Greetings from Lithuania!

And Happy Belated Easter!

What a weird wonderful week it was.  Monday was ok, Tuesday
and Wednesday were pretty terrible, and Thursday and Friday
were pretty good.

The highlight or lowlight of the week was the return of
the mysterious pain in the neck during the first part
of the week.  Coupled with that was a complete lethargy.
I am pretty sure that the problem is an iodine deficiency,
since after a determined effort to get more iodine into
my system, I had an energetic Thursday and Friday.
And the pain in the neck went away.

Good Friday, we had a KIF shadow service. Julia Reimer (M.A. BGSU '96
[Hi Mom and Dad]) was in charge.  She is the oral communication
prof on staff so she included a Reader's Theater version of
Barrington Bunny.  My role was starting two songs a capella.
No pressure there. :-)

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Riga, Latvia.  My Easter service
was spent in the Dome Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the
Baltics) listening to a Lutheran sermon in Latvian.  It was televised
too, so perhaps you saw it.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear
the Hallelujah Chorus done in English.

Saturday night I had gone to the opera to see Verdi's _Nabuco_.
I didn't see the program notes until after the first act (four
acts total), so I was more than a little confused.  Nabuco is
Italian for Nebuchadnezzer, and I was a little nonplussed to
see for an apparently Jewish opening scene set in 600BC both
a gold cross, and a menorah.  Anachronism Theater presents...
The plot of _Nabuco_ can be summarized as being almost,
but not quite, completely unlike the Book of Daniel.
It was well produced, and I had a box seat almost above the
orchestra.  One of the arias must have some special significance
to Latvians because one of them was applauded even before it
began.

The bus trip to Riga and back was with most of the staff.
It was the nicest bus I've been on in some time.  I had
both the Kay kids (Kevin age 3 and Steph age 5), and the
older Pinter (Evan age 2) in my lap at one point or another.
I was giving rides on the aisle seat which would slide sideways
for a couple inches, and reading a Richard Scarry book to
Kevin.  Can you call it reading if the book consists of nothing
but labelled pictures:  plane, tree, cap...?

So now the final three weeks of teaching, Finals Week and
home again.  I'll have to keep up with everything.  So
will the students. :-)

Thanks so much for all your prayers.  It is exciting to
see how God is working things out.

Yours in Christ,
David