Our Mission to Lithuania

• Journal of our trip! (long)
• To view our pictures from the trip, Click here.

Everything below here was in preparation for the trip:

Prayer Needs:

• Guidance
• Nate work
• Our families as we will be ‘skipping Christmas’
• That the group members will like us and welcome us into their community
• The Language Barrier

Supplies we are trying to collect:

• Gifts for the orphans (75 children) – All DONE!
• $ for Small Guitar Amp
• Guitar Tuner
• Coffee
• Monetary Donations – we’re giving it all to the trip

1st Journal Post

Ok, so Nate and I have been praying about Lithuania for awhile (and you might have heard us mention it) and now I’m going to tell you about it.
Pastor Steve (great guy, did our marriage counseling) asked us to consider going to Lithuania to watch over a congregation while the missionaries who work there take Christmas vacation. They don’t get to go home very often and have been saving up for their trip. But they don’t want to leave their congregation alone, especially at Christmas, so they are asking for couples to come for 2 or more weeks so they can take their trip.
We thought about it and decided it was something we should do. So after waiting a couple months for contact information, Nate and I kinda gave up on going. BUT, in the last couple of days we have communicated with these missionaries (Kel and Sharon) and they are really pumped about us volunteering to help them out.
I don’t have much information yet (we are in the process of introducing ourselves and our backgrounds to them and also finding out more of what they expect of us), but we would be visiting an orphanage on Christmas eve and also doing some outreach during the weeks and then continuing to do normal church bible teaching stuff the rest of the time.

I am going to find out if there are any supplies or other things needed by the church or orphanage and try to raise some money to take with us. I am pretty sure I can get support from my home congregation, Aggie Lutherans, and Peace / Our Saviors. I hope that we can find out what their true needs are and be generous in helping to provide for them.

I’m also kinda nervous (Nate is too) about going to a country where we don’t speak the language, don’t know the culture, and the people who do won’t be there. Its very different from any mission trip we’ve ever gone on, because we’ll be alone.
Please pray for us:

• Guidance as we continue to work out the details
• that we can find people/friends to support our trip
• Nate especially needs prayer because he will have some major deadlines due right about the time we are supposed to leave, thats going to be VERY stressful, but his boss totally supports the trip. Praise God.
• Also, please pray for our families as we will be ‘skipping Christmas’ this year (and New Years). -Sorry Ellen

I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about it as we continue to find out more specifics. We are excited and are going to start looking into airline tickets soon. Wow, December is going
to be here sooner than we think!

Thank you for opportunities to serve, Lord

2nd Journal Post

Info about the Orphanage
All the below stuff is straight from the orphanage website.

Nowadays we need these essential things:

• Clerical goods (paper for copying, note books, pens, pencil glues, colored construction paper, drawing paper, correctors, gouache, Sell tape, felt-tip pens, etc.).
• Hygienic goods (combs, shower gel, deodorants, soap, tooth paste, hygienic packs for girls, toilet paper, napkins, etc.)
• Housekeeping goods (needles, yarn, soap powder, toilet, floor, dishes, cleansers, dust remover, broom, boot polish, buckets, stainless steel pots, door locks, electric lamps, plug-switches, rosettes, wallpapers, linoleum, wallpaper and ceramic slab glue, white emulsion and enamel);
• Music centers, refrigerators, TV sets, computers;
• Sports boots, slippers (36-45 sizes), socks, pantyhose.

ABOUT THE CHILDREN
Total 75

According to the social status:
Orphans – 5

Children who have lost their parents – 70

According to classes:
Preschooler – 8

1-4 class/grade pupils – 19
5-10 class – 40
11-12 class pupils – 5
Professional
school students – 3

Health disorders: (all children have health problems, some of them have
even several health problems)
Communication disorder – 35
Sight (vision) pathology – 25

Spinal deformity -29
Flatfooted – 16
Functional heart and blood-vessel illnesses – 27

Nerve system disorders – 8

Wow, that is just the orphanage. Where we will be spending Christmas Eve. It makes me very humble to think that on ‘normal’ years, I spend Christmas with my family, giving each other superfluous gifts, and celebrating. Whereas, this year, I will be surrounded by children who do not even have families other than each other, who are sick and in need of health care, who probably don’t get gifts -much less what they need to survive- very often. How much of a difference can I make? At least I can bring them the things that they need, and I’m going to bring as much of it as I (with the help of our community of believers) possibly can.

God, use me to maximize the benefits of our trip for those we are going to serve.

Questions:

Is it safe?

Generally speaking it is very safe. Possibly even safer than a lot of western countries. Though Lithuanians may disagree. For those praying for your safety, have them pray for protection against drunk people. We have never heard of anyone having problems, but there are a lot of drunk people around all day. Also have people praying that you will not slip on the ice. That can be a problem.

What are we doing?

I will type out a draft schedule for you and attach it. So things are likely to change a little but it will give people a picture. But big picture is that because our community is still very young we need someone to keep things running while we are gone.

Community for us is a body of people who meet together to get to know God. We function as a church but are not a church. However we could be called a very post-modern manifestation of the traditional view of church. We meet in each others flats, worship,
study the bible and pray together. In the weekends we do many different things including community service and simply hanging out together.

We bought our Tickets!
3rd Journal Post

Now we can say we are going for sure. We don’t have a 15 hour layover in Paris, its in London instead and its over night. So maybe we’ll have time to go up in the Tower of London and look over the city lights, but after that its sleepy time for us. We probably won’t be very sleepy though, travelling in planes is just awkward. We change planes about 3 times going and coming back (all different airlines). Why do I have the feeling we might not get our luggage right away when we get there? [Bad Becca – slaps wrist – be optimistic.] One of the pros is that we will get a meal on almost every flight. Yay for airplane food, actually I just like the ginger ale. Oh, on our way to Germany we could get free wine with dinner, if thats an option that would help me go to sleep.

Other good news:

• Our passports and such are up to date.
• The most feared foreign disease from former soviet states is malaria, but there won’t be any mosquitoes out while we are there since they would turn into little mosquitoe ice blocks (cold weather here I come).
• Even though we won’t get in until late on Christmas Eve, Christmas with the orphanage has been moved to Christmas morning so we still get to be with them (we thought we might miss out, now we are happy).
• We have given out 50 of the shoebox papers, that means if everyone does what they say they will, we only need 20 more people and we haven’t even asked Peace members for support yet (besides the Source people). Awesomeness!
• We have a basic itenarary (sp?) that just tells us we will be hosting a kinship group on the two Wednesdays we are there, will have two Christmas parties -one at the orphanage and one in ‘our’ flat for the kinship group, will maybe be teaching how to cook, and will definately be spending a lot of time in relationship building – talking, hanging out, and just getting to know the people and let our love shine through to them. Sounds like stuff we can handle! Whoop!

Things to do:

• • Still need to get some vaccinations for diptheria (this is the disease you always died from when you played Oregon Trail in elementary school) and other such diseases.

• Still need to raise money for a small guitar amp. I
  think that the group has been struggling with music / worship and if we can bring the amp with us and use it while we are there to show them how much fun it is, that would be sooo fun for us. All of our work with the Source is paying off.

Wow

Food, Airports, and English?

We said:
Will we need to worry about food? or any other monetary stuff?
They said:
We will leave some food in the cupboards, but you will need to buy some more of your own as you need it. There are three supermarkets very close. Some shopping you will be able to do in English but the rest you will have to shop by pictures. As in look at the picture on the packet and
then decide if you want it. The cashiers all have the prices displayed on the tills so it is easy to know how much to pay. You will need to pay for your transport about 40 US cents per trip. We will leave you with a
prepaid telephone and card, but depending on how many calls you make depends on how much you spend.

We said:
How much money will we need?
They said:
This is a hard question. We do not spend a lot in a two week period. Eating out is cheap, supermarkets are probably slightly cheaper that US ones. But you need to buy local food to keep the prices down.

We said:
We think you are using euros, so we might just charge most stuff.

They said:
Nope sorry, you will be using Lithuanian Litas. 1 US dollar buys about 2.74 to 2.77 Lithuanian litas. There are many money changers around, including one right across the road. Bring US dollars.

We said:
What is the most accepted credit card?
They said:
Visa

We said:
We are a little concerned about the signs in the airports being
‘not English’. Do you think that will be a problem for us?
Thay said:
No not at all.
All big European Airports have signs in English and Palanga airport will be very small and should have English as well. Basically follow the person in front of you. We will find some one to pick you up, but please pray this person in.

We said:
Can you teach us how to say “The Lord Be With You . . . And Also With You” in Lithuanian?
They said:
“Su Dievu”. The Lord be with you is not something that
we would say to each other here. Especially our guys because we are much less mainstream believers. But sometimes people will say good bye by saying Su Dievu which means with God.
Labas is hello and Aciu is thanks. (Aciu sounds just like a sneeze).

Lithuanian Food – courtesy of Christina Moehring
4th Journal Post

Ok, here’s your menus…
Lithuanian food is heavily influenced by neighbouring Russia and Poland, so cabbages, potato and beetroot are abundant, usually served up with pork. Try the cold, creamy beetroot soup, very refreshing and usually served with boiled potatoes or eggs. If Lithuania has a national dish it is “Zeppelins”, large, air-balloon shaped (hence the name) parcels of potato dough, stuffed with either meat or cheese, and covered with either bacon and/or a sauce. They’re certainly unique in world cuisine, but are fairly tasty if extremely filling. There are a few restaurants that serve exclusively Lithuanian food, but most places will have a few Lithuanian dishes as well as more standard food; steak, pasta, pizza, etc. Pizza seems to be very popular in Lithuania and there are many dedicated pizza restaurants (try Bambolo in Klaipeda for combinations of toppings you couldn’t even begin to imagine). If you’re after more “exotic” stuff most of the big cities will have the standard ranges of world cuisines, Indian, Chinese and the like, as well as some more unusual ones like Polish or Armenian. Lithuanian restaurants are good value for money; if you avoid the tourist traps you should never have to pay more than £5 for a good meal.
McDonalds have now spread their insidious influence to Lithuania. They aren’t widespread yet, but you should be warned that they are there!
Lithuanian beer is pretty good stuff; Czech-style lagers are most common, but some breweries do dark beers as well. The lager is stronger than those you’ll find in the UK, but happily you seem to be able to drink as much as you like and not suffer from a hangover (probably because the beer is fairly pure, and not pumped full of chemicals). All bars served beer on draught. Depending on where you drink half a litre will cost between 40 and 80p. Imported beers are available in touristy bars, but are more expensive than the local stuff, and is usually not on draught so you may as well stick to the local brew.
Spirits are popular in Lithuania, vodka especially so, and there are some reasonable vodkas distilled in Lithuania. Another drink that you may encounter is Lithuanian mead, made from honey and which only recently begun to made again, based on traditional recipes. It comes in a wide variety of colours and flavours, and as it comes in small bottles with pretty pictures of Lithuania on them it makes a popular present to bring back. Having had a couple of the stuff I can confirm that it is drinkable, although its sweet flavour means that I doubt you could drink too much of the stuff before throwing up. It warms you up nicely in cold weather though, and does a respectable job of clearing blocked sinuses.

A thank you from Kel and Sharon

Hi again dear Nate and Becca,

We just wanted to thank you once again for your wonderful help in Klaipeda this Christmas past. It was such a blessing to us personally, and to our Vynuogynas Klaipedoje (Vineyard in Klaipeda) community.

We were encouraged by your service, by your coming so far especially at Christmas and especially when we weren’t here! We were encouraged by all that you gave to our community; love, friendship, encouragement to worship, some beautiful worship times, gems in teaching, plus leadership. Oh yes, and the Mexican meal and bowling! We were grateful for those you contacted and encouraged. We also thank you for helping at the orphanage. We think that you did really well, ministering across the cultures in a totally new culture.

Thank you to you, your families and to all those who supported you with prayer and finances and in other ways. Your being in Klaipeda made our first time home in New Zealand for 4 and ¼ years so much easier and we are so grateful God brought you to help!

Thank you also to all those who gave towards the shoe boxes for the orphanage children. To those who prayed, gave financially, thought about what to buy, bought, packed….aciu – thank you! The children have been really blessed by the boxes. We’ve had fun giving out those you weren’t able to. We loved watching one little boy, Darius, receive his box and scamper away to his room to examine it in private. Later, he returned to show us its contents, with much delight.

The boxes showed much thought, as well as generosity. I guess the prayer is now that the children would know the God who inspired people so far away to give the boxes. That the children would know Jesus loves them – not just because of gifts, but because of his giving up his life for them. That they would know him in this way and also as their friend and helper. Their lives can be lonely, hard, dis-functional, sad.

Thank you for everything, words cannot express our gratitude. Su Dievu – with God! Love, Kel and Sharon