MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I pray that you will have a very blessed holiday season. One that is full of laughter joy, fellowship with remembrance and reflection of our King!
LINKSMŲ ŠVENTŲ KALĖDŲ! LAIMINGŲ NAUJŲ METŲ! ( "Happy Holy Christmas! Happy New Year!)

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine invited Tiana and I to her church to hear a guy preach. He was from France, but was a pastor in Sweden and the sermon was going to be in English. I think it was one of the funniest sermons I have been too. Not so much because the guy had a great sense of humor, but more because of the dynamic of the evening. You have a Pastor who is speaking in English with a VERY strong French accent and a translator who is trying to translate something that sounds like, "....spanking God..." but is really "speaking to God." And then people from the congregation shouting out to the translator what the guy is saying. Translating is hard enough, but then you add 2 people that English is not their first langauge and then an audience who is more than willing to help you. It makes it a little more difficult. To say the least, it was a very amusing sermon! I think it was something about Moses spanking God.....? But the evening only got better.
Afterwards we went out with 5 students to dinner. Before I go on there is one thing that you need to know about Lithuanians, something that I admire and enjoy about them. They are very straight forward and there is no beating around the bush. They say what they are thinking with out a filter.
With this said, I was speaking to a student whom I had met before and we were talking about life and doing ministry here and the conversation ended up going like this,"

Student: " I hear you have started language?"
Me: "Not yet"
Student:"I would ask why, but I'm not sure if I care."
Me: "HA HA HA HA HA!"

I started laughing so hard I was crying. I don't think I have had someone ever be so honest before. It was quite refreshing. Well, I know who to go to now if I need an honest opinion!

The week of Thanksgiving the courtyard by our flat was being decorated with a HUGE Christmas Tree and lights being put in the trees surrounding the courtyard. November 25th was the lighting ceremony which was a big deal, evidently! I thought there would be a few people, but their was hundreds! They also had a program for the evening with famous singers and dancers. However, the coolest part was the fireworks! We were about 30 feet from where they set them off, they were right above our heads! IT WAS SO COOL! Anywho, this is Tiana and I as the fireworks were going off.

These are some photos from Thanksgiving! It was a great time of fellowship and building deeper relationships with the Vilnus team and just having fun! Which, I will never complain about!

I go to a "Free" Church which is a non-denominational church. It is a small church, there was about 40 there yesterday. The service yesterday however stood out to me more than normal. The sermon was preached in Russian by a really cute elderly man then one of the elders translated it into Lithuanian then our translator translated it into English. In front of me a woman was translating it into German for someone. Also there was a Spaniard who was listening to the English translation as well. I looked around and saw about 5 cultures represented and all of them were hearing a sermon in a tongue they understood. What an amazing example of how big our God is! He isn't just Lord in America, but all over the world! For some reason this concept smacked me upside the head yesterday. I love those moments!

Last night I experienced my first Lithuanian holiday, All Saints Day. It is in a way like our memorial day. The tradition is to go to the cemetaries and place candles on the grave sites to remember those who have passed away. I wish I could adequately describe what I saw, felt, and encountered, but it is not possible to portray such an image in mere words. It is something that has to be experienced to understand the exquisiteness of it. One would have to see the thousands of candles lit over acres of forest in complete darkness, to hear the wind gusting through and rustling the leaves, and to feel the somber atmosphere brought on by remembering how each candle represents a life lived and legcy left behind, both good and bad. To wonder where all of these hundreds of souls are now? How many of them heard the gospel? How many refused the gospel? It makes one stop and ponder his own life, how it has been lived and how it should be lived.

One month anniversary! On October 18th I have offically been here one whole month! A lot has happend and changed in one month. I moved to a whole new world, found an apartment and moved in, have had many misunderstandings because of the language and cultural barriers, but I wouldn't take any of it back. It has been an experience I will never forget.
Last week we did all our planning for this year and this semester and this week we started doing ministry! Yesterday we went to the universities and did surveys. It was so exciting! I thought I was going to be scared out of my mind to do them, but I had a blasted being stretched. However, I must admit that God really spoiled my first survey experience. The first one Jen and I did together and the girl, Ingre, was really responsive. She wanted to know more about Agape and gave us her telephone number! After she left I jumped up and down and hit Jen telling her

"That was amazing!"

Jen and I split up to do more surveys. I talked to a couple girls and they did the survey, but they were not very interested. The third girl I was talking to didn't speak very good english. I asked her the question, "What do you think are 5 struggles university students deal with in Kaunas?" As I asked her this question a guy passed by and stoped right behind me. I ignored him for a lit bit thinking he was a friend of hers. Finally I turned around to see what he wanted and in perfect english told me,

"These questions you ask are very interesting."

He wanted to look at the survey and talk about it. The girl I was talking to lost intrest and left. This wanted to sit down and talk more so we went into the university and for 45min we talked all the way through the survey in depth. He would fill out the questions on the survey and then explain his answers. I would ask further questions as the Lord brought them to me. I don't think I stoped praying through the whole thing! I just wanted to be available to do what God wanted me to do and say. He spent last year in Japan studing abroad, you can imagine the spiritual concepts he picked up while over there. He had a Buddhist mentality towards spiritual things. He also enjoys philosophy so our converstation tended to sway in that direction. When he was done he looked at me and wanted to know what brought me to Lithuania and what were my goals while I was here. My thought was,

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!!"

So I went on to tell him about Agape and what I was here to do, to tell university students about Jesus Christ. He said, "So I have heard of this Christianity. Tell me more about it." WHAT!!!!! God just kept paving the way. We started to talk about the fundamentals of Christianity and the Gospel. As we got into it he looked at his watched and noticed that he was late for class. One of the questions on the survey was, "Would you like to talk more to some about the meaning of life?" He put maybe, but wrote down his number and wanted someone to call him and talk more about

"philosophy."

I think I skipped all the way out of the university!!!!! My first day doing surverys and I got to see God work in a practical way through a survey! It was incredible! He gave me a boldnes that I never thought I had, to ask questions I thought I would never ask! Well, I guess you never say never to the Lord!

We are taking 3 days to seek God and His plans for this semester and for us as a team. Yesterday I walked around the park close to my apartment and found a really really old church. It was run down and falling apart. As I got closer I noticed that there was a door open going into the church. I walked in not knowing if it was allowed, but I didn't care I was so intriged by this mysterious building. When I steped in there was an old monk sitting in a folding chair by the door reading. He showed me where I could read about the history of the church and that I was free to roam. I kicked into indiana jones mode. LOL! Inside is so worn and rusted. It has been through two fires, war and many other things. It is a catholic church and all the original paintings are still up on the walls. I walked around looking at them, most of them I couldn't even make out. I found myself standing in front of one that I could barely make out, but I could see Christ hanging on the cross. The painting was very faded, rusted, stale, and Christ was just a glipse. Then it hit me, this was a picture of Lithuania. I started to cry. Lithuania's heart is faded, rusted, stale and there is but a glipse of Christ here. I sat down in front of the picture crying and started to journal all these thoughts. I stayed there a while until the monk came up to me and told me it was time to go becasue he had to leave. He noticed that I had been crying. He tried asking me questions, but we couldn't understand each other. I had so many questions for him also. Lord willing I will be able to ask him someday.

The week that we got in Kaunas, Renata had us do a scavenger hunt around the city. We had to ask three students from Kaunas Tech what they were studying and why they liked it, then we had to take a picture with them. This is Sharon & I posing with the three girls.


Jen, Sharon, & I on the savenger hunt. We were racing the boys to see who could finish the hunt the fastest.


This is an exchange student from Spain. His name is Estaban and he is a Christian. We met him at the first church we attended. He is going to be a great contact for meeting students! Praise God!

This is a picture of the nationl dish of Lithuania. It is called Zepalini. There is a joke that you need to fast just to be able to eat it because it is very heavy.

I've been in Lithuania now for 12 days and it still doesn't seem really. I have lived in three different apartments and now I have my apartment that I will be living in for the next two years. The 5 of us move into my apartment on September 27th. Jen and Peter got an apartment that is in the same complex as mine and moved in the next day. So now it me and Matt & Sharon. It has been great having them live with me! This way I am not living by myself and have some great company, but we are really praying that they can find an apartment soon so they can start settling in and making a home here!
God has been so good! I feel so blessed by Him! I was praying for an apartment that felt like home and He went above and behond! There were things that I really wanted to have, but could have lived without and God gave them to me! Like a dryer! I almost cried when I saw it! Dryers are not common at all, most people hang dry their clothes. I will post some pictures of my apartment soon.
We got to go to a student gathering last night for a different organization and it was so refreshing just to hang around students! It made me realize that I can't wait to start our ministry! I'm so excited!
I'm not really struggling with anything huge right now like I thought I would be. I just imagined that being a missionary I would always have some big struggle always looming over me. I'm just taking a day at a time and putting it in the Lord's hands and it makes things a lot easier! I'm not carrying the world on my shoulders and I know that if something happens that it's in the Lord's hands and He will take care of it. I am so thankful that I serve such a big God!!!!

CHEESE! These were all taken at Gedimino Pilius.














Jen and I expressing our true colors!













We're so pretty, oh, so pretty!

I am here! Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Haaaalllleeuljah!!!! It is my third full day in Vilnus, which is the capital of Lithuania. I will be leaving for Kaunas on Saturday. It has been beautiful here! Yesterday morning we had a thunder and lightening storm that was incredible. One time the thunder was right over us and made 3 car alarms in the parking lot go off! It was also rainy yesterday, I felt right at home!
Today we hiked up to a place called "Gedimino Pelius" which is a castle and watch tower. I took some pictures up at the top and I will post them as soon as I can get my computer hooked up to the internet. It was a beautiful view!
We are having a good time here in Vilnus and enjoying getting to know the Vilnus team, but I am ready to go to Kaunas and get settled in. I'm ready to start a ministry and make it my own, figure out where I fit in and start loving on and serving some students.

I love being able to use different colors on here! It's so cool! The lastest news is that Lord willing I will be leaving for Lithuania on Sunday September 17th! Which is in 5 days! WEE HA! I have $285 more a month that I need to raise before then so if your reading this, could you pray for that? I would appreciate it! I just started packing this week, which just goes to show that my life has been a whirl-wind the past couple months! :) But through this process of support raising, I have been so blessed! God has put me in a front row seat of watching Him work in some incredible ways! I have loved it! He also has worked on my heart so much through all of this, breaking me and making me moldable to be more like Him! What an experience.

By popular demand, I am updating my blog! :) To be totally honest, I am horrible at these kind of things. I tend to forget that I have them or that they even exist. Kind of like my head, if it wasn't attached, I would for get that I had it! So I have a great opprotunity to grow in this area and learn how to update my blog every week! Woo Hoo! I know you all are so excited about that, I know that I am. Seriously, I am. :) Updating here we come..................

Well, for those of you who are interested in what is going on right now in the life of me, I am in the process of raising support for LT. Lord willing, we plan to leave on August 25. That is in 65 days, but who is counting!?! I feel like I have so much to do I don't even know where to start, but really all I have to do is trust in the Lord and walk obediently and He will take care of the rest. I just keep thinking of Isaiah in chapter 6 verse 8 where God says, "Whom shall we send and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Sooo, God answered and here I am!

Continually Amazed By His Grace
As each day goes by, I can't help but wonder why the Lord has so graciously choosen me of all people to be a vessel and an ambassador for Him? I feel so inadequate and helpless to do what He is calling me to do, but I suppose that is when He can be most glorified through me. As I am preparing the details for Lithuania, He is preparing me for Lithuania. That is what this blog site is all about. To bring glory and honor to Him has I am in Lithuania, showing the love of Christ to university students. So people can log on to this blog and see what Christ is doing in LT!

Here is a picture of the Lithuania Team!