Let me share just a couple of stories from the last few days in Latvia.
First, please see the Certificate of Recognition they gave me at the end of the Teachers’ Conference on Sunday. I accepted it on your behalf, my dear supporters, prayer warriors and, of course, the FaithSearch team. However, the real recognition came in a day later when I talked to Dzintars and his wife Ina who translated the FaithSearch Discovery presentation into Latvian. Dzintars called to tell me that the Surprised by Faith book translation is also finished and he is talking to a local Christian book publisher about printing it even this year. He also shared what happened yesterday at the school where Ina is a teacher.
Her colleague was running around the building with a CD that she has just received at a conference telling everybody how exciting, how wonderful and indeed eye-opening was the class on the rational and historic foundation of the Christian faith that she attended there: “All presenters at the Conference were from the USA but this one spoke Russian! And he gave us – only imagine! – not just handouts, outlines or some souvenirs but his whole presentation on a CD! And it was – imagine this! – not in English or in Russian, but in Latvian!” Ina got shivers (her words) when she recognized the CD that they translated last year. Now, this was a true “recognition” that gave shivers to me as well.
I spent 8 hours on the bus (4 hours each way) yesterday but it was completely worth it. The student group in the Daugavpils University was very grateful and had great questions after the presentation! Even the local newspaper reporter who was there just to make a short story for the holiday issue sat through the whole thing and promised me to present the facts and the evidence for Easter the best she can.
It is 11.30 pm now. I just made it to my dorm (had to climb the wall as they closed the gates at 10.30 pm) from the presentation at the Latvian State University. We started at 6.30 pm and I was told that the students usually begin to leave if the presentation goes over an hour-and-a-half. After about an hour, one student left and quickly came back with a friend. After two-and-a-half hours their leader announced that the building will be locked up in 20 minutes so we have to continue the Q&A session walking down the stairs. Glad that I don’t have anything planned for tomorrow morning. One of the participants said as we were already leaving the building: “I am actually teaching History and Philosophy here. As I was listening to you I kept asking myself: ‘If he can do it why can’t I? Why am I so shy about presenting the evidence for my faith in my lectures?’ Having this powerful material [FaithSearch Discovery] in my hands I simply have no more excuses.”
My laptop screen is still dark but I am getting used to working off the projector. It looks a little funny, however, when I do it at an Internet café…
