Happy New Year from all of us Roths! We have been at home in Ērgļi for Christmas and New Year enjoying lots of good food and fun games. Here are a few of our memories from 2019, which has certainly been a very busy year.
Katie: I got my Latvian citizenship! This process involved exams in history, constitution and the national anthem, proving that I actually live here, make enough money to live on and am not a criminal on the UK police database. I am now a proud dual citizen of the UK and Latvia.
Dan: I’m thankful for family time. Living in Latvia with the kids in school in England and extended family far away, the moments together are very special. Here is a recent father son trip to Zambia to check out gap year possibilities for Jonathan.
Esther: One of my favourite events of 2019 was helping build the third cabin at Eagle’s Wings Camp with my cousins and friends from Christmas Valley.
Esther: Mum and I took some of the building crew on a trip to Ķemeri national park, where there is a boardwalk through an amazing bog, with an observation tower.
Esther: Here I am with some of my friends at school. This year we are the oldest in the school and have both leadership responsibilities and extra privileges.
Jonathan: A big part of my time at school is sport. I captained the basketball team this year. We won our first game and are looking forward to more games to come. The most important sport to me however is rugby. I was part of the 1st XV team and we won 7 of our 12 games. I was very grateful that I was able to play every game without any serious injury. Here is a video of our highlights if you would like to watch it:
Jonathan: I was fortunate enough to go to Japan this year and watch a Rugby World Cup game as well as exploring the fascinating culture of this country for two weeks. The reason why I was able to go was because of the shorter guy on the right, a Japanese friend of mine from school. I have been privileged to help him along his journey of faith and he was saved not long before the New Year. This was amazing to see as he seemed quite far away from accepting Christianity to be the only religion. However after an encounter with God he could not argue anymore.
Jonathan: Like Esther, I too am in the oldest year group, with a lot of responsibility. I also have a lot of academic work as I have important exams coming at the end of the year. This has made it quite a stressful year with so much to do. However it has been extremely enjoyable as well. In this picture we have just finished a dinner after a lecture given by Chris Anderson, an old Monktonian who founded TED talks. As an experiment he gave thirteen of us £1,000 to use for acts of radical generosity which was a big surprise to all of us.
Anna: Our headmaster (https://twitter.com/MonktonHead) did a personal project in which he committed to #TrySomethingNew. He asked pupils to volunteer to teach him something new so Jonny and I decided to teach him one of the dances we learnt in Christmas Valley this summer. All our friends got involved and really enjoyed it. This kind of dancing has long been a family tradition and it was great to share it!
Katie: I have really enjoyed playing clarinet in Rīga Chamber Orchestra this year, in some beautiful venues. It has been so good to get back to this kind of music, which I played a lot until I left school. Here is the finale of our Christmas concert:
Anna: I was on the committee that organised the Winter Ball. It was a great experience to work in a team, learning how to organise an event. It was hard work, but it was totally worth it and I really enjoyed the event itself.
Anna: I had the great privilege of spending a week in Dubai, visiting a schoolfriend. It was a very surreal experience. I felt like I had landed on a movie set! I went to an underground church meeting in a hidden room, as it is illegal to hold services in Dubai. It was very interesting to see how people live in such a different culture and place.
Dan: One of my passions is helping my friend Peter Eisans, on my left, with Baltic Global Initiative. This is a Latvian mission that reaches out to the world from Latvia. Here we are in the country of Georgia making preparations to send an Eagle’s Wings team to run a youth camp last summer.
Katie: This year I’ve been studying again, this time at the Institute for the Arts in Therapy and Education in London, on the Trauma-Informed Schools and Communities Practitioner course. I’m gradually implementing what I’m learning in Ērgļi school, collaborating with teachers, parents and pupils. In this photo I am speaking at a seminar in Riga on the theme of “School” at a conference for adoptive and foster families entitled “Every child is one caring adult away from a success story.” I hope over the coming year to develop opportunities for supporting trauma informed practice in schools around Latvia.
As 2020 begins we have been involved in the 14th annual outreach with our Dutch sister church, taking 265 food bags out to people in Madona and the surrounding areas. It is a very demanding but extremely rewarding project in which we meet people in their homes, listen to stories from their lives and offer practical help.
Thank you to everyone who has sent us their news over Christmas. It is always great to catch up with friends and family from all over the world. We hope this letter has given you an idea of some of the things we have all been up to this past year.
Lots of love,
Roth Family 2019-2020 