Love Your Neighbor

Photo of the fire taken from the 5th floor of our residence hall.

Our neighbor's home caught on fire Monday.

I'm working with some students to learn more about the needs of those impacted. We're hoping maybe we can help with the clean up and maybe raise a bit of money.

It's interesting, though. When another student and I went to talk to the fire victims, the initial response we received was one of skepticism and disbelief. Culturally, it is not very common to help neighbors in that way here.

However, at the core of the Christian faith is the command to "love your neighbor." For several students, this has become a time to see what that looks like in practice.

It's interesting, though. Jesus upped the stakes for followers of the Way when he said, "Even Gentiles (non-Jews) love their neighbors. I tell you to love your enemies."

As I look at my Facebook feed on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks, I am both encouraged and saddened by my brothers and sisters' answer to Jesus' call. The path to radical love is, obviously, not an easy one.

Please pray both for the families impacted by the fire as well as our students -- that, through this tragedy, we can demonstrate what it means to live in the kingdom here and now.

Go! Go! Go!

Hopefully this doesn't sound like a broken record, but life certainly hasn't slowed down for us. Classes officially began on Monday (no Labor Day over here!) and that means our roles here at LCC International University have found new dimension.

But it's a good busy and it means our adventure continues to progress. Exhaustion prevents further detail this post, but know that we are happy, excited, and need a nap.

Josh addresses the student body with some safety guidelines for the resident halls.

Alisha starts Lithuanian 101, her first university course in nine years, with vigor and zazz.

Busy? We'll show you busy!

Very short post this week as I am currently sitting outside a storage room helping returning students find their possessions while Alisha is downstairs checking in students. This week has consisted of a lot of that, meetings, and training our resident assistants (RAs).

The RA training has definitely been the most enjoyable part of this hectic week. Although this is our first year as resident directors (RDs), I feel we've already been able to tap into our personal experiences in ways that will help these young adults as they prepare for a challenging, exciting year in student leadership.

Here are some zazz-y pictures!

 

Go to ALL the meetings!

LCC International University's 2012-13 Community Life team takes a group photo at the Student Life staff retreat. We are, from left, Joshua Garber, Amanda Entz, Susie Lambright, Olena Rusu and Alisha Garber. Bring it on, the students.

This will be a relatively short entry as not a lot has happened since last post other than meetings -- lots and lots of meetings.

Alisha and Josh play some songs (and make new friends) at an open mic.

During these meetings, we have been learning the ins and outs of our jobs as well as developing our relationships with our coworkers. It is exciting to see things start to come together for the new year.

In addition to our primary responsibilities as resident directors (RDs), we are also given additional areas of dorm life we are responsible for. For Josh, that means supervising, training, and scheduling the dorm reception and night guard workers. For Alisha, that means being the new housing director -- a job that entails placing students in dorm rooms according to gender, interests, preference, and 13 other criteria.

Those of you who know Alisha well know this is a job she is well equipped for.

Our first campus snail mail from the Denny family!

In addition, Josh has also accepted the position of chapel band leader. This means that he will be responsible for making music happen every Wednesday at LCC's optional chapel service.

The resident assistants (RAs) arrive this Friday and we will be spending the next several days training and molding them. These next few weeks are going to be an extremely busy time for us, so apologies in advance if we do not respond to e-mails as quickly as we'd like.

Bonus Section

We like to play a game called "Eastern-European doppelganger." Occasionally we spot someone while out and about who reminds us of one of our friends from the U.S. Below is our first public installment. We present "Hal Shradervich."

Hal (right), meet your suave, Eastern- European doppelganger.

Growing Community

Amanda and Bethany enjoy delicious food at a pot luck meal. Josh has organized the weekly meals for all those living on campus during the summer months.

How do you create community?

This is an issue that we'll be examining a lot during our time at LCC International University since a large part of our job description focuses on our creating an atmosphere that fosters community.

Before moving to Lithuania, we lived in an intentional faith community of sorts called Goldensun. At its heart, it was created to be a place where people could live out their faith in a community that places adults with developmental disabilities at its center. Living there meant rejoicing with our neighbors over small victories, lending a hand when one was needed, laughing together often, and sharing the burden during the sad times.

It's hard being away from that. Mark, Aaron, Traci, Jesse, Markey, Anna, Michelle, Jeff, Cade, Robert, Keturah, Jared, Monica, David -- I think about at least one of you every day and I don't think that will ever change.

And don't even get us started on our family and church community!

When we moved, we went from a place of being surrounded by community to having nobody but the two of us and that sensation was extremely unnerving.

But the beautiful think about community is that, with the right elements, it can grow like a weed. We are (happily) experiencing that right now!

The seeds of exciting relationships began to sprout as soon as our plane landed. And while it will never be the same as what we had in Phoenix, it is beautiful and gives us hope nonetheless.

This week as we continue our orientation and training, we are being equipped with skills and knowledge that will help us be the sowers of community in this dormitory. As we learn, I keep returning a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to stay focused on what truly matters.

Bonhoeffer, a pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi resistant, once said, "He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren builds community."

In other words, community means caring for people.

Keep us in your thoughts as we seek to care for people we've not yet met in an exciting, radical way.

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Last Sunday we volunteered at a local orphanage. Here are some pictures!

            

We learned about the orphanage last month through the Summer Language Institute's camp pastor, Kel Fowler.

Kel, a New Zealander who has been living in Lithuania for the past decade, is the pastor of a local church that has a special relationship with this orphanage. He invited us to come and support a team from the Netherlands as they led a day of games, food, and quality interaction time with the children.

An interesting discovery is that a good portion of the children in the orphanage had developmental disabilities of sorts. I'm not sure how the ratio compares to that of such institutions in the United States, but it is certainly a very difficult environment to grow and develop.

While I was talking with one of the children, he asked me if I thought I'd ever come back. I told him, "I'd really like to."

He looked at me in the eyes for a moment and then said, "I'll be waiting."

It was a very good experience and we definitely plan on continuing to volunteer there when we are able.

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Exploring Vilnius video

Now, as promised in last post, I present to you a photo montage of our trip to Vilnius, Lithuania's capital city, last weekend. Turn up your speakers because this video features a special commentary from the two of us!

I hear the train a comin', it's rolling 'round the bend...

This will be a short post because we are enjoying the benefit of extremely affordable railway travel during the first part of this week.

Our Resident Director counterpart, Amanda, arrived safely from Indiana Thursday night, which means we are duty-free until we begin our staff training on Wednesday.

It will be quite a while (perhaps winter break?) until we both are able to be this far away from the university at the same time, so even though we haven't been here that long, we figure we should take advantage of the opportunity while we can.

Our destination: Vilnius, Lithuania's capital city. We plan to do some sight-seeing, visit a Holocaust museum, research the availability of Soviet-era music equipment, and get an early start on celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary.

We'll post some pictures from our adventure next week!

The Olympics and Creation

True to LCC's international focus, we concluded the Olympic-themed program with a thoughtful closing ceremony.

The Summer Language Institute (SLI) that we've been staffing this past month ended the day of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremonies.

The Olympic theme was more than a handy tool for student-event planning during SLI -- it was also a reflection of the spirit of LCC International University.

We have already encountered and developed relationships with students and peers from such a variety of places since arriving: Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Poland, Moldova, Estonia, Ukraine, Canada, United States of America, Nigeria, Albania, New Zealand, Kazakhstan and Georgia (the country!). Being in a place where so many cultures congregate is a very exciting part of our being here and the possibilities such relationships may foster are limitless.

Josh checks students out of the dorms at  the close of SLI.

In the midst of the sense of "global community" there is also a gravity that we've felt in talking with students from some of these countries -- cultural weight that comes from hundreds of years of wars, occupations, and boarders being drawn and redrawn.

"All these flags are soaked in blood," was one observation heard after the SLI closing ceremony. "Still, they allow us to celebrate diversity."

This idea of celebrated diversity goes back to a description of our relationship with God that I've grown especially fond of the past few years. It goes something like this: God is a creator, an artist. That's what separated him from other gods in early history and it's illustrated in the Creation Poem in Genesis.

Ye olde teeter-totter.

Several times throughout the poem and, again, at the end, God took a step back to look at his canvas "and saw that it was very good!" From a shapeless nothing, everything. From emptiness, fullness. A God with work-worn hands and dirt under his fingernails.

The story shows that when we also create -- whether it be through the arts or culture -- we are honoring God by being what we, in his image, have been designed to be: co-creators.

So the question of whether something is "secular" or "sacred" becomes a moot point -- if the art's purpose is good, then God is present whether the artist intends or not.

In the midst of this world of turmoil and strife, there are wisps of God in the cultures and traditions we've created through the centuries.

Out of imperfection, beauty.

August is going to be relatively slow compared to July. We will be preparing the dorms for students to arrive, start our training, and begin training and mentoring those who will be our Resident Assistants this year.

It sounds like we will be tied to campus until at least Christmas break (it's part of the job, right?), so we are looking into going on some sort of out-of-town trip while we still have the chance. Part of the joys of where we live is that we can do such things in an unbelievably affordable fashion.

Any thoughts or suggestions or where we should go?

Movin' Right Along

The Summer Learning Institute (SLI) is drawing to a close at the end of this week. Have you ever had one of those experiences where it feels like both a lot and hardly any time has passed at the same time? That's where we find ourselves now.

The SLI students have been amazing. Although our primary jobs have been to coordinate activities, keep the dorms functioning, and oversee discipline, the handful that we have been able to develop relationships with have confirmed that we are in a place where young people are desperately seeking spiritual guidance (even if that's now how they choose to articulate it).

The next few days will be a whirlwind as we coordinate a talent show on Wednesday and check the students out of the dorms Friday.

Although SLI will be ending, there will be no rest for us.

Through various encounters and conversations, Josh has been asked to lead worship at a church that is meeting in a pub this Sunday. In Lithuanian. Read the last two sentences again and consider both how crazy and awesome that is. Although Josh has already been devoting a good amount of free time to improving his guitar playing, this will be a big step outside the ol' comfort zone...although neither of us have really spent much time in our comfort zones since arriving in Klaipėda.

This weekend also marks the start of the city's sea festival. We are very excited to get a taste of local culture and use it as a venue for building our friendships with the staff and students who are staying in the dorms throughout the summer.

Kryžių kalnas or "Hill of Crosses"

To the left are some pictures from a train adventure Josh went on with some SLI staff this past weekend. The site is known as the "Hill of Crosses" and is located outside the city of Šiauliai. An estimated 200,000 crosses have been placed on the hill (perhaps they got this number via a cross section?) and it is, at least visually, a very overwhelming sight. 

This lady was playing a dulcimer-type instrument as a way of serving visitors -- she was not interested in donations.

There are lots of stories about the hill, but one neat one is about how, during Soviet rule, the government would bulldoze the crosses as there was general opposition to religion and religious symbols. However, Lithuanians would continue to put crosses on the hill as a form of nonviolent protest against the censorship placed on them by the government.

Sadly, Alisha was unable to make the journey -- she's been feeling under the weather the past several days. Nothing severe, but enough to slow her down. If you know Alisha, you know that even illness doesn't slow her down very much. 

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we tackle the next days ahead at LCC International University.

As always, we love it when our blog readers leave comments -- it lets us know people actually read this thing. It's also a great way to let us know what else you'd like to see on here.

Peace.

Groovin' and Movin'

As much as adventure and change can be fun, it sure is nice to fall into a groove. That's something we're finally experienced the last couple days. And that sounds strange when you consider what all we've been doing.

Alisha officiates the dancing fun. (Lithuanians aren't ready for her moves yet)

Olympic-style sports, a barbecue, the first of two Star Wars movie marathons, karaoke with some of the faculty at a local pub, exploring the local folk art festival, a European/American-style dance party, and music -- lots and lots of music.

And that was just the weekend!

When we asked our co-Resident Director how our level of student life activity during Summer Language Institute (SLI) compared to years past, she said this year it had increased by "5,000 percent." She also said the overall atmosphere with the students at this year's SLI is more excited and energetic. This is exciting affirmation that we are, indeed, serving in a capacity that benefits from our gifts.

The North American SLI educators and their families have been a source of much fun.

We also began the first of the mentoring portion of our roles here at LCC International University. Part of our role as RDs is to guide and mentor the Resident Assistants (RAs) that work very closely with the SLI participants. This has been a great blessing as a) our RAs are, without exception, awesome, and b) building close, one-on-one relationships is always a mutually-beneficially experience.

A rare "Josh" picture.

Josh has been working with the two male RAs -- a LCC graduate from Albania and a current LCC student from Nigeria -- and Alisha has been working with a female RA who is a current LCC student from Lithuania. There have already been great conversations and exchanges of ideas that have left all parties enriched.

Also, Alisha likes to tease Josh because he said he "could listen to Albanians talk all day long." It's true, though -- he could.

So yes, we continue our process of adjusting, assimilating, and finding balance. Although we have lots of support here, this adventure has certainly begun to bind us closer together. If you thought we were thick as thieves before, wait until next time you see us!

We're also happy to present another video. We hope our bringing video and photos to you, the blog reader, helps you feel more connected to what you are doing. It is through support of people like you that we are able to serve the way we are and we are extremely grateful.

Hopefully, that is clear.

Feel free to post any thoughts and comments that come to mind. We'll do our best to respond to posts quickly and we love the idea of this blog being two-way communication.

Until next time!

It has begun!

The students have arrived for LCC's Summer Language Institute (SLI) and we have found ourselves running in high gear ever since.

Students gathered for the opening ceremonies for SLI 2012.

The camp, which focuses primarily on high-school-age youth, has a lot of similarities to the English camp we helped staff in the Czech Republic a couple summers ago. Main differences are a more structured academic approach -- actual English courses and homework -- staffed by actual English teachers from the United States and Canada. Our job is to help facilitate the "camp" aspect that allows the students to come away with a very educational and fun experience.

So, yes, we bring the fun.

The SLI theme is the Olympics and, appropriately, today was the "opening ceremonies." Alisha was the MC and did a great job getting the students pumped up. Afterwards, the first round of classes took place.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be the first Soul Outpost -- a chance for Josh and new friend James to play some music for the kids during their lunch break and tell stories about radical love and redemption.

For you praying types, we could use some prayer for help as we seek to create boundaries so that we don't burn out too quickly. Living in the dorms and being on call can be a combination for getting exhausted or, worse, losing focus and missing opportunities to connect with these awesome young people.

If you have any group games or activities that you think might be fun for us to introduce to the SLI students, please let us know in the comments!

Eight litas earned = the start of a future date night!

Aside from SLI, we had our first Lithuanian busking experience a few days ago. Street performing is something that we've fallen in love with the last several years we lived in the Phoenix Valley and played with The Ragamuffin Stampede. There's a local folk art festival happening in old town Klaipėda this weekend...I think we might steal away and give it a shot down there. If so, we'll definitely include some pictures or video if we can get them.

They either watching ping-pong, tennis, or Alisha as she gets them pumped up.