Latvia was among the countries particularly hard hit by the global economic crisis that began in 2008, suffering from a high of more than 20 percent unemployment by 2010. Although that figure has fallen to about 9 percent last year, waves of emigration cost the country more than 600,000 of its citizens in the last 15 years, as many of the young and educated move west for the promise of greater prosperity.

That’s why many Latvians have moved to the United Kingdom, with a significant number making a home in Barnsley, just west of Manchester.

Zane Pavlovica and her family moved to Barnsley in 2012 and the first thing they did was to look for a church. They found their church home at the Church of the Nazarene in Barnsley.

The church reached out to them and made them feel welcome. As the family made contacts in the Latvian community, they began to dream of holding Christian meetings with others from their culture and in their own Latvian language.

For the rest of the story, see Engage magazine.