Before we moved to Latvia, our new Latvian friends and partners found us a lovely 5th floor apartment in a brand new building in their apartment complex here in Adazi. After 8 weeks of living there, we found out we were going to have to move (our landlord gave us until the day after Christmas to be out). We loved that first apartment and it was extremely difficult to find another place to live in such a short time. The only apartment available in the entire complex was on the first floor of another building. It was an older apartment with only two bedrooms, but it was larger than our first apartment. As much as I didn’t want to move, I have been able to look over the last 18 months and see that God had a plan all along.

You see, because we have a first floor terrace, it is the meeting place for all of the neighborhood children. In fact, as I write this, there are 7 little girls out there playing. For some time, I have been praying and brainstorming about ways that we can use this location as an opportunity to be a blessing to our neighbors.

After our Vacation Bible School in June, Luke and I had the idea to start a Kids Summer Bible Club every Wednesday morning. With the support of several different parents in our church, we’ve had three successful weeks so far and are looking forward to seven more before the school year starts back! Basically, our time consists of games, Bible stories, activities, prayer, songs, and snacks.

For the lesson time, we are going through the Fruit of the Spirit, one per week. We talk through the one for the day and then I read a story from the Jesus Storybook Bible (in Latvian) about Jesus and how he is our perfect example of that fruit of the spirit (e.g. Love – the Prodigal Son, Peace – calming the storm, etc). We have had approx. 15 kids participating each week and they keep coming back! At the end of the summer, we are planning a cookout to get to know their families and connect them with other families in our church.

Please pray for our Wednesday morning Bible clubs, that God would open the hearts of the children and families in our community!