Inauguration events (pictures with people!) :)

Hi Everyone,
The past few days have been filled with inaugural events. I took some pictures so that you could see some of the action....but I uploaded them backwards. So your best bet will be to scroll all the way to the end, and work your way up. :)

Enjoy!



^After the inauguration ceremony, there was a big fancy dinner served to everyone. It was very tasty. Then there were some paintings auctioned off to raise money for LCC.


^Us


^The mayor of Klaipeda (among other distinguished guests) spoke. When the person up front was speaking Lithuanian, there were English words on the wall. When the person up front was speaking English, there were Lithaunian words on the wall. A much better way to do translation, in my opinion (rather than having one person speak, and then another person translate after. Every sentence takes twice as long that way). Anyway, I liked this sentence.


^Our new pres


^Processional at the inauguration


^2 sets of conversations.


^A good sized crowd.


^International gifts


^Kyle and Trisa say thank you.


^Ukrainian students sing a song.


^Love this one. On the table are all of the gifts from students. A student from Finland is giving the pres and wife a Finnish knife (and apparently saying something VERY funny!)


^Someone up front said something funny.


^Saturday morning was a student reception, which in my opinion was the best event. Students got to give their blessings to the president and his wife in their own language, and then presented them with a gift from their country. Pastries and coffee and mingling afterward.


^Steve


^Everyone got a chance to dig if they wanted to.


^Ilya, an RA, makes the first dig.


^The Mayor of Klaipeda and the President of LCC shake hands.


^Some student life staffers


^Reactions from the crowd


^Lots of people spoke...LCC's new President was one of them.


^On Friday, was the groundbreaking ceremony for the new residence hall that will hopefully be completed by Fall of 2011. Steve was the MC.


^Lithuanian Dancers.


^The Parade of Stars, where students from different countries represent their country through art, skits, music, etc. A great show this year! Belarus got first place, Ukraine second, and Moldova third.


I took over 400 pictures...so this is just a few to give you an idea :) If I feel motivated, I might make a couple of albums on facebook...if that happens I will let you know!

Blessings.

Sweet Conversations

It seems strange to me that I have found time in the midst of one of the busiest weeks of the semester (board meeting/Presidential inauguration/normal work) to share some updates. Yet I need to share being I have been "silent" and only have let Laura bring our news.

I titled this post "Sweet Conversations" for a number of reasons. First, it is conversations that I long to have with students and others in order to share our stories and to connect those stories to the Great Story which encompasses us all.

I have been encouraged this year to have had/am having the opportunity to have meaningful conversation with my RAs. I haven't talked enough about this amazing group of students with whom I have had the opportunity to work with this year. We have a fun time when we are together as a group, work well together, play well together, and engage in meaningful conversation in which we are growing together. The same way, my favorite part of my job (and a key reason I love being an RD) is getting to have one-on-one meetings with my RAs. This is a time in which we get to talk about work things, but more importantly about life things. I love seeing how the relationship with my students continues to grow throughout the year from introductory topics to matters of the heart.

On such conversation has been particularly uplifting and encouraging has been centered around the topic of wisdom development and worldview. I am constantly challenged by this conversation and yet it is the conversation that I love to have. On thing that I have really been challenged by and have shared with this particular RA is the idea presented in a book I recently read that talks about the not necessarily looking for clarity in all things, but being challenged with intrigue and the development and learning that takes place in a constant desire to learn, examine, and wonder. This is what I desire for our students, but also for myself...To be rooted in Truth and continue to develop from there.

The second, reason I called this post "sweet conversations" is because we have had some great times talking with family of late and hearing good news from back home. We got to sing "Su gimimo diena!" (Happy Birthday) to my Grandma Hanson on Sunday as she turned 91. We also got to talk with my cousin Nate and his wife Rebecca and congratulate them on the news of their baby due in September. It was a fun day to talk with a lot of family visiting for Grandma's birthday and to catch up and feel loved and supported.

The third reason for the title has to do with prayer. I desire for my prayer life to be a sweet conversation and not always be selfish in the way I pray. I feel like I ask for a lot when I pray and forget to seek God, not just what He is going to do for me or where He is going to provide. I need to trust God to provide according to His will, asking for what we need, but spending more time being intrigued by who God is, rather that what He can do.

That being said, We do need prayer as we look to what God has for us after LCC. I had two phone interviews last week with universities that I would really like to work at. I think they went ok. One of the universities just emailed me today to say that they were no longer considering me. It always hurts to hear that. Please pray that God would lead us to the right place and open the door to a place where we can serve and grow.

I am anxious to know what is next, so that I can stop having it consume my thoughts and so that I can give all that I have to finishing strong here at LCC, spending time with our students and friends, and leaving on a strong note.

Thank you all for your prayers, love, and support.

Go and be intrigued by God.

Update

Hi Family and Friends,

As promised, here is an update on how we are doing in Lithuania. On Monday we will start the last 6 weeks until graduation (graduation is on or around May 1st here this year). It will be an especially busy time, because LCC has a new president, and toward the end of March here we will have an inauguration. Should be a pretty big event in addition to the normal wrapping-up activities that happen in the last few weeks of school.

The biggest news that we have (NO we are not pregnant) is that this will be our last semester here. Going into it, we committed to be here for 2 school years (and then we'd evaluate whether or not we were coming back)...as I mentioned in the last post, time flies! It is already the end of the second year, and we are feeling that it is time to move on for now, and that we will not extend our commitment beyond what it already was.

There are a few reasons why we are coming back to the United States, and I won't get into all of them here, but mainly we want to develop and grow professionally. Steve wants to gain more RD experience at another school to compare, and he also wants to be able to continue to be mentored and to mentor others within the context of higher education. We have felt a lot of support from back home (in every way possible), so thank you for that.
I would like to develop professionally as well, but not quite so sure how that will look. I am sure that the jobs I was doing here (and am doing for another 6 weeks) are not the jobs I want to do for the rest of my life. Last semester I took one seminary class online, and this semester I am taking one more class (I had originally signed up for 2 classes, but had to drop one due to me being in over my head busy)...at this rate I will finish a master's degree in 200 years. So I would like to take more classes next fall if possible. I have really enjoyed the classes I've been taking, but would really like to do a program that is not online, and have more classroom time. So who knows where I will be next year? It all depends on where Steve gets a job, and if there is a seminary near by.
Which brings me to my first prayer request:

Job hunting.
Steve has been diligently sending out resumes and job applications to various schools all over the United States. We would like to settle in the Midwest hopefully, but we are open to living anywhere (anywhere is closer to home than Lithuania!). It has been slow going. I don't know if schools are hesitant to contact someone who is currently living in a country they probably can't find on a map. He is certainly qualified, but it is hard for a school to want to fund flying him in for an interview. So we would really appreciate prayers for the job hunt. Pray for encouragement and wisdom to know what to do. We have faith that God already knows where we will be next year, and what we will be doing....but a lot of schools have been silent, so it would be very encouraging to at least hear something from them!

With all of this thinking about the future, it is really going to be a struggle to live in the present. So that is another prayer request. That we would be able to finish strong here. We have a lot of great students that we've been privileged to get to know and mentor over the past couple of years, and it would be a disservice to them if we started coasting now. Pray that we would be able to be here while we are here, and not in our worries and excitement over the future (hopefully the last two prayer requests are not contradictory to each other).

I have also had the opportunity to be apart of a growing Bible study here in Klaipeda -- CBSI (Community Bible Study International). It is wonderful to study the Bible alongside a group of women from all over the globe. An experience that I will cherish for sure. Pray that the group would be able to reach more people in Klaipeda with each new year (and for translation! We are studying in English, and a couple of the studies have already been translated to Lithuanian...and a lot more in Russian...but it is so much more meaningful for people to study Scripture in their heart language).

Steve has been able to mentor students, a role he is really gifted in. Pray that the conversations that he has over the next couple of months will be fruitful, and that the relationships that he is building will last beyond the distance of living on the other side of the world next year.

Pray for me in my job. It has certainly been a stretching couple of years for me, in a role that is "filling in wherever needed." I have filled a lot of shoes and worn a lot of hats that don't fit me well (or are really not my style, etc). Pray that I would be able to finish well. It will be a huge relief to be done with my jobs...but difficult to leave behind students.

Our original flight home was going to be in the end of May (the 27th or so?), but we are working to change it so that we can come home sooner. We are missing you, friends and family, and would also like to be home sooner, in case Steve can still do some job interviews. So we are going to try to be home by May 12th (2 months from now). Or at least we will leave here on May 12th.

In the spirit of finishing strong, we will soon give an update on where we are financially. I still have a couple of questions that I would like answered (like, for how long do we raise support? Through May? June? and Can we re-evaluate our budget sooner than May, so we can give you a better idea of how much more, if any we need to raise? etc) before we can give an accurate update. But we do know that we are doing well, and headed in the right direction. Thank you so much for all the support over the years. Your prayers, letters, calls, visits, donations, etc have been very meaningful to us, and to the ministry that we are doing here in Lithuania.

Hope this update finds you well....and thank you for reading!
Laura

Great ambitions

Hi Friends and Family,
I had grand ambitions of posting a true update with more than just a link to a photo album, but as it is, it is midnight, and our bus leaves Tartu tomorrow morning at 6:45. If any of our buses have wireless, I may post from there. We have had a very relaxing week in Tartu, and will return to a very busy last 6 weeks of school. I will let you know better how you can pray for us in the next post.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support (both moral and financial!) -- it is much appreciated!
More soon.

Laura


PS....here is a link to the last few photos of Tartu, and here is a link to reflections of Hannah and Eva's visit (which was not only over in a blink, but already seems so long ago! Time flies).

Tartu, Estonia

Here is a link to the first of our pictures in Tartu.

And here are 5 of them, if you don't have time to go through the album (bonus: the one of Steve below).

A symbol of Tartu: A statue called the Kissing Students


Tartu University's main building, St John's Church, and a couple of backpackers.


The Town Hall, and to the left is where we are staying.


And, a couple of pictures with people in them:

Always fun to travel with Steve

Steve in between statues of Oscar Wilde and Eduard Wilde in Tartu, Estonia.

photo albums 2 and 3

Here are a couple more albums from when Hannah and Eva were here.
Here.
And here. These are ones that Eva posted on facebook. Not too sure if this link will work.

We are posting this from Tartu, Estonia. It is so good to be on break. We are taking this week to lay low and relax. My body is so used to working though, that I woke up at 8am, ready to be awake. We'll see if this lasts through the week. ;)
I will post some pictures from Tartu soon. It is such a cute city. We love Estonia!

Photo Album number 1

Hi Everyone,
Our long-awaited visitors have come and gone. We had a really full week, and it went by in a blink! It was so wonderful to have familiar faces from home here! We had a lot of fun showing them our part of the world. Some of the highlights: Klaipeda, Riga, Vilnius, Trakai, The Baltic Sea, Lithuanian Cuisine, Rain melting winter away, Bus rides, etc!
We took lots of photos....here is the link to the first album. Hopefully will be able to blog more soon!