Lithuania - Day 3 - Evangelical Christian Baptist Church

This morning, we had the chance to sleep in a little later because we didn't have to be at camp at 8:00 am.  Instead, we headed to the Kaunas Evangelical Christian Baptist Church at about 10:15.  They are the church that is hosting us this week.  They have worked very hard to get kids to come to the camp and we enjoyed worshipping with them this morning.  When we walked into the sanctuary on Friday night during our meeting, it struck me that our ministry's theme verse, John 14:6, was written in 12-inch letters on the front wall of their church.  I took it as a confirmation that god had brought us together.  The following video is my greeting to the church before I preached from John 14:1-6 during their morning worship service.

When I finished preaching, Joel and Gary led the church in a couple of worship songs.  They had sung a couple of hymns in Lithuanian before I preached, but they seemed to know the songs and sang along. Then the pastor came up and preached another short message and we had the offering, a couple of testimonies and we were finished.

After church we had lunch and then headed back to the gym for this afternoon's camp session.  We were up a little bit from yesterday.  We had a great time and it seemed that the kids were opening up to us a little more today.

I wanted to introduce one of our campers to you today.  I learned that the word for name is 'vardas,' so when I address one of the kids, I first ask , "Vardis?"  hoping that they will give me their name and that I can wrap my Oklahoma tongue around their Lithuanian letters.  This young man speaks pretty good English so when I asked him his name, he said, "Harry not Potter."  So I have continued to address him as Harry not Potter.  We have had a good laugh over it.

Each day, we do a few things that have nothing to do with basketball, just to build our relationship with the kids and to let them have a little fun.  In one of the games, Joel will take a 20 Litsas bill and hold it in front of one of the campers and ask them to hold their fingers half an inch apart.  When he releases it, if they can catch it between their fingers, its theirs.  It has been a real crowd pleaser.  So far only one boy has caught the money here.  The Latvian campers cost Joel a lot more money. :0)

After camp tonight, I went to the mall with the Hills and had dinner and did a little shopping.  The professional basketball team from Kaunas won the European Championships this year so there is memorabilia all over the mall.

Well tomorrow is our last day in Kaunas.  I miss you all and can't wait to see you, but there is one big thing that we need to do before we begin our journey home.  Tomorrow is the day of decision for the kids in our camp.  Please pray that the Spirit will have His way in their lives.  We can see the devil trying to get in the way.  It amazes me how that it is often those who already know the Lord that throw stumbling blocks into the path of those trying to win more to him.  Please pray that we will have an eager and willing translator who is prepared to see kids call on the name of Christ when we share the Gospel tomorrow.  See ya soon!