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LATVIA December 19, 2011 from FSAOF.blogspot.com
I grew up in a time when there was little information about the God and His Son Jesus Christ – no books, no Bibles and no films. Most of the Churches and congregations that maintained any semblance of religious order did so without buildings. Their buildings were turned into theatres, sports halls, TV studios, museums, clubs, cinemas etc.
To attend church could cause lots of problems, although it was not actually forbidden. Our state church, the Lutheran Church’s only activity was a Sunday service, which were quite formal and attended by a small number of old people who rarely had anything in common with each other. There were lots of horrifying rumors spread about Baptists, for example; and what they got up to, but only a few people had met any Baptists or really knew anything about them. It was forbidden to preach the gospel or tell anyone about God (who the Soviets said did not exist) and most of the best workers in the Kingdom’s field at that time were old people who sowed the seed of Truth in their grandchildren’s hearts.
My parents were not Christians nor were my grandparents, although one of my grandmothers who lived in the countryside went to Church occasionally and had a Bible at home (an old one with old script). While spending summer holidays with my Grandmother I would sometimes wonder what could be written in such a big Book and I remember even trying to read it a few times.
I believed that there was a God, but I did not know Him – did not know THE MESSAGE, I had never heard it. I did not know that I needed to call Him to Save me; I did not know how He had created the world and how sin had broken our fellowship with Him and how Jesus had come to restore our eternal spirits through His death for us. In Soviet times we did not celebrate Christ’s birth, death and resurrection as public holidays.
The messenger of Good News.
God sent me the first messenger when I was studying in Technical College. Tom was my classmate and we became good friends. He was a Christian and he talked to me about God and Jesus. I remember being quite open about The Truth and I almost started to attend his church. After I met him, I promised to myself that I would read the Bible one day.
When I was drafted to serve in the regular military service, my first prayer (which I did not realize at that time was a prayer) was the words of one church chorus. My grandmother gave it to me to take with me to the Army. The words of the chorus were:
You are the best of friends
Be with me as you always are
In a midst of greed and jealousy
Only you can strengthen me
When the storm of trouble comes
Be my shelter, be my guard
Take a place in me
What you want me, I will be.
I was sent to a country called Uzbekistan (in Asia), which is a country neighboring Afghanistan. At that time the USSR was still involved in a war there and soldiers were being sent to the war zone from our training base. Fortunately, God ended the war and I stayed in Uzbekistan where I served for two years as a military cook (for which I was trained).
I came home from the Army just before our country got back our independence. We had had independence only once before in our history from 1918 until 1940. I returned very depressed. I could not see the meaning of my life and I lived in fear of death. It was Christmas time and as a present from my friend I received a New Testament. This was the same friend – Tom, who had shared his faith with me when we had studied together. I remembered my wish to read the Bible someday and decided this was the day. I started to read the New Testament and as I read it I discovered the Truth – Jesus Christ as the only way to know God and have faith in Him. The more I read, the more I was amazed about the stories and statements that the Bible held. God opened to me His treasures and His truth. I realized how precious it is to know Him and belong to His family of believers. I realized that my sin even involved my ignorance of God’s love and my life without Jesus in it. This was not just a one-day confession, but over a period of time the Spirit worked around and in my life as I got to know and understand the Word of God.
Around this same time the Soviet Union broke apart and the unbelievable became the reality – freedom, the taste of which was long forgotten, was suddenly there. The dream, which many had stopped to dream for a long time was fulfilled by the Power of God and many acknowledged it as His miracle and presence. With the freedom He granted came the revival of the Church and many came to faith in the Living One.
With the freedom that Latvia received, together with the other post-Soviet republics, the door was open for missionaries to come, to live and to work in the fields of hearts and soon there was a flood of missionaries representing different denominations and religions. Some shared the Truth, some who were themselves deceived, deceived others to believe in other gods. I had been a Christian for two years when God put into the hearts of the Navigators from the US to come and live in Latvia. Through them, God worked greatly in my Christian life, causing me to grow and become mature in my relationship with God. Besides Bible their training material was Navigators “Colossians 2:7” Series. During the time they lived here they made “2:7” series available in Latvian language.
Now I am involved in ministry to repeat the process and share with others the same things that were taught to me. “Col. 2:7” Bible study series is the main material I am using in the process.
Many more things I have learnt over the years from co-laboring with my American friends. I have been involved over a period of years with the Church Discipleship Ministries work in Russia. I have traveled on missions to Siberia together with John Sackett, Dick Taylor and Jim Remeur. Through these trips God taught me how I can help Church people to organize small groups to aid them in the process of discipling people.
So now, for six years I have been involved in a small group ministry in various towns all around the country of Latvia. Many of the Churches I am involved with are Lutheran Churches as this is our state religion (church). Experiencing small groups is quite new for many of them and they are excited to get to know more about God in the atmosphere of a small circle of people where everyone can share their experience and also get to know each other and build each other up. My aim is to work together with the pastors of the Churches to start up these small groups – to give advice and help where possible. Sometimes this has meant that I go and lead the groups for some time to model what I am talking about. It is my aim though for other people to take over the leadership of these groups and so I try and work towards this. Over the six years, I have started to see the process multiply as people move to new places and start up groups where they move to.
My vision for the future here is to see this work in small groups growing in the Churches here. After our countries non-Church history, people do not have all the background knowledge of growing up in some sort of Christian environment. This makes the discipling process so vital. I would like to find more people to join me and to train some more people up, but it is quite hard to find those people who are ready and available. I know though that if God wants the work here to grow, he will provide those people.
Aivis Ilsters
Married to the Corps Leader; Riga I Corps
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