Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  Mat 28:19-20 NIV

Mission Trips

We'll soon be planning our next mission trip, most likely this upcoming summer.  If you're interested, let us know right away!

We are planning our first ever SUMMER mission trip to Latvia!!! Usually when we go we're bundled in long johns and heavy coats, sometimes in subzero degree temperatures. This time it'll be short sleeves and sunglasses! Woo hoo! And we'd like to invite you--your church, your family and you individually--to be a part of our trip.

We have awesome plans for this 14-day trip. Our mission team will split into smaller teams, with each smaller team visiting two different cities and two different orphanages for VBS-type programs. And, if we have a group of men and women who would prefer renovation work over VBS-type work, we'll send a renovation team to one or two orphanages for some much needed maintenance and repair work. That way we can do more work, visit more orphanages, and impact more people for Christ than if we stayed together as one team. At the end, we'll join back together in Riga, the capital city, for a day of debriefing, a little sight seeing, and prayer.

If you can't be gone for a full 14 days, then we can work around your schedule and allow you to participate for however long you're able. We will make a way for every person who wants to participate.

We desperately want to be able to take a "renovation team" this trip. As tough as this economy is, all of the orphanages in Latvia have had their budgets cut, barely allowing enough resources for every day living, too often leaving none for maintaining the facility. One orphanage, in a beautiful country part of Latvia, needs some repair work done to one of their bathrooms. Please join us in praying for someone with plumbing skills, someone with tiling skills, and at least one other person to assist (no special skills needed) for this team. Another orphanage, in another beautiful and quaint area of Latvia, simply needs some painting done. If you or anyone you know would like to be a part of our renovation team, we'd love to have you! If you're not exactly the handy man type, you can help by donating allowing someone else who is that type to go.

As always, we'd love to have more members of our "children's team". Our children's team has a lot of fun visiting the orphanages and meeting many children and staff members. We've grown to love so many children AND adults from these trips, we feel like we have a huge extended family. This summer, we'll do a 3-day (or longer) VBS type program at multiple orphanages during the days and also have some fun evening activities like sports and outside games. We've been offered rooms in most of the orphanages, so we'll even get to experience living in the orphanage a bit. I'm really excited about this, because we should have much more TIME with the children than we have had in the past. Time to play, time to talk, and time to love. And we'd love to have you join us. The more team members who go on this trip with us, the more children we get to meet and love on.

We're still determining the exact dates, but we're planning in late June probably stretching into early July (very flexible with dates). The costs will be around $2500 - $3000 per person. That includes everything--airfare, lodging, ground transportation, translators, food, phone calls home, supplies, etc.--except souvenirs. We can help with fundraising if needed, and we're praying for God to supply every dollar needed for the team and the work we'll be doing in Latvia.

I hope you can sense how excited I am about this trip. Please pray. If you feel God speaking to your heart about participating in either our children's team or our renovation team, please let me know and we'll get started right away. We'd love to have you join us! If you feel that this might be something your church might be interested in (we'd love for your church to send a small team too), then we'd love to send more information to your church leaders. Or, if you're able and if God leads you to do so, please consider supporting the mission trip financially and as a prayer partner. With this economy, we know we will have many people willing to participate who simply can't afford to. We'd love to see God provide mightily for them through other Brothers and Sisters in Christ stepping up and pitching in.

September 2009

The Helf family has returned from their mission trip to Latvia.  They had a great time--and did quite a bit of traveling!  They were able to visit the orphanage in Liepaja, the "Zīles" children's home, the Salvation Army children's home in Riga, and help Hope For Children in Riga with some maintenance work on their facilities.  They were also able to visit Sergeis, the boy they hosted last summer.

One of the highlights of the trip was delivering three bicycles to three of the boys hosted last summer by the Chattin family.  The boys were so surprised!  All of the children at "Zīles" will enjoy those bikes, I'm sure.

The Helfs did a great job blogging while on their trip, and of taking pictures.  To read the blog and see the pics, go to www.TheHelfFamily.blogspot.com . 

March-April 2009

We've returned from our trip to Latvia this early Spring, and had an awesome time!  We began the trip by Jennifer teaching at a Women's Seminar at Skrunda Baptist Church, Katelyn hosting an Easter Fun Day with the children, Joel preaching at the Sunday service, and Josh translating for just about everyone.  We then spent the next week visiting orphanages.  We were able to visit three new orphanages this trip and met many new children and staff.  We were overwhelmed by the love and generosity towards us by so many people, and we look forward to many more trips and opportunities to minister to them in the name of Christ.  We were also able to donate hundreds of servings of dried soup mix ( the just-add-water kind) to Hope For Children to be given to families who can't afford meals for their families.

We're always planning future trips and looking for team members especially for our construction/renovation teams.  If you're interested in traveling to Latvia on a mission trip with us, please let us know.  Contact Jennifer@SimplyForLatvia.org.

February 2008

We're back from Latvia, and it was quite a trip.  Once again, God gave us a great team--Joe, Kathleen, Lorraine, Merle, Jennifer and Joel.  On this trip we had the priviledge of meeting so many people!  We were able to visit two new children's homes (in addition to the others we'd previously visited) and meet some great kids, we were able to host four magic shows for different communities and children's homes, and we worked alongside three great Latvian men on a renvation project for the Salvation Army Patverums Day Center for children in poor or abusive families. 

Spending time with our many friends and fellow missionaries reaching out the children and families in Latvia was also a high-light.  Joe, our "missionary-magician" was a favorite with the people.  Together, Joe and Joel brought a message about Deception and Truth to the congregation at Skrunda Baptist Church.  You can even see a clip at www.TVSkrunda.lv, click on "religia" and then the clip with the white and black swirl.  (It's mostly in Latvian, but it's still very interesting.) 

Along with our on-going mission projects, we had many doors open for new opportunities for missions in Latvia.  We're super excited and can't wait to start organizing these new mission projects. 

February 2007 

We've returned from our February Mission Trip to Latvia--and oh! what a trip it was!  Some highlights...

• Despite a flu epidemic that is affecting half of the country and every orphanage and day center we visited, the children's team was still able to visit all but one orphanage as planned and was able to determine which children will be available for this summer's hosting.  And, praise God, not a single one of us came down with the flu!
• We were able to see an obvious difference in the children who'd participated in past hostings.  The orphanage directors told us how the host families changed these kids' lives, that the children are so much more confident, they are better behaved, and some are doing better in school.  Of course, as the directors are more excited about the hosting program, we are able to interact more with the children and hopefully soon will be able to have even more of an impact for Christ on the children and staff in those orphanages.
• The construction team did amazing work!  Even though one crate of tools did not arrive until day three, and two of three battery charges fried, and the hot water pipes froze in the rental house (no hot water for 4 days), and the weather dipped all the way down to -6 degrees F, they were able to make do and complete an incredible amount of work.  They demolished floors, rebuilt sub-floors, put up walls, hung doors, tiled, put in  plumbing fixtures, etc.  They even found time to build a snowman!  Seriously, though, this crew was clearly hand-picked by God.
• The concert featuring Valdis Indrišonoks was such a blessing.  Not only was it great to see Valdis again and hear him perform, but a 15-year-old girl accepted Christ during the concert.  She said she knew God was speaking to her heart.  She started crying and couldn't stop, so she prayed.  The team was able to spend a lot of time with her and we all know that we gained a sister on this trip.  Dievs ir labs!  God is good!
• More and more people--in Latvia and in the US--are finding out about the work to be done in Skrunda and all over Latvia.  We were even interviewed by a Skrunda television station about the work we were doing.  They just couldn't understand why we'd want to leave America and come to Skrunda, Latvia (you'd have to be there to understand), especially when it was so very cold, and help people there.  It was a great opportunity to share with not only the TV crew, but also the people in and near Skrunda who watched the news report. 

So much happened, there's no way I could possibly put it all in writing.  If you're interested in finding out more, if you'd like to know more ways to help, or if you're interested in going on a mission trip to Latvia, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.  Contact Jennifer@SimplyForLatvia.org.

If you can't go but would like to help support mission work in Latvia, we need you too.  You can contact Jennifer@SimplyForLatvia.org for ways to help.

September 2007 

This was an awesome trip to Latvia.  Though we didn't get as much "play time" with the kids as we woudl have liked, we had a blast making balloon animals and flowers for the kids, and we were able to meet several new children.  Each child is so precious.  

During this trip we also hosted a Family Seminar for families in the Skrunda community at the Skrunda Baptist Church.  Joel, Jennifer, Pastor Andris and his wife Ieva taught on parenting and marriage and how God wants to be a part of each personal life as well as each family.  We were able to pray over each couple who attended and attend a wedding ceremony that evening.  While the adults were meeting downstairs, Helen, Krista and Stephanie held a "day camp" for the kids upstairs.  They had loads of fun playing, singing songs, doing crafts and sharing Bible stories with the children.