On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Vin Lucian and I left the US to minister to Believers in Latvia. After roughly a 24 hour trip, we landed the following day and walked the beautiful streets of Riga, the Capital. I took many pictures of amazing architecture and ate delicious local foods.
On Friday, Danny Pedraza and his wife Damaris picked us up and took us 40 minutes south to Jelgava where he pastors at House of Salvation and raises up church planters.
The Empowered Lifestyle Conference was slated to run Friday evening and all day Saturday.
The congregation was Soviet and I had been watching YouTube for over a month learning the 25 most common Russian phrases.
For over a month I translated almost 200 slides in the PowerPoint Presentation for the Conference as well as a 14 page Word document for attendees to follow along with the presentation. When I met Natalja, who proofread my work, she was surprised that I knew no Russian! Thank you Google Translate!
With my translator standing by, I greeted the congregation in their native Russian tongue. "Hello. Good afternoon. How are you? My name is Brad Wolff. I am from America. I speak no Russian." They all smiled and clapped. They loved it!
With my translator, I began: I have no title. I have no position. I have no papers of ordination. I am an ordinary Believer. And I actually believe that I can do what Jesus said I can do in John 14:12.
I gave a short background testimony of growing up as a pastor's kid, a missionary kid and being baptized in Holy Spirit just 2 months after marrying Ariel in 1989. I then told how our lives were changed in 2010 when we began to hear testimonies of ordinary Believers doing signs, wonders and miracles and leading people to Christ outside the 4 walls of the church. We began to believe that this could happen in our city as well, and so it did as Ariel and I took risk and stepped outside of our comfort zone bringing a demonstration of the Gospel of the kingdom of God out in our town and into our work places.
On Saturday I dealt with their identity in Christ and reminded them that the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead lives in them. I walked them through the 5-Step Prayer Model and when we had our break-out session, several of their people were healed by their own hands when they prayed in the name of Jesus. Needless to say, there was so much excitement!
On Sunday morning, I reached from Mark 5, the Gadarene Demoniac and Matthew 18, the unforgiving servant. The Gadarene lived among the tombs and was in bondage, even though he broke his chains and fetters. What is a tomb but a monument for the dead, a monument of a suffered trauma in their past. The unforgiving servant held the key to his own release: by forgiving. So will your heavenly Father do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive.
The Latvians have been living under the shadow of a monumental trauma to their nation. Because they have been suffering from disappointment in their prayers not being answered, not having breakthrough or revival in their nation, I believe that started to change when they, with one accord, stood to their feet and forgave Lenin, Stalin and those that oppressed them with communism. It was a nervous moment for me for I was an outsider and did not experience their suffering, but I trusted the prophetic word that He gave me and I trusted the word of wisdom Ariel had when she told me to ask them if they were experiencing disappointment.
Sunday night we drove back up to Riga where I ministered to a Latvian Pentecostal congregation. The entire congregation as well, in one accord, stood to their feet and forgave all of their oppressors. I was done ministering at 1 hour. They wanted more. I led them in praying for each other and several more were healed. They wanted more. I led 12 or 13 in the baptism of Holy Spirit and for the next 2 hours ministered one on one to all those that came forward. 3 and half hours later, I was finally done.
They still wanted more and asked if I would return to train them as I did the Soviet congregation in Jelgava and I said I would do so gladly. The church in Riga is part of a union of Pentecostal congregations and they would get together to make a plan for my return.
Please pray for the nation of Latvia as God began to light fires as they removed themselves from the shadow of the monument of communism.
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