05. Jul 2025

Livberze - Krimūnu

Photo 1: I just loved the red poppies and wild flowers that I saw along the way.

Both Gilbert and I got up at 5.30 in the morning to get an early start. He left almost a half hour before I did. I did not catch up to him until a lunch break at a grocery store in the city Dobeles. He was staying there for the night, but continued on another 10 kilometers to Krimūnas.

On my way out of Dobeles, walking through the woods, all of a sudden there was a young man at my side, Edmund, who was very talkative. There was a slight scent of alcohol on his breath. He is Latvian, but spent a number of years in his youth in Germany and spoke quite good German. He kept asking what kind of a Christian I was, to which group I belonged. I responded each time: "I am a flowerer of Jesus." Edmund had many critical questions about God. I knew I could not answer answer them in a way that would satisfy him. He helped navigate my way through the woods to a bridge that I needed to cross. Before we parted I brought my thoughts to one final point: To understand God's will and heart for mankind, we must look back to our start in the garden. Mankind lived in communion with God, in unity with each other and in harmony with nature. Everything was as we would expect from a good and loving God. God did not change. Man did. Through Jesus God enables us to do a restart.

I then prayed a pilgrim prayer for Edmund and continued on.

Photo 2: Two ways to go...
Sometimes it is not easy to know exactly which path to take. In this case there was a yellow St. James arrow pointing to the right. In life we need an inner compass as well to disern which way to go. Proverbs 3:5-6 speak to this:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

Photo 3: An old Latvian estate

Photo 4: When I see a snail like this making its way across rough terrain, I remember the promise... (See menu point "Story")

Photo 5: Love those wild flowers...