Quieter week?

We have got quite a bit of digging done on our garden, or should I say Ian has got quite a bit of digging done on our garden, but it is still only a fraction of the whole plot (I do hasten to add that I have done some digging). We will just have to keep plugging away at it I guess. Still there is enough dug over to give us quite a bit of veg even this year. I have included pics from our garden and around the house, it is looking really pretty at this time of the year with flowers popping up all over the place.

The Latvian flag went up outside our apartment buildings this week on May 1st for Worker's 

day and it was for Latvia's celebration of Independence. Independence was declared on May 4th 1990 for the second time, the first time was November 18th 1918 but that independence didn't l

ast very long. This is the longest period of history when Latvia has been independent. Can you imagine not having the right to determine your own nation's destiny for so long! This downtrodden nation has got a destiny in God, and my prayer is that Latvia will truly find independence in Him and will rise up and speak into the nations around. God loves to use the weak and the helpless to shame the wise. 

In 1180 Christian missionaries arrived in Latvia and as the Balts didn't readily convert and strongly opposed christening then the German Crusaders were sent into Latvia to "convert" the pagan population. By 1211 Christianity had effective control with the foundation stone for the Dome Cathedral in Riga laid (taken from Wikipedia). Since then Latvia has been under the control of the Hanseatic League, the Polish-Lithuanian rule, Swedish, Russian, German and Russian again. With only a brief period of independence between 1922 and 1934. What a history of subjugation this country has, what freedom it will find in Christ!

The news is good from the accountants but I still don't know what the finished bill will be, certainly a lot lot less than they told me the other week, thank you God! 

Once that is done, and the English account sorted then I will start on the Latvian taxes, heh hoh - the joys of moving countries.

I sent a text to Mark this week just to make sure he was still alive, and discovered that he is still not on-line at home hence the dearth of contact with him. He is actually enjoying not being on-line but since he didn't have my mobile (cell phone) number here in Latvia 

he hadn't been able to text me to say Happy Birthday, and by the way he had forgotten but he will send a present soon. 

Lol! Boys! I am still waiting for Matthew to post my Mars bar but he is waiting until he sees me. I didn't mention Emma's present last 

week but it was really nice, she sent a donation to Send a cow for Community Training and a Cockerel (Rooster) for Africa on my

 behalf. So in Africa somewhere is a Cockerel of mine and Ian has a toilet, which I had gave Ian as a pres

ent one Christmas. It is great fun thinking of an appropriate donation and it goes to do something useful, like Emma said, I don't really need anymore things for the house at the moment as it is fairly cluttered as it is. 

It was crunch time yesterday, I suppose it had to happen sometime, Ian and I had a bit of a fa

llout. I don't think we have done too badly as it is about 2 months since Ian has finished work and we are around each other 24/7 and it takes time to adjust. I wanted a bit of space and Ian felt rejected by that - communication is a wonderful thing and we obviously weren't communicating our needs to each other very well. Things are better today and we are able to joke about it but it did require a bit of honest communication to clear up some misconceptions on both sides. Even after 23 years of marriage communication needs working on especially when circumstances change. Although personal space is important to me I have enjoyed working on projects with Ian too, something we haven't done for a long time. 

One thing I should mention is the brave folks in wheelchairs round here. The lady in the wheelchair has just manually wheeled herself up the steep bank to the dormitories on the hill. She has to go on the road as the pavements (sidewalks) are not too good around here and certainly not for wheelchairs, and the dirt roads are not much better, yet she wheels herself up with great risks from the Latvian drivers - not renowned for their driving skills, they have some of the worst accident statistics in Europe.