About 40 teenagers and young adults took to the road to complete a 180-mile stage of Youth With A Mission's globe-trotting Torch Run, carrying an Olympic-style beacon from Kolka, in the west of the country, to the Estonian border.
The Torch Run - representing the light of the gospel - began at the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem at Easter in 1988, since when young runners have taken the missions symbol around the world to encourage prayer for world evangelization.
Covering up to 50 miles a day during the two-week journey, the Latvian relay team took part in special public meetings in towns along the way, with a day-long prayer rally staged in the nation's capital, Riga.
The coastal run - which ended last month - was the second leg in Latvia, following on last year's run from the Lithuanian border to Kolka. Planning began two years ago when YWAM leaders in the country "sensed that the most important need for the country at this time is intercession, in order to open up the way for God to move in the land", said spokeswoman Cheryl Harrison.
Since Latvia's independence in 1991, some "wonderful things have taken place", but "we believe that the harvest has barely begun, and that now is the time of preparation for revival and spiritual awakening", she added.
This year's run followed the Gulf of Riga because "we feel that the coastlines have great spiritual and historical significance. These borders have in the past been doorways to the East, past military strongholds".
During the past eight years thousands of young people around the world have taken part in the Torch Run, which has seen teams criss-cross more than 40 countries with the beacon. One team swapped running shoes for snow boots to carry the torch in Antarctica at the end of a north-south run beginning in Alaska.
Occasional further legs keep the Torch Run alive, with plans for a third stage in Latvia next year, and then on through the Baltics. Total mileage covered by all the participants to date is estimated to be around 50,000 miles - twice round the earth.
( Photo available on request)
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