Early Sunday morning in Riga December 11 - 05:36

Another Sunday in a Riga. Winter has not really arrived yet.

Wednesday evening Ruth and myself took part in the evening meeting at Riga second corps. As usual the hall was packed with approximately 120 people. We sang duets in Russia, played cornet and piano and preached.

Friday evening we were invited to the Lucia celebration at the Swedish Embassy. We met a lot of people we knew and still more people we did not know. In this picture we are together with the ex-president of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers (Photo by the Swedish Ambassador Mats Staffansson).

When the Ambassador presented us to the ex-president, Zatler immidiately told us the address to our regional Headquarters, Bruninieku 10A. The reason that he was so well acquainted with our address was that he spent many hours of his time as a teenager in our hall playing drums in a rock band. This was during the time of the Sovjet occupation when our house was used by the Sovjet labour union.

Saurday evening there was a big consert in the Dome of Riga arranged by the Swedish Embassy. The Salvation Army was given permission to be in the Dome with a Christmas Kettle that evening. The Swedish Ambassador talked about the Salvation Army in his speech and asked the people in the packed church to donate money to the Salvation Army social work on their way out. All this thanks to our active members in our newly started Advisory Board.

The Christmas Kettle in the Dome of Riga

Now it is Sunday morning and it is soon time to go down to the Sunday service at Riga 1 corps.

Have a blessed new week
Peter Baronowsky