for reform of the child welfare
system in her native Latvia. We are especially proud of two students
who are headed to the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom
for graduate studies in development economics and project management.
LCC is at a turning point: profound changes are evident within
the student body. For the past two years, LCC has recruited students
from the non-European Union countries east of Lithuania, especially
Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Their numbers have grown
in the first- and second-year classes from about 12 to 90.
Eric is teaching an introductory economics class this month.
Nearly three-fourths of the students are not Lithuanians. Quite
naturally, the students from Belarus and Ukraine want to know
how the principles of economics apply to their home countries.
This is particularly a challenge for Belarus, which has both a
repressive political regime and a state-controlled non-market
economy. As teachers, Becky and I are now doubly challenged in
the classroom at LCC: to provide relevant examples from economies
very different from the free markets found in the European Union
and the United States and to teach business from a Christian moral
and ethical perspective. This can be especially difficult, given
that increasingly these students are from the Russian Orthodox
tradition. We take care not to devalue these countries by using
an implied standard of progress as measured by the income levels
and political freedoms in the European Union and the United States.
We are searching for the center. Some see the center for the LCC
curriculum as Brussels, headquarters of the European Union, which
Latvia and Lithuania joined just two years ago. Others wonder
whether a better metaphor for the center might be the eastern
capitals of Minsk or Kiev, with LCC straddling this emerging divide
in Europe. LCC has much work to do to serve this changing student
body and to enable and encourage these students to return home,
after their education is complete, to be part of the progressive
forces in their societies.
We enjoy hearing from those we met during our mission interpretation
travels in the United States last fall. We are planning another
mission interpretation trip in the late spring and early summer
of 2007, so if your church or mission committee wants to plan
ahead, we would like to be invited for dates in May, June, or
July 2007.
We hope you are aware of the painful May 1 reductions in PC(USA)
mission positions brought about by the shortfall in mission giving.
A timely bequest spared further cuts. We are grateful for your
continuing and faithful support of our work here. We ask that
you prayerfully consider gifts to our Designated Mission Support
(DMS) account. Our number is D506434. (DMS is a way for congregations
to direct support to particular mission workers. For more information
or a pledge form, contact Anne
Blair.)
Speaking of the changing nature of the LCC students, Becky was
invited to teach accounting for a short time at the Russian-American
Christian University (RACU) in Moscow. RACU is similar in many
ways to LCC, offering a Western-style university experience infused
with Christian values. She left in mid-May, and I will join her
at the end of the month. Our purpose in going is two-fold. One
is to experience teaching in another context, a context closer
to what may be the experience of the majority of our students
in the coming years. Second, we want to explore the possibility
of faculty and student exchanges between LCC and RACU.
The lilacs and the apple trees are in full bloom here in Klaipeda.
We see the renewal of the earth this Eastertide. God richly blesses
us.
Peace,
Eric & Becky Hinderliter
PC(USA) Mission Co-Workers
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
180 |
