Mission Riga 7/30-8/3 2026

Our summer event in Riga will be held this year in late summer, at the turn of July and August. There’s a touch of nostalgia in the air, as our first mission in Riga took place in August 2018. Back then, we were on the road for a full ten days. The photo above, taken in Jūrmala in August 2022, features, in addition to Mika, Benjamin Holopainen, and myself, Ukrainian Ira Saikevych and Hungarian Zsombor Szük. We met Ira in Riga earlier that summer when, after being invited on the street, she came to a café concert we had organized. Now she is doing student ministry work with her husband Zhenya in Odessa, Ukraine, in the midst of the war.

It’s worth saying a little more about Zsombor, as he is a special guest at our summer event. Many may remember him from our congregation’s Easter Sunday service, where he shared the Word in a wonderful way. Zsombor, or JB, studied at the Bible College (MBCS) in Baltimore from 2021 to 2025. Last summer, he led a summer mission trip to Montenegro and has since taught books from both the New and Old Testaments at the Budapest church’s Bible school. Evangelism is also close to his heart, and alongside his church work, he is studying molecular bionics engineering at the university.

This summer, the plan is to evangelize not only in the center of Riga but also in the vicinity of the Salvation Temple Church. Pastor Efraims Šmits has carried this vision on his heart, and we have the opportunity to help bring it alive in various ways. We will gather in the mornings and evenings to hear the Word, worship, and pray together, and during the day we will evangelize and enjoy the Riga summer.

The first meeting will be in the upper hall of the Temple of Salvation on Thursday evening, July 30. On Friday and Saturday, the day will begin and end with gatherings at the same location, and on Sunday we will attend meetings at various churches. We’ll even spend Monday together, perhaps on the beautiful beach in Jūrmala.

Pastor Risto Kyrö

For more information: latvia@raamattupuhuu.fi