Women's Conference in Ventspils

By Mary Standley - July 2008

Note: This report was written in July, 2008, about a ladies conference held in Ventspils, Latvia. The invitation to return for another conference has come not only from the church where this conference was held, but also from a smaller church that was visited in a neighboring town. The small town of Puze has requested that the ladies come back and teach and minister at their church. Interestingly enough, a package of flower seeds was sent with the invitation as a small gift from sisters in Latvia. The seeds were an answer to prayer about going back there. We plant, others water, and God brings the growth.

In July, 2008, a team from Calvary Community Church went on a mission trip to the city of Ventspils, Latvia to teach and minister for 11 days. The team was Mary Standley, Sandy Michael, Jeanne Hughes, and Evelyn Owens. A conference was held on July 11-13 and approximately 80 women attended.  It was an exciting weekend that drew women from different churches and towns together for the very first women’s conference in Ventspils.

This Eastern European city is a lovely coastal town along the Baltic Sea and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. The mild summer temperature mixed with the most gorgeous and abundant flowers. This was the setting for our conference close to the sea in a building that New Generation Church had just purchased.  We taught Beth Moore’s Believing God and the 5 statement pledge of faith that had been a Bible study at Calvary. At the end of the weekend event, we played a DVD called For the Sake of the Name by Tim McKinzie, which beautifully told the Gospel story that was narrated completely by scripture that had been translated into Latvian.

As America has been blessed by so many great Bible teachers and resources, we wanted to take this teaching to women who have not had this blessing in their country. For 70 years Latvia has been controlled by communism and the Soviet regime. They declared their independence in 1989 and Calvary has been a part of sending teams to minister and teach God’s Word for several years.

The weekend began on Friday evening with about 50 women and by Sunday morning, every seat in the auditorium was filled. They received the teaching with enthusiasm and at times the room seemed to be electrified with excitement. We usually like to bring the ladies a small gift but this year was blessed with enough donations that on Sunday our gift to them was a beautiful leather Bible. Many of them told us that it was their very first Bible to own, and even the youth and men who had assisted us and blessed us with singing and dancing were eager to receive one as well.

We had a special prayer time on Sunday with the ladies and could see a change in their countenance, as many shared how God had touched them and the Holy Spirit had done a work in their hearts. They learned having faith is pleasing to God and we gave them numerous scriptures to help them grow in believing who God is and that He can do what He says He will do. Also taught was an understanding of who they are in Christ and how they can do all things through Christ. Lastly, bringing them hope and encouragement through reading the Word and meditating on it daily was the fifth statement of faith that they in turn used as a shield against the enemy’s attack. They now had their sword (their new Bibles) and their shield to use. We were raising up a beautiful army for God and they felt armed and dangerous like Texas cowgirls ready to be a threat to the kingdom of darkness!

We laughed with them and cried with them. The time, energy, and money that we spent were small in comparison to what they deposited in us. We came away feeling like we had definitely gained more than we gave. Our conference was entitled Sisters in Friendship and Fellowship with God and when we left our sisters in Ventspils, we knew that we had grown spiritually by leaps and bounds. These women stole our hearts and so we know that we have to go back next summer to retrieve what they kept. God’s love covers us so completely that perfect strangers became our dearest friends; friends who will last more than a lifetime. These will be eternal friends and sisters that we will see again either in Ventspils or heaven. Because this Bible study was the second time we taught Believing God, we all agreed that we got it, second time around, in Ventspils, Latvia, a very dear city.

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