Hello my friends and family,

I received this newsletter from Sarah (Mitchell ) Ilsters this morning and because of your interest in the work in Latvia while I was there I thought I should forward it to you.

I have finally settled down and caught up with everything since my return and now am preparing, along with each one of you, for this wonderful Christmas Season.

God has been so good to each one of us this year and so as we reach the end of another year my Heart is full of Praise to Him. In the words of Tiny Tim, "And may God bless us every one".

Wilma

News from Sarah and Aivis

December 2001 No.14

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas

It seems impossible that another Christmas is already here. The year has simply flown by for us. Our prayer is that you have time to reflect again on the amazing Christmas message and experience the joy and peace that it brings.

We will be having quite a quiet Christmas here. Next Sunday the people of the corps are staying behind after the meeting to make up some parcels with soup (that we received from Sweden) and some bread (which we will buy). Then we will take the parcels out to some flats nearby in a "poorer" area and knock on some doors and give people a present! I am really looking forward to doing this as I hope it will bring a blessing to us as a corps as we give out and more importantly to those who receive! During Christmas itself we will be on our own here, although we will probably get together with Aivis' family at some point. Christmas is not filled with such traditions here - probably because no one was really allowed to celebrate for 50 years! For New Year we hope to get away with some friends.

Writing so soon?

I know it probably seems a bit crazy to have some more news from us so soon. Especially as there was such a gap before the last one came. However, I really want to try and keep you more in touch with what is going on over here as it really does make a difference to our work when I know people are praying back in England - or anywhere for that matter! I will try and be more faithful in my correspondence in the future. If you are not interested in receiving news from us, please do not be afraid to say. So what has been in happening in the last couple of months?

Answers to prayer��

Congress - Thank you to those of you who prayed for the congress. I think I can say without a doubt that your prayers were answered. We had an excellent time here with the Garnham family. The two days of the congress were a time of great blessing and people have been talking a lot about it. There were nearly 400 people here altogether. This was the first time we had meetings over two days. People slept in the school next door to us and we ate altogether here. It was a mammoth task of organisation, but God blessed it all.

Mum - Mum and I had a great time together for the week she was here. We had amazing weather all week. It was cold, but the sun was shining with beautiful blue skies. I managed to take most of the time off. We even went away, together with Aivis for a couple of days. We talked about the fact that I had asked people to pray and we really felt God blessing our time together. I hope she will be able to come over again when the weather gets a bit warmer again. Right now the temperature is below freezing most of the time. We have a little snow on the ground now, but nothing that stays very long.

Riga corps

Things are progressing here at the corps. We have started to have a prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings and these have been really good times together. On average about 15 people have been coming every week. We have got people to fill in a questionnaire about what they have thought about the last months and most people were very positive. We now feel that we need to draw our attention to some aspects of training of some people in the corps in different areas. We will start to do that now in the New Year. Slowly things start to take shape, but we need loads more prayer. As we get to know each other better we find that there are some things that have happened in the past here that have never been sorted out and they are still effecting people''s relationships today. Please pray that those things that need to come to the light and get sorted out would.

Other things that have been happening

Skrunda - Aivis and I went for an evening to a 2.7 Bible study group in Skrunda to see how the group was going there. It was really good to meet these people who were very enthusiastic about their faith. It seems that these Bible study groups are spreading and more people are in contact with Aivis for the material. There is even one group of Catholic priests who have photocopied the material from somewhere! Aivis has been trying to get in contact with them, but has not managed it yet.

Visit of New Life Gospel Choir - In the middle of November we had the visit of this great choir from Sweden. I was responsible for all the arrangements at this end and I spent the four days that they were here together with them. We travelled around the country to different corps and they sang concerts. We had a great time together and I think they bought a blessing to everyone who heard them. The concert in Riga corps was especially good, with about 120 people coming to listen.

Youth meetings - Aivis and I have been involved in some youth events together. Aivis talked in a youth get together that happened here in Riga with the youth here and some from another church. We have also been in Bauska and Iecava leading youth meetings there.

Adam and Eve evening - We were invited to be the special guests at this evening for couples in Bauska. This is the corps officers attempt to get the husbands of some of the corps members to come! Aivis did a really good talk here and we arranged some of the other entertainment for the evening.

Please pray...

* For Christmas time here at the different corps. That new people who come to the Christmas services would be challenged about what the story of Jesus'' birth means to them.

* Continue to pray for Riga corps here, that the Spirit would continue to work with us and work in greater power. Pray especially for past hurts, disappointments and problems to be healed.

* Pray for those men who came to the corps in Bauska. Pray that they would want to come back to the corps at other times too. Pray for the leader of that corps - Ruth Hansen. Pray for her health (she has not been too well recently), thank God for all that has happened through her ministry there.

* Pray for our newest corps in Daugavpils. Pray for wisdom for the leader there - Feodors. God is doing some great things there, but there are also problems arising as people come from different churches to help the Army with their work. Pray for the development of a great Army corps.

* Thank God for the great Congress! Thank him for the many testimonies that came from this event.

* Pray for the young people in the corps as they prepare for the Bible Olympiad we will have in February. This will be a big Bible quiz that the different corps will send teams to compete for the first place. The time of preparation is really good as they go home and talk to their non-Christian parents about what they are learning for the quiz!

* Continue to pray for Aivis and I sorting out how our ministries will go together. In January we have been invited to a Navigators conference in St. Petersburg. We are planning to go to that. This will be the first time for me to go to something arranged by the Navigators!

* Pray for the last time that the Leadership course will meet together in January. We will go away together for the weekend to have some time to think about what God is leading them to do now. Pray that this would be a really positive weekend.

* Pray that God would continue to direct everything that is happening here, that we can bring glory and honour to HIM!

Sarah and Aivis Ilsters : Bruninieku iela 10a-9, Riga, Latvia.