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.

Friday June 12 2009

Mary Ellen presented her lecture, Adolescence: How to stay healthy when the world wants you to take risks, to the second group of Ukrainian students. She had them read the slides out loud so they could practice their English and a good number of them volunteer to do so. The presentation included body changes and risky behaviors, which included drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, smoking, and sex. After the presentation, Ashley let the students ask her questions about growing up in America. The students had a lot of good questions to ask, especially pertaining to risky behaviors that differ in the Ukraine vs. the United States, as well as personal interest in visiting the Ukraine and what the US is liked. Then Ashley asked them about the Ukrainian attitude toward the US, which they reported as being positive, if any of them has visited the US (2 have), and if any of them would be interested in visiting the US (3 of them).

Friday, Saturday, Sunday Postings

We are now staying in North Lithuania, near the Latvia border, in a small town called Birzai. We have very limited internet access. We will be posting our blog for our last class with the Ukraine students on Friday, as well as our weekend activities with the Superintendent of the Reformed Church, on Monday when we return to Villnus.

Ukraniane Cultural Exchange: 6/11/09 at 6PM

We were treated to a wonderful evening by all the Ukranine students in the LCC auditorium. Teachers and students from each school worked diligently all week to rehearse native songs and dances to perform for us. Each school presented a power point presentation with pictures to highlight their town and important historical facts about it. A synopsis of the event is as follows:

One school, Lviv Linguistic Gymnosium, from Lviv Ukraine, perfomed a native folk song "I Will Go In The High Mountain". This beautiful ballad speaks about Ukranian lands and mountains, as well as love.

The other school, Kharkiv Specialized School N156, from Khavkiv, performed a native song "How It Is In Our Ukraine". This song speaks of the flowers, the singers, and happiness in homes and that there is no holiday without songs in the Ukraine.

After the formal presentation, students shared breads, chocolates and beverages from the Ukraine with us. They also gave us gifts to remember them by and we did the same. We were sad to see the evening come to a close.

Thursday June 11th

Today Pastor Holslag reminded us how the Holy Spirit is with us on our journey. After our morning devotions, we felt ready to meet our responsibilities of the day.

The painting group returned to the dorm in Karklu and they completed the work on the LCC dorm. Over the period of three days, they painted a total of 13 floors, 12 sink areas and 8 desk units here. They completed all the jobs assigned to them. The maintainence supervisor, Nerjius, seemed to be pleased with the quality of the work. Kudos to Louise, Richard, Carasol, and Ashley!

The teaching group met with their students and had a very productive day also. They followed up on Chapters One and Two of the Obama book. The Tolerance and Diversity component focused on student viewpoints regarding "The Ladder of Prejudice". All groups were able to identify situations that could be placed on the ladder rungs of avoidance, discrimination, and physical attacks. The teachers could feel a sense of excitement in the classrooms because the students were eagerly awaiting their chance to perform for us in the evening at a "Ukrainian Culture" performance in the auditorium.

Wednesday June 10th

Today at our morning prayer service, Pastor Holslag reminded us how Christ is ever present with us on this journey. We are truely inspired by her words to us each morning and how she gives us time for reflection.

The teaching group met with the Ukraine students and continued the lessons revolving around the Obama book. Each group of students is now reading aloud short passages from the book, and discussing pertinent issues such as racism, class, and prejudice. Small group work is also being done, where students brainstormed ideas related to stereotypes. This was followed by sharing their ideas in the larger group.

Early in the day, the painting group drove to St. Teresa's in the town of Kretinga, north of Klaipeda, where six Sisters of Charity oversee a shelter for the elderly. Sister Rika showed us a number of things that she would like done, some of which involved painting. Other small tasks were cutting up lumber and weeding the vegetable garden. The painting group accomplished all the painting tasks and started on the wood cutting in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, the teaching group traveled to Kretiga to join the painting group at St Teresa's. They brought along with them 19 prayer shawls, made and donated by volunteers from Connie's church. Connie presented the shawls to Sister Rika and she was very, very pleased. She gave everyone a St. Teresa medal. Because all the painting work was already done, thanks to the hard and steadfast work of the painting group, the teaching group worked on cutting wood and weeding the vegetable garden.

In the evening, Eric and Becky had us over to their home for dessert. It was a great time relaxing with our hosts and talking about the events of the day. Since the entire group had not seen the Baltic Sea yet (only Roger and Battokok had ventured there yesterday), we decided to go there before bed. Louise kindly drove us there. We were in awe of the beauty of the sea and the rose colored sky! We all collected shells and colored stones. We will remember this day with happiness in our hearts for all we saw and did!

Tuesday June 9th

We started our day with a prayer service in our dormitory led by Pastor Jane Holslag. After the prayer service we broke up into our two groups, the teaching group and the painting group. The teaching group had 24 additional Ukraine students arrive late Monday. We are now divided into three teaching groups (Mary Ellen and Shirley, Connie and Roger, Battokok and Ellen) each with 11 students in their group.

Since 11 students arrived on Monday, and were introduced to the Tolerance and Diversity teaching plan and Obama book, it was important to meet with the new students so they could "catch up" on the lessons. Since Mary Ellen is a nurse, and has a great deal of experience with adolescent health, she met with the original 11 students in a separate classroom and led a seminar on Adolescent Risk Behavior. The topics covered were tobacco use, alcohol and drugs and their health consequences. Two teachers also attended. This session went very well and both the students and the teachers told us that they wanted Mary Ellen to repeat this session for the other 24 students sometime this week.

The newest students were introduced to the teachers and the Tolerance and Diversity lessons began. The teachers talked about meaning and examples of racism, both covert and overt. Battokok inquired as to racism in the Ukraine and the students spoke about people of color that live in the Ukraine. The students gave us the impression that there are tensions between Ukrainian and Russian groups regarding language and culture. Battokok spoke about the history of slavery, cmancipation and segregation as well as the Civil Rights Movement. The lesson culminated in a discussion about the election of the first African-American President in the US which was an excellent introduction to the Obama book. Ellen provided the second part of the lecture, focusing on Dreams From My Father. She emphasized the early period of Barack Obama's life and the stories he heard about his father from his mother and his grandparents. Students asked questions about unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts. All the students appeared eager to complete their homework assignment: to read Chapter One of the Obama book.

While the teaching group was in the classrooms with the Ukraine students, the painting group met Nerjius at the dorm in Karklu. With the exception of a lunch break, they worked until 3:15 on an additional 5 dormitory rooms! They caulked 3 sinks, painted 20 desks, edged and painted 5 floors and got to edge one additional dorm room floor! Whew! Based on the work that they have accomplished so far, they will probably finish their assignment by the end of Thursday. This allows for time to also work at Mother Teresa's site.

Monday June 8th

The Pennsylvania/Maryland group of missionaries started our Christian Outreach today in Klapadia. Our morning began with a prayer service led by Pastor Jane Holslag, a professor at LCC, in the chapel located in our dormitory.

Afterwards, at 9am, six of us started our teaching lessons regarding Tolerance and Diversity to high school students from Liviv and Kharkiv, Ukraine. The text we are using is "Dreams From My Father" by Barrack Obama. Each student received their own copy. They were very pleased to know that they were free to take notes in their books. They will read Chapter One this evening and we will begin our discussions tomorrow based upon the reading. We found the Ukraine students to be bright, interested, and engaged in the instruction. Their English language skills, both orally and written, is very good.

The painting crew met with one of the LCC maintainance workers, Nerjius, at 9am for orientation to the painting project. He then was the navigator as Louise drove them to the painting site. The site is a dormitory property located off campus in Karklu. It is the oldest dormitory that LCC uses. The crew worked diligently from 9 an to 3pm and painted five rooms. They all feel such a sense of accomplishment!

Additionally, Connie, Louise and Becky traveled to the nearby Mother Teresa nursing home to meet with the Sisters there to determine what projects could be done here in the afternoon. Later this week some of us will be painting and doing small gardening projects at this site. Our day was very busy, but very fulfilling for all!

Sunday, June 7th

Today we attended an English language worship service at the International Church of Villnus. Pastor Lowell Erdhall, a guest pastor for month of June 2009, is from Minnesota. Also at this service were a group of 40 German travelers from Westphalia. Pastor Erdhall conducted an Ecumenical service with an enriching homily about how Christ is present in all our lives. We all then received Communion. After the service we spent some social time with the pastor, his wife, and the visitors from Germany. We then embarked on our 5 hour van ride to Klapadia. We were welcomed by the University President, Dr. David Skeen and his wife, Becky. Eric and Becky H. gave us a tour of the dormitories where we will be staying as well as the University classrooms. Later, President Skeen led a reflective prayer and bible readings. We went to bed looking forward to beginning our mission service in the morning!

Saturday June 6th

Today we met early in the morning with Eric and Becky for a planning meeting for our mission work on 6/8-6/12 at LCC International University. Eric opened the meeting with a prayer for God's guidance during our mission. He then provided an overview of the Lithuanian culture and background information regarding the Ukraine students. After this meeting, our co-leaders, Rodger and Connie, reviewed expectations for the Painting Group (Louise, Richard, Carasol and Ashley) and the Teaching Group (Roger, Connie, Ellen, Battokok, Ashley and Mary Ellen). We now are more familiar with how the week's events are scheduled for us. We then had the opportunity to travel by van to Trakai to see the countyside and tour the Ancient Castle. We are getting to know each other more now that we have spent some time together. We are all looking forward to meeting the Ukraine students on Monday! We truely feel God's presence with us on our journey.

We are here!

We have finally made it to Lithuania at 11 am Friday morning (4 am American time). It was quite the adventure to get here because of the sprint (literally) we all made in the Finland airport to catch our connecting flight. We were greeted by Becky and Eric along with Roger and Ellen who came to Lithuania a day early. We all retired to our rooms at the Holiday Inn, for the afternoon to relax. We are all meeting for dinner and a walking tour of Old City Vilnius in a few minutes. Thank you all for your prayers for our safe journey and we hope to post our happenings and pictures soon.

24 hours to go

It is 7:15 pm and at this time tomorrow we will be en route to Lithuania. I could already sense my excitement toward the end of the work day today. I stil have some packing left to do tonight and last minute packing tomorrow. I am pretty sure I will hardly sleep at all tonight because I will feel as excited as a kid on Christmas. I figured I could always sleep in the car, van, and plane we will be taking to get there; however, I am sure I am going to still feel jetlagged from all the traveling. Luckily, there is nothing is planned until Saturday so we can all readjust our internal clocks as Lithuania is 7 hours ahead of us. That's all I have for now. Stay tuned for a future post when we are finally there!

-Ashley

May 24 Saint Mark Presbyterian Church worshipping

May 24th Commissioning at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville, Md. of members Battokok Bityeki, Ellen Kiel and Heather Banks

Commissioning in Harrisburg

Connie Cochran, Carasol Cochran, Louise Sis, and Roger Olson , pictured above, represented the group at a commissioning held in Harrisburg at Pine Street Church on May 17th.

One Month and Counting

We can't believe that in only a month we will be arriving in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania! Meanwhile behind the scenes, we are hurrying to get ready. May we learn the art of sharing, side by side and friend with friend. Equal partners in our caring to fulfill God’s chosen end.

Our hosts: We will be hosted by Dr. Eric and Rebecca Hinderliter, PCUSA Co-workers at the LCC International University in Klaipeda. Eric is the Chair of the Microeconomics Department and Rebecca is an accounting professor. They are completing their seventh year of mission efforts and have applied for a new, four year assignment. Their teaching semester has just ended and they are busy with final exams and grading. They have provided us with extensive background information about the college, the political and economic situations both Lithuania and Ukraine and have answered our endless questions about details of teaching and preparing work projects through email. Blest be the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love.

Challenges: Battokok, who is not yet an American citizen, has run into yards of red tape trying to obtain a visa to travel. He is in close contact with the Cameroon Embassy but needs to coordinate the travel regulations for three countries at the same time. The entire group is praying daily that all 3 of those governments will see the value of his participation in this mission and will expedite their portions of his clearance. All things are possible, only believe.

Preparing: Roger and Ellen are leaving early and will join us in Vilnius. It will be nice to be met by friendly faces including Becky and Eric. Shirley is traveling the entire month of May and will return just in time to head to the airport in our van. Cara is ready to compress extra gifts for the elderly at the Mother Teresa Shelter into storage bags that will fill her luggage. Louise and Rick are painting at our church camp, at the churches united center and other local missions right up to the day we leave. She is looking forward to painting bright colors in Klaipeda as well. Ashley and Mary Ellen are busy juggling work, family obligations, and getting ready for the trip (i.e. getting vaccinated, shopping, photocopying important documents, getting in touch with their home bank). Ashley hopes to learn some more Lithuanian before the trip too, but so far she only had one lesson. Oh Master let me walk with thee.

Coordinating funds: Three particular congregations, a presbytery and a synod have indicated that they will support this mission financially. With only a month to go, we continue to trust these checks will arrive. Presbyterians will understand these deliberate movements. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Stay tuned!

Links

Below are links to our respective churches (for those that have websites) as well as Eric Hinderleter's letter to PCUSA on the Lithuanian's perspective of our trip. We highly encourage that you check them out!

Churches:
www.pinestreet.org Pine Street Presbyterian Church
www.saintmarkpresby.org St. Mark Presbyterian Church
www.paxtonchurch.org Paxton Presbyterian Church
www.lifeinfaith.org Faith Presbyterian Church
www.calvaryvision.com Calvary Vision Church (multi-denominational)

Eric's newsletter:
http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/letters/hinderlitere/hinderlitere_0904.htm

Introduction

Hello everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit our blog! To introduce ourselves, we are a diverse group of eleven people from PA and MD traveling to Lithuania from June 4-16 2009 . The purpose of our trip is to take part in a Social/Cultural/Spiritual experience. The following is our itinerary broken down into the three preceding parts:

Social: We will spend six days at the LCC International University in Klaipedia. This is an English-only school for students from former Russian-controlled countries of Eastern Europe. We will live in dorm rooms and eat in the cafeteria with students. We will converse and learn of the culture and heritage of Lithuania. Our purpose at LCC is two-fold: to teach English and Western cultural values to a group of Ukrainian high school students visiting LCC, and some of our volunteers will spend the week doing minor maintenance at the school, such as painting dorm rooms, making minor repairs, and landscaping.

Cultural: We will spend a few days spent in the capital city of Vilinus. We will visit the nearby Traikai Castle, former home of Mindaugas, the first king of Lithuania, which is now a museum. We will visit the “old town” of Vilnius, tracing some of the structures to the 13th Century. We will also visit Birzai, located in northern Lithuania, the site of the first mass murder of Jews during the Second World War. This event became the precursor of the mass killings in other countries which followed shortly thereafter. Nearby is the Hill of Crosses. When the Russians took control of the country in 1945, over 800,000 of the national leaders, educators, ministers and other community spokespeople were conscripted to eastern Russia. Of that number fewer than 10,000 ever returned. People started to place crosses on the hill near Birzai in memory of those who were ‘lost’. Since independence, there have been over 100,000 crosses placed on the hill and more appear weekly.

Spiritual: While in Birzai we hope to meet with The Reverend Rimas Mikalauskas, the Superintendent of the Synod of Lithuania, and discuss with him the needs of his denomination as he struggles to re-establish a Protestant presence in this highly Catholic country. We will also meet with Reverend Tomas Sernas, a minister in the ERCL, headquartered in the church in Vilnius. He serves as Chaplin to the University of Vilnius. In 1991, Rev. Sernas was a border guard between Lithuania and Russia. With the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tomas and 19 others led the insurrection in Lithuania. All 20 were captured by the Russians, taken to the Town Square in Vilnius, and shot in the back of the head. Tomas survived but is paralyzed from the shoulders down. He is wheelchair bound. He became an ordained minister and now preaches peace and forgiveness for those who shot him. He is the most renowned national hero of the Revolution.

The people taking part in the trip are as follows:

*Roger Olson: the leader of this mission group and a member of Pine Street Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Carlisle. He is a licensed professional engineer. His mission experience includes national and international activities.
*Heather Banks: a member of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in the National Capital Presbytery. She is a retired English teacher and editor. She taught English in Taiwan for two years and at Howard University, a traditionally black college, for five years. In January 2009 she visited Nicaragua to learn about fair trade and organic coffee growing.
*Battokok Bityeki: has been a member of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in the National Capital Presbytery since 1986, where he serves as a Deacon. He is a former Diplomat from Cameroon to the United States. He was educated by the US Presbyterian missionaries in Cameroon and has a good knowledge of their mission work in his native country. He was involved in organizing a mission trip to Cameroon from his church in 2001. He is a teacher and a diplomat now retired.
*Connie Cochran: a member of Paxton Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Carlisle where she is currently a Deacon and a Stephen Minister. CaraSol is her daughter. She is an education consultant with 30 years teaching ESL. Her last mission trip was in 2007 to China.
*CaraSol Cochran: a member of Paxton Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Carlisle and a junior at Lycoming College. She will graduate next year with a double major in psychology and international studies. She enjoys traveling and has visited several countries with student groups and with her family. She has also traveled to different states in the United States, most recently to Washing with her school chapter of Habitat for Humanity. This trip and past Habitat trips have been great experiences and she has enjoyed learning different aspects of construction such as painting and siding.
*Ellen Kiel: a member of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church and serves on their Global Mission Committee as well as teaching Sunday School. She is retired and enjoys her grandchildren, community activities and visiting museums. This is her first overseas mission trip.
*Shirley McLaren: a member of Faith Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Carlisle where she is also an Elder. She is a retired public high school English teacher. She has been interested in mission and in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ for many years. She has four children and nine grandchildren. She has traveled all over the United States and to many other countries.
*Mary Ellen Miller: an Assistant Professor of Nursing at De Sales University in Center Valley Pennsylvania. Early in her nursing career, she worked with new moms and babies on a maternity unit in a local hospital. She has been teaching student nurses for the last 25 years and enjoys this very much. Each semester she learns something new from her students! Mary Ellen also volunteers on two non-profit boards and has published articles for nursing journals, wrote a book chapter for a nursing textbook, and edited a book on how to start up and manage a nursing clinic. She lives in Conshohocken Pennsylvania and is a member of St. Mary Catholic Church. Her father is Polish and her mother is Lithuanian (Soroka) and she is the oldest of 6 children. She enjoys gardening and doing home decorating projects, such as painting and stenciling. Her daughters, Ashley (who is also going on the trip) and Amanda, and her husband (who has been compared to George Clooney) have always been there as her personal “cheering squad”. Also at home are Juliette, a very fat bunny rabbit, and Boomer, a very, very, happy 12 year old boxer dog.
*Ashley Miller: Ashley is a brand new member of Calvary Vision Church. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Elizabethtown College and currently works as a Therapeutic Specialist for four lovable children (her clients). Past service trips she has gone on include Lend a Hand in D’Iberville Mississippi and Habitat for Humanity in the Appalachia Mountains. She is looking forward to the service and sightseeing of the trip. In addition, she is very excited to be going to Lithuania because her maternal grandmother’s family is from Vilnius. She prides herself in her powers of persuasion, as she managed to convince Mom Mary Ellen to accompany her on the trip.
*Louise Sis: is traveling with her husband on this trip. They have five grandchildren who like to hear about their many mission trips to different countries. She worked in the construction field for 35 years and enjoys sharing her skills with others.
*Richard Sis: and his wife are members of Christ Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Carlisle. He works for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and has been on work mission trips to Mississippi and Arkansas.

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