Bendruomenės namai Mana

Observations from an outsider….

Across the street from the Community Center is the Women’s Crisis Center. Not only do they provide a place for women to get away from their abusers, but they are also a center that helps women who have been rescude from the sex slave trade. This women’s center is excited to have such a place as ours next door to them. They often have times when they have to rent a hotel for the women who come in because their available rooms are full. The hotel rooms are expensive and too far away from the safety of their center. They are excited at the potential partnership that they can have with the community center for these women who are in desperate need of thier help. It is quite possible that when the community center is completely renovated that a portion of the building will be availble for them to use. This center is not only building bridges with other church but also with public crises centers as well………

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Observations from an outsider…..

Thinking differently…….

Community Centers abound in the States. And because they do sometimes we forget the way they impact the community. Community Centers do not exist in the same way here in Lithuania and neither does the word “community” mean the same thing here as it does in the States.

Front of the Building

Being a foreigner from the States, my family has been well treated and even treated better than locals seem to treat each other. The opposite seems to be true in my experience of the States. IWe seem to have a tendency to treat those we identify with much better then the foreigner who dares to treat upon our soil.

As I speak to the Lithuanians about this issue and my experience, i am surprised to hear that they expect each other to get it together and take care of ones own self and if you can’t, then tough luck for you. The compassion is felt for ones own self and ones own family and maybe even for friends but beyond that it is a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality. I have heard it said many times, a saying that is said with a sheepish smile,”A lithuanian is most happy when his neighbors’ house is on fire.” And though you can tell it is not really the way they believe you understand that this saying is so common and has been woven into the fabric of the cultural heritage they live in today.

View from the Back

So in my observation “Community” here means; me, my family and a few select friends. The whole idea that we seem to be able to take for grantid in the states is that you can easily go to a place or meeting where you will find acceptance and belonging. Where people will care for you when you are experiencing the ups and downs of life. Where people from all walks of life can come together with similar interests and bond together like family in just a few weeks. For a culture like this one, that doesn’t reach outside it’s family for connections like that, this community center is unheard of, but very much needed because many people don’t have family and friends to turn to and deparately need a community to belong to. Many are seeking……..

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Observations from an outsider……..

When my husband suggested that we go on a one year mission trip I thought I would faint dead away. This from the man who told me, many years earlier, that he would never go on the foreign mission field for any extended length of time? I challenged him to find the place and I would do the rest. We became willing to go before we had a place to go to.

Lithuania became our landing place. How it came about is a mystery to me. We had never even heard of this country, but were on our way there. We packed up and sold off a lifetime of stuff, rented our house and loaned out our cars, found homes for the pets and with our 4 young children bid America goodbye for one year.

On the outside Lithaunia was fast tracking in materialism towards the Western, more affluent, countries. There really wasn’t much we couldn’t get there, but we struggled through a mind blowing year of spiritual deprevation because this country is a spiritual desert. There was a bright spot though. We met a young Pastor name Saul. He was the pastor of the Lithuanian speaking church called “Miesto Baznica” or in English “City Church”. He was a breath of fresh air in a culture that sucks the life out of you before you can exhale.

Just listening to him speak you could see his passion for Lithuanians and see first hand how his heart ached for the many lost souls that walk the streets daily. Despite the countries rise to affluence there seems to be so many people with little hope for the future and many take their own lives just to end the internal struggle. It would be easier on him and his family if, like so many others, they left this God forsaken country and made a better life some place else where he wouldn’t have to work so hard just to get by. But he stays, because this is his calling. He has vision here to see this culture changed for Christ. It takes more energy then you can imagine because no one has any to spare. It feels like you are in it alone.

During our first year in Lithuania we had a few visitors from the States. Ironically a family that we were only briefly aquainted with decided to take us up on our offer to come for a visit. This was a family whose interest was in real estate so of course they wanted to check out the market while they were here.

After looking at houses for a few days, Saul showed them a run down hotel property by the beach and shared ideas of a retreat center. That idea caught on with them and they just could not let it go. They travelled back to the states and began making preperations to secure the building.

After many more months then it seems it should have taken the property was secured. This felt like the first big victory. We could now begin casting vision to others about this new “Community Center”. Our family had returned to the states during this time, but our hearts were burning for the Lithuanian people so we began making preperations to return for a much more permanent amount of time.

Today City Church has commited to developing, running and maintaining this community center. The church as a whole has gotten on board. Many have made personal monitary donations and others have given significantly of their precious time for clean up and renovations.

Since aquiring the property a section of the building has been completely renovated allowing the church to move thier administrative offices there. They are currently up and running. Several rooms have also been renovated and now have occupants. A large main meeting room that seats up to 80 was recently renovated by Free Christian Church who has caught the vision. Many clean up days have taken place and were well attended.

Sunday June 8th the church met together for the first time at the community center to hold its regular church services.

Things are beginning to happen here. It is all so exciting to watch it unfold. It is even more exciting to watch God work in favor of this project. God is really revealing himself and his graciousness to all of us through this project.

But there is still a very long road ahead………

The hotel is in poor condition and needs plenty of interior work. The wallpaper and paint is dripping off the walls and for lack of use there are some major leakes in the roof. There have been a few setbacks as well with the city sewage connection and electricty hook ups. There is also a need for money of course to begin repayment of the bank loan in September. There are many many opportunities to get involved on every level with this project!

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We are thrilled to announce that Grace Community Church in Clarksville, TN (web address below) has graciously accepted the call to receive your tax deductable donations in the United States for this project.

Financial donations for the Mana – Spiritual Life Center can be sent to:

Grace Community Church

PO Box 3980, Clarksville, TN 37043.

Checks should be made out to Grace Community Church with Lithuania Mission in the FOR blank of the check. (This is a special PO Box we will use just for this purpose.)

We are terribly sorry, but for now there is no online giving possibilities. So you will have to endure the arduous task of writing out a check (do people still carry those things?), addressing an envelope, and buying a real stamp. (We are thankful though that we no longer have to lick those little buggers:)

The church here in Lithuania will be so thankful that you took the time to go to such measures for them!

to learn more about GCC go to their church web sight at http://www.gcomchurch.com/

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Observations from an outsider………

Why do we need a church run community center in Lithuania?

View of the front out the upstairs window

Recently I have had the opportunity to visit many social services provided here for the people of this country. There is much available to them in the way of resources to meet physical needs. Social welfare, children’s homes, homeless shelters, psycological care, elder care etc. All the things you would expect to find in any developed and developing country. All during this time of visiting “centers” my mind kept going back to “What is the basic problem here?” One organization works to fix the individual while another works to fix the family, yet another helps to keep family members apart if necessary. Was it more education in prevention that was needed? Better availability of recsources? More resourses? Better structure of the resourse already provided? These questions pervaded my mind.

To me the main point was that the individual needed help. As I visited each place I began to take a mental step back and see that maybe it was the family who needed to make major adjustments in thinking in order to make a difference in the individual’s life and the next step back was the culture who might need a shift in its thinking and actions if any real change were to take place and then it all made sense. We can continue to provide a bandage to this oozing and festering wound by providing counsiling, shelters and homes for this country’s people, but the healer is what is really needed here. Yes, the physical is very important, but this country needs God. And not just any god. They need the loving power of Jesus Christ. What better way to combine the physical needs of the people of this country with the God who is the only one who can bring the peace being desparately searched for here by opening a community center run by Christiains willing to pour their lives into those who will come and recieve such a thing. This country needs this community center……..and City Church is willing to run it!

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