Academy and church plant updates

Dear friends in Christ,

This past month has been full of events and good things in all the various aspects of the work going on here in Latvia. For the Academy, I recently had a meeting with the bishop who is the vice-rector of the Academy to discuss how to better work together and to grow closer between the Latvian stream and the English stream. We have a plan to move forward. We have also heard that there will be a meeting next week about the licensure of the program, which is the last hurdle that we need to clear before things are up and running in a full capacity. I am preparing to once again teach our introductory class titled “Introduction to Theology” for prospective students. Please keep this important work in your prayers as we are seeing already God’s blessings upon this endeavor.

For the English language church plant, we are starting to see things moving. We have been worshipping every Sunday together for the past two months, and that stability of worship has been important. We have gone from having sometimes 10 people in worship (which includes the missionary families) to upwards of 20 people each Sunday. What’s more, we are seeing people return! For a while, we would mostly have tourists and people who were passing through coming to the services. In our location, a certain amount of that is to be expected. However, to have English-speaking people who live here in Riga coming back is a huge thing. I also had the opportunity to provide some pastoral care to two young people who came to the service, and they have stayed in touch. One of them even brought a relative and a friend to church this past week.

That is one of the most important elements of mission: word of mouth. Having pastors out encouraging people to come to church is a good and right thing to do, but when people are inviting their own friends, family, and coworkers to come to church with them, the results are far better. My encouragement to you is to consider this during the Christmas season. There are many opportunities to invite someone to come to church with you. Invite them to come and celebrate with you and at the same time, fervently pray that your unchurched neighbors may hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ who came to be our savior. May our incarnate Lord grant you many joys this month!

In Christ’s service,

Pastor Cundiff

November family updates

While Carter may feel that not much happened in November (see Carter’s Corner), we did, indeed, do quite a bit.

Quintin traveled to Hamburg, Germany, for a few days with the rest of the faculty to discuss plans and strategy for Lutera Akadēmija. The Academy also had Reading Week, which is a “free” week common in European universities to allow students and faculty to catch up on assignments and grading. This is usually scheduled during the Thanksgiving holiday to allow the American instructors that time with their families.

Lindsay met a few different local friends (one Latvian and one Danish) for coffee and tea this month. She also accompanied a Latvian friend to the local emergency room and then to a specialty hospital to which that friend was admitted. It is a bit jarring to see the differences between American and Latvian healthcare. One of those differences is the emphasis (or lack thereof) on patient education. It is not unusual in the Latvian system to get very little information about diagnoses and treatment from doctors and other healthcare personnel. This has actually been one of the focuses for Lindsay’s nursing program coursework this semester.

Both Quintin and Lindsay are working on wrapping up the Academy’s fall semester and preparing for the spring semester. They don’t like leaving things for the last minute!

Carter had his annual international school’s Independence Day program. All kids, from preschool to 12th grade, participate with (mostly) Latvian songs, dances, and poetry. Finally, he had student-led conferences at school; this means that he prepared for Quintin and Lindsay a PowerPoint presentation on what he has been working on in each of his classes. He is doing quite well and always earns high praise from his teachers.