Greetings from Lithuania!

It has been a long week this week.  That's sort of odd because
Monday was Lithuanian Independence Day and we didn't have classes.
It has been a week filled with meetings, various.

Last Sunday I helped Tracy and Leigh do their Klaipeda International
Fellowship church service.  I led two hymns and three choruses, and
sang in the quartet. Marg played piano for the hymns and Nathan 
played guitar for the choruses.  To make things interesting, 
Tracy picked two choruses I didn't know, one of which was new 
to Nathan, too.  So we learned the song off of a CD a couple 
hours prior to services.  

Tracy was in charge of arranging the service and picking music 
while Leigh did the actual message.  The theme was 
"Listening to Your Life", based on one of her favorite
authors.  What she did was explain the purpose, and then 
she had three of her students read essays they had written
for her Spiritual Autobiography class.  The first two described
their conversion experiences.  Then I had to get up and lead
singing.  It is difficult to lead singing when you are choked
up from testimonies :-)   Donatas read his essay on the
acceptance by God of all sinners into the family at Communion,
and then we had Communion.   It was a very moving service, and
I'm very glad I had a chance to participate.

Monday night, Independence Day, the Lithuanian staff threw a 
party for the North Americans, featuring traditional games,
songs, and really nifty costumes.  I got sucked into this
odd song and dance on potato pancakes.

Tuesday night was an informational meeting for the Business
department.  The star attraction was the mayor of Klaipeda,
a German looking fellow who spoke excellent English despite
never having studied the language formally.  He apparently
hadn't studied his audience, because he was most proud of
three areas of investment in Klaipeda--beer (Balijos), 
tobacco (Philip Morris), and casinos.  His idea of infrastructure
was more tourism infrastructure (restaurants, hotels, ferry
terminals) than more traditional ideas.  But he did have
an excellent grasp of the port's fundamentals, and he was 
very informative about future growth of the port's productivity.

Wednesday night, Jim Reiff and Brian Kay had a night of
remembrance for the Lithuanian staff so they could tell us
their stories of the fight for Lithuanian Reindependence.
(February 16 marks their original independence from the 
Russians after WWI.)   Most moving of all the stories
was Nigiya and her husband dashing out of their apartment
in Vilnius the night the Soviets took over the TV studio, 
and racing down to the parliament building to stand with
a vast crowd of people to protect it.  They heard the sounds
of tanks coming toward them, and she described the wave of
panic they felt as they thought they were going to be killed,
only to have the tanks pass by the parliament on the way
to the TV tower.  The assault there cost the lives of 13
Lithuanians, all unarmed, most teenagers.  Two of our
younger staff members were in Klaipeda trying to protect
the telephone station and the local political buildings
when they heard about the attack.  The Soviets took the
main TV tower and studio at Vilnius, but ignored the telephone,
the radio, and the secondary TV tower at Kaunas so they did
nothing but take a massive hit in international opinion.

Thursday, I went to one of the local hospitals.  I never
want to go back there again.  I've picked up a pain in
my neck to the right of my throat and above the Adam's apple.
I didn't know whether it was caused by playing basketball
Monday--the pain started Tuesday morning, or whether it was
throat pain.  One of my students suggested it might by
tonsillitis so I had Marg and Lynn take a look at my throat.
They didn't see anything, but they knew an ear, nose, and 
throat specialist at the hospital who would look at me
for free, so off I went. 

The ENT was very efficient and did a good job of putting me
at ease.   I needed that because the hospital itself was
very stark and a little scary.  Lynn described it as being
out of the movie _Reds_.   The doctor didn't find anything
wrong in my throat, but if the pain doesn't get better,
I'll have to go back and see another specialist.

Friday was another Single Girl's Night.  This time
including Virginia Meninger, since Jim is in Canada
for interviewing and the LCC board meeting, and Nikki
Horodski, because she didn't like being excluded from
the last one.  The latter meant that her husband, John,
and I went out for pizza and then watched Hitchcock's
_Rear Window_.  John is an interesting person.  He was
raised Roman Catholic, but was saved four years ago and
attends the Mennonite Brethren church with his wife.
He feels very deprived because the RC tradition meant
that he was never exposed to hymns.  He very much wants
to learn them, so I'll try and teach him some.

I forgot to mention that last Sunday I also went out to
visit the new LCC campus and the railroad station.  The
latter looks a lot different than what I remember from
10pm last March.   The new campus is on the other side
of the railroad tracks, away from the port, and will be
a great facility once the buildings are finished.  LCC
bought an incomplete medical center, and is trying to
lease some surrounding land from the city for additional
buildings.  

Classes are going ok.  I've had to extend the deadline
for the Business Computer project twice in two class days
because the students aren't making enough headway.  I 
discovered I had one student Friday who had worked on
it for a week and a half without having a clue as to
what she was doing.  I'll have to give some quick tutorials.
First lesson will be how to raise your hand when you don't
understand.  I also found I made a mistake in explaining
how to calculate common stockholders equity--I left out
retained earnings, oops.

I played on the staff team for the Independence Day
tourney.  We came in 6th out of 8 teams.  The staff hockey
team went 1-1 this week, and I'm keeping my 2 goals allowed
per game average.

I might have a chance to go to the Kaliningrad Oblast next
weekend, or the following weekend.  Kaliningrad is the westernmost
piece of Russia which used to be the East Prussian city of
Konigsberg.  It is supposed to be crammed with troops, and
very difficult to get into.  Should be fun!

Take care everybody!

The Joy of the Lord will be my strength
I will not falter, I will not faint.
He will be strong to deliver me safe,
The Joy of the Lord is my strength.
			--"The Joy of the Lord"

Your wind is blowing, across this lonely land,
We are your messengers, your touch is our hand.
Use us Lord Jesus to care for our friends,
Help us to love them, it's your great command.

Oh, wind of the Spirit, fill the sail of my soul,
Send us on Lord, let your wind blow.
Oh, wind of the Spirit, fill the sail of my soul,
Send us on Lord, let your wind blow.

Your spirit is moving with power and might,
We'll walk together by faith, not by sight.
You're calling an army to rise up and fight,
We'll be your soldiers flooding darkness with Light.

Oh, wind of the Spirit, fill the sail of my soul,
Send us on Lord, let your wind blow.
Oh, wind of the Spirit, fill the sail of my soul,
Send us on Lord, let your wind blow.
				--"Wind of the Spirit"

David