OUR SECOND HOME – SKANGALI MANOR

Sven and Glad Ljungholm from UK visited Latvia and Seda/Sarkani in January and posted two reports on their blog. Here is the second one 
(From:  http://hamiltonsa.blogspot.com/ )  The Skangali Manor is located in rural Latvia, about 110 km North East from its capital Riga. Following the Soviet invasion and the second World War the manor became the property of the Soviet army until Latvia’s independence when the property was returned to its legal owner the Palme family, however in deplorable run-down conditions. The Palme family (Sweden’s assassinated Prime Minister) donated the manor to the Salvation Army.

We made a small back room our home for our three day stay and from here we made excursions to The Salvation Army’s outposts, one in Sarkani and one in Seda. Captains Sergej and Aizan co-ordinate the work in both centres comprised of mainly children’s ministry to children of alcoholics. On Tuesday evening we celebrated Christmas with the Aizan and “our” 23 children. All live in flats assigned to them by the government and all adults are full fledged alcoholics spending every available Laht (currency) and the occasional sexual favour on their habit. In The Salvation Army’s two renovated flats the children are provided meals, education, recreation, warmth, hygiene, but most of all tons and tons of love.

Last night we made our way to Seda some 45 minutes further northeast. Seda was a village of 4,000 inhabitants nestled in a pine forest some five miles from a major road. Subsequent to Latvia’s independence and no longer receiving subsidy along Soviet formula lines, and without any promise of employment, half of the village population, including all able bodied men, left for parts unknown. What’s left are row after row of abandoned three story apartment buildings with crudely arranged Christmas lights burning in the odd occupied room. The Mayor promises a free flat to any one willing to call Seda home. The only building with permanent residents is the city’s home for alcoholics, located strategically across the street from the building donated by the city for the Army’s use. The corps building will be renovated by a team we will lead in June 2011.

More than 20 children were awaiting our arrival. Most of the faces were familiar as we had met them twice before. We experienced intermittent power outages during our Latvian visit lasting from a few minutes to several hours so the children were prepared with each keeping a candle nearby to make certain they could identify which of the candies we tossed on the table would be theirs and which toys would they claim as their own.

Following the gift distribution we were treated to an impromptu concert with the children singing Latvian Sunday School Songs and Christmas Carols. This was followed with hot chocolate, much welcomed as it was freezing, home made frosted donuts and gingerbread cookies.

Glad and I then made an inspection of the building to ascertain just how much paint and equipment we would need to bring with us in June when we tackle the renovation project with our ‘mission 2011 team’.

We will now begin our drive back to Riga, it snowed during the night, and our flight back across the Baltic towards our other home.