15 years ago, as college students in Greenville, SC, Luke and I served together in college and youth ministry with another student named Ricky. After college, he headed to Southern Seminary in Kentucky, while we moved to Southeastern Seminary in NC. Over the years, we have kept in touch, always blessed by time spent together, whether that might be serving at a youth camp, or meeting up at various denominational meetings and conventions. In fact, Ricky was there in Phoenix when Luke and I were appointed to overseas service and his encouragement and prayers have always meant a great deal to us.

About a year ago, he contacted us to see if there would be any possibility of partnering together with his college students from Berea, SC, for a mission trip to Riga. We were a little overwhelmed by the idea at first, as we had only been here nine months and were not sure if we were ready to take on such a project, but the Lord continued to show us ways we could partner together and we went ahead and put dates on the calendar for May 2019.

Because Ricky was planning to bring college students, we contacted AGAPE (the European name for CRU) in Riga to see if they would want to partner together. They were thrilled about the idea and plans started to come together. The week the team was here, they spent 4-5 hours each day doing evangelism on a variety of college campuses. Using a method called conversation cards (cards filled with pictures, out of which students pick a variety to describe their life, their dreams, and their thoughts about God), the students from SC were able to strike up conversations and share the gospel with dozens of college students. In addition, they invited them to evening seminars taught by our friend Ricky (who has a PhD in theology and the arts) and to future meetings with CRU.

We are so thankful for Ricky and his team who were such an encouragement to us in their boldness in sharing the gospel. Please pray for the many students who heard the gospel that week, and that the connections they made with the Latvian AGAPE students would bear fruit.