This past month in Lithuania Team Meno did Unsung Heroes. Unsung Heroes is a program that some World Race teams get to do in a country for a month where Adventures in Missions does not have enough contacts for all the teams on a squad. For example, in Lithuania we have no ministry contacts for teams to work with for a month. So we came to Lithuania with no specific place to go or sleep and our ministry was finding ministries/contacts for future racers.
Team Meno decided to head to Vilnius the capital of Lithuania. The day after we got there Carrie got an email from a friend from home who’s brother had been a missionary in Lithuania a couple years ago and had attended a church in Vilnius. So we arrived in Vilnius Friday afternoon and were able to attend Grace Baptist church on Sunday morning. At Grace church we met the pastor who is an American missionary from Ohio and has been in Lithuania for 20 years. He welcomed us into the church with open arms and introduced us to many people. Also all the church members were very curious why 7 Americans showed up one Sunday morning. From there God did amazing things. One person would lead us to another and another until we knew so many great people spreading God’s kingdom in Vilnius and all over Lithuania. It was truly amazing! We were there for 29 days and it felt like home. Leaving Vilnius was sad, however, we were able to introduce many contacts to Adventures in Missions and one team might even spend April with a contact we found!
We were able to help out at a place called the Good News Center, which does so many great things to spread Jesus throughout Lithuania. They have a Christian radio station, translate English Christian books into Lithuanian, publish a Christian fun magazine for kids, and much more. So many fantastic people worked there and were so kind and generous to us. We loved spending time there! They even put us on the radio to share our story and why we were in Lithuania!
One thing that truly amazed me this month is that NO ONE we were with knew we were going to be there or that we were coming. They did not get months of advance notice to plan yet we had something to do everyday. Everyone was so hospitable and so willing to help us out. We were able to visit an orphanage, a kids youth center, go to a BBQ for Lithuania’s Reclamation of Independence Day, be on the radio, paint a daycare center, explore Vilnius, etc. In the states I think we have such busy schedules and lives that we do not leave room for God to guide our days. We are not willing to let unexpected guests interrupt our plans. Anytime our group shows up to a church they have us come up to the front, introduce ourselves and sometimes even change their whole agenda for us.
Unity was a huge concept for every church and pastor in Vilnius. Christians are the minority there so all the churches, pastors and youth work together for the kingdom. It is so cool to see all the pastors in the city meet together every month to be unified. There is also a group called Unity, which is once a month for all the youth of the city to come together and worship. It was powerful to see all God’s people being unified for Christ and not competing for members or money or status. It was also crazy how everyone we met knew almost everyone else we had met. They all seemed like one giant family who loves the Lord.
When we arrived in Vilnius we had to find our own lodging so we initially went to a hostel however, it was not in our month’s budget to stay there very long. We knew we needed to find somewhere else and luckily our new friend Almantas helped us find a cheap apartment or flat to rent for the month. He was also generous enough to let us sleep in the basement of his house for a couple nights as we transitioned into the new flat. The flat was one of my favorite parts of our month. It was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment and all 7 members of Team Meno stayed there for 20 days and for 7 of those days our squad leader Hannah also stayed with us. Let just say it was definitely a packed house, especially the bathroom. We also had to climb up 84 stairs to get to our fourth story flat :/
Overall, we had an amazing month. We all fell in love with Vilnius and the people there!
Now we are headed to Tartu, Estonia to work with a church for a while and then go help prepare their site for youth summer camp. We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us there! Please keep us in your prayers as we begin MONTH 4!!!!
