Creative Team – Laine

Laine Guzlēna

My name is Laine Guzlena and I want to believe that God makes me a good wife and a wonderful mother to my daughters and simply a good person! This year I became the coordinator of the Sunday School and Youth Ministry in UMC of Latvia, in short, how I got to where I am today and about my relationship with the Holy Trinity!

I learned about God at school. At school we had a subject of Christian ethics and our teacher was a zealous Christian from a church in Kuldiga. Since then I have known a lot about God – the various biblical stories, the miracles Jesus performed, the Our Father in Heaven and other prayers. I even took part in a Christian theater group!

I knew a lot about God – was I a Christian? Definitely no! Did I believe in God? Probably!

Did I feel part of the congregation? Definitely no!

It was time to change schools and I forgot about the church because it wasn’t my place. At least I thought so! It seemed to me that although all church services are the same, all Christians are quiet and down to earth, and there is no particular interest in children and youth in all churches. But I was wrong, however, I only found out that I was wrong several years later when I joined the Kuldiga’s Methodist Church.

How did I get to the Methodists? Quite simply – one girlfriend at the time invited me to a youth night. When I asked what we would do there, her answer was simple – we will drink tea, have cookies and chat. Being with young people, talking about how Jesus works in our lives today, was the best thing that could have happened to me! In fact, not only that – the best thing was to get to know God and accept Jesus in my heart, which was not an easy path at all but definitely worth all of the difficulties!

I have been in the Methodist Church for 13 years, during these years I have experienced various adventures and blessings. Thanks to the Methodist Church I definitely know that I am in the right place! I started going to church as a young person and then I also was serving as a Sunday School teacher, now I have grown spiritually and have accepted God’s way for my life! I am really glad that God has addressed Laura to be the editor of the newspaper and to build God’s chosen team to make it happen. Thankful that I am a part of it! Methodists are not just a church, they are my spiritual FAMILY!