Each church can/ should have a ministry outside the church
Tāšu UMC in Latvia is a small congregation (around 15 active adults plus kids and teens) and it has been missional already from the beginning of the church when visiting and sharing the gospel in the village of Tāši for 20 years. Jesus has called us to preach the gospel and we have accepted the invitation and we are ready to go outside of our comfort zone and community. We have experienced similar projects elsewhere, but this was the time to organise and do it ourselves. The best place to do it is the town near us, as there is no active church. We prayed and received the name VĒRGALE, which is a town near Tāši (20km distance). So, one year we prayed for the mission weekend, for the place and people, and finances. Because we need that the Holy Spirit would prepare the way. UMC in Latvia is a small congregation (around 15 active adults plus kids and teens) and it has been missional already from the beginning of the church when visiting and sharing the gospel in the village of Tāši for 20 years. Jesus has called us to preach the gospel and we have accepted the invitation and we are ready to go outside of our comfort zone and community. We have experienced similar projects elsewhere, but this was the time to organise and do it ourselves. The best place to do it is the town near us, as there is no active church. We prayed and received the name VĒRGALE, which is a town near Tāši (20km distance). So, one year we prayed for the mission weekend, for the place and people, and finances. Because we need that the Holy Spirit would prepare the way.
In the beginning of June, we drove and prayed about Vērgale, reaching the whole territory of Vērgale. We stopped in different places to declare the word of God and to pray for everything we saw, to receive also visions and the word of encouragement from Holy Spirit.
Another day we went to Vērgale and prayed and also put invitations for the upcoming evangelisation event in the letterboxes.
When the mission weekend started, we started it in Tāšu UMC, wearing the same T-shirts and blessed each other with prayer and anointing oil. One of church members called out loud: Good morning missionaries!
On Saturday we went to visit and share the Word of God with 10 families, including lonely seniors, who were referred to us by the social service. We donated food packs and promotional booklets about Methodists to help them understand who we are and included New Testament Bibles in the gift. We talked to people and prayed for their needs. We also gave them invitations to the event on Sunday.
We stayed in a local holiday home for the weekend, whose owners we also invited to our event, and they came. We stayed in Vērgale’s guest house, because we did not want to leave the area where we serve and minister.
Sunday was the busiest day of the weekend. We planned the children's event in Vērgale for 50 children, but God was faithful and gave us at least 80 children plus many parents who brought their children, whom we welcomed with snacks and drinks and coffee for adults. We had rented a soap bubble machine and large soap bubbles and an inflatable attraction for kids. We made crafts and each craft had a story about Jesus.
There were 5 stations in total which gave the children the opportunity to hear the word of God. The Children's Evangelism event was successful. The children got stamps for attending each craft station and then gifts after completing all the stations. The whole day we were out to talk, to encourage, to have a conversation and sometimes to overcome stereotypes about Christians. There was Christian music on the speakers the half of the day, some of the people came to this event because they heard music while doing their homework etc.
The adult evangelisation event was also a success and God's grace with a full house of people. There were about 50 people who came that night. We don't know how many people accepted Jesus because we were all in prayer with our eyes closed. We were guided by the Holy Spirit. The praise was led by Kaspars and Tabita Ezerini, who wonderfully helped to create the true atmosphere of God's presence. They were our guests who came from Riga. There was testimony interview from our church members and pastor Gunta shared the word of God. 10 more food packs were passed out for the families and lonely people who came to this event.
We rented out Vērgale’s culture house for the whole weekend and after everything was finished, we cleaned the whole building, because we wanted to give it even cleaner then we received it – to be a good testimony of God.
God is so good, and He just wishes for us much more only we need to step out and trust, and also start doing. We are praying for continuation in Vērgale. Please pray with us. We are called to start new faith community there, it won’t be easy, as the mission weekend was full of attacks, but our aim is to share the Gospel and to be the light. All glory to our living God, Jesus Christ!
Source: Aivija Kaupiņa and Gunta Grīna-Sologuba, Latvia