The gospel benefit of pulling together

Over the last month or so, the Latvian Men’s International football team has played England at Wembley. The match was a one-sided affair with Latvian parking the defensive bus and spending most of their time in their own half trying to keep England out. They did well to restrict England to three goals but the difference in depth and quality was plain to see.

The other example of Latvia punching above its weight came at this year’s Oscars ceremony. Flow (Latvian: Straume) is a 2024 animated adventure film directed by Gints Zilbalodis, written and produced by Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža, which won the best animated picture category. It also won in the same category at the Golden Globe awards in January. The film was made on a budget of less than $4million, which is tiny compared to the budgets of giants like Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar, all of whom were beaten by this lo-fi animated film from Latvia.

Latvians are delighted by the success of the film, but divided as to its overall message. The film is set in what seems like a post-apocalyptic world where all humans have disappeared and every building is abandoned. It is interesting that the main character is a cat, an unpredictable loner, first seen living alone in a deserted house. This cat is only stirred from its comfortable spot by the noise of animals running away from rapidly approaching flood waters. The cat overcomes its fear of water and learns to swim. Later it overcomes its tendency to be a loner by getting into a boat with a set of unlikely companions: a capybara, a lemur, a Labrador retriever and a secretary bird.

This idea of the strength of working together, whilst being counterintuitive, resonates with the naturally independently minded Latvians. They value EU and Nato membership, especially with the looming threat of their larger neighbour Russia. Churches in Latvia have benefitted from the presence of Christian families who relocated to Latvia to serve in embassies or Nato. Latvia used to be seen as the gateway to the East for the gospel. God often works like that, taking a tiny seed and using it to make a big impact. Pray for Latvia to overcome its fears and use its collective spiritual resources to promote gospel growth in this tiny country and beyond.