Good News of Great Joy for ALL people!
Merry Christmas, Church Family!
The Christmas season is in full swing, which leads many of us back to some very familiar passages in Scripture. Passages about angels, shepherds, a star, some wise men, and a baby lying in an animal’s feed trough. In Luke 2, when the angels appear to the shepherds, they announce that they are bringing “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10).
All the People. The message of Christmas is one that transcends our normal boundaries of race, class, gender, or nationality. This good news of great joy is for ALL the people. One of our Christmas traditions here at LTCC is to reach out beyond our own community to bless a group of people halfway around the world in the nation of Latvia. They are a people that are in many ways very different than us, but they are just as much in need of this “good news of great joy” as we are.
The nation of Latvia has been through a lot in the last century. They have been occupied by Communists, then Nazis, and then Communists again. During the period of Soviet domination, Christianity was brutally repressed. But the underground church continued to survive and hold out the “good news of great joy” to their friends and neighbors. When the Soviet empire finally collapsed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Latvia regained its freedom and the church could once again operate in the open. But seven decades of oppression cannot be erased overnight, and even today Latvia remains one of the poorest and one of the least churched countries in Europe.
Since 2000, LTCC has partnered with a sister church in Latvia: Mersrags Baptist Church. Mersrags is a small fishing village with a population of around 2,000 people. Over the last 20+ years, LTCC has sent many missions trips to Mersrags, and leaders from Mersrags Baptist Church have visited us as well. But our biggest Latvia-related endeavor has always been the Latvia Christmas Project. Each December, LTCC takes up a special collection to send to our sister church in Mersrags so that they can bless their community at Christmas. Pastor Janis works with a local social worker to identify the most pressing needs in and around Mersrags, and the resources we provide them allows the church to show the love of Christ by meeting those needs. A few dollars may not seem like much to us, but when those dollars are used to buy fire wood or a warm jacket, they could mean the difference between a cozy Christmas and a bitter cold winter for many Latvian families.
The “good news of great joy” that the angels brought to the shepherds all those years ago is still for all of the people: rich and poor, male and female, American and Latvian. So as you consider how to share this good news with your friends and neighbors, please also consider how you can help our Latvian brothers and sisters reach their friends and neighbors with the gospel. This year’s special offering for Latvia will take place this Sunday, December 10th and I would encourage you all to donate as you feel led.
For the Elders and the Deacons,
Treasurer
* Envelopes will be provided Sunday morning for this special collection. There is also an online fund set up for those who prefer to give electronically.
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