Prayer candles at Kuldiga
Saturday 18th April
Breakfast was much better than yesterday. Bacon, Eggs, Cheese and meat.
We packed our luggage into the car and were ready when Inga arrived to take us to Liepaja Methodist Church; a much larger building than Tasi or Matras. During the soviet years it had housed several families and the sanctuary was used as a sports hall. We met Arijs Viksna who was the Superintendent before Gita. The pastor at Liepaja is Inese Budnika, (Arijs’s daughter). She is married to Romans and they have a daughter Agatha who is 8years old. They are expecting another baby in September. Inese’s sister Ilze, is also a pastor. Around another refreshment table we met some of the members. One of them, Ruth, has visited East Anglia. She stayed in Bury St Edmunds and also with Barbara Garwood from Woodbridge.
From Liepaja Inga took us to Camp Wesley, a youth centre in the countryside that the church is renovating for youth work. We then travelled to Kuldiga and met four generations of one family. Dzintra was about 80 and had been a life long Methodist. She is thankful that now she can now worship freely after the soviet years between 1948 and 1993. We looked at old photographs of the members and the church.
It was very cold but we travelled back to Riga in blazing sunshine.
After a hot meal in a restaurant we found our hotel and managed to get on the internet and contacted family back in the UK.
Sunday 19th April
Breakfast was Swedish style: hot eggs, sausages, cold meats and cheese. Also, Toast and Jam.
Inga was waiting for us and we walked to catch a tram which took us to the 2nd Methodist Church in Riga. The pastors here are Milda (84 yrs old) and her son Andris. We were introduced to Janis who was to be our interpreter for the service. It was very much like the service in Krakow, we didn’t understand the language but we knew what was happening. Janis quietly spoke to us of what was being said. Alan was invited to tell the congregation why we were visiting. Janis interpreted for the congregation. Two of the hymns were modern choruses that we were able to sing in English while the congregation sang their Latvian words. We finished with “How great thou art”, and “The old rugged cross”. We were again invited to refreshments and were able to have a much more informal time with everyone.
We needed to visit the railway station to organise reservations for the train from Daugavpils to St Petersburg. The lady behind the counter was a little unhelpful. She said that we would have to wait until we got back to Daugavpils, but we told her that that wouldn’t be possible in the time frame that we had. She did manage to sort it out for us but got the date wrong so she had to do it all again.
Sunday lunch for me was Salmon and roast potatoes and for Alan, Pork and roast potatoes. We both finished with fruit.
Inga invited us to go with her to a different church at 4.00p.m. It is a church that meets in a hired room as they have no building. There were many young people there. The service was very informal. The pastor is Indian and speaks in English and has a translator into Latvian. We are now resting before our two hour journey tomorrow.
