Observations from an outsider……..
When my husband suggested that we go on a one year mission trip I thought I would faint dead away. This from the man who told me, many years earlier, that he would never go on the foreign mission field for any extended length of time? I challenged him to find the place and I would do the rest. We became willing to go before we had a place to go to.
Lithuania became our landing place. How it came about is a mystery to me. We had never even heard of this country, but were on our way there. We packed up and sold off a lifetime of stuff, rented our house and loaned out our cars, found homes for the pets and with our 4 young children bid America goodbye for one year.
On the outside Lithaunia was fast tracking in materialism towards the Western, more affluent, countries. There really wasn’t much we couldn’t get there, but we struggled through a mind blowing year of spiritual deprevation because this country is a spiritual desert. There was a bright spot though. We met a young Pastor name Saul. He was the pastor of the Lithuanian speaking church called “Miesto Baznica” or in English “City Church”. He was a breath of fresh air in a culture that sucks the life out of you before you can exhale.
Just listening to him speak you could see his passion for Lithuanians and see first hand how his heart ached for the many lost souls that walk the streets daily. Despite the countries rise to affluence there seems to be so many people with little hope for the future and many take their own lives just to end the internal struggle. It would be easier on him and his family if, like so many others, they left this God forsaken country and made a better life some place else where he wouldn’t have to work so hard just to get by. But he stays, because this is his calling. He has vision here to see this culture changed for Christ. It takes more energy then you can imagine because no one has any to spare. It feels like you are in it alone.
During our first year in Lithuania we had a few visitors from the States. Ironically a family that we were only briefly aquainted with decided to take us up on our offer to come for a visit. This was a family whose interest was in real estate so of course they wanted to check out the market while they were here.
After looking at houses for a few days, Saul showed them a run down hotel property by the beach and shared ideas of a retreat center. That idea caught on with them and they just could not let it go. They travelled back to the states and began making preperations to secure the building.
After many more months then it seems it should have taken the property was secured. This felt like the first big victory. We could now begin casting vision to others about this new “Community Center”. Our family had returned to the states during this time, but our hearts were burning for the Lithuanian people so we began making preperations to return for a much more permanent amount of time.
Today City Church has commited to developing, running and maintaining this community center. The church as a whole has gotten on board. Many have made personal monitary donations and others have given significantly of their precious time for clean up and renovations.
Since aquiring the property a section of the building has been completely renovated allowing the church to move thier administrative offices there. They are currently up and running. Several rooms have also been renovated and now have occupants. A large main meeting room that seats up to 80 was recently renovated by Free Christian Church who has caught the vision. Many clean up days have taken place and were well attended.
Sunday June 8th the church met together for the first time at the community center to hold its regular church services.
Things are beginning to happen here. It is all so exciting to watch it unfold. It is even more exciting to watch God work in favor of this project. God is really revealing himself and his graciousness to all of us through this project.
But there is still a very long road ahead………
The hotel is in poor condition and needs plenty of interior work. The wallpaper and paint is dripping off the walls and for lack of use there are some major leakes in the roof. There have been a few setbacks as well with the city sewage connection and electricty hook ups. There is also a need for money of course to begin repayment of the bank loan in September. There are many many opportunities to get involved on every level with this project!
