Dear Partners in Mission,

The class of students I began with at Lithuania Christian College five years ago has graduated! Though some in that original group of 80 have left the school and some have yet to finish, on May 4, thirty-six received diplomas! Walking with them these five years has been an adventure and a challenge. Some have had me again as their teacher for "Introduction to New Testament," or for "Oral Communication," or even this spring for "Faith Themes in Literature." Many are hoping to find jobs, some are already at
their workplaces, and others are on the road to graduate schools, one to the Londonm School of Economics.

I shall miss them, for many of them are the reason I have wanted to be at LCC. Thankfully, my wants and God’s call seem to coincide! I am so grateful for those who have become my friends, for those who are beginning to believe that God is and that he loves them, and for those who have come to embrace the faith. I am perhaps most grateful to have been with them on this chapter of their journeys. As they were congratulated by our president, I found tears rolling down my face, in pride, in gratitude, and in a bit of melancholy. Time made precious by its very passing!

With a full twelve weeks of summer ahead, I shan’t be pining away the days wishing for those grads to return, though. I shall, instead, be volunteering as interim pastor for the American Church in Berlin, an English-speaking congregation. ACB is where I often worshiped and is a very special place of nurture from my years in Germany. I look forward to the discipline of weekly worship and sermon preparation, to calling and time with members, to serving this part of the body of Christ as they prepare for both a new pastor and a move to a new church home in the center of the city. The summer shall be a busy and demanding one in many ways, but when the invitation came to step in, I didn’t have to think very hard about it at all!

Along with the pastoral duties, my summer holds preparation for a new course, "English Bible as Literature." I’ll also be teaching "Introduction to the New Testament" again, and yet another semester of "Introduction to Literature" for first-year students. Both of these courses need some serious re-tooling, especially NT, since I’ll be lecturing to 60. A friend said to me I’d need to be better than Jesus and more entertaining than Bob Hope to engage them all. Oh dear!—I fear I’m neither, but I’ll work hard and trust God honor my efforts.

What keeps me at LCC, you might be asking? Many things contribute, but it is mostly the daily opportunities to listen, interact, instruct, and be with students who want to learn and to grow! I revel in the discussions, the "aha!" moments they and I have, the once or twice a semester "happening," when God’s spirit clearly catches all of us off guard! That occurred this spring in "Faith Themes" while we were discussing a short story. I’d asked why the story ended the way it did. There was the usual long silence, and then one student said, "Forgiveness." A wave of recognition of that truth washed across their faces. There was no need to discuss further, but I asked then whether they liked the story and found it convincing. Yes, came the answer first from one corner, then the other. Why? I queried. "Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be," was the sobering answer. We all know that life isn’t necessarily like that, but I believe we all know just as well that that is what we yearn for. For the non-believers, I pray that class was a bit more of a crack of light in the door, for the skeptical seekers some startling answers (the walk of faith does have bumps and dark times, doubt and uncertainty, but can still be vital), and for the believers, a glimpse of God whose love and dimensions exceed the wildest imagination.

Like thousands of Eastern Europeans and young people from all over the world, many of our students are working in the U.S. this summer. Keep your ears and eyes open for the chance not just to be a friendly American but for the chance to share and show the love of Christ to one or two of them! Pray with me, if you will, for young people who aren’t so lucky as to even be able to go to college or university…in the trouble-ridden corners like the Israel/Palestinian territories and in most parts of the developing world, where all education is thwarted by war, famine, poverty. Not too long ago in the Mission Yearbook of Prayer & Study, a statistical metaphor was offered where it was stated that if the world was composed of 100 people, only one person would have a college education! Pictured are of a few of that 1 percent. Keep them, their classmates, and all places of education and mission around our globe in your prayers! On their behalf, I thank you for your support of PC(USA) mission efforts (like me)!?!

Grace and peace,

Jane Holslag

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 88