Wonderings and Wanderings

I’m actually able to post from a computer today from a computer lab in the dorm we are staying in the next few days.  Our host is LCC – Lithuania Christian College. This morning we attend City Church here in Klaipeda, Lithuania.  It was a great worship service for a new generation of Lithuanian Christians.  It resembled the contemporary services in some churches I’ve visited like The Crossing in Columbia, MO, or The Journey in St. Louis, MO.  30 – 40 minutes of praise and worship.  A teaching time followed by an offering and then a praise song or time as closing.  It was about 1 hr and 30 minutes in length and the room was full of young people which is quite encouraging in this country as they, too, struggle with reaching the younger generation with the Gospel.  Our group sang the offertory and it actually went okay.  We harmonized and didn’t break any glass so I count that as a success.

After service, everyone gathered downstairs for food and free lunch.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship with the people of the church.  We were there until nearly 3 pm.

We then took a bus or "van taxi" to the Acropolis which is a huge mall in Klaipeda.  We spent about 3 hours shopping and looking for gifts to bring home.  We then enjoyed another meal with some Lithuanian style food.  You would be proud to note that even though a McDonalds was right next door, we didn’t go there.  However, I will confess that we have had ice cream every single day while on the trip!!! We refer to it as "manna".

We returned back to the dorm and had our devotion.  Some of us have stayed in to get to bed early.  Three of the team returned to the jazz festival that is going on in downtown Klaipeda.  All of us went last night but some needed to get some more!

Tomorrow we will work all day at City Church doing some manual labor – cleaning, removing wallpaper.  It will be a long day but we are thankful to be a part of their ministry. Tomorrow night part of the church staff are having us over to their home for another Lithuanian barbecue.  We LOVE Lithuanian barbecues.

God bless and continue your prayers!

We are traveling on a bus from Kaunas to Klaipeda after a wonderful two days in Kaunas. we spent some time with about 14 youth from two Baptist churches in town.  Yesterday we drove out to the woods to camp. It was a gorgeous place with a beautiful river. we ate a delicous supper and played games.  Some of the kids swam. We had a campfire and a final challenge was given to the kids.  then it began to rain so we ran to our tents for the night. it was midnight already. with the sun not going down until 11 PM or so it is really weird to go do bed like normal. i should be able to post in klaipeda this weekend.

Our internet is down this afternoon and evening due to storm. We had some major rain and some light hail and the power went out in some of the church. .

VBS went very well. We had 31 kids which was great! They were high energy.

Tonight we went to a concert at another Baptist church. It was an acappela quartet from Latvia and they were very good. We nodded in appreciation or from sleep exhaustion! After that we stopped by a mall and got icecream. We walked awhile and then went to mcdonalds! It was yummy!

Yesterday was the first day of summer solstace or the longest day of the year! It was finally dark around 10:.30 PM and the sun came up at 3:30 am!

Continue your prayers! We are thankful for them!

We are now getting ready to take off from Chicago. Our flight was for 8 PM however we didn’t get loaded until 9 PM. Then we were on the path to take off and had to stop because someone from the flight control sent another plane in front of us. It is now 10 PM and we are sitting on the tarmac waiting to be pushed back so we can start the engines again to take off!! .

The flight is full and there are a couple of young children expressing the feelings of many passengers!

We will be off soon. I doubt we will make our connecting flight in Warsaw. I’m sure the airline will help us make other arrangements.

And continue your prayers!

Melissa

We have had several flight delays today and are killing time at the food court in Chicago before our 8 PM flight to Warsaw. Otherwise things have been going smoothly. Continue your prayers.

i’m off to Lithuania today for two weeks of ministry. I don’t know how much access I’ll have to internet to update the site but will if I have the opportunity. We will be traveling throughout the country working with various churches and their ministries. We are humbled and thankful that they are allowing us to come and partner with them. I know we will learn from them. Pray for our team of 9 as we travel and represent Christ.

Typepad has a mobile blogging application for blackberry phones and I’ve added it to my own so I can keep up with some posting while on the trip. I leave with a team of 9 on Friday for two weeks in Lithuania. We will be doing a variety of things and working with three different churches while in the country. this trip has been in the making for nearly a year so we are very excited about being there. I’ve had many conversations with folks that II look forward to meeting. I’ll try to post throughout the trip so you can keep up to date with the progress of the trip and our prayer needs.