Greetings in the name of Christ!

We hope you had a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year.  Our hearts are full of prayers for peace and justice throughout the world.  We had hoped to be writing to tell you our visa problems have all been solved and we are definitely in Latvia for another 3 years but we are still working our way through the red tape.  It is our hope to have everything settled soon. The people in the Latvian Immigration department in Cesis could not be more helpful.  It is just the new regulations and the paperwork.

We did want to write and tell you of the Christmas story in Cesis this year. 

As many of you know we are working with the youth in Cesis.  Kevin works in a car project in Lode about 13 km. farther east.  Most of the young men he works with are from Sarkani, an even poorer area where those who cannot afford any other place to live may live without running water and heat.  Since we have returned 7 of the youth from this project have been joining us for the regular Bible Study on Tuesday evenings.  They ride the bus in and Kevin takes them back by car.  This means we have been having between 17 and 19 every Tuesday in our apartment.

The Tuesday before Christmas we had our second annual Christmas cookie baking and caroling party at our home.  Twenty-five youth and adults gathered and baked Latvian and American Christmas cookies, prepared invitations to Christmas worship and bags for the elderly members, the shut-ins and those who live too far to travel to church.  We rented a bus and went caroling in the Cesis region.  Afterwards we had a pizza party again at one of the local restaurants.  The seven youth from Sarkani joined us and shared in all the preparations.

As Kevin drove them home he invited them to the UM worship on Christmas Day either in Sarkani with the neighboring pastors or in Cesis with our congregation.  He told them to think about it and call if they wanted a ride into Cesis. 

Christmas Eve the phone rang and the young men said they wanted to come to church in Cesis.  Kevin got up the next morning and drove out to get them in an ice storm over snow.  It was 9:15 AM on Christmas and six of the young men and their father were clean and waiting to go to worship.

The young men sat in the second row and listened through the whole service.  They helped to pass out bags of cookies to the visiting choir and then, just like the Christmas miracle stories, we looked and there were just enough bags left for each of them to have one.  It reminded us that Christ came for the poor, the forgotten, and the marginalized.  To see them come to seek out the newborn King is a gift beyond measure.

As Kevin was picking up the youth from Sarkani I looked out the window and saw one of the regular garbage pickers sorting through the garbage looking for any small items he might be able to use to live or to eat.  It is painful to see this anytime, but on Christmas Day it was even more painful.  Peace on earth, goodwill to all!  Please pray with us that this will become more than gentle words we read from the Scripture.  Please pray that through all of our efforts in ministry and mission these words will become a reality.

This New Year will bring the start of work on the building that GBGM purchased for ministry and mission in the Cesis region.  The building needs a lot of work and we are always open to having work teams.  The building itself sits on the 800-year-old gate around the city.  The strengthening of the walls will be done as soon as we receive the allocated funding.  The work on the roof should begin in February or March.  Final architectural plans should be developed by the end of January.  And we hope to have useable space at least by next fall.  The project is scheduled to take three years but we should be able to use the building as we work, God willing.

We thank God for all of your support over the last year and look forward to staying in contact throughout the coming year.  If there are ways we can help you share the message of the mission here, please let us know. It was a joy to reconnect with so many of you when we were on home assignment this fall.  And it was a special joy to meet those of you who have been supporting us but we had never met.  Thank you for all your hospitality and words of encouragement. Please keep us and the work and people in Latvia in your prayers.

In loving partnership,

Kevin & Carol Seckel

December 2003

Covenant Relationship Numbers

Rev. Carol Ann Seckel  #0144264-4AZ

Rev. R. Kevin Seckel  #014285-5AZ