Saturday, November 28, 2015

Day 3 of Orphan Camp

We did morning exercises outside since it wasn't raining. We did some yoga, stretches, and ran around the building. 

Today we had oatmeal with apple butter for breakfast. We also had wonderful tea like yesterday. 
Many people are getting people to sing songs to their secret Barnabus. 
We sang songs. I tried to get the girls involved in the motions. 
Janis, the sound guy is going to be taking pictures today to help my back. It will be good to have someone else shooting to get a different view of camp. 
It seems like being a carpenter is a common occupation here. I have meet two. Magdalena's dad, who picked us up from the airport, and Edgars. Edgar used to work with his dad. Now, his dad is a pastor. Edgar builds custom furniture. He said it is kind of boring doing the same thing over and over. 
Edgar and I were talking last night about the American dream to get a good job, house, plan a tree, have a white Labrador, and 2 Chevrolets. He said his dream is to die for his faith. That should be the American dream. 
I know understand Inguna job better. She is a great woman, mother,and  principle. Very godly lady. I am thankful for everything she is doing. 
We all split up for our morning activity. Some girls got their hair done, others made kites, others did face paint. 
I saw my new friend Evita walking into town with some girls so I came with them. Didn't know where we were going. I sound out we were going to a pottery shop. It was very neat to see. I'm so glad I went with them! We got a tour and Magdalena translated for the 3 Americans. We saw a potter painting the finished piece of pottery.  Then we saw him get a piece of clay and fold it like kneading a piece of bread. Then, he spinned the clay on his potters wheel. The clay would go up and down in heights. It reminded me how we are clay in our potter - Gods hands. Then, a car came in and joined us. 
We all got to have some clay and make something. Mary Ann, a girl from Oklahoma and I found some things we want to get. I saw a mug that says Talsi. In got that one. We went to another pottery shop that was cool to see. 
We had some great chicken noodle soup for lunch.
This afternoon I meet some new friends. I got to play American football with one of the clowns little boys while she was me getting ready. He knew how to play. He was good. We had to put the ball up because he threw so good and we didn't want to break anything. I'm pretty good at teaching little ones how to play football. Maybe I need to go into coaching. 
When Bruce was playing with a little girl named Daniella I went over to play frisbee with them. She is so sweet. I have been hanging out with Daniella a lot today. 
We have pastries for snacks. But they aren't good. They are more of like a breakfast food then a snack. They aren't sweet.
I played basketball with two little girls. One was good. The other was not. We still had fun. 
Some Christian clowns came. They were good. You didn't have to know Latvian to understand which was good. 
I think some little kids still don't know I don't speak Latvian. Sometimes they will come up and try to talk to me. 
I saw the clowns son again. I asked him if he wanted to play American football again. We continued to play. He was very good. I was cheering him on loudly saying good, great catch. He said shhh. You're being too loud. Humans are going to think your crazy. Then, he didn't catch the ball and he said now I'm the crazy human.
He is 9 and speaks very good English. He learned from watching cartoons, he said. He is also very protective of his two younger sisters. 
He was getting good and wanted to play a real game. We played just the two of us. It wasn't to fun. We found other 6 people to play. 4 Latvians and Chris and I. It was fun to teach people that has never played. 
I told Edgar's he did a good job with the kids. He was worried he is playing with the younger kids more than his older kids. That reminded me of Philippians 1:9-11 where Paul prays he could be everything to everyone. I think that is a good prayer especially these next few weeks as there is much to do. Praying I would be used as God wants.  Then, I questioned how you can be everything to everyone when not everyone will like everything you do. Edgar said which was a great point we just not worry about what others think but only The Lord. 
Then, we waked the 9 hills of Talsi. That's right up and down 9 steep hills. It was tiring. I talked to all three Janis so that was good. Janis, the sound guy is going to culinary school. He got interested in cooking because his mom doesn't cook just his dad. When his dad was gone he would cook. Here it culinary school is a 4 year program.  
Later, we talked about how he got interested in sound and lighting. He said one day he someone just showed him how things worked. He started doing more and more. Then he learned lighting. Some American said this is your gifting. The American offered to give him money to buy his own lights but couldn't help him pay for it for a while. Later, many Latvians gave him money for a sound system and now he has one. 
I talked to Daniella a very sweet 11 year old. She said Jesus love me. We started talking about what she knows about The Lord. I told her about the way God showed the extent of His love by sending Jesus to die for us. She had never heard of that. I asked her what she knew about Jesus. She said things we all learned this week. We held hands for most of the 2.5 hour walk. 
Bruce reminds me a lot of dr. Adams. I asked him if he does any chiropractic work and he said he does. He said he can adjust his wives back the best. 
I talked to Janis, the worship leader, about different issues in Latvia. We talked about how they want to get gay marriages here. We talked about issues with abortions. 
He told me they have 20 political parties as opposed to our 2: republican and democrat. He also said they vote only about every 4 years. There are 6 or 7 places to vote in Talsi. If you're a college student going to school in Riga you can't vote their. 
He also talked about how some Russians call the Latvian language the language of dogs. They wanted to make Russian the second official language of Latvia but that didn't pass. 
We closed the day with lowering the flag. Now, bed time. 

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