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January 2016
Feeding The Poor ~ Christmas at Gardene
Feeding The Poor ~ Christmas at Gardene Gardene is a former USSR military-base remote country village in Latvia. The population of the area is less than 2000 people, majority of which lives below the poverty line. A small Evangelical Church with Pastor Marija in charge is reaching out to local community and running feeding center for poor kids. Over 50 kids come to the center daily for their only hot meal a day. Life has never been easy for this small village and the feeding program is struggling to meet its daily challenge to provide food. Remarkably the Lord has sustained the program for the last twenty years. It was nothing other than walk of faith. The church, whose members are 90% elderly people, has been able to survive through many ups and downs. Scraping their income to pay for groceries which come to at least 300 euros per month, 70 euros pay the cook (who is there every day), 120 euros for electricity and 30 euros for water - a huge
Feeding The Poor ~ Christmas at Gardene (1)
Gardene is a former USSR military-base remote country village in Latvia. The population of the area is less than 2000 people, majority of which lives below the poverty line. A small Evangelical Church with Pastor Marija in charge is reaching out to local community and running feeding center for poor kids. Over 50 kids come to the center daily for their only hot meal a day. Life has never been easy for this small village and the feeding program is struggling to meet its daily challenge to provide food. Remarkably the Lord has sustained the program for the last twenty years. It was nothing other than walk of faith. The church, whose members are 90% elderly people, has been able to survive through many ups and downs. Scraping their income to pay for groceries which come to at least 300 euros per month, 70 euros pay the cook (who is there every day), 120 euros for electricity and 30 euros for water - a huge load for congregation of mainly 30 elderly people. Smethurst Ministries has been helping this feeding center for
December 2015
Christmas Message
Christmas Message We trust that you are enjoying God’s blessings in this wonderful Christmas season. Thank you so much for your wonderful support and your kind gifts through the year to help us care for the orphans in their times of need. It’s Christmas time and also a very snowy and icy-cold time of the year. We want to make the Christmas season as happy as possible for all these needy orphans of Eastern Europe, and your giving goes a long way to help in that situation. There are heating bills to be paid, medicines and vitamins to be supplied, and Christmas gifts and hampers to be provided. The children love to receive educational and study materials as Christmas presents that will help them to grow in knowledge. We’ve been supplying a lot of fresh vegetables to the orphanages in order to provide a healthy diet for the children at
Children and the Hopelessness of Poverty in Latvia
Almost seven years have passed since a devastating economic and financial crisis hit Latvia - a nation of ordinary people. The side effects of that crisis are still vivid and very painful for a lot of people. Needless to say the country has suffered much, but a country is made up of needy people, and the people still haven't recovered fully. Probably one of the most painful effects of 2008 financial and economic crisis was and still is, the unstoppable emigration of people. Unfortunately people we are seeing leave the country are the younger generation with young families and the brains of the nation. This is almost at an epidemic stage because it has spread so rapidly. Probably there is not one family in Latvia left that would not have one of their relatives or close friends now seeking a better life in another European country. Many of the emigrants
Wonderful Ministry in Odessa
Arriving in Odessa we were hosted by our delightful friends, Pastor Oleg and Tanya Vasilchuk and their beautiful baby daughter, Abigail. Then it was down to business visiting the Youth Gym Club that Oleg created with the homeless teenagers who once lived in the drains under the city of Odessa. A few years ago Oleg led to Christ, the European welterweight kickboxing champion, Igor Manjul, and his wife, Anastasia, who are assets in the church. Igor trains these rugged youngsters with the physical and emotional disciplines of these sports. Three times a week they meet in a rented gym and have a fellowship meeting with prayer, testimonies, and a short Bible study, and then get into training. These are the ones that merely existed, on drugs and living in the squalor of public drains with sickness and disease. It’s been wonderful to see so many of them come to Christ, get delivered from drugs and serve the
Amazing Ministry in Kiev, Ukraine
Elmars Plavins (Chaplain-General to the Latvian Forces, Sasha Rodionov and I flew to Kiev from Riga to begin an amazing schedule of ministry. First up was a meeting with the Ukrainian Minister of Youth & Sport as well as other officials to discuss the role of Chaplaincy at the Olympic level, and the education of children as a charity. My counseling of Ukrainian wrestlers at the Olympics touched this politician and he opened the door for a pilot seminar to the top sports chaplains and psychologists. Then we went straight to a meeting with the assistant Orthodox Archbishop of Kiev (the head of Military Chaplaincy) to discuss chaplaincy in the military and its place in Ukraine. This meeting caused a quickly arranged seminar for the Orthodox Clergy Chaplains, the Military Chaplains and Psychologists the next day. The very next day I was asked to speak at a very professionally organized seminar
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