Amidst one of the coldest winter on record in Latvia, approximately 250 people, local and from around the globe, gathered in Riga to attend the Mission Days 2010 event. People from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Canada, USA, UK, Brazil, Sri Lanka, China, Korea, Argentina, and Netherlands, among others, were represented there. People from different denominations gathered to worship, pray, learn, and understand their part in fulfilling the Great Commission. Indeed, God was up to something bigger than we could imagine, and over the three days of this event, it would unfold before our eyes.
On the opening night, our keynote speaker, Dr. Lindsay Brown, International Director for the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, challenged us to be open to take up the call to Missions. The barriers that serve to hinder our ‘going’ were matched with truth. The testimonies that followed served to inspire us to go and caused us to see that we are without excuse if God calls.
Throughout the event, God’s heart for the nations became more evident. We saw the extravagant love of God toward Latvia, as He called a young Brazilian to come for 3 days. His purpose was to encourage people, and remind Latvians of the treasures that exist in them - treasures needed by other nations, that will bless the nations, and serve to build His Kingdom among the peoples.
We experienced the power of God to do the impossible as a young mainland Chinese girl shared in a seminar about her family, 5 generations of Christians, who were ‘missionaries’ within their own nation. God called her to study to be a missionary in other lands, provided finances and visas, and ultimately brought her to Latvia to share His love, tell of His faithfulness, challenge us to walk in the reality that nothing is impossible for Him.
A young Latvian girl, impacted by participating in a missions training course and outreach to Albania, obeyed the call of God to gather a small team of Latvians to go there to minister in that nation on a short term outreach.
On the final evening, opportunities to take all we’d learned and heard, and all our inspiration and put feet to it. Several groups shared of the many opportunities that exist from Latvia. One group of young people lined the front of the church whilst passing loaves of bread, which were piled up on either side of the pulpit. It was 200 loaves all together. A message was being shared about how this bread was representative of Jesus’ love. We’ve freely received His love, we’ve experienced it, and can therefore give away what we’ve received. Then, each participant was encouraged to come up and receive some bread to either keep or give away. The Mission Days event, marked the beginning of what has become the Baltic Bread Project. Many who attended have continued to participate in this and other projects.
Mission Days 2010 was a great success as so many are taking seriously the call of God to go, and saying “here I am, send me”, instead of “here I am, send…him”.
