Hello from Lithuania!

As I write this, it is 11pm Lithuanian time, but
just 3 or 4pm back home.  I've been here almost
a week, but it feels much longer.  It's not that
it is difficult to be here, rather that I feel
already at home.

I will probably these big letters home more
often on the weekend, but I know most of
you won't get a chance to read this before
Monday morning my time if I send it over the
weekend.  Monday morning is important.  Starting
at 9am, I teach my first class.  I'm going to
spend time getting to know the students, and
finding out what they already know about computers.
But I am also going to tell them about myself,
and share with them my testimony as to how
God happened to call me to be there with them.
So please pray for me.  Pray that the Holy
Spirit will use me as an instrument to touch
the hearts of these students.  Thanks.

As far as the classes go. I'll be teaching
three sections of Intro to Computers MWF 9-12,
and two sections of Business Computer Applications
MWF 2-4.  I am pretty pleased by the schedule, 
since it will give me time to get lunch and
get ready for the afternoon classes.  It should
be easier to keep the sections on the same page
this way, too.

The Intro class is something of a misnomer.
The class description is more of a basic computer
applications class.  So that's what I'm going
to teach.  (The Institute teaches an Intro
class which covers the basics of computers
themselves.)  We'll cover introductory Internet
issues, advanced word processing, and basic
spreadsheets and databases.

The head of the business faculty here, Gordon
Nielson, and I went over the plans for the
Business class last night.  That class will
work on a series of projects based on various
facets of the business curriculum.  So the
spreadsheet project will cover accounting or
finance concepts, the database project will
deal with management, and there will be
a presentation project and an Internet project
for marketing.  Or they might divide them up
any other way they care to tomorrow morning
at the business faculty meeting.  My job will
be to teach the students the skills they need
to get the project done.  (I'm going to teach
them HTML and finesse the lack of complete
Internet access in the lab by having them create
web pages on a disk.  Should be fun.)

The People:
I've really enjoyed working with Len--the 
Academic Dean.  He has the air of a favorite
uncle (Hi, Uncle Al!) and is very easy to deal
with on issues.  I'm amused he has a 150th
anniversary Taylor mug, too, because he's never
been there.  Len was on the flight from Frankfurt.
I recognized him from the yearbook photo and
his picture on the web, so I introduced myself. :-)

Volunteers at LCC divide into two groups by age.
There are the 20 something crowd, and the near
retirees.  There's really nobody in the middle.
We have gotten to know one another pretty
well in the last few days.  The newbies this
semester besides myself include John & Nicki
(young married couple from Brit Columbia),
the Toewes (older couple from BC), and Leah (my age, 
from Vancouver, or Seattle, or Phoenix--she's 
moved around).  There are three other older people
at orientation (Sam & Daisy, and Margaret), but
they were all returnees from last year.

Today I was told I wouldn't be moving to
the LCC building and then half an hour later
I was told I could move if I wanted to.  Apparently
the family whose suite I was slated to get ran
into a last second problem with their hoped-to-be 
new landlord over rent prices, and nearly had
to back out.  I'll give them a week or two
to make sure before actually moving.  I am
in no hurry.  The short-term volunteers are
put into Karklu so the people I know best are
over there.

Other folks--Inga, 3rd year student, and something
of a prankster.  Leigh, English instructor from
Murfreesboro, TN (which makes her doubly a volunteer).
Leigh is in her mid-20s and has taught here for
two years.  Leigh and Leah have the same first and last
initials, and are teaching the same Writing class.
I've been referring to them as the LP twins.
They are both great people.  (Leah actually does
have a twin, which makes it even better.)
Leigh currently has the room above mine at Karklu.
Karen is the Dean of Students, lots of fun.
The Olsons live across from me.  They're a
young couple--Sharlene is head resident, Nathan
is an EIL instructor.

I think what I'm enjoying most so far has been
the feeling of community.  Today I went to
lunch (potato pancakes with meat, and tea)
with Karen and the LPs and we shared with 
each other how we came to be called to LCC,
and how we came to Christ.  Really neat.

Let's see, what else...the weather started
out gorgeous at the beginning of the week,
but has degenerated into sort of a permanent
twilight with low clouds and mist.

The big news for LCC is the opening up of
an honest-to-goodness grocery store, the Icke.
I got to listen to Len and Audrey--his wife
complain that shopping just wasn't a challenge
for the new folks anymore.  :-)  The Icke
is about 2/3rds the size of a typical US
grocery, but features one thing I've never
seen in the US--a tank filled with live fish!
No live lobsters yet.

A note on names:  the LCC staff goes entirely
by first names here, even for the students.
The reason is that the staff couldn't hope to get
the students' last names right (real tongue-twisters)
and it wasn't fair to make the students learn
our last names if we couldn't get theirs.  It
does mean that we have Dean Len, Dean Karen,
and Dean (Pinter, religious prof).

That's all for now!  Please pray for me as
the fun starts in earnest Monday morning!

Your fellow servant in Christ,