Monday June 22nd 2009

Louise and I (Shirley) returned home on Monday evening via the Amtrak from New York City after a good six days in Vilnius. We walked a lot of miles and got lost a few times. On the Sunday before we left we decided to go back to the church where we had worshipped with the group. We walked way out of our way, and discovered that the church was only a very short distance from the hostel where we were staying. The hostel was a very good one--fairly new. We had the use of the kitchen and a computer,. We visited the KGB museum. We hadn't realized how recently Lithuania had been forcefully under Russia's control. At the coffee hour after church we visited with several couples who had been in Vilnius about ten years ago doing essentially the same thing we had done at the college. The woman said that it had been such a frightening experience with armed Russian soldiers every where that she thought at the time that she would never want to go to Lithuania again and that it was very different for this trip. Louise said at the end of the trip that she could now conduct a tour of Vilnius, but not me!! We saw lots of sights and bought a few more items--not much amber though.

Update

The 6 of us returning home made it home! Battokok got home to Maryland around 9:30 pm and the van arrived at the Presbytery of Carlisle in Camp Hill at 10:30 pm. Thank you for all your prayers for our safe travels.

Tuesday June 16 2009

Our day of departure! The game plan is to leave the Ecotel at 8 to arrive at the airport for 830. Roger will be flying to Amsterdam at 10:05 where he will be bicycling with his brother for another week and a half. Shirley and Louise will be staying back in Vilnius, where they have extended their trip for another week. Ellen will leave on Wednesday to return to DC. The rest of us will be leaving at 11:30 am where we have a layover in Helsinki and will arrive at JFK airport at 3:50 pm. We will then travel by van to the Presbytery of Carlisle, arriving around 10:30 pm, where we will pick up our cars to drive home. Stayed tuned for an update and more pics!

Monday June 15, 2009

We left Birzai for Vilnius around 9am and arrived around noon without any problems. We checked into Ecotel and spent the day doing retail therapy. We all met for our last dinner in Lithuania around 7 where we enjoyed good food and good conversation. We met in the hotel lobby around 9:30 pm where we all took turns on reflecting on the trip. We all agreed that we bonded well with each other and with everyone that we met and we accomplished a lot of good on this trip. We then retired for the evening as we have an early rise and long day of travel ahead of us tomorrow.

Sunday June 14, 2009

Our day started with a Sunday morning service at a multi century old temple of Lithuanian Reformed Church. The Reverend Rimas Mikalauskas read from the calling of Samuel in the Bible invited us to be always ready to respond to God's call and to be failthful to our mission as servants of other people. In the afternoon, we visited a cave before attending a wonderful presentation of Lithuanian culture in a museum. Sigita and her young daughters were with us. In the evening, Reverend Mikalauskas, his wife, and the elders of the church welcomed us for a dinner any one of us will not forget. We exchanged gifts, watched a slide show of a mission trip from PA 3 years ago, and many other activities of the vibrant Reformed Church of Lithuania. When we left around 10 pm, amid hugs and best wishes, very few eyes were dry.

Saturday June 13, 2009

Today in Birzai we connected with our Reformed brothers and sisters by visiting the Superintendent of the Synod of Lithuania Reverend Rimas Mikalauskas. He and 3 of his young confirmation students, Skaiste, Irma, and Laurynas, showed us around. They took us to 2 ERCL churches dating from the 17th century. We also saw a children's shelter operated by the Reformed Church. The Nemunelis Radviliskis Church, right on the border with Latvia, is the site for a children's summer church camp. There the church ladies prepared a high tea for us. Later, the young folks took us to visit the castle of the dukes of Radiavils. It is a large museum and an active archaeological site. Another pastor, Sagita Svambariene, took some of us to see the longest walking bridge in all of Lithuania.

Paper Clips-One clip at a time

On Friday morning, the documentary Paper Clips was shown to the Ukrainian students to end the week of teaching on diversity, tolerance, and love. The documentary follows a class of 8th graders in Tennessee studying the Holocaust who collected paper clips to make a chain that would represent the 6 million Jews that were killed. As a result of this project, 25 million paper clips were received and the students received letters of testimony worldwide. Some of the survivors spoke to the town to share their stories and in honor of the students. The project impacted the teachers, students, and community in developing their own tolerance. German journalists adopted the project and arranged a railroad card from one of their former concentration camps to come to Tennessee and it is now a museum on the Holocaust. The Ukrainian teachers commented that it was a beautiful and moving story, which they will add to their own stories of the Holocaust.

After the movie, the Ukrainian teachers thanked the American teachers for taking the time to teach their students. It was very sad for us all to say good bye to the Ukrainians and vice versa.