Summer 2006
Lithuania and Russia

Eric and I returned to Lithuania in mid-winter to continue our teaching mission at Lithuania Christian College (LCC) in Klaipeda after spending last fall in the United States on mission interpretation. It was wonderful to spend time with many of you and share “our story”— a story where you are an integral part. We look forward to this four-year mission appointment and the opportunities and challenges that come with a long-term appointment.

As always, graduation at LCC is a joyous celebration—the triumph and success of four years of study. The end to a student’s time with us at LCC, but only the beginning of their professional lives and also a continuation of their spiritual walk, many continuing a journey just begun at LCC.

This spring I was invited to Moscow to teach in the summer session at the Russian-American Christian University (RACU). The generous support of the St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Rockville, Maryland, and Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to our ECO account made it possible to accept this call. The changing face of eastern European countries—and particularly former Soviet states—and the mix of our students led me to look seriously at this opportunity. It was a chance to better understand and appreciate our diverse students—just who are they, where do they come from—how do they see the world? LCC now has more ethnic Russian students (from Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and the ‘stan countries) than ever before. Lithuania’s 2004 admission to the European Union (EU) has had a double effect: it opened more doors for Lithuanians and Latvians and LCC is attracting more students from the non-EU countries to the “east”. Soon students whose first language is Russian may be the majority at LCC. The opportunity to teach and study with students in Moscow at RACU—a school with many similarities to LCC—gave me an eye to the bigger picture of Eastern Europe today. It helped me think about ways to make my teaching more relative to our LCC students.

Having spent the past five years in Klaipeda, I was amazed at the sheer size of Moscow. Klaipeda has a population of about 200,000. Here in Klaipeda on a Saturday afternoon we routinely walk from one end of the city to the other. I started to feel like Dorothy—I wasn’t in Kansas any longer. It seemed like most of the 12 million inhabitants of Moscow showed up to ride the metro with me each morning. The Moscow metro is a work of art built in the late 1930s. It reminded me of the Washington, D.C., metro but on a much grander scale. And the trains were frequent, with the wait between trains is never more than a minute or two. While I am muddling along learning Lithuanian, I do not speak nor read Russian. I was back to pointing and smiling—always a humbling experience. I began to think that if I could not get something in this manner, then I really didn’t need it in the first place.

I was curious about the RACU students: who are they, where did they come from, why were they at this school? LCC’s admission criteria are based mainly on academic achievement. RACU’s mission, and therefore admission, has a somewhat different focus. While they do have academic standards, they are attuned to their Christian mission—students are first and foremost Christians. They are admitted into the nurturing academic environment with a chance for an advanced degree, even if their high school performance wasn’t outstanding. RACU is a place of opportunities for Christians to grow spiritually and academically in a city that has many secular (even western) educational institutions. RACU’s mission is to help the students to become well-rounded citizens in a liberal arts setting with a focus on Christian witness.

As at LCC, I taught financial accounting at RACU. Like LCC, many of the students are business majors wanting and needing the foundation courses to establish their ability to excel in their chosen fields. My class had 18 students. A number of women proved to be exceptional students. RACU teaches about half the classes in Russian and the others in English. Many students had outstanding English skills and were able to excel in the class. Others had more basic skills and found the class more challenging. So, while we spent time learning the basics of accounting—remember debits equal credits in any language—we also got to know one another and talk about our experiences in the United States, Lithuania, and Russia. I spend time in the classroom helping the students find their way academically and then in the off-hours we learned to become friends and share our experience as Christians in this part of the world.

Eric was teaching at LCC in Lithuania for the first part of my time in Moscow and joined me there for the last week of the session.  It was an opportunity for him to meet other faculty and administrative staff at RACU and talk about the similarities and differences between our schools—and their very different contexts. What could we share and learn from each other? How can we be partners in future endeavors? How do we (as Presbyterians) connect with people from evangelical, orthodox, or catholic traditions? How do we walk in Christ’s path when we come from different traditions? How can we share Christ’s love in ordinary ways in our everyday lives?

We spent the end of last week in Vilnius meeting the 16 people from Pine Street Church, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as they began their mission trip to Lithuania and Latvia. The group has posted their travels on their Web site with news of a busy and productive week with the Reformed Church in Birzai. I’m sure they, the local congregation and children at the home have all been blessed by their work and time together.

We plan to spend time preparing for new courses for the fall. I’ll be teaching a new Intermediate Accounting course—thanks to First Presbyterian in Warren, Pennsylvania, for the books—and Eric is teaching a transition economics course. And we hope to integrate lessons learned in Russia in our upcoming classes. Eric recently gave a talk to prospective students about the advantages of a liberal arts education—the beginning of a life-long learning process. That’s what we feel every time we step into the classrooms and share with these bright young people. Thanks to all of you that share in this journey with us—in Lithuania or Russia or wherever Christ calls each of us.

Peace,

Becky and Eric Hinderliter

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 180