Latvia

Latvia is a small Eastern European country bordered by Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia. About thirty percent of the country is Catholic, but only six percent attend Sunday Mass. In the late 1990s, Renewal Ministries was invited to come to Latvia by the Effata Community and we have partnered with them ever since.

Our missions generally involve conducting two weekend conferences with teaching sessions and prayer ministry. During the week, the team travels to multiple cities to provide teaching and prayer ministry. In addition, Renewal Ministries provides teaching to seminarians and priests, at the invitation of the archbishop. In the last several years, we also have worked closely with the men in Latvia through a growing men’s ministry.

Latest Field Report

“The most effective groups in Lativa are the men’s group in Riga and the Effata Community in Riga. I taught and ministered at the Effata Community my first night. There were 130 in attendance and eighty percent of them were women.”

-Don Turbitt

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Mission Details

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Country Coordinator

Bohumir Zivcak, PhD

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POLICIES & DOCUMENTS

Mission Details

Questions? Email Natalie Klackle

[email protected]

About Missions

We are currently working in more than thirty countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Mexico, and North and South America. Mission trips are typically one- to three-weeks long. The rallies, conferences, retreats, and training seminars usually include talks, prayer ministry, liturgy, testimonies, and worship. Most missions have a Charismatic dimension, but are intended to be an event for the whole Church.

The primary role of the mission team member is to participate in prayer ministry in the context of the events mentioned above. Those in attendance are invited to receive more of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through prayer ministry. Team members may also have an opportunity to share their testimonies, and to help in other capacities as needed. The mission teams include people of all ages and vocations—lay, clergy, and religious who feel a call to mission.

While expertise in prayer ministry is not required, it is helpful for a mission team member to have some experience in charismatic-style prayer, and be comfortable with praying for people.

Practical Information

Each team member is responsible for all of his or her expenses. Costs include round trip plane ticket, meals, lodging and on-site ground transportation. Team members typically purchase their own airline ticket (after being approved as a team member and with direction from the Country Coordinator of the mission trip) and additionally remit to Renewal Ministries a “Land Payment” which covers all meals, lodging and in-country transportation. Land payments can range from $500 to $1,500, depending on the location and the length of the mission. Missions range from one to three weeks in length. Many team members raise money for their mission trip costs by requesting help from their parishes, prayer groups and family members.

Medical Professionals

Renewal Ministries conducts medical/evangelistic mission trips to Mexico City to minister to the impoverished, elderly, and orphaned. This is an opportunity for medical professionals and others who feel called to works of mercy to use their talents to serve the poor in practical ways.

Bohumir Zivcak, PhD

Bohumir Zivcak, PhD, grew up under the Communist regime in Slovakia, secretly practicing his Catholic faith as a teenager. When Communism fell in 1989, Bohus and his new wife, Alena, began working as lay missionaries, helping to build the River of Life missionary community. Working with the Redemptorist order and a strong network of communities in former Communist countries, they have conducted parish missions, evangelization schools, and preached the Gospel throughout Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Kazakhstan. Bohus serves as Renewal Ministries’ country coordinator for Kazakhstan and Lithuania. He also teaches spirituality at the Catholic University in Ruzomberok, as a member of the department of missions and charity work. Bohus and his wife live in Podolinec, in the mountains of Slovakia, with their four children.

[email protected]

Ralph Martin

President of Renewal Ministries

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Ralph Martin is the president of Renewal Ministries and the host of the weekly Catholic television program The Choices We Face. He holds a doctorate in theology and is the director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Ralph is also the author of the widely read A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward and The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints.

Ralph and his wife, Anne, reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have six children and nineteen grandchildren.

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