-Now you have gained such experience that you are sent to a nation whose language you do not understand?- This really is the truth. We were ready to come here, because we knew that God wanted us to.
-Did you know that you would come to Latvia in the time of crisis?
RB: The decision was made in the spring of 2008. For more than a year we knew we would come here, the crisis situation came later.
PB: It is good to be here, because we see that we can fulfill several goals.
RB: We, of course, can not change the crisis, but we believe God has resources and we want to release them. On every step we see how complicated that is, but TSA works in places where no other churches are acting. We work in villages, where children live in terrible conditions. We have set up special programs for children, of course, realizing we cannot help all children of Latvia. We had an opportunity to raise some funds abroad with an aim to pay for school lunches for children, whose parents cannot afford it. If our officers meet a child who would benefit from this help, we meet with the local government and ask them to take care of their children. If for some reasons this is impossible, we take care of these children from our headquarters. We have raised funds to provide food parcels for families and individuals, who are in a need of it.
PB: In total such help is provided to more than a hundred families and people, excluding our regular social work activities, e.g. soup kitchens. This help is additional, especially in the crisis situation. The parents of children, whom we help, are often alcoholics and therefore they need special programs. For example, in one of our children homes we have set up a special program for children of pre-school age living nearby the home; they are provided two meals a day and the possibility to take a shower. There are children who have never seen a shower before. They are provided with medical help and help with acquiring a pre-school program. We are grateful to have fantastic people who work in these conditions. They are heroic people. In one of the towns a man with a criminal past came to our church. Before he was saved, he had committed a criminal act. Then he got saved, and he got married too. But still he had to face the court for what he had done before. If a person has a criminal past, the sentence of the court usually involves referring this person to a place of imprisonment. He was ready for that, but the leader of the Corps had written a letter to the Court, thus the sentence of the Court was three years on probation. This man has become a member of TSA, and his life is completely transformed!
RB: In Riga we have a social worker, who regularly visits the home of more than 50 families in difficult situations. This employee helps with delivering food parcels, yet her mission is to become a friend to these people, to pray with them. I went along one day and that day we visited three families. The last woman we visited had a severe disability, but during the visit she expressed a desire to accept Jesus. The conditions in which this woman lived were difficult, yet she accepted Jesus in her heart.
- Seeing all the suffering, especially when kids suffer, have you never wanted to ask God: why?
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PB: Life is unfair; I too could have been born as one of these children; I am no better than them. But God is good; He will always help us to find a way out of these circumstances. We are happy to be able to help them. In many situations it is almost impossible to help, but that it God’s specialty- making impossible situations possible. We have three goals that we want to fulfill during these thee years. The first one- people must be saved. This is the most important. We are not here to help people to survive, but to help them have their lives transformed. The second- is that these people would become disciples. Only disciples can make disciples. The third- we want to help those who are suffering. These three things are always the focus of our attention.
-There is a point of view that some of these people are ready to listen to the Gospel only to get a food parcel.
- I believe that Jesus wants us to help them to survive. Because “what you have done for the least of these, you have done to me.” These are Jesus’ words. We do this for Jesus. Our social work is not separated from our spiritual work. If we listen to what Jesus is saying: take care of the poor. If you listen to Jesus, you will hear Him cry for the poor.
Rut and Peter Baronowsky
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