Sharon is back!

We welcomed Sharon McCammon back to Lithuania on Wednesday this week. After her 18 months of itineration she is here to work again! She had a lot of plane changes due to one company going out of business and another one on strike. Following many delays, she finally arrived late Wednesday night.

Christmas Party at Men's Teen Challenge Center Vilnius

The party preparations began in our home when some of the ladies from Kelyje (the church that hosted the party) came over to bake cookies. Agne, Katia, and Gita made some beautiful cookies for everyone to eat. (They even felt like they might be too pretty to eat!)

Bob got to share about the tradition of gift giving and about Jesus being the greatest gift ever given to us. Some of these men were new at the center and learning more about the true meaning of Christmas this year.

There was singing, game playing, lots of food to eat, and Christmas card making. Everyone enjoyed the evening early in December as a preparation for all the celebrating at Christmas.

Kelyje is a church plant by David and Kandra Millsaps. Their desire is to reach out to others around them and serve others. They collected money for weeks before the party and were able to give a gift of cash to help purchase curtains in the dining hall.

Friends dropped by...

Of course, Christmas means great times with friends. We had our Bishop and some of his family over. The Bible College President and his wife are standing by the tree. Our new friends, the Hamilton family, are in the process of moving to Lithuania from Belarus. They work with Young Life and will be reaching out to the youth of Lithuania.

We got some extra Christmas money and bought ourselves a Wii game. (Thanks to learning about it at our recent visit to Ukraine.) (Thanks also to Vixie Friedman for finding us one at SAM's when there were none in Springfield to be found!) Matt brought the game with him and we have been fun bowling right in our home! It is amazing how well you can bowl when you don't have to throw that heavy ball!!!!!!!

We are getting back to work though. This week we got taxes done, FAFSA applications, newsletter, preaching/teaching messages worked on, and many other things caught up on the computer. It has been a great first couple weeks of 2009.

Time Moves On...

We had a wonderful time while Matt was home with us for Christmas break. He is back at Evangel now and we are trying to get into our own routine again.

One visit we did was to see Matt's former dog, Buddy. He lives about 2 1/2 hours away from Vilnius with a Pastor and his family. As the Pastor said, Matt came to see Buddy and Bob and Bette Sue came to visit us. Since Matt had been away from Lithuania for 2 1/2 years we visited different churches and homes the whole time. He has been missed! (By the way, in case you are wondering about Buddy knowing us...it seemed like he was very happy to see us and that felt like he remembered :) )