The Harvest is Plentiful

Latvia Team Update: Our Final Day

Well, we just got back from the lake. It’s 9:00 PM and it looks like six in the afternoon, since we’re so far north of the equator.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday), we all woke up with a strong spirit of purpose. We knew that God had prepared good works in advance for us to do, and we just knew He was going to show off that day. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation, for the Gospel lay restless on all our hearts. We couldn’t wait to let it out. As we woke up and spent time in our morning devotionals, the Lord placed particular children in each of our hearts and laid several plans on each of our minds. We were not a disorganized rabble that came halfway around the world to merely play with children, but by the strength of Christ alone we became more than conquerors. We were mouthpieces for the living God who desires to adopt each and every person on this planet into His family. We played, certainly. We bought ice cream, painted fingernails, gave piggyback rides, and even introduced square dancing. However, at every single opportunity the Lord gave us we talked about Jesus. In Christ’s strength, seeds were sown and lives were changed.

Today(Thursday), we decided on something a bit different for our morning routine. One of the older children mentioned to one of our interpreters that all the Bible stories we were sharing didn’t have anything to do with her. “They are just stories” she said. We decided to connect the dots. We split the children up by gender and by age: older boys, older girls, younger boys, and younger girls. We took our four interpreters (two more than we thought we’d have, by the way) and shared our testimonies with the children. I (Aaron) was with the younger boys so I can’t tell you what went on in every group since we haven’t debriefed yet. However, between ‘Uncle Toms’ and myself, we delivered the whole Gospel to two pairs of willing ears. All I know about the other groups is that tears were shed, lots of people prayed, and several were introduced to Christ for the first time.

As I mentioned before, we just got back from the lake where Uncle Toms baptized Laura and Maurice. As a bonus, we kinda made a scene for Jesus. Crazy Christians.

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I was in the middle of typing this up when Lauma (one of our interpreters and sister in Christ) burst in exclaiming that Kaspars told her that he wanted Jesus in his heart. I immediately went down and gave him a giant hug, praised Jesus, and cried for several minutes. Let me pause to tell you a bit about Kaspars. We love him a whole, whole lot. He’s a child that can be a happy, loving friend one minute, and an utter demon the next. One of his more memorable exploits was when he took a baseball bat and swung as hard as he could at the legs of a girl on rollerblades. She hit the ground face first. He laughed. Yeah, he’s that type of kid. The thing is, Jesus in us couldn’t help but love him. Every day we loved him, spent time with him, prayed with him, mourned for him, and talked to him about Jesus. He frequently responded with violence, Russian cursing, or ‘God is stupid’. We would offer him something kind, like an invitation to play soccer with us, play a game with us, or anything else, and he would say ‘no’. Give him five minutes though, and he would join in the play. He longed to be invited to the fun and really, really wanted to belong. Andrew started rubbing his back once and Kaspars told him ‘no!’ However, Andrew just kept on rubbing. Kaspars let him rub for a good fifteen minutes. You could see a child that longed for love but had trouble trusting and didn’t know how to ask. We spoke the Gospel to him over and over again, told him our testimonies, and prayed for him repeatedly. We had pretty much resigned ourselves to long-distance praying for several years for his soul, when I heard the surprising (but not shocking) news. God had already blown our expectations to smithereens several times today, so we weren’t completely caught flat-footed.

The change that washed over Kaspars was nothing short of miraculous. Traci furiously snapped pictures of him after his profession, because she ‘really wanted to remember him like this’. His face shone with joy; it was nothing like the brooding malice that hid there only hours before. It’s really hard to explain, but if you’ve seen Jesus in someone before, you can have a good idea of what he looked like to us.

Even after Kaspars, Yolanda professed Christ as well. Kim spent a good while making sure she understood the full Gospel, and in the end, she decided to accept Christ. This was after we considered the day over, yet God had different plans. After witnessing the baptism of Laura and Maurice, Jesus really started to get in the heads of the other orphans.

While Yolanda was talking with Kim, Agnis, one of the older boys, returned dripping wet with a testimony of rededication and baptism. Praise Jesus.

There were so many incredibly miraculous conversations that took place the last two days; there’s no way to list them all without writing a short novel and interviewing everyone. Let’s just say that Jesus wins, and everyone who went on the trip this year was supposed to be here.

After talking with the rest of the group tonight we had a total of 10 new professions of faith and 1 rededication. This is ridiculous. This is impossible. Missionaries go their whole lives without seeing any fruit at all…and half the orphanage just got saved in just four days. Impossible is God’s stock and trade; He likes to show off. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

The Lord knew what He was doing when He assembled this team. By His direction and power we did all that scripture commands. We spoke the truth in love, we stepped out in faith and shared the Gospel with all- even those who we doubted would understand or respond. We chunked a lot of seeds out there and we didn’t shy away from declaring the whole story of Jesus. We didn’t do it dogmatically or judgmentally, nor did we neglect the physical needs of the orphans (hugs, one-on-one time, piggyback rides, etc.). Instead, we dumped our plans and let Him take control. He’s smarter than us, you know.

If I could summarize how I feel tonight I would say this:

I am awed, humbled, honored, and just plain happy to be a part of this body of Christians of one mind and purpose. I am more than content to praise Jesus for everything He did in these four days, and I’m extra-joyful that He let us see the fruits of our seed-sowing. I am determined to pray for these orphans and I have a real, solid hope that God will continue to refine these children. For crying out loud, we saw brand-new Christians witnessing to their friends only a few hours after they were saved! God is ridiculously good.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for praying! Praise Jesus!