Reservations at "Ham and Cheese"

I am Ellie Neumann, wife to Bob, mom to Shohna, Alex, and Charlotte, an Associate in Missions here in the Republic of Latvia, and guest Blogger this week on Ninetyandnine.

Today my husband made a reservation at a small, basement level sandwich shop in downtown Riga for twenty-one people. Twenty-one people! For so long, it has been just us here in this large foreign city, that to be making plans with twenty-one other souls is a great blessing. Two other AIM families have joined us since we last blogged. One family is an experienced group and the other is fresh off the farm. Both are slightly culture shocked, but still excited to be part of what God is doing in this part of the Baltics. Needless to say, we are thrilled to have them!

It is sort of curious what being separated from the main church body does to your relationships. At our home church in Atlanta, we had our pick of many people to be friends with. We tended to pick people of similiar age, education, compatibility, and socio-economic status. But over here, fellow-laborers are like gold. They are valued no matter their intelligence or abilities. Maybe back in the states you would only exchange greetings in passing, but over here you become vitally important to one another. It's actully kind of cool-reminding me of the fellowshipping done in the book of Acts. It will be interesting to see how time will affect these relationships, but I think they will be the forging of friendships formed on the "frontlines".




Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!