Leaving for thrive camp

Tomorrow our team is leaving for our five day orphan camp that we have been preparing for all summer! It is an exciting time but we will be needing your prayer support this next week as we enter into ministering and decipeling a group of young broken teens. Please pray for strength, energy and to building strong lasting relationships. I am so excited to be able to share this experience with a group of college students from my home church RMCC. It will be a hard but rewarding experience for all of us and I can't wait to see God work through us all this next week.Thank you for all your prayer and support,it means so much!

visiting orphanages

Over the last week we went and visited three orphanages. The first orphanage we went to was in a town called Irlava. We got to see a couple kids from our camp there and we made some new friends as well! We stayed for about three and a half hours and just played in the sand box, tag, and made bracelets. We didn't do anything exciting but the kids didn't care all they wanted was to be loved on. At first the kids were so shy and wouldn't really look at us but as we kept talking to them in the ten Latvian words we knew it was amazing how fast they warmed up to us! Once we broke down those walls with them all they wanted to do was talk to us. I swear they thought i understood Latvian because they would just talk and talk and i would just smile and nod and they loved it! All they wanted was someone to listen to them. It was so hard to say goodbye to these little faces that we only got to spend such a short time with.

We had a woman and a young girl who she was adopting join us on our trip to the orphanage because the girl was from that orphanage and she was getting the rest of her stuff for her final move to the states with her new family. Adoption is a great thing but we witnessed a truly heartbreaking thing that day. This teen girl had a younger brother and because of this adoption they were going to be split up and possibly never see each other again. Our whole team was brought to tears as we witnessed this little boy clinging on to his sister and sobbing thinking he will never see her again and knowing that now he is all alone at the orphanage. I tell you this story because you only really hear about the positive side of adoption and not realizing that there are stories like this one that happen all the time. Please pray for this little guy and all the other orphans out there because i can not imagine a greater heartbreak than to lose the only family member you have left.

The last orphanage we went to was awesome time hanging out with a couple kids we had at camp and making new friends to. As we pulled up to the orphanage the kids had been waiting for us and i was one of the first ones to get out of the car and all i hear is this shriek and my name "Vitneya! Vitneya! Vitneya!" I turn around and one of the little boys from our camp Dillans came running and jumped into my arms. This little guy made tear up and to hear the excitement in his voice melted my heart! The kids wanted to take us to a park down the street so we walked with them and played with them for a couple hours and then it was time for good byes again. And this part never gets any easier it actually just gets harder and harder every time. We are actually leaving tomorrow for a one week road trip to travel to most of the orphanages all around Latvia. I ask prayer that the time we get to spend with the kids is blessed and that they will feel the loved and that they do matter to someone, even if we do just get a short time with them.

"You are the helper of the fatherless. LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more."

Psalms 10:14,17-18

Playing tag/chase they kept calling me "laba pink" because of my jacket to try to get me to chase them it was so cute!

 

 I won!

Aizpute Camp!

When i came to Latvia last year we did a camp in Aizpute and part of my heart was left there with kids and has been there ever since. So this year i had the opportunity to go back and do another camp in Aizpute and I couldn't say yes fast enough. I was so excited to be able to get to go back and continue the relationships that i  had made last year and also build new ones. This time was a little different for me than i was expecting, because i came into this camp as kind of a third party. I came in at kind of the last minute and they didn't really have a specific job for me. This was frustrating for me at first, but as I kind of took a step back i realized that God had me there for a different purpose than i had originally thought. I took a step back and watched the RMCC high school team lead and this was such a cool thing to witness. I did not know any of the high schoolers very well going into camp. But serving along side them for a week was truly amazing to be able to witness each and everyone show in many ways that they had such a passion and heart to serve these kids. They put everything they had into making this camp an amazing experience for the kids. Just being able to see all of them hang out, love and build relationships with kids that stole my heart last year was amazing and I cant put into words how awesome that was for me. 


Alot of the kids from last years camp came back again this year and that was awesome but what was truly amazing was that many of the kids who were there last year brought one or two of there friends along with them this year! When i went to introduce myself to some new kids i asked them how they heard about this camp and most of them said that all they heard about last year was this camp and so this year they wanted to see what all the talk was about. That was awesome to hear that the kids really enjoyed and got something out of the camp last year than my crappy English lessons. Near the end of camp i asked some of the kids which camp they liked better between this years and last years and it was pretty unanimous in saying that this year was so much better :) It was cool to just be able to spend time with with these kids whether that was walking to the store with them five times a day, playing volleyball, killing them in mafia or just sit and talk. I thank God for getting me there for that one week and I'm going to miss them all like crazy!!



A rather unexpected thing happened during this week. I came to camp expecting to room with my friend Endija but when we got there, there was a change in plans and we were put in different rooms. But i know this was truly all God's doing because he put me in a room with Jenny Briney, who is truly an amazing woman of Christ. Every night we would stay up and talk about everything and anything and I'm sure the two girls in our room were so annoyed with us by the end of camp cause we weren't exactly quiet. It was cool to learn about her story and to hear that she is the only christian in her family and how strong she is in her faith without really having any support from her family. After camp was over Jenny made a decision to get baptized while she was here in Latvia. I admired her strength in that decision cause i know that was hard for her knowing how her family would react. It made me realize how blessed i am to have a loving christian home and how so easily i can take it for granted. This friendship was unexpected for me and its just another reminder that God knows what he is doing and that i need to trust that he knows what is best for my life.

CAMP MEMORIES

                                       

                TEAM RED!                                                                                 

               Red Hott Chili Peppers 

                                                    

I might have gotten a little competitive in the games :) 

maybe a little to much that I didn't realize I was yanking and hanging on to jenny's leg instead of the watermelon 

Then we both realized what we were doing and started laughing!

We played volley ball alot and I was defiantly ok with it!

We did the camp dance EVERY day TWICE a day !

My Awesome English Class who won the talent show!

No boring day in this class love them all <3 

Opened a watermelon with scissors... ya we were really hungry

Me and Endija
 I love this girl!

Our First Camp

We finished our first orphan camp a couple days ago sorry it has taken me so long to update but I really wanted to process and figure out the best way to relay all that happened these past two weeks! Rachel and I were able to get back for the last week of camp after being sick. Coming in halfway through the camp with kids having already built relationships with the other leaders that were there was a little difficult for me at first. My thoughts were they already have built relationships with everyone, why would they want to hang out with me. But God really showed me how wrong I was and how much love that these kids had to offer. All these kids wanted was to be granted that love and attention that they have been denied all their life. Because they have been rejected continuously throughout their lives they have created this "me" mentally where they are only looking out for themselves and wanting what will best benefit them. We had a couple instances where things were stolen at camp and even though my stuff wasn't taken it was still a lesson to us and we had to realize that by stealing it wasn't a personal attack on us but that they saw something they wanted and they took it. God really showed us that we need to be gracious and love these kids through everything. By the end of it we were all EXHAUSTED in every way possible. The last day is where we were able to see the full impact that we had on these kids, most of them were crying and the rest didn't want to leave. These kids have captured my heart and I am so glad that Jaycee had started a ministry that is centered around helping and loving these kids. God is truly working here in Latvia and I'm excited to see what els he has in store for me this summer!



 Thanks for all your love and support!!

Rough Times

Hey guys Rachel and I got pretty sick at camp. We both can't keep anything in our stomachs and we were sent back to Riga to rest and heal. We are feeling really bummed and missing the kids, So if you guys could just keep us in your prayers we could really use it. And also pray for health and strength for the rest of the team at camp. Because they are now two people short and only two days into camp. Thanks for all your love and support!

Traveling

 This is us just starting our 8 1/2 hr flight and let me tell you we did not look this happy afterwards!

We decided to get out and see Sweeden for our 8 hour layover

The Journey So Far...

Well defiantly exciting times here in Latvia. After over 25 hours of traveling we were greeted by Jaycee, Susan and Endija giving us a little red envelope with a clue that sent us on a lovely little scavenger hunt to find our flat. Being utterly exhausted and in a country we didnt know was definitely interesting. But in the end we were able to navigate our way to our new home!
As the surprises continued that night Jaycee and Susan gave us a packing list and told us that we were going to be going to some secret location and that we needed to pack for two days. So EARLY the next morning we got an email with our first clue sending us on another scavenger hunt. That day was full of surprises and some crazy times as were running and traveling from city to city picking up clues. This would have been more fun if it was not 40 degrees rainy and windy! One of our challenges was to have random people teach us how to say certain phrases. So we looked pretty ridiculous as four Arizona girls running around in the rain asking anyone if they could teach us how to say where's the bathroom? and what time is it? in Latvian.The day ended with us meeting Jaycee and Susan at the bus station and heading to our final destination, which ended up being a little house in Slacgriva where we were just able to hang out together and relax for the next couple of days. Which was Awesome!
These last couple of days have definatly been a challenge but as a result we have all learned a great deal more about each other and we DEFIANTLY know how to find our way around Riga.
Right now we are are trying to prepare ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically for this 12 day orphan camp that we are leaving for tomorrow. So please pray for us because it is going to be a long but rewarding 12 days. And also pray that we are able to be a presence of Christ for these kids and that they will feel His love. Sorry i was not able to post sooner but as u can see it has been really crazy here and this will probably be last update for a couple weeks because we are leaving tomorrow for two weeks but i will update as soon as i can!
Thanks for all your support and prayers!

Preparing

God has taught me a lot already just through the whole process of getting ready for the trip! Fundrasing and planning has been a very stressful process for all of us. But even through the all the stress and worry God always gives us these vital moments that shows us His glory and reasures us that everything will work out. In a moment when we were really struggling with fundraising, we had a woman come and hand us a check for $500! When we thought only about 20 people singed up to come to our tea party fundraiser, almost all the seats were filled and it was such a success! God is amazing and has taught me that he is bigger than all of this and in my time of stress and worry I need to lean on him and know that he will take care of me. This was a very important lesson for me to learn before I leave because this summer I am going to be stretched and challenged to my limit and without him and His glory there would have been no way I would of have been able to do this on my own. 


"Fear not, for I am with you;  be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you,  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."- Isaiah 41:10