Necessity is the mother of invention (Creativity must be the father)

Tonight I wanted to make a Swedish almond pie. The last time we made one in our oven, it totally burned the top and left the bottom completely gooey. Since our oven has been fixed numerous times since then, and since we've cooked with it a lot and have been learning its nuances (like for example it has 2 temperatures: really hot and off. Or, the fact that it only cooks from the top and not at all from the bottom), I decided to go for it.

We have the rack as low as it will go, and even though I don't truly believe that it regulates the temperature, I turned the oven to a lower temperature than the recipe calls for (and yes, I remembered to convert it to Celsius). And I watched it the whole time. Or tried to. After 10 minutes I could smell it, so I took it out of the oven. The top was crispy brown, but the sides and bottom didn't look done (clear, glass pie pan). So I set it on the counter for a long while to see if it would cook on its own, just sitting in its own heat.

After awhile I cut into it. Batter oozed out of the top. I quickly got the brilliant idea that the stove top was still hot from the oven being on (the whole thing gets so hot when the oven is on), so I set the pie on the stove. Try to stick with me here, because my thought process was moving pretty quickly. Then I got the idea to cook it from the bottom using the stove (but I didn't want to ruin the pie pan on the burner. The burner has two temperatures: really hot, and off). So I got a big pot and filled it with water and set the pie plate on top of it. But then as we were waiting for the water to boil, we thought of two things: there's nowhere for the steam to escape, and water boils much faster in the water pot. So we put the cookie rack on top of the pot, and then the pie on top of that, and then poured boiling water in to the pot.

The water boiled for over a half hour before we just decided to eat the warmed up batter with the crispy top. Next time I think I will try to cover the pie, either with some foil if we can find some, or with a cookie sheet.

Here are some pictures (the whole time we were playing Phase 10 with a fun group of girls from the dorm).

Encouraging Answer

When students apply to be in the leadership program, one of the questions they need to answer is "Who is the most well-known leader? What do you think contributed to their success as a leader?"

The answers usually vary from Hitler to Bill Gates to Jesus to Mom, and are always interesting.

Recently I read one that hit the nail on the head.

"Jesus Christ. We was helping and educating people instead of controlling them, despite the fact that he had a great power to do so."

I thought it was encouraging.

Looking for words

On Friday I spoke for a Leadership Seminar. These are seminars that Laura coordinates as part of the Leadership Development Program.

My topic was "Leadership Beyond." I spoke on the importance of making the most of you time during your university experience and education, thinking about leadership beyond the business world/career endeavors, the importance of having a mentor, and choosing education for wisdom development over a passport to a comfortable life. I know, it was a pretty lofty task, but it is all things that I have been thinking about since grad school. And more than anything I wanted the students who came to hear me to not just jot down some notes, looking for the right answer to become a leader, but to walk away from the seminar starting to think deeply and critically about what their education means and why they want to be a leader.

Most of the students at the seminar were freshman. As part of my talk I told them about how it wasn't until my junior year of college when I started to think about my education as something that was deeper than merely getting good grades, so that I could get a decent job. My educational experience became a more meaningful part of my life in my junior year for a number of reasons, but a few that come to mind are: 1) being mentored by Jim Fereira, Dean of Students at Bethel, 2) getting connected to the Student Life department via being an Resident Assistant, 3) joining a guy's group Bible/book study with Jay Barnes and Denny Morrow...and the continued mentorship of Jay that sprang out that. There are more great things that happened that year, but these stick out the most.

I would not be sitting in Klaipeda, Lithuania right now as a Resdient Director, pursuing a life of ministry via higher education without many of the conversations that took place that year. And maybe even more than the conversations, these mentors of mine instilled in me confidence that I had never seen before in myself. I don't know if Jay, Jim, Lisa, Sherry, and many others will ever read this, but if you do, thank you.

And while I am on a role. Many of the ideas I have been pondering and shared in the seminar are things I have been thinking about since Geneva. So thanks to the great people who took time to teach me and mentor me there: Ann, Nancy, Dave, Don, Terry, Brad, Eric, and more.

I know we've said it before, but Laura and I learning so much as we live, minister, and educate here at LCC. Pray for us as we continue this journey. We are so blessed by each of you and they way you have encouraged us, mentored us, and loved us. We love to get your notes and to know you are thinking of us. We are praying for you all.

Strikes and Spares...and quite a few gutter balls

Spring semester is off and running. This week we were busy not only planning for events and programs that will take place later, but planning and executing programs that happened now. The first big dorm event of the spring was the Karklu Bowling Challenge! Seven teams of five students signed up and we headed over to the lanes to see who the best bowlers were. Not only were they competing to see who the best bowlers were, but also which team had the best team spirit/creativity. It was a great night of bringing people from the dorm together to play, engage in friendly competition, and see the creativity of our students.

Here are some pictures.

Tania (RA on 3rd Floor) looking like a serious bowler.

Peter in good form.

The Karklu crowd.

The winning team in Yellow/dread locks: Team "Rasta Balls"

Team "Bowling Buddies"

Team "Team Awesome"
These girls won the "Chocolate Muffin Award" for best team spirit/creativity...they are a family (Dad in the tie, Mom in green dress and very pregnant, the two kids, and Granny) and they stayed in character almost the whole time!

Team "Furious Five"
These guys live across the hall and are great!

Team "Valkatos"

Team "Bombarders"

Team "Peaches"

I got in on the action with 4 of my RAs and Peter (Study abroad student from Bethel)

The night was great. Afterwards, a couple of my RAs came over to our apartment and made kepta duona (lithuanian snack of fried rye bread covered in melted cheese/garlic/mayonase). It was delicious.

This and That

The new semester is upon us, and I am busy planning and getting ready for the hiring of the new student leaders for next school year. Events related to that will happen throughout the course of the semester. I've also been making sure there are other leadership events and seminars lined up for people to attend. I've been invited to be a part of a bible study starting next Tuesday, and that is a real blessing.

Steve has been busy as well. Tonight and tomorrow will be some of the fruits of that busyness. Tonight is a dorm event -- a bowling competition. 7 Teams of students are signed up! Tomorrow Steve will be the speaker in a leadership seminar. I think he will do a great job!

Thanks for your prayers and support, we wouldn't be able to do it without you!

The last two weeks.

Today we brought Guy to the airport so that he could go back to Minnesota. We loved having him here. Two weeks was over before we knew it.

Mostly, we hung out a lot. We tried to show him around as much as possible, and we had fun, but moreso it was refreshing to just visit with our good friend.

Here, briefly, is some of what we did (there are many stories, so I'll try not to make them all long...and I'll try to remember most of them):

Suitcase o'goodies
There was an entire big old suitcase filled with presents from home. It was so fun to celebrate Christmas a week later!

Klaipeda
We walked all over, showing off our city and our favorite places. We even tried a place we've never been before called Kurpiai, a jazz club. We will definitely go there again! Other highlights were: our favorite bakery: Bandele Namai, the bridge with all the locks, Stora Antis (a very cool little restaurant), and lithuanian cuisine in general.

Riga
We wanted to go to the capital of Latvia, which is only a mere 4.5 hour bus ride away. We pulled an all-nighter so that we could be awake to get on the 7am bus. Our plan was that we'd sleep on the bus all the way there, get there at 11:30/noonish, spend the day exploring Riga, and then get on the 6:30pm bus back to Klaipeda. At about 8am (still dark out), we woke up because the bus had stopped. I thought we were just at one of the scheduled stops along the way, but soon found out that we were stuck in a snowbank on the side of the road (1. hard to say "ditch" as there aren't that many hills here, and 2. There was no snow before Guy came. Just one of the many things he brought with from Minnesota).
The bus driver went out several times and tried to dig us out, and then would come back and try to drive out -- unsuccessfully. Finally, all the men on the bus got out to try to help him (The one other woman and I stayed on the bus), trying to move snow, pushing the bus, etc. But they were no match for the strong winds, snow, and big bus. A few cars stopped and tried to help. Someone had a shovel, another had a rope (that broke). Some of the men came on the bus to find anything that was flat to try to shovel us out (top of the garbage can, sign that said Klaipeda to Riga -- anything). Everyone got on the back of the bus to weigh it down while the driver tried to drive out...nothing. More pushing, more digging. Nothing would help. Several people were driving by us, not helping. I can't say anything about that, really. If I drove past a big bus in a ditch with a bunch of people standing around it, I wouldn't stop either. I've driven past worse, sadly.
Eventually most people came back on the bus to warm up, and a small plow came. Soon, the three of us fell asleep, because we thought we would be back on the road shortly.
At around 11am, the bus lurched again, and we wondered if we were off the road again. No. We were not off the road again....we were STILL stuck in the same spot! A bigger plow was there though, and had dug us out enough to allow the bus to back up. The truck cleared a big path where the bus had been stuck, and then sanded and salted everything from the bus to the road so we could get back on the road again.
At 11:30am, about the time we should've arrived in Riga, we were finally on our way. We arrived in Riga shortly before 4pm. Just in time to go to the top of a tall church and see the city before the sun completed setting, get some food (we didn't pack a lunch because we didn't expect to be on the bus for 9 hours), walk around for a little while, and then catch the 6:30pm bus back home.
It was definitely memorable. And we made it home safely, thank God!

More Daylight Hours as noticed on the way to church
We've been gaining more sunlight each day by the minutes. And it's noticable and appreciated. The first Sunday Guy was here, we walked to church in the dark. The second Sunday, we were able to walk to church while the sun was still out. (We go to evening church that starts at 5pm). It was good to be able to show where we go to church and introduce people.

Palanga
We caught a bus to Palanga, a city that is about 25 km away (you may remember that we rode bikes there in August). Arunas, a student and friend who lives across the hall from us, is from there and was our tour guide. We walked around the city, walked around in the forest, went to the pier, and went inside a big, beautiful church.
The pier goes out over the Baltic Sea for quite a ways, and we thought, "Let's walk to the end of it." No big deal, right? I forgot to mention that the sun had just set, it was cold out, slightly snowing/sleeting, and very, very windy (we were walking into the wind). I wish I knew the speed (is that how wind is measured?) of the wind, so it doesn't sound exaggerated. Let me out it this way: if the pier was little more icy, we could've let the wind blow us back to shore. It was amazing. I think I really experience God's power in situations/adventures like this.

LCC
On the day we showed Guy where we work, we also were recruited to take down Christmas decorations. Apparently it went faster than in the past, so that was good.

Sunset over the Baltic
One day the that the sun was out, we got on the number 6 bus and went to watch the sunset over the Baltic Sea.

Pizza
We made some of our best pizza over the last two weeks, as well as got to try some Lithuanian pizza...a couple of times. Eating pizza never gets old.

Cribbage/Movies
We played so much cribbage. And watched a whole list of movies. It's been awhile since we've been able to have this much recreation of this sort.

Vilnius
Yesterday (Wednesday), we got on the 6am train to Vilnius. We wanted to see the capital of Lithuania for a day before going to the airport. It's the capital of culture for the European Union in the year 2009. (Trivia: 2009 is also the 1000th birthday of Lithuania's name. In other words, the first mention in writing of the country of Lithuania was in 1009. That's old). We had a really nice day of walking around and looking at the Baroque architecture. There are a lot of old churches in Vilnius.

There are probably many more stories, but these are the ones that I can remember. We took a few pictures, but Guy took even more (he's in the air right now....somewhere between here and the U.S....pray for safe travels!), so we hopefully will get to see those soon.

Here are 4:

At Cili Pizza in Vilinius


Me in front of the oldest post office in Klaipeda (or at least that's what I've heard)


Steve and the bell tower in Vilnius


Vilnius


All in all, it was a wonderful time. Before we left the airport, Guy prayed for us -- and it was really a blessing. Such a great way to end his visit here. We are truly blessed!

We're Alive and Well

Sorry for the lack of posts. Guy has been here, and we've been busy having fun showing him around and playing a lot of cribbage.

Students will move back into the dorm on Sunday, and school starts back up again on Monday.

More to come later!