Important trip to Lithuania

Tomorrow I am going to visint a friend in Lithuania. Oksana attended CCMB (Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay) and is originally from Lithuania and was in Monterey for a few years as a MIIS student (Monterey Institute of International Studies) and then teacher of ESL (English as a Second Language). She stayed with the Perryman family and just recently returned home to LT (Lithuania). Since we were going to be 2 hours away, she invited us to come visit her while she is with her parents in Siauliai (pronounced showlay) which is only a couple ours by bus from Riga Latvia. I was encouraged by Janet Scalice, our pastors wife, not to pass on that invitation because the Lord is going to do something important. I wrote her to encourage her about re-entry shock, which we experienced some of this when we returned to California from Ukraine. She replied:

Thank you SO MUCH for writing to me. Yes, I miss my life in America and my dear, dear friends over there, especially having NO friends here, in Shiauliai, where my parents live. I have my friends and church in Klaipeda, where I will be moving to sometime in August and starting my teaching. In the meantime, I am getting over re-entry shock, which has been quite mild in comparison with what other people have experienced. I do like being at home, but I long for some real Christian fellowship.

Lena and the kids will stay in Riga, Latvia. It would be too much traveling for them and it took long enough for our little ones to adjust to staying in this apartment in Riga. Isa 40:11 "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd... and shall gently lead those that are with young."

The plan is to take the bus Wednessday from 8:30am to 10:30am. Oksana will meet me at the bus station and show me around her town, have some Lithuanian cuisine for lunch, in the afternoon I will help her and her mom cook dinner, her dad comes home from work at 5pm. Pray for an opportunity to witness to her folks. They will have questions about why I came - that can be a great starting point for the gospel. After dinner, he may drive us to the Hill of Crosses. It's this famouse site where everyone comes and lays a cross on a huge pile of other crosses. Find out why here http://www.inyourpocket.com/lithuania/siauliai/en/feature?id=55808 . Then I will spend the night at a hotel, breakfast included for about $50 and return to Latvia on Thursday by bus.

I am looking foward to seeing Lithuania and being used to bless others there. I know Oksana, her parents and whoever else I meet are important to the Lord, He loves them and wants to bless them. Act 3:19 "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord"