Reality Revisited

OK, now that I've had a couple of off-topic play-time posts, let's get back to business.

In my previous "Reality Check" post, I asked the question " who is left here to develop Latvia"? And in the last week or so, I got my answer: I work with them. My wife & I are full-time staff with a Christian missions organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). It's a world-wide organization with around 17,000 full-time workers & volunteers in over 150 nations. This "version" of YWAM here in Latvia has been around since 1993 officially. It was started & still is directed by Maris & Judite Dzelzs. My answer to my above question came on a television show that was nationally broadcast in the end of December called "Latvijas Lepnums" which in Latvian means Latvian Pride. The banquet was attended by the Latvian president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the prime minister & many nationally-prominent businessmen & celebrities. The Latvijas Lepnums is an award that is given to 10 people each year who have been nominated, through a personal letter, by someone who knows them & thinks that they should be considered for this award because of their work in the community. Judite was nominated & won!

TV-3, one of the national TV networks here in Latvia, came out to the main YWAM base where we currently work & interviewed many different staff about Judite. She was nominated for this award because of the work that she has been doing with drug & alcohol addicts for the past many years.

Here's a little anecdote of Judite's influence (which, by the way, she will always attribute to God & I heartily agree with her): There was a young lady named Naira who was an addict that came to one of Judite's addict camps. Naira found out about Jesus & was transformed. She then came back & attended the Discipleship Training School for 3 months. When she completed that school, she moved back to her town of Kuldiga, Latvia. Then she was hired by the city government to work in a center for addicts that helps in ways like a needle exchange program to lessen the spread of disease. Now, the city government has seen the proven track record of Judite's programs with YWAM time & time again & actually sponsors addicts to come to her camps, meet Jesus & get cleaned up & turned around!

That's my answer. People like Judite (who also is well-known in the prison system for her ministry to prisoners) are making a difference in this country. Oh that there were 2 million more Judites!

~t