Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well I, Tonya, have finally arrived back in Prague….kind of anyway. As most of you know, I wasn’t able to get my visa back before Christmas, which meant an unexpected trip to the U.S. for the holidays. We have learned to “roll with the punches” and the trip home for the holidays was a blessing in disguise. We had a great time catching up with family and friends and I received my visa through the mail in time to return to Prague January 11th. It was just enough time to prepare for my next adventure. 

Melissa and I aboard our propellor plane headed to Latvia.

Exactly a week after arriving in Prague I was off to Latvia to visit Freedom61’s ministry. This amazing organization is dedicated to reaching out to the women of Latvia in various walks of life, but their main focus is exploitation. My friend Melissa and I were able to spend time with various volunteers, ask questions, and check out their café and women’s center. I was amazed at the variety of volunteers hailing from America, Australia, and of course Latvia. They have both Latvian and Russian translators! The ministry began several years ago by offering a café for exploited women to visit as a safe haven for relationship building. It has since expanded to a restoration home and a men’s outreach where they try to address the source of exploitation.

The temperature was in the 20's F so we layered up for touring the city.

A fun ice sculpture outside a cafe gives some perspective on the cold.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is seeing how God is real and at work all over the world. It was surreal in many ways, preparing dinner with a fellow American, on our last night in a foreign land while listening to country music. It's in these moments that the world seems both bigger and smaller at the same time. There are so many places that we have yet to see and so many things left to learn. But at the same time, people all over the world have so much in common and you find that out when you do something as simple as sitting around a dinner table together.

We left feeling greatly encouraged by the work Freedom61 is doing. Here is the website if you are interested in learning more about this incredible outreach https://www.freedom61.org. Needless to say, considering all the traveling, jet-lag continues to be a real thing, but I wouldn’t have missed this opportunity for the world.

                Riga's art nouveau architecture was quite impressive!