Lithuania

Overview

A team of ten people will fly out from Grand Rapids to go to Lithuania on Friday, July 27. They're going to the town of Birzai to continue construction work on a new church there. About six teams per year from different conferences have been going to work in Birzai for the past several years, and the building is nearing completion. When they get there, they will be picking up where the last team left off.

They'll be sending email updates from Lithuania. Anyone who would like to receive the updates, can send Ben Eavey an email at ben@eavey.com to be added to the list. Ben Eavey, Betty DeVinney, Daniel DeVinney, Joseph DeVinney, Holly Bloss, Nancy Wierenga, Jeb Wierenga, Broderick Norkus (Cornerstone UMC), Matt Kendall (Cornerstone UMC), Joe Huston (Lansing Central UMC) are members of this delegation. For more information, please call Ben Eavey at 616-281-6968 or email him at ben@eavey.com.

Pre-Trip Schedule

Here's the schedule. Please note that everything is listed in LOCAL TIME for the specified locations! Here's some info to convert back to Grand Rapids time, for those who will be following along from home:

- Germany (Düsseldorf) is 6 hours ahead of us.
- Lithuania (Vilnius, Biržai, Šiauliai) is 7 hours ahead of us.
- Belgium (Brussels) is 6 hours ahead of us.

Friday, July 27
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05:00pm - MEET AT THE GERALD R. FORD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
06:54pm - Northwest Flight 725 leaves Grand Rapids
07:52pm - Flight arrives in Detroit
09:30pm - Northwest Flight 094 leaves Detroit

Saturday, July 28
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11:30am - Flight arrives in Düsseldorf, Germany
02:00pm - Air Baltic Flight BT236 leaves Düsseldorf
06:05pm - Flight arrives in Vilnius, Lithuania

From Vilnius, we'll travel by bus to the town of Biržai. Once there, we'll meet with our host families, have dinner (or a snack, depending on the time and if we've already eaten), and then head to bed.

Sunday, July 29
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Morning - Attend church with the Biržai congregation.

Remainder of the day - We'll get to know the church members and our host families better. We'll tour the construction site and find out more about our specific projects for the week. We'll have group meals, we'll familiarize ourselves with the town, and we'll spend time in fellowship with the people of Biržai.

Monday, July 30 through Friday, August 3
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08:00am to 05:00pm - Work at the construction site. We'll take breaks for lunch and for our daily devotionals, and we may take some additional time off during the day if other things come up that we need/want to participate in for the church.

06:00pm - Group dinner, either cooked by members of the congregation or at a restaurant, depending on the situation.

Evenings can be spent however we wish. On our last trip, there were a few nights when a church member would invite the whole group over to his or her house for snacks and the opportunity to visit. Some nights were spent with our individual host families, and I'm sure we'll end up playing the evenings by ear. It is guaranteed to be interesting, though, whatever we do!

Saturday, August 4
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Morning - Finish whatever work needs to be done at the church. Clean up the work site and have it ready for the North Carolina team.

Afternoon - Pack up our stuff and move it to the hotel in Biržai. The North Carolina team will arrive sometime in the early to mid-afternoon, and this will be a new experience for everyone (2 teams in Biržai at the same time), so we'll be figuring it out as we go.

Evening - After spending our final night with everyone, we'll head back to our hotel rooms.

Sunday, August 5
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Morning - Attend church with the Biržai congregation.

Afternoon - Leave Biržai by bus and travel to the Hill of Crosses, in Šiauliai. We can spend as much time as we want at the hill. If possible, please bring a cross to leave there. There are stands on the way that sell crosses, too, if you forget to bring one. :)

Evening - Travel by bus to our hotel in Vilnius. There might be some time to do a little sightseeing Sunday night, so we'll decide how we want to handle that after we get situated in the hotel.

Monday, August 6
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It's our tourist day! Vilnius is an incredible city with a beautiful and historic Old Town area that's full of things to do. We can either travel as one large group, or else we can split up into small groups for the day, depending on what people would like to do. We have the entire day, and then we'll be spending a second night in our hotel.

Tuesday, August 7
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04:30am - LEAVE OUR HOTEL FOR THE AIRPORT
06:30am - Air Baltic Flight BT605 leaves Vilnius
08:00am - Flight arrives in Brussels, Belgium
10:00am - Northwest Flight 091 leaves Brussels
12:50pm - Flight arrives in Detroit
03:30pm - Northwest Flight 317 leaves Detroit
04:22pm - Flight arrives in Grand Rapids

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WEATHER FORECAST FOR BIRŽAI, LITHUANIA:

Saturday: Chance of Rain. Partly Cloudy. High: 66° F. / 19° C. Wind SW 8 mph. / 14 km/h. Chance of precipitation 40%.

Saturday Night
Chance of Rain. Scattered Clouds. Low: 53° F. / 12° C. Wind South 6 mph. / 10 km/h. Chance of precipitation 20%.

Sunday: Rain. Partly Cloudy. High: 62° F. / 17° C. Wind SW 11 mph. / 18 km/h. Chance of precipitation 60%.

Sunday Night: Scattered Clouds. Low: 51° F. / 11° C. Wind SSW 6 mph. / 10 km/h.

Monday: Rain. High: 53° F. / 12° C. Wind light. Chance of precipitation 70%.

Monday Night: Scattered Clouds. Low: 50° F. / 10° C. Wind light.

Tuesday: Rain. Overcast. High: 59° F. / 15° C. Wind SW 13 mph. / 21 km/h. Chance of precipitation 60%.

Tuesday Night: Chance of Rain. Partly Cloudy. Low: 53° F. / 12° C. Wind SW 8 mph. / 14 km/h. Chance of precipitation 20%.

Wednesday: Chance of Rain. Overcast. High: 68° F. / 20° C. Wind West 8 mph. / 14 km/h. Chance of precipitation 50%.

Wednesday Night: Clear. Low: 51° F. / 11° C. Wind WSW 6 mph. / 10 km/h.

Thursday: Scattered Clouds. High: 71° F. / 22° C. Wind SW 6 mph. / 10 km/h.

Thursday Night: Scattered Clouds. Low: 57° F. / 14° C. Wind SW 6 mph. / 10 km/h.

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Safe Arrival

Good Morning!

The Lithuania Mission Team arrived in Birzai, Lithuania on Sat. at 4:30 pm (our time) 11:30 pm (their time). Everyone arrived safely to their host homes and were ready to drop into bed! I'm sure there will be an update from the team coming soon. Take care and God Bless!

-Sherah Eavey
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Update #1

(written by Ben)

We're in Lithuania!

After 3 flights and a 3 hour bus ride, we finally pulled into Birþai around 11:00pm Saturday night. We met Pastor Raimondas, we were introduced to our host families, and most of us went to bed shortly thereafter!

We attended church with the Birþai congregation this morning, during which we prayed in Lithuanian, sang in Lithuanian, and listened to a sermon in Lithuanian. After the service, we had coffee and snacks (most of us did this in English). We saw the inside of the new church for the first time today, and compared to 2 years ago, it has come a long way! We talked about what we'll be working on this week, and as we expected, a lot of it will be finishing work: mudding and painting, mostly. One of the church members works at an orphanage in town, and there may be periods during the week where some of us spend time there as well.

We also took a mini-tour of the town of Birþai. We saw the first man-made lake in Lithuania, and we walked across the footbridge connecting each side. It's the longest footbridge in Lithuania, stretching 525 meters across the water. After that, we saw a couple of sinkholes, which are unique to this part of Europe -- the ground gives way occasionally to reveal a deep hole where the gypsum under the soil has been washed away by underground rivers and lakes.

One of the sinkholes was the famous "Karvës Ola", or the "Cow Hole". The Lithuanians tell the story of a woman who was milking her cow in a field when she heard her baby crying inside the house. She ran to check on her baby, and when she returned, the cow was gone, swallowed up in a huge sinkhole! Had she remained outside with the cow, she would have been gone, too. The "Cow Hole" is now a tourest attraction located in the Birþai regional park system.

The final leg of our tour brought us to the home of a rich farmer. A large chunk of his property is groomed to a level you wouldn't believe grass like a golf course, a pond with pelicans and swans, storks nesting in a dead tree above the pond, and a collection of birds that looked like a cross between a dove and a peacock. It was very impressive, and we took lots of pictures.

After dinner, we discussed our plans for tomorrow. We'll be meeting at the church at 8:00am Monday morning to begin work, and we're eager to get started!

Please continue to pray for our health and for a productive week. We'll be sending more updates throughout the week, each written by a different member of the team.

Iki pasimatymo (see you soon!)

God bless,

-Ben, Joe, Holly, Betty, Daniel, Joseph, Nancy, Jeb, Broderick, and Matt
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Second Day of Work:

We split up into two work groups today. The first work group (Joe, Holly, Betty, Nancy, and the boys) stayed at the church while the second group (Ben, Broderick, and Matt) got to work at the Center. The Church owns/uses the Center for some of their activities, they store donated clothes for the Village (one of their mission projects), and that is where we also eat lunch and dinner. It's in the basement of a building and tends to be on the damp, musty side.

Betty painted the second coat on the Fellowship Hall that we painted yesterday while the rest of us had the privilege of sanding Mud Layer No. Two that we applied yesterday. They don't just mud the seams, they mud the ENTIRE wall. Very big job. We suggested using primer, but I guess that''s not their style. Well, as they say, we're not in Kansas anymore.

The office was sanded and prepped for painting on Wednesday. Betty actually let Daniel paint the ceiling in the office. Way to go, Daniel. It needs a second coat and I'm sure he'll be assigned that task. Holly is the foreman and tells us what and where we need to go. She's really good at her job. After sanding the entire hallway and second floor landing, we needed to mud the final coat. I forgot to mention that we have to mix the mud ourselves, all except the final coat -- much easier using the premixed stuff. All of the mudding is done except for one spot that our foreman, Holly, wouldn't let us get because Broderick wasn't there to construct the scaffold and apply the mud. Too dangerous for us wee little folk. That's his assignment tomorrow, bless his soul.

Team two got to unload the supplies for the new basement walls. That is, after they cleaned up the flooded basement floor. Someone (probably us) let the toilet run and it ran all night, all over the floor. What a way to start the morning. They also went and purchased a fan to help speed the floor drying process.

Broderick says the walls are extremely hard to drill nails into. I'm not sure of all of the "technical details" but they're having a hard time getting the metal supports anchored to the wall so it can hold the drywall. Tried a bunch of different kinds of nails and are going for the liquid nails tomorrow. Please pray that this works or that they can figure out what needs to be done. It's been a very frustrating day. What they've done looks good.

Joe has been in charge of devotions on our trip and is doing a wonderful job. Today's devotion was about doing your best in the little things. In order to have an excellent result, each step has to be done to the best of our ability. While God is preparing us for the big things, we'll always have little things to do. Give your best to God!!

I love our time after dinner, we usually sit around and talk about the day. What a great bunch of people.

Time to end this note because it's time to get Ben to send this note. I hope he's still awake or you'll be getting this tomorrow morning. Oops, it's going out tomorrow. Our door is locked and I can't get out to get him.

We miss you all but are having a WONDERFUL time.

Love from all of Us.

P.S. On a historical note, Holly was the first person to actually take a shower at Church!! The hot water has been connected.
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Work Day 3:

from Holly Marie

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phillipians 1 3-6

Joe opened today with this passage, then reflected on it later during daily devotions. This seemed present thought the progression of the day.

From the looks of things, it does not seem we did much in the church. However, today was a great day for sanding and patching! Smoothing down the many layers, then going over them once more is a task yet to be completed, but we hope to do as much as possible for the next group (a difficult admission for those of us who are a bit of compulsive task master-ers...).

The struggle for "group 2"- Matt, Ben, and Broderick- was answered by the wonders of foam! It steadied and gripped the difficult walls of the basement and as we came to lunch they were finishing up hanging the drywall.

After dinner, Kristina (who is hosting the DeVinney's) invited us to see the orphanage (which seems to be a foster care center) where about ten of the youngest children would be while many of the older children are at camp for the week. The orphanage was outside of town in one of the surrounding villages. Many of the children are placed there due to parental neglect of some sort. When we arrived, it was wonderful to see how the children were cared for and loved by the workers. They happily greeted us and gave us a tour of the BRIGHTLY painted walls, taking photos with our cameras and holding our hands as they led us through their facility. The children were happy just to have visitors, showing us their break-dance moves and the center's pet chinchilla (their "dog"). As we prepared to leave for their snack they hugged us goodbye-- then got a giant surprise as Broderick presented them with glow in the dark bracelets of different colors. They were very excited! It was great to see everyone's parental side as we took turns holding the children.

The orphanage was a great inspiration to everyone as we hit the middle of our trip. We miss and love everyone, but we are even more excited to share with you all of what we have seen, people we have met, and all we have accomplished thus far.

PS. Note to Holly's Mother: Holly is NOT bossy. Holly is just really into safety. And telling others what to do (or NOT to do, in example: home-made scaffolding, lack of respect for ladders, fire...)

Love,

Holly, Nancy, Betty, Daniel, Jeb, Joseph, Joe, Matt, Broderick, and Ben
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Day 4 Update

from Betty (and Nancy):

Today started with our usual "dinner" for breakfast. If we don't gain 20 pounds on this trip, it will be a miracle!! We actually have three dinners per day. They spoil us like crazy and treat us like royalty. We are all staying with very generous host families whom we love.

It's 9:00 pm and the boys are playing Frisbee with some of the local girls. They even asked if the boys could come out and play. Love, the universal language.

Today started out a little different than normal -- whatever that is. We first went to the market and then to the Church to work since the market is only open on Thursdays from 7:00 to 11:00. The market is split into two different sections. The first section sells new items like shoes, shoes, and shoes. Oh, yeah and underwear, underwear, and underwear. The second section is a flea market and fresh veggie market. Fun trying to ask if they barter when you don't speak the language. Bargain Betty was out of a job. It was still fun.

We finally started working at 10:00 at Church. You sure can tell we're getting to the end of our week. We worked like dogs the first two days, did a fair day's work on Wednesday, and started the downhill slope on Thursday. We wanted to make sure we didn't get everything done before the North Carolina people arrive. NOT!!!

Team One worked on sanding and mudding (the usual), Betty gave the "office" a second and final coat of paint, and the boys got to break down a concrete well. Team Two was able to finish the two walls in the basement. They taped, mudded, sanded, and mudded. As you can tell, we're having tons of fun and getting a lot done in the process. This was all done before lunch. After lunch the boys finished breaking down the the well and dug out a big stump and leveled the area they were working on. It was hard work and they were "fabulous." Team Two came back to the Church and started laying the floor in the computer/Sunday School room. It sure is a lot easier if you have the right tools -- and we don't. They went to two different hardware stores and were told to make their own. That's exactly what they had to do.

Team One (Holly, Nancy, Betty, and Joe (minus the boys)) went on errands with Regina to visit five families out in the surrounding villages. As Regina reminded us, the Church is not only the building, it's the people. One of the Church's ministries includes helping families in the nearby villages. Talk about Poverty (with a capital P). Most of these people do not have jobs and if they happen to find one, which is very hard, transportation is a problem. Drinking is a major problem. Most of the men drink and some are actually paid in "liquor" instead of money.

It's a very hard life and the children are usually the victims. The cycles of poverty and abuse are vicious. The Church is trying to break these cycles by providing some food, clothing, transportation, and most important, Christ's love. One little boy told us how proud he was to be a Methodist and "his baptized father and baptized mother" belong to the Church. Pay attention, the Church is in dire need of a "mini-bus" (mini-van) to help transport people to Church and we are on a "mission" to see that this dream comes true!! Please pray how you can help. It was a very emotional day, one that we will never forget.

On a side note, the children do go to school in the village through fourth grade and attend high school in Bir?ai. They do receive a vocational education in high school. Obviously, most of the children do not go on to the University because of cost and other factors. However, five students from the surrounding villages have attended the University. They are very proud that the Church has been able to assist them (with funds from Sweden and North Carolina). Pastor is trying to get a scholarship fund started.

It's getting late and we have a busy day tomorrow. One last thing: Ben and Broderick were interviewed by the local press today, who asked a lot of questions about what we're doing in Bir?ai, what's going on at the church, and what the plans are for the long term. The article should be published soon!

Love from Team One and Team Two,

Ben, Broderick, Matt, Joe, Holly, Nancy, Betty, Daniel, Joseph, and Jeb.
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Day Five Update

from Daniel, Joseph, and Jeb:

Today is Friday and we almost finished flooring a room before lunch, which makes it look like we have accomplished something besides sanding. Some of the others mudded, sanded, and painted the two walls. Oh, yeah, Joe not only knocked over the fan and broke it, he KO'd it big time. Way to go, Joe.

After lunch the adults fought over mittens, the ladies won. The Church women brought craft items down for us to purchase. After the big shopping spree, we walked over to the Duke's palace. The palace was reconstructed to look as it did in the 1600s. It is now a museum where you can see the remains of the moat and they have rebuilt the draw bridge. We waited for the English speaking tour guide and she made all the difference. Well worth the wait.

After that, it was back to work. The men and youth set out to finish the floor with what little wood we had left. We primed the floor in the Fellowship Room so we can start flooring tomorrow. The "others" finished the first coat of paint on the wall down at the Center.

Daniel is continuing fasting on this trip. A strict diet of Sprite, chocolate, and bread. No sauce, please. The boys played football (soccer) with the locals. Boys against the girls. The other girls tried to keep the ball away from Holly, but she still managed to do some damage. Including trying to kill Joseph by tripping him. Her soccer skills from East Varsity are rusty, to say the least.

See attached file (inside joke... there's no file).

Love,

Daniel, Jeb, and Joseph (Ben, Broderick, Matt, Joe, Holly, Nancy and Betty)

P.S. Warning: This entry was not typed exactly as it was dictated!!!!!
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Work Day number 6

Updated by Matt:

Today has been a very busy day. We started the day as usual with working at the church. The boys, Holly, & Matt started the linolium floor in the fellowship hall. It was a challenging start but we left it in good shape for the North Carolina crew. The boys are turning out to be very handy. They should be all set for projects at home. Ben, Broderick, Betty and Nancy finished the walls in the Help Center. Joe had the dubious task of rust treating the iron beams in the church basement. Joe was also the only lucky one to get injured when he bumped his head on one of the beams. He is OK, it was only a flesh wound and was treated by our safety person Holly.

We ended our day at noon and did a little last-minute shopping before the next group arrived. We ate lunch with the North Carolina group and met some more nice people and had yet another great meal. I think I even saw Daniel eat some meat. We then took them on a tour of the construction site and handed off the baton (or sanding sponge in this matter) and let them know where we left off. After that the groups split up and the Michigan group headed off to town for the BeeKeeper festival. We then had some down time before we ate again. The day has been exciting with the new group coming in and yet sad as we finish our stay. The adventure continues tomorrow.

Sent with love and devotion from Matt, Ben, Broderick, Joe, Holly, Betty, Nancy, Jeb, Joeseph, and Daniel.
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Update for Sunday, August 5, 2007

by Joe Huston:

It’s Wednesday morning, August 8, and we are all back, safe and sound. Now it’s time to catch up on the updates. You last heard from us on Saturday night. So I am writing about Sunday.

After getting up all week in time to start work by about 8:00 each morning, Sunday most of us got a little extra rest before breakfast with our host families. After last-minute packing, we went to Church at 11:00 am.

The sanctuary was packed with members and friends of the Biržai Church and 25 V.I.M. workers, 15 from North Carolina and 10 of our group. It was standing room only. Now, what can I say about the worship service except that is was WONDERFUL.

From the moment we began to gather for worship there was a tremendous feeling of love and joy. This only got better as we were welcomed by the pastor, Raimondas and the music began. The principal musician was a young girl named Jurgita who led the congregation in singing, sang a solo and led a group of children and then a small youth choir. She is very talented and it was such a blessing to see her share with the congregation so beautifully.

One of the pastors from the Myers Park UMC in North Carolina gave the pastoral prayer and I was honored to be asked to preach. I gave a message based on John 15: 5, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”

Pastor Raimondas then led us in Holy Communion. Even though our languages are different, it was easy to pick out familiar portions of the ritual and to share very deeply and profoundly in this universal sign of Christ’s presence and love.

At the conclusion of the service our group gave gifts to the Biržai congregation. The presents included a quilted wall hanging, made by Betty, of one of the stained glass windows in Grand Rapids First UMC, a book about the windows in GR First and finally two beautiful stained glass wall or window decorations made by Nancy’s husband.

After worship, we had coffee hour (well, really tea time) with enough food you could call it a light lunch! More pictures and hugs followed and then lunch (more food) at a local restaurant with our host families and our new friends from North Carolina.

Finally, it was really time to go. We packed Raimondas’s car and the mini bus, said our last good-byes along with more hugs, pictures, a few tears and promises to return, and headed out for the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai.

We arrived at the Hill of Crosses after a trip of about an hour and a half. After Christianity came to Lithuania, the hill was used by Christians as a shrine and a place of pilgrimage. Individuals and religious groups began to leave crosses at the hill. This practice continued during the Soviet Occupation, which began in 1941. In their efforts to root out the Christian faith, the Soviets bulldozed the crosses on the hill several times. People brought crosses back and almost overnight the hill would be covered with crosses again. It became a powerful symbol of the people’s faith, their hunger for freedom and opposition to Soviet occupation and domination.

The Hill of Crosses remains as a shrine, a sign of the Christian faith and a place of prayer. Matt and Broderick had visited before and found crosses they had left previously. Several of our group left crosses this year hoping to find them when they return.

Following some shopping at booths set up by vendors in the parking lot, we hit the road for Vilnius. Along the way we stopped for supper at a restaurant on the shore of a little lake. We were blessed with another great meal and a beautiful sunset.

We arrived at our hotel in Vilnius around 11:30 pm, quickly got a little settled in our rooms and then gathered for a final time of group devotions. Ben discovered that he left his camera in Raimondas’s car, so we prayed for guidance and God’s blessing for the safe return of the camera. (God is good. With the help of lots of people Ben got his camera back.) We hit the sack about 2:00 am to get a little rest before a full day of sight seeing and shopping on Monday.

What a day! What a trip! What an incredible adventure of seeing new things, making new friends in Christ, working with God’s people in another land and growing in faith.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

For Betty, Nancy, Jeb, Danial, Joseph, Holly, Matt, Broderick, Ben and Joe