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What a blessing to have Gita Mednis back to join us for worship on March 4th, 2001. Gita shared with us much about her home country of Latvia. We also had a meeting after worship called "Friends of Latvia". Churches in our local area will be linking together to join in efforts to help our growing Latvian Methodist Churches with the help of the General Board of Global Ministries. Starting this year we will adopt the Kuldiga church and hope to have some pictures up and ready for you to view very soon! If you are interested in helping out, please contact Reimer at christianfaith76@hotmail.com .
Gita shared truly amazing stories of faith and other stories of sorrow about Latvia. On this page is a little background of Latvia and Gita's story along with some pictures. May God bless her in her calling from God in her faith journey to return to Latvia.
Jesus' life attests to a greater call, a more complete life. We are empowered to begin an incredible journey here on earth. We do not have to wait for our "just" rewards in heaven.
Am I suggesting
that all of you become involved in missions?...ABSOLUTELY!!!
I am
challenging you to take up the gift Jesus has given each and
everyone of us. Claim the love that Christ filled you with
and use the Holy Spirit that is within you - just waiting to be
used.
Just what is missions?
It is simply
reaching out and sharing of yourself with your neighbors,
not your next door neighbors either. It is letting the Holy
Spirit within you witness to the great news of the Gospel. Action
rather than words often most forcefully and fully spread
Jesus' message. In order to be in a mission you must have a
relationship with the people you are trying to help or your
help must be more accurately called charity not missions.
Missions must have a face attached to it - it is a giving of
yourself. A releasing of the Holy Spirit to work in you
and through you to do God's work.
Personally,
I have been deeply enriched and blessed by being in mission with
my brothers and sisters in Christ in Latvia.
I have witnessed countless lives being enriched and changed completely by their involvement in missions. Our God is so very, very good. He honors those who reach out to others - he blesses them tenfold! I could share many stories - how people took tiny steps and tentatively reached out and were totally transformed - they got past the appetizer stage and were blessed with a deeper union with God through their giving of themselves.
It can happen to you too!!!
I urge you - open yourself up to the work of the Holy Spirit - take that first small step and God will do the rest.
Now - let me
share a little about the country God has chosen for me to serve.
Latvia is a small country of
approximately 2.5 million people. It is in Northern
Europe on the Baltic Sea across from Sweden.
I was born
there toward the end of W.W.II. When I was less than a
year old, my family joined a long line of refugees fleeing the
advancing Soviet army.
My family
was lucky because all but one escaped. My grandfather
decided to stay behind. He said, Armies have come, armies
go, I stay and guard our apartment and our things. You'll
all be returning soon enough. Well, this army came but
didn't leave. This army occupied the land for over 50
years. Our apartment and things were confiscated.
When my grandfather died, he was buried in an anonymous pauper's
grave.
Latvia has been
repeatedly overrun by armies. Unfortunately, it sits
strategically on the Baltic Sea and has one of Northern Europe's
few year-round ice free harbors.
It has been
coveted by the Swedes because it would give them access to the
mainland of Europe. Coveted by Russia because it provides a
window to Europe for this land-locked giant. Coveted by
Germany for its ice free seaport and access to Russia.
Over the
centuries all of these countries conquered and re-conquered the
land but none of the occupants were as devastating as the last -
the 50 year Soviet occupation.
My family
and most of the other fleeing families left their homes because
to stay would have meant deportation to Siberia or worse. The
Soviets tried to kill or deport anyone who could be identified as
a possible threat to their totalitarian rule.
Anyone with
higher education or who had become successful in his field was
automatically seen as a threat because they were considered
harder to manipulate.
My mother a
dentist and my father a principal of an agricultural school were
automatically put on the list. Many of the country's
professionals chose to flee the approaching front lines instead
of waiting to be rounded up in the middle of the night and
stuffed in cattle cars to be sent to Siberia.
Before the onset of W.W.II, Latvia had an astonishing 98% literacy rate and the second highest per capita enrollment in institutions of higher learning. It was a prosperous, modern country that already had women's rights, student loans and a social safety net in place - way before most other countries including the US.
The Soviets annexed Latvia into the Soviet Union and preceded to totally dismantle the country, and try to annihilate its culture and society. it encouraged neighbors who had grievances to accuse each other of anti state activities, it re-educated all teachers and re-wrote all the school books. My mother-in-law shares this anecdote - one of her former professors who was a highly regarded educator came out of one of these re-training sessions where all history and science books were being re-written and muttered under his breath, "What a world this has become - they are peeing in our faces and telling us that it is raining." Did you know that the telephone was invented by a Russian? If you went by the Russian re-written books. School children were questioned everyday They were asked to report what was asked at home. Was God ever mentioned? Children were encouraged to tell on their parents so that the state could help their parents see the "real truth."
The Soviets used up all they found without any attempt to modernize or keep up repairs in the ensuing 50 years. They tried to wipe out the language and culture of the people. Their goal was to produce a Soviet citizen. Latvian was outlawed in schools, churches were either closed and remade into museums, sport clubs, planetariums, restaurants. Those churches allowed to stay open were constantly under surveillance and attendance highly discouraged.
Latvians were sent to different parts of the empire and masses of Russians were imported to dilute and hopefully, eventually swallow up the Latvian population. Latvia national holidays were forbidden, folk songs were not allowed to be sung. Latvians were not given any managerial position unless they joined the communist party and agree to spy on others.
Latvians were sent to the back of trolley cars spit on and cursed. They became second rate citizens in their own country. The horrors of the Soviet years cannot be explained or understood in this quick summary. The effects of this 50 years are long lasting. Every time I think that I sort of understand, I am introduced to another fact of their horror. Living there now, the most I can say is that I understand that I don't understand.
Having grown
up in the US and consciously being very proud of being an
American, I never had any desire to anywhere else. But
God had different plans for me.
In 1990, my family took our
first trip back to Latvia. It was the era of glasnost -
perestroika. We flew to Stockholm and boarded a chartered
ship to take us to Riga. The ship was full of Latvians many
of whom had fled by ship 50 years earlier and would now be
returning to the same dock. As you can well imagine emotions
ran very high. For younger family members it would be
their first glimpse of their parent's homeland.
We lived on board the ship for 10 days. Our comings and goings were monitored by the ever present Soviet army. Many of us were followed and many searched when we came back to board the ship. The cosmopolitan Riga that my parents had fled was gone, instead we found a grey, often smelly, rundown city. The rest of the world moved ahead. Riga and Latvia had been used up and had gone backwards. my parents and their generation were devastated. Where was the beautiful latvia of their youth?
Through its many centuries of foreign domination, Latvia managed to preserve its language and culture through its deep love for music and song. Latvia is said to have the largest documented collection of folk songs in all the world. Utilizing songs to keep alive its culture, a National Song Festival was instituted over 160 years ago. Every four years, the best choirs, orchestras and folk dance groups would come together for a week long national celebration.
During the Soviet occupation, the Song Festivals were allowed to continue but the traditional folk songs were banned and instead new songs were commissioned extolling the new Soviet citizen. The Song Festival of 1990 was the first time that traditional Latvian songs were again allowed to be sung and we were fortunate enough to be there that week.
Let me share a moment of incredible majesty that I had the honor of witnessing. The closing concert of the week-long festival was held on the outskirts of Riga. A special stage had been built to accommodate the 30,000+ singers. There were approximately 125,000 in the audience and most of the rest of the Latvian population was watching it live on TV. The concert began about 6 o'clock that july Sunday night. Around midnight as the Northern Sun was finally beginning to set, the choir members each lit a candle they were holding. The audience grew completely still in anticipation of something special.
Picture this scene -
the sun setting behind the choir high above, a breeze is fluttering the newly allowed Latvian flag. It is that quiet time of day as darkness overtakes the light. 30,000 singers stand - their candle lights weave a magical spell.
The orchestra starts to pray - the choir begins to sing - begins to sing the Lord's Prayer.The Lord's Prayer in an atheist, communist-held country - at a huge public gathering - seen live on TV. WOW!!! These people had defied not only the local communist party but by this public display, taken on Moscow as well in insisting that they had the right to include this prayer in their concert.
Truly, I can't even begin to describe how reverent and spiritual those moments seemed. As the last notes were sung and played, a deep silence engulfed the park - it was as if all 125,000 of us and the whole choir were in silent prayer. Time seemed suspended. It must have been atleast 5 or 10 minutes before the choir and audience were capable of continuing.
My American born sister-in-law sitting next to me was shivering from the emotions she was experiencing. No explanation was needed. We all felt so privileged to have been in the audience that evening.
A year later, in 1991, latvia declared its independence. Latvians had decided that it was time to stand against the nighty Goliath and proclaim their right to exist. In anticipation of the onslaught of Russian troops and tanks, farmers from all over Latvia drove their tractors into Riga and used them as barricades to protect the TV station and parliament building. The signers of Latvia's Declaration of Independence were all camping out in the parliament building hoping to preserve the seat of government in their hands.
Latvian men manned the barricades day and night. latvian wives, mothers and sisters brought hot food and drinks and manned the bonfires. Skirmishes broke out. Tensions ran high for weeks. Moscow however never issued that full attack order. Gorbachev was too busy with his own headaches. Some months later, the Soviet Union collapsed and Latvia gained its independence without massive loss of life.
But Latvia's problems did not end, they had only become different and at times more challenging. Latvians had no leadership skills. The only people with any leadership experience were members of the communist party. Latvia had no trained policemen, army, navy, no fireman or civil servants.
Latvia had no money to fund social programs, schools, hospitals or pensions. Russia had taken all the money, all the equipment it could transport. Factories were stripped bare. Anything of value that could be moved was taken. This left the country in dire straits.
Senior citizens are especially hard hit. Before the fall of communism, that had a pension, medical care was free. Rent was free, utilities were free and food was very cheap. It did not matter that the health care was primitive and often unsanitary, it didn't matter that their apartment was one room with a communal toilet and often no bath or shower. It didn't matter that you had to wait in long lines to buy food or that there was nothing to buy with your pension money. You knew that if you kept your mouth shut, minded your own business, melted in the woodwork, you had a secure old age.
Now the government can only afford to pay almost subsistence level pensions. Health care is much improved and very cheap by our standards but nevertheless at a cost, the apartment cost money, the utilities must now be paid for. The grocery shelves are now full of food and the lines disappeared, but the seniors can afford very little of the brightly packaged enticing food stuffs.
Many seniors have just enough for food and rent. Many can't afford to heat their apartments. If they need to buy medicine, it is often a choice of that or food. Some have turned to begging. It is rare to walk down any downtown Riga block without seeing the elderly begging for pennies. It is heart-wrenching. Often they sit huddled in a doorway, totally dejected looking, trying to stay warm with a small dish in front of them. It would be easy to block them out and get so used to their presence that they become invisible. But the Latvian people have not. I am constantly amazed at how many school children, teens, young adults as well as the middle age stop and drop money into those dishes. The elderly's poverty is an ache in everyone's conscience.
Besides the elderly, those living in the country are also very poor. Farming had all but collapsed. There is a huge influx of cheap food stuffs from Ukraine and Georgia. The farmers are having a terrible time competing with these low prices. Often they cannot sell their products at a price that would earn them a subsistence living.
Most rural families end up sending their children to government sponsored boarding schools. This ensures their children of regular hot meals and a warm room.
Alcoholism is also a huge problem which contributes to the poverty of the farmer. Many are suffering from depression and turn to the bottle and drink away whatever little the family has...leaving the rest of the family penniless.
The middle aged people have a very difficult time finding employment. Many worked in the industries that were cannibalized by the Russians as they retreated leaving them with no jobs. There is very little demand for older workers. Most jobs are now being offered to the young, bilingual applicant.
Drugs are
becoming a huge problem. Within the last two years,
drug use has sky-rocketed. Someone has a marketing
strategy to flood Latvia with extremely cheap heroin.
The 14-18 year olds are targeted. heroin is as cheap as
candy at the present.
Latvia faces
many, many problems but they are a country of deep spiritual
roots...a country that has suffered much but has refused to die
or be pushed into non-existence. It is a country that
desperately needs a helping hand and caring heart.
The Methodist Church in Latvia was begun by a Methodist Bishop from Zurich in 1921. He opened up clinics and soup kitchens. Soon the people who were manning the kitchens & clinics became Methodists and started congregations. By the out break of W.W.II, just 17 years later, there were over 3000 Methodists and 26 congregations. The American Methodist Church had bought three buildings - two churches and a seminary. When the communists took over, they closed all Methodist churches declaring them to be CIA agents. Fifty years later, only four Latvian Methodists were still living in Latvia. Methodism had successfully been eradicated from Latvian memory.
Today, GBGM (General Board of
Global Ministries) has gotten back its three buildings and
there are eleven congregations plus another one already to be
consecrated. The Latvian Methodists are fighting to be
recognized as a mainline denomination. Many have never
heard of Methodists and view them as another section. Many
Latvians do not attend church but want their children to
attend...but they worry about who these Methodists are and what
they would teach their children.
The youth of
the country are the huge bright spot. Like youth everywhere,
they are eager to learn about life...about God! They
are such incredibly enthusiastic new Christians. We
have over 250 children in the Sunday School program and it is
growing rapidly. The new congregation which is just getting
ready to be consecrated has over 20 children ready to join the
Sunday School. The Latvian Methodist church desperately
needs new Sunday School teachers, training for the existing
teachers, new pastors, Sunday School material and help in funding
transportation costs. The congregation s want to reach
out to those in their own communities but are themselves
subsistence level. Many of their own members have a hard
time affording the transportation to church and back home.
They are
praying for help to open up food pantries. Many people
stop by the churches asking for bread, but they have none to
offer. They dream of someday opening up soup kitchens
and feeding their needy but this would require a working kitchen.
They dream
of offering a hot bath, shower or washing machine for those
without, but that too requires investment.
Their hearts
are caring, their energy and dreams limitless but present day
reality is harsh.
Let me share
a story I heard my first week in Latvia. It was at
our annual district conference as each congregation was
presenting their report.
An elderly lay leader stood up and was
describing her community and the hardships they were
suffering. Her particular congregation had found
funding for a bread program. Every service, everyone who
attends is given a loaf of bread to take home. This
particular Sunday, as she was handing out the bread loaves, this person
grabbed the loaf and hurriedly standing right there in front of
her wolfed it down, cellophane wrapping and all. The
lay leader in a sobbing voice told us that she knows we are all a
little hungry all the time but she has never before seen such a
need. She said that she will never forget what she
witnessed.
There have
been many heart-wrenching moments and stories and sometimes it
becomes overwhelming but there are also incredible bright
spots. The dedication of the Christians there. Their
simple, uncomplicated faith in God. The wonderful
youth. Watching the country slowly get back on its feet.
I''ve also been blessed
to meet wonderful Methodists who have become involved and
transformed by their reaching out.
A men's
choir from Maryville, Tenn. came to Latvia and shared of
themselves and their songs and were completely transformed by the
experience. Congregations in the US have become sister or
partnership churches with the Latvian churches. They
have reached out and shared their skills and gifts and have been
blessed in return. Let me share just one example of how an
act of kindness made a big difference.
I had
visited the church they were going to the summer before.
The elderly pastor of the church had lamented - look at
these dirty windows what a disgrace. These windows -
huge, double hung brittle monsters - have not been washed in
50 years and every time we worship in our sanctuary, we are
reminded of how inadequate we are because we are just too old
to get up on high ladders to wash these windows. God
deserves better than this and yet we can't do anything about
it. Her other problem was the heating system which was
too expensive to run. She said that she would
probably have to close the church soon.
Well, the heating
system was replaced by a caring congregation in Tennessee. The
windows were tackled by 14 VIM women. The local
pastor could not believe and accept that these women, many of
whom were past their climbing years, were really going to wash
these windows. She tried to entertain them and divert their
attention. Finally, Nancy the leader said, "Milda, we
are here to wash windows and wash them we will." As
they finally got to do their task, being the Methodists they
were, they began to sing and sing and sing! So passerby's,
many of whom had never paid any attention to the building stopped
by and stayed to watch and listen. Many spent the
afternoon and thanked the "angels" for their singing at
the end of the afternoon. The windows now sparkled and
God's light could shine into the sanctuary. The VIM
team was filled with the Holy Spirit and the sense of having been
used by God for His work. Many now know of the little
church with the clean windows and singing angels and every
Sunday, Milda and her elderly congregation remember the caring
hands that reached across the ocean to give them a true glimpse
of God's abounding love and care.
God called me to return to Latvia to
leave the comfort of my life, friends and family and to serve Him
in the country of my birth.
I spoke to
my husband who is also Latvian by birth and we both agreed
that we have been greatly blessed. We have had our nice
house, our 2 cars and lots & lots of stuff. Now it
was time to start sharing & giving back.
Unfortunately, or fortunately God did not provide us a blueprint
or any pan of how to get there or what to do when we are
there. It has taken us 10 years to finally make the move.
In the
meantime, I have worked with the General Board of Global
Ministries, I've attended seminary, gone through the candidacy
process and local pastors school. What do I think I can
contribute to the Latvian methodists? What do I think you
could contribute? I have been richly blessed. God
saved my family. I have been privileged to grow up in a
country that is free. I grew up never fearing that when I
woke up, my parents and family will be gone. I grew up
never fearing a knock on the door. I grew up in a loving
home, a caring church, amist wonderful friends. I grew up
in an atmosphere of love and trust. I grew up in a society
where I could express my opinions without fear. In a
country where I fully expected to be treated justly. I had
the privilege to raise my children in the same atmosphere with
the same expectations. I know nothing of fear, of hunger,
of suspicion of entrapment, of a society that is against you
instead of being for you. I am not saddened with such heavy
burdens.
Our
brothers and sisters in Latvia, know nothing of our freedom.
All the things that we so easily take for granted and never even
think about, they have to learn to take for granted. They
have to learn to trust each other. They have to learn to think
free and be free. They have to learn to allow themselves
the freedom to experience Christian fellowship and love. They
have to learn to help each other.
I think
that it is my mission and I invite you to make it yours too, to
show them that we love them as fellow Christians and through our
example help empower them to love back and to love each
other. And hopefully, this freedom to love and trust will
expand throughout the church and beyond.
Christ
has taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that
starts small and then grows into a mighty tree. Our mission
is to plant a small mustard seed of love which God and all of us
can water and nourish through our love, prayers and helping hand. -Gita Mednis
December 2001
It is cold in Latvia and has been
for the last month. Our first snow fell about the middle of
November. It is all white in Riga because it does not get
warm enough for the fallen snow to melt. They tell me that it is
rare not to have a white Christmas.
The Sanctuary in our church is like a refrigerator. I wore 3 layers knowing it would be cold and nevertheless by the end of the service, even my toes were trembling from the cold. I feel bad for the elderly who find it difficult to cope with the cold. We have not decorated our Sanctuary for the holidays because I am told that it is not done until Christmas Eve. We will have a live tree in the Sanctuary with real candles. The lighted candles are the only decorations on the tree.
Real candles on Christmas trees are still the norm here.
Everyone who saw our tree thought it was something very
exotic because of the decorations that I had put on it. I
had not unpacked most of my things yet, so to my eyes, the tree
was barely
decorated but to our Latvian friends, it was over and above.
Christmas Eve, the services are usually fairly early in the evening so that everyone can go home and have family time. Gingerbread cookies and candy are a must for the holidays as are mandarins or oranges. Here the mandarins are very tiny but juicy and flavorful.
Not many people send Christmas cards--I believe I heard the statistic of 2 per person. Christmas is officially 2 days. First Christmas and Second Christmas. This is a time to visit family and friends. Church services are usually on Christmas Eve, Christmas 1st Day as well as some churches, Christmas 2nd Day.
Very few people make gingerbread cookies from scratch. Dough is available from all the bakeries. Few people bake any kind of cookies because cookies are relatively inexpensive.
This year we will buy dough and have our Sunday School kids bake cookies and wrap them as gifts to hand out Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve, after church and after supper, most families gather in front of their Christmas tree, light the candles and sing Christmas songs. Then each person has to recite a poem--preferably a Christmas poem. Gifts can only be opened afterwards. The gifts are much simpler and less numerous than we have in the States. At least in my house it never seemed enough to just give each child one gift. Here, a box of chocolates, flowers, mittens, a scarf seem to be much appreciated.
Advent time also is observed not only by the church but by the society as a whole. The news rooms have an advent wreath on their desk and the candle is burning during the news broadcasts. Many stores have advent wreaths and keep the candle burning all day. It is definitely a much more subdued preparation for Christ's birth-more a spiritual time rather than the emphasis on how many shopping days til Christmas.
Many government officials, known personages appear in 30 second spots, saying a prayer for Christmas and making a wish for a brighter tomorrow. There does not seem to be the very strident separation of state and church.
Well, sorry that this is so disjointed. I have tried to
give you a little idea of the differences that I see.
Although I shared this with you once, the most poignant
story I ever heard was from a family that told me that sometimes,
the snow is too deep to make it to church on Christmas Eve since
they live in the country with unplowed dirt roads. They
said that they usually go into the woods by their house to this
clearing where there is a fir tree. When there were little
kids in the family, an adult would go out and put candles on the
tree before hand. Then when they got to the clearing, there
would be the beauty of the lit tree in the clearing under the
cold, crisp night. The father told me that that was were he
truly felt God's presence and the miracle of that night.
Love,
Gita
November 2000
-The following letter came through Vivian:
Dear
Vivian,
You are so very supportive and I deeply appreciate all of your
help. The past weekend we all gathered for the dedication of a
new Methodist congregation in a town about 2.5 hours away from
Riga.
This dedication was very special because we were celebrating both
the rebirth of this congregation and the rebirth of Latvia
Saturday was Latvia's Independence Day.
There had been a Methodist congregation in Kuldiga before the war
.During one of the bombings the church had taken a direct hit and
had been leveled. Of course the communists closed all of the
Methodist congregations. Our DS here had tried to get some sort
of compensation for the land that was taken (where the church had
stood). It took 7 years! This past fall, he was given a rundown
apt. as compensation. His congregation from another town
renovated this apt. in less than 3 weeks! There were about 70
people gathered for the rededication. Two people were especially
thankful that day. One woman's father had been a Methodist pastor
in that congregation before the war and she had all kinds of old
pictures which showed what the original congregation looked like.
The other lady had been a member of the church when it was
closed. She had been attending the Lutheran church for the last
50+ years. With tears in her eyes, she told me-see God wanted me
to be a Methodist and in His own time he had sure that I could
return to this congregation. Her daughter and 3 granddaughters
opened the service by singing 3 songs - one of them an American
spiritual.
Vivian, thank you so much for your great faithfulness. I am
keeping you in my prayers and am expecting you to visit here in
Riga soon!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your whole family!
Love,
Gita