Our story

As said before, it is true that everybody has a unique story, so what is a better proof to that than an actual story, eh?

Hey, yes, I may be considered as "one of them". I'm the one who tends to talk with "creatures of my imagination", and yes, sometimes even read that weird book. That's what the world thinks. What actually are those "imaginary creatures", this weird book and all together, why am I so weird? The truth is that I have three completely real and definitely non-imagined friends- God-father, God-son and the Holy Spirit. I read the Bible and God kindly likes to call me a christian.


Everything started as in a fairy tale- once upon a time and such, well not really fairy tale- once upon a time, full of tears and problem, and such.


Being a small child it was hard to handle the divorce of my parents, constant moving from one place to another, scars of alcohol on my parents faces and on top of it - disappointment in life as whole.


As I grew,grew my problems and within that - life with no values.Such emptiness and hundreds of unanswered questions. Why my parents don't live together? Why I don't have lots of money and the "coolest" clothes? Why nobody loves me? I was in such position where the only exit seemed to be suicide. And so I lived with this empty heart in the crowded world.


Until one day I somehow met the right people and went to a camp, just to have a good time. Who would have thought that it's going to be a christian camp? Definitely not me . That was one of the main reasons why I spent the first day only in my room, I didn't even eat, I guess it was a protest of a sort. The name of the camp was "Touch", for me it was something more than just a name, it was a literal touch, because something did TOUCH my heart. Well, when I finally managed to leave my room and start doing some of the activities, I started to really like it, and not because it would be pretty or nice in there, no, there was something..more. There was love. First time in my life I felt that others could actually love me. That was the night when I accepted Jesus.


But when I got home, my old life started again. After half a year, I was in "Touch" again, but this time with a goal, I needed God. I simply prayed- "Dear, God, when I will get back home, please, take away everything which separates me from you, even if it hurts." And believe me, it did hurt, a lot.


When I got home ,all of my friends separated themselves from me. They stopped calling me asking me to parties or just asking me to hang out. For the first month it was ok, maybe everybody's just very busy, but then I understood that God took away, what he had to take away. It was very difficult-understanding that things should be that way. For a half year my only schedule consisted of school-home-school-home rhythm, I hurried home just to cry, it was hurtful, because people in my age need friends ,but I didn't have any of my old ones and I didn't quite know any of the christian people yet. I was alone again. Well, I had God, but it wasn't easy for me, I stood strong and I fell but with that I kind of started to understand the real meaning of things, I still felt loved even though I didn't have any friends, but I had somebody to whom I could always go. That was the first time, when I had this huge belief in God and everything I did, went through Him. I started doing things I thought I'll never do, for example play drums. All together that wasn't an easy time for me, but to go to Paris, you need to go through Poland, eh?


Right now there's a week until my 18th birthday, and I am a girl who's main priority is God. My parents still don't live together, but now I understand that no relationship can survive with no love. I still don't have the coolest clothes or tons of money, but I understand that it's not a priority of mine and that the lack of it doesn't change the quality of my life. Well it seems as if nothing would've changed and I'd still have nothing. But I don't , I know that God loves me. My friend has become a christian , and, well, right now I have many christian friends. My mom and my brother, both became christians and I can smile truthfully really for no reason :)


I just wanted to say, that God has no "NO" there's only "YES", "WAIT A LITTLE" or "I HAVE SOMETHING BETTER IN MIND". Remain in God, even when He's silent. :)

Inese Braže

How to tell

Today, Kārlis Kārkliņš, shared with us some thoughts and tips on evangelizing, or as I'd like to call it -story telling. Why? you'll understand.

It's important not to preach ! 

• As rarely people tend to do it in their daily conversations, some of us,while telling about Christ, base on biblical facts rather than own experience, it is not bad , but the question is -how easy it is to identify with either of them?

Do not be a super-human.

• I'f you're telling that you quit smoking or drinking,and that you changed all of your friends ,it doesn't seem as if everybody could be in a relationship with God, which is not true.
• Sometimes it's better to make think , that if a person LIKE YOU , could have the opportunity to know Christ, than why couldn't the others.
• It's nice to prove that you're as same as any other, and that God loves you as much as He loves everybody else.

Many times we like to preach, that it is necessary to completely change the persons way of life ,well it may say something about our religion,but not about God and His love.

Everybody has got a story to tell. Remember the good things that God has given to you? Now imagine what would happen if they'd all be taken away? Well ,righ now you've got a story.
What is the essence to your story?- Jesus.
Your mission isn't to save a person, you can't really do that, God can, but you can tell . Tell a story .

Reminder

          Everybody gets a little lazy,that's just human. Maybe you didn't make it to Metro (10.01.2012) ,maybe you didn't get to meet all the amazing people, drink the best tea on earth and listen to some good worship songs,oh well that happens, but we're not gonna let you miss out on anything more. This is another overview of last Metro, this time one of  "Salt and Light" series(spoken by Kārlis Kārkliņš). Let it remind you something .

It all started with a question -what did we hear in the last "Salt and Light" (this is 3rd in the series)?
Well, we talked about motivation and what are the main motivators for people to tell others about God and to actually get to know Him. What are they?

1. God is good! (You just want everybody to know Him)
2. Hell (As scared as we are to admit)
3. Joy
4. The call (God has called you to do so)

• The biggest lie in our lives is that we think,that God is not calling us.
• God has got a specifik challenge for your life.
• Hell is a part of the Bilbe, no matter how hard we don't want to believe that, hell is real.
• If somebody you know , hasn't found the right path yet, act fast! You never know what might happen.

This leads us to today's speach - money, talent or person?

• Does money have a big role in your life?
• Does talent have a big role in your life?

Mark's 1:16-20

• It's good to develop yourself , but Jesus tries to teach you that there's something more.
• A person has a lot bigger value than talent or money.

It's wise to check - http://www.stevenfurtick.com/spiritual-growth/dont-put-jesus-first-this-year/

• You can be a fisherman !

Challenge for next month -be a fisherman!

Think of 3 people ,who you want to "fish"

How can you help/serve these people?

Spend time with them !

• When you're thinking about your future plans, try to involve God in them, how are your plans servin Him?
• Work hard, earn money and gain talent but remember , in the end your fortune is not going to be the money you've earned, but the people you've saved.
• How can I reach people?

Here are some of the questions we had to answer during our discussion time:

1. If you could choose ,what would be your dream job?
2. What would be the thing you'd do with most pleasure?
3. How did the invitatin from Jesus change Peters life?
4. have you come to the conclusion that "fishing people" is the most importans business in the world?
5. What is the difference between a christian (teacher, bank manager, business man etc.) from a person who's ot christian , in the same position?

overview

I wanted to share some thoughts from Metro (03.01, spoken by Raimonds Logins) .  These might be just some reminders, on the other hand they can be awakeners ,whatever you let it be,and whatever you want it to be :)

• Well it's a fact that we are recieving some kind of information almost all the time, but have you noticed, that many times we tend to put it in place of our own? An example- if I hear somebody's opinion,in another conversation I might use it as mine, actually replacing that with my own opinion. Has it happened to you too? Well in the end our mind stops thinking on it's own.
• God wants us to love him with our own hearts and minds.
• It's important to focus ,and keep your mind focused also while reading Bible , because you never know what you might learn, but as important is to keep it(the whole reading process) organized - it's very hard to understand Bible if we're just grabbing some random pieces from it,so to not misunderstand it's better to start a story from the beginning.
• Read bible very carefully ,because it wants to tell you something.
• Listen with your eyes in the things God wants to show you through the Bible.
• Learn to discipline yourself .

Happy birthday

This post is meant to be as a reminder, and i hope that you can take something from it .
I think that many of us have forgotten what christmas is really about, and why it is a celebration, or birthday ,to be more precise. Ofcourse, it is wonderfl to dine with our loved ones, recieve gifts and decorate christmas tree. But not without a reason i mentioned birthday -it is the day when Jesus was born. Well we tend to remember him once or twice a year ,including christmas, but a challenge for you is to keep him in your heart not only on Christmas and maybe Easter,but throughout the whole year.
Christmas is a birthday.

Thank you all so much :)

Photos from Ezersala

Visiting Ezersala's boarding school