February 17, 2004

Dear Friends in Christ,

How the time flies! It has been almost seven years since I moved to Klaipeda. Sometimes I can hardly believe how this place has both changed and yet how it remains the same.

Riding back to Klaipeda in the minivan from Vilnius recently, I was amused and a bit irritated by the stark contrasts of this time and place. I was weary and wanted to doze, but the constant ringing, singing, and buzzing of cell phones made it impossible! I think I was the only person in the eight-passenger van that didn’t have one! The heater had all of us taking our coats off, but the breeze blowing on our legs and feet made us wrap up from the waist down! The temperature outside was somewhere around 10 Fahrenheit.

I got to the apartment with enough time to run across the street to the small grocery and pick up a few items. I noticed two men picking through the garbage (a daily sight) and was reminded again of the poverty here. In the store, I was greeted, sort of, by the cashier and discovered a new kind of cream cheese, frozen pizza (not always available), and avocados at half price—all previously a bit beyond the imagination for the local grocery or for the whole town, for that matter.

In spite of all that makes my head spin on this side of the ocean, your support, love, letters, care, and prayers are a steadying and a comforting force in my daily life. I thank you now in writing and will thank you once more in person this coming summer and fall during interpretation leave. Though the itinerary remains uncertain at present, I’ll soon have a schedule to send out and hope that many supporting congregations will be able to fit me into their busy schedules. I look forward to sharing more about God’s work in the Reformed Church here, at Lithuanian Christian College, in students’ lives, and in my own walk.

A few closing remarks

Each day at the college brings snippets of conversation and encounter: One young friend is a student receptionist at LCC’s front desk, comes now and again to chapel and attended a missions conference in Germany over Christmas break. Recently, she was bursting with impressions and stories about what happened there. I listened. We talked a bit about the fact that most at the conference were Protestants, and she is Roman Catholic. She told me about a part of the program, a time of prayer for peoples all over the world, in 30-second snippets, and how overwhelmed she felt. The whole gathering was a new experience for her and one she wasn’t sure about but liked nonetheless. Though her thoughts are just gaining articulate shape, it was clear to me (and I think to her) that God is in some way more real to her now. Just talking with her was a gift for me. We’ll talk more.

In two weeks, a group from the Reformed Church will meet for a 24-hour gathering. Rimas and Tomas are pastors; Tomas (a different Tomas), Sigita, and Gitana are deacons; Raimondas is a theological student and pastoral candidate; a German colleague and I are “consultants” from partner churches. This is the first-ever (at least since before World War II) such meeting with the ministry team of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Lithuania! It is, like so much I get to experience here, a historical occasion.

God is gracious! His blessings on us all!

Jane Holslag
PC(USA) Mission Co-worker

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.338