Morning Star Church of Latvia

Latvia

Rommel and Irina Cervantes

One of our churches in Latvia turned 15 this year and the following is our interview with Filipino missionary and the senior pastor of Morning Star Church of Latvia, Rommel Cervantes, and his wife, Irina:

Can you tell us about the culture and spiritual climate in Latvia?
Rommel: Population wise, it is a small nation. We only have about 2.3 million people and almost a million of that population is concentrated in Riga, which is the capital. The majority of the population is Latvians and the remaining 40% is non-Latvians -- mostly Russian-speaking Slavic people, Ukrainians and Belorussians.

Irina with a church leader

In general, the people have a traditional mindset about the church. Then of course, we have the atheistic past coming from the former Soviet Union. We also have the influx of the western culture which is more materialistic and modern. So, it is becoming a mix which makes it more difficult for us.

Irina: Some of the main principalities and strongholds on the land are depression, insecurity, general doubt and unbelief. It’s hard to get people on fire. They tend to be down and kind of sad and very reserved. It takes a long time to build trust and rapport with people.

Can you tell us about our church in Latvia?

Rommel: We just turned 15 as a church. The church, I would say, is at a crossroads at the moment. We’ve experienced major changes but I believe we’re going to take off this 2009 because we know we are still focused on reaching the youth and young families. We work with a team of Latvians and Russians and our vision is to raise up the next generation of leaders among them.

The challenge for us is doing everything in 3 languages. When you go to a Sunday meeting, praise and worship is trilingual - English, Latvian and Russian. When I preach in English, there is a Latvian translator with me and a Russian translator on the headset.

Youth Camp

What creative strategies do you use to effectively reach out to the people in Latvia?
Irina: The men play basketball and try to reach out to other men that way. For the women, we have a conference that is called “Free and Beautiful”  - that attracts a lot of young people because we do little sessions on make up, fashion, fitness, character and what makes them a beautiful woman which of course ties in with God. And also with women, primarily it’s relational because the Latvian culture is very relational. Nobody listens to what you have to say unless you’ve proven to be a good friend. So, it’s a lot of coffee and a lot of time together.

We had this twin sister that is from a very, very broken family that came to church through the relational part of evangelism. One of them was seriously suicidal and actually attempted suicide several times and the other one was just on the rebellious side. I can’t say that their walk is easy, but the suicidal one is still alive and at least she got saved and she’s trying to walk it out with God. The other one is doing actually much better and she is now in London, and I think God has a lot in store for these two girls.

Rommel walking on ice

What are the biggest challenges you face as a church planter?

Rommel: The biggest challenge I would say is focusing on the simple things like loving God and then loving people - that is what draws people to just the life of God. The challenge is getting into the heart issues because it takes a while to get there. It takes at least a year or 2 years before you get an inroad to a person’s life.

What encouragement can you give to those who  have a heart for the nations?
Rommel: Never stop learning. Be a good listener. Observe and assess. Pray and give yourself time to prepare before you get into the mission field and while in there.