Latvia (Day 4) Riga 500

Today was an exciting day at camp.  I taught a lesson on feeding on the Word of God and the kids really  responded well.  We gave Bibles to all of the kids who made decisions to follow Christ at last year's camp.  The groups were arranged a little differently today which allowed me a couple of free segments to do some coaching.  I really enjoyed that and I think the campers did too. 

After lunch we loaded up the vans and headed to Riga, Latvia's capital and site of their airport.  The last member of our team arrived this afternoon, so we took it as an excuse to visit this wonderful old-world city.  Located on the banks of the beautiful Daugava River, Riga's central district holds all of the classic charm that you can imagine.  The 13th Century Riga Cathedral is a wonder of medieval architecture and it contains the second largest pipe organ in Latvia.

The Cathedral is set in the middle of a gorgeous piazza filled with shops and restaurants, with a soundtrack provided by street musicians of every variety, a talented young woman on a violin, playing a classical piece, a young girl in the market deftly playing a dulcimer, three teenage girls singing their version of a modern pop song as one of them strummed her guitar, and an old bearded man producing a hauntingly beautiful sound that flowed from his saxophone and echoed from the brightly colored walls of the courtyard.  Against the backdrop of an azure sky and snow white clouds, it gave you the feeling of an old romantic movie scene.

After our visit to Old Town Riga, we made our way to the airport to pick up Gary.  We dropped three of our team off at the terminal just a few minutes after his scheduled arrival time with the intention of making the circle a couple of times and saving the 2 Lat parking fee.  This is where our story enters the "Sounded like a good idea at the time" Zone.  Apparently Gary purchased the ticket that allows your luggage to visit all of the historic European capitals and Riga was well down on the list, so while we waited for him to find out that his socks and underwear may just get to see Springtime in Paris, we made enough left turns to qualify us for the next race on the NASCAR circuit.

We had dinner at a great restaurant in Riga and then made our way back here.  We are finding that this country is a study in contradictions; tremendous natural beauty, wonderful people who have endured great oppression and come out on the other side as survivors, and yet they are groping in spiritual darkness.  Please pray for us as we share the gospel these next couple of days.  We have almost 40 unsaved kids coming to camp everyday.  They are hearing a simple presentation of the Gospel that is progressing each day.  On Wednesday, we will bring them to the place of decision and we would ask that you pray very vigorously that they respond.  The basketball is fun, the sightseeing is awesome, but the reason we are here is to see kids saved.  Let's bombard the throne of God over the next 48 hours.

We have a great video guy with us on this trip. Justin has put together a short video with pictures from each day of the camp.  You can find them on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/thewaysports#p/a/u/0/YwNK6Ob1_1c