Sunday's update from Lithuania! (a little late)
Benjamin Eavey
It’s Wednesday morning, August 8, and we are all back, safe and sound.
Now it’s time to catch up on the updates. You last heard from us on
Saturday night. So I am writing about Sunday.
After getting up all week in time to start work by about 8:00 each
morning, Sunday most of us got a little extra rest before breakfast with
our host families. After last-minute packing, we went to Church at
11:00 am.
The sanctuary was packed with members and friends of the Biržai Church
and 25 V.I.M. workers, 15 from North Carolina and 10 of our group. It
was standing room only. Now, what can I say about the worship service
except that is was WONDERFUL.
From the moment we began to gather for worship there was a tremendous
feeling of love and joy. This only got better as we were welcomed by
the pastor, Raimondas and the music began. The principal musician was a
young girl named Jurgita who led the congregation in singing, sang a
solo and led a group of children and then a small youth choir. She is
very talented and it was such a blessing to see her share with the
congregation so beautifully.
One of the pastors from the Myers Park UMC in North Carolina gave the
pastoral prayer and I was honored to be asked to preach. I gave a
message based on John 15: 5, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”
Pastor Raimondas then led us in Holy Communion. Even though our
languages are different, it was easy to pick out familiar portions of
the ritual and to share very deeply and profoundly in this universal
sign of Christ’s presence and love.
At the conclusion of the service our group gave gifts to the Biržai
congregation. The presents included a quilted wall hanging, made by
Betty, of one of the stained glass windows in Grand Rapids First UMC, a
book about the windows in GR First and finally two beautiful stained
glass wall or window decorations made by Nancy’s husband.
After worship, we had coffee hour (well, really tea time) with enough
food you could call it a light lunch! More pictures and hugs followed
and then lunch (more food) at a local restaurant with our host families
and our new friends from North Carolina.
Finally, it was really time to go. We packed Raimondas’s car and the
mini bus, said our last good-byes along with more hugs, pictures, a few
tears and promises to return, and headed out for the Hill of Crosses
near Šiauliai.
We arrived at the Hill of Crosses after a trip of about an hour and a
half. After Christianity came to Lithuania, the hill was used by
Christians as a shrine and a place of pilgrimage. Individuals and
religious groups began to leave crosses at the hill. This practice
continued during the Soviet Occupation, which began in 1941. In their
efforts to root out the Christian faith, the Soviets bulldozed the
crosses on the hill several times. People brought crosses back and
almost overnight the hill would be covered with crosses again. It
became a powerful symbol of the people’s faith, their hunger for freedom
and opposition to Soviet occupation and domination.
The Hill of Crosses remains as a shrine, a sign of the Christian faith
and a place of prayer. Matt and Broderick had visited before and found
crosses they had left previously. Several of our group left crosses
this year hoping to find them when they return.
Following some shopping at booths set up by vendors in the parking lot,
we hit the road for Vilnius. Along the way we stopped for supper at a
restaurant on the shore of a little lake. We were blessed with another
great meal and a beautiful sunset.
We arrived at our hotel in Vilnius around 11:30 pm, quickly got a little
settled in our rooms and then gathered for a final time of group
devotions. Ben discovered that he left his camera in Raimondas’s car,
so we prayed for guidance and God’s blessing for the safe return of the
camera. (God is good. With the help of lots of people Ben got his
camera back.) We hit the sack about 2:00 am to get a little rest before
a full day of sight seeing and shopping on Monday.
What a day! What a trip! What an incredible adventure of seeing new
things, making new friends in Christ, working with God’s people in
another land and growing in faith.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
For Betty, Nancy, Jeb, Danial, Joseph, Holly, Matt, Broderick, Ben and Joe