The Salvation Army opened the Patvērums Childrens Day Centre in March 2002 to provide a safe environment for underprivileged children from the local community in Riga.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Inga's last day
Yesterday we said goodbye to Inga! Above you can see a group photo of us. Unfortunately there were not many children there but we had a good day, looking through photo's from the last 2 years, enjoying a homemade cake, exchanging gifts and many hugs.
Inga has been a real asset to the centre bringing a wide range of skills and experience and she will be missed but we hope and pray that she will soon settle into her new job.
As for us we are still looking for her replacement and are trying to be patient!
Inga leaves a week tomorrow, how quickly a month goes by! After the inital interest we haven't had many people apply but on Monday at 2pm (EET) and Wednesday also at 2pm (EET) I will be interviewing 2 applicants.
Please can you pray for me and Linda (Regional personnel manager) as we meet with these 2 people and have to decide who is best for Patverums. Also continue to pray for the remaining staff and children as they go through this time of change.
Yesterday we took 17 children to see 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'.
They had a great afternoon even the youngest ones who struggled with the subtitles and the length of the film! Inga (one of our social workers) did an excellent job translating for 2 of the boys having one sat on her lap and the other sat behind her leaning in to listen as she read the subtitles to them.
It's lovely to be able to go out a group and do something different for a few hours. Going to the cinema is something that a lot of children take for granted, even some Latvian children, but for our kids a real treat!
From seeing the trailers for coming films we've already made plans to go and see Ice Age 2 in April, especially because it's being dubbed into Latvian!
I'm just about to go home for the weekend but I wanted to ask for your prayers for one of our boys. His name is Edijs and he is 11. He's been coming to the centre for 3 and a half years and over those years we've had some very good but also some very bad and hard times with him.
Right now we are struggling. He is rude to all the staff, shows very little respect to the rules of the centre and is being disruptive. We have tried talking to him in different ways, banned him from coming to the centre one day a week and the moment we are asking him to leave at 5pm so that the staff and children can have a break. Our problem is knowing what best to do with him. Deep down he is a lovely boy who has a great sense of humour and is caring but we are not seeing this side of him at the moment. Home life is difficult; he does pretty much what he likes. He also smokes and drinks.
Please can you join us in praying for him and also pray for us as we search for the best way to work with him.
Unfortunately 2 weeks ago Inga (one of Patverums social workers) handed in her resignation. In one way it did not come as a huge surprise as she has spoken to me before about the direction in which she want her career to develop but when it actually happens it's a real shame to lose her.
So we are now advertising for a replacement. So far we have had 2 CV's, one being from a man (Wow, that would be great!!!) and there have been a number of phone calls inquiring about the position.
It's a difficult time for us all losing a member of staff and bringing in a new one but God has always provided the right people for the right time so I'm sure it will be no different this time around.
The last 2 weeks we have had a number of children away sick! As always there are many winter bugs going around but it would be great if you could keep our children in your prayers. At the moment we have 4 children home ill, one with Pneumonia. We often find with our children that because of their poor living conditions it can take them longer to get well but we hope and pray this will not be the case this time.
