RIGA - The director of a Harry Potter themed summer camp has come to terms with a local church minister who had been sending her threatening messages after a strange twist of fate revealed that the two were related.
After receiving 15 threatening text messages on her mobile phone, Lolita Osipova 's a project manager with Miranda M and organizer of the planned Harry Potter summer camp 's filed a complaint with the police. Osipova said she feared for the security of the children at the camp.
"I am in charge of the children's security, so I turned to the police. I believe there is a reason for launching a criminal procedure," Osipova said after receiving the messages.
"The camp has never had any problems like that before," she said.
The messages urged her to scrap plans for the camp 's located in the central Latvian town of Gulbene 's by quoting the Bible and alleging that the summer camp had links with evil spirits, sorcery and magic. The messages warned her there would be divine punishment.
Osipova later decided to meet with local Christian leaders to try and explain the camp was not evil and she did not actually teach the children black magic. While discussing the situation with the church minister, the two learned that they were actually blood relatives.
"We are not worried about safety anymore because it turns out that the minister sending the threatening texts was a previously unknown relative of mine, and so everything is fine now," Osipova told The Baltic Times.
She said that parents were not overly concerned about their children's safety at the camp and that they trusted her to take good care of the kids. "The kids and parents aren't really concerned… they know we take all precautions and really care about their children," the camp director said.
Vjaceslavs Bogdanovs, the priest with the Gulbene Roman Catholic congregation, told the Baltic News Service that he had spoken in his sermons about the Harry Potter books' negative impact on the young generation.
The priest, however, distanced himself from aggressive Christians, saying that everybody has the right to his or her opinion, but that it has to be expressed without insulting others and in a polite manner.
Pastors from Gulbene's Lutheran congregation also allegedly made remarks denouncing the summer camp.
Osipova did not comment on who was sending the threatening messages.
The summer camp is due to open in a local palace in the Gulbene district on June 16, with a total of 560 children expected to attend it in groups over the course of seven weeks.
