Greetings from Lithuania!

It is Saturday night and almost warm.  The snow from last week
has mostly melted from the streets, so it is possible to move
around without risking life and limb.  

This afternoon I was at Aurelijus's wedding.  It was held at
the Klaipeda Free Church.  The church meets in the recital hall
of an art museum.  (The "Free" in the title refers to the 
denominational origins--it means free from Anglicans/Episcopalians).
The most interesting difference between a Lithuanian wedding and
the American version, is that the Lithuanian couple gets to
sit during most of the service.  They were seated on the dais,
facing the congregation.  They both looked wonderful.  Aurelijus
had a tuxedo, Ausra was wearing a white dress (not a wedding dress),
with a white pillbox hat (think Jackie Kennedy).  I was there
as part of the quartet to sing "O Perfect Love", and the Lutkin
benediction.  I am still terrorized by the tenor line of the latter.
The other quartet members were President Meninger and his wife,
and Erna Hubert, wife of the history prof.  It was quite an experience.
Following the ceremony, the couple had to go to the Wedding
Chapel (a holdover from the Soviet system) to log the wedding.

I can't say anything about the sermon preached because I didn't
understand a word of it.  I'll be back there Sunday morning
for the worship service.

I have spent the week sick with a head cold.  I was running a slight
fever on Tuesday.  That was just part of a really bad week.

Last Sunday, I learned that a friend of mine (Don) back at Auburn, was
involved in an extremely serious car accident.  He was hurt
very badly, and is still in a bad way.  The doctors are hopeful
of a meaningful recovery.  He was expected to finish his doctorate
this year.  Chris, who has been looking after my apartment back
in Auburn, is also one of Don's best friends and has taken charge
of getting Don's things in order.  He has spent a lot of time on
the road to Birmingham (where Don is) to see how Don is doing.
Please pray for Don, and for Chris.

It seems I have spent almost as much time thinking of Auburn
this week as I have thought of Lithuania.  I have another friend
back there going through changes in her family life.  And I've
been struggling with closure in a personal relationship back there.

Friday, I learned that my job with the University is officially
up for grabs.  Good news:  it is going to be a permanent position,
which means benefits.  Bad news:  it doesn't necessarily have to
go to me.  My boss, Mike Stewart, told me about the job posting,
and also let me know that he had turned in my job application
and resume for it.  Nice to know you're still wanted. :-)
(Of course, he had also forgotten to turn in my time sheet for
the first two weeks of January until I reminded him of it.  This
after he had asked me not to turn it in myself before leaving.)

Where was I?  Oh, that's right, I was in Lithuania.  Forgot there.

This week in class was rough in its own right.  The Intro classes'
assignment was to create a cover letter and resume using MS Word
Wizards.  The book and the program had serious disagreements
in formatting the letter and resume (not to mention that the
Office95 version of Word insists on calling it a curriculum vitae),
so I had to work out the differences and coach students through
the changes.

One of the problems I ran into this week was an unexpected language
barrier.  I had two different students misunderstand the sentence
"Click to the left of the paragraph."  They didn't understand what
"to the left of" meant, as in what was supposed to be to the left
of what.  I am learning patience one very small bit at a time.
It has been a very close call at times though.  Please pray
for that, it has always been a weakness of mine.

Speaking of patience, I ran out of patience with my hotmail
account after waiting 45 minutes for a mail message to show up
on my screen.  Ugh.  This way should be much better.  (For the
technically inclined, I'm using Netscape 4.0's Message Center
feature to send mail to Omnitel's Klaipeda email server, your
messages are routed to Auburn U's POP server which I connect to
periodically over the Internet.)

This week marks a milestone.  This has been the longest I have
ever gone without talking to one or both of my parents.  (Or
at least, since I was 2 years old or so. Hi, Mom and Dad!)
I miss the telephone.

Weird note:  each day I walk into my dorm room, and subconsciously 
feel like I'm forgetting to do something.  I am trying to check
my answering machine, and I don't even have a phone!  I think I
will buy a machine anyway, just so I have something to check.
Maybe if I built one out of cardboard...

Wednesday night at the student chapel, Leah Potts spoke.  She is
the former Campus Crusader, now teaching Institute and College
writing classes.  She did a really good job of relating to the
students.  It made me see how my cousin in CC does it.

I have decided to quit reading Grisham novels for a while, and
read something more meaningful.  I've picked up a copy of
Dr. Fee's Commentary on First Corinthians, part of the New
International Commentary on the New Testament.  One of his
thesis advisees was Dean Pinter, Religion prof and co-chaplain
at LCC.

Thursday night, I was coming out of the Madi (a local convenience 
store) and heading back to LCC when I realized that there was
a man walking next to me like he wanted something.  I stopped,
and he stopped and started asking me something in Lithuanian.
I told him I didn't speak Lithuanian, and he kept on talking.
After a few seconds, I realized that he had switched to English,
sort of.  The conversation went like this:

Him: "You go"
Me: "Where?"
Him:  "Yes"
Me:  "Uh, no, I'm missing an object in here."

He wasn't really focused on me, but rather off to my right,
and at first I thought he was looking at my poppy seed roll,
which I was about to eat on the walk back.  I offered it to
him, but he waved it off.  During the course of the conversation,
he was working his way around me until he was blocking my path.
He didn't appear to be a threat, but he definitely did not
seem all there.  He didn't smell of alcohol, but he reminded
me of a drug addict or two that I've talked with.  I was at
an impasse, told him that I couldn't understand him and moved
past.

He stopped me a few feet later, and the sequence started over
with him working his way into my path.  After a minute or two
of this, a couple walked past us, and then I heard Erna Hubert's
voice asking me if I needed help.  Did I!  The Hubert's and
I went off together followed by the man.  When we crossed the
street, I hoped he would follow us back to LCC so I could
find a translator, but he kept on going, and then turned and
yelled at us across the street.  It was very odd.  I hope
I can run into him again when I'm better prepared.  Pray for this.

Friday, I had my picture taken for the yearbook.  Klaipeda
has 200,000 people, but you couldn't tell from the area around
LCC.  The edge of town is less than a mile north, the center of
town is a mile south.  But when you keep on going south, which
is what I did in a van for 25 minutes to get to the photographer's
apartment, you definitely know that Klaipeda is a big town.  There
were endless rows of 10 story apartment buildings.

It has been a long troublesome week.  But through it all 
God has been faithful.  I look forward to the new week!

Thanks for all your prayers.  

In Christ,
David