how the Baptist Union is training future leaders, to see where he might be able to fit into that in the future, and to encourage and mentor the next generation of Latvian church planters. This year, the class consists of 5 students (including Luke) who are either currently pastoring churches, or who feel a calling from the Lord to do so in the future. Here they are on their convocation day.

Our family life has changed quite a bit from Luke and I studying together at home with a tutor, to him being gone all day every day. Some days he leaves on the bus around 6:45am to head into Riga and doesn’t get back until close to 7pm when the bus gets back to Ādaži (I need our car during the day to get the girls to and from school and to get to my language class which will be starting next month). However, while he has certainly been coming home exhausted after long days studying complicated material in a new language, it has been such a blessing for him. His language skills are growing exponentially (though he wouldn’t say that himself) and we are hopeful that this will give us many opportunities in the future to partner with church planting efforts here in Latvia.