For over a year Grace Community Church has partnered with City Church in Klaipeda, Lithuania. This partnership has at this point consisted primarily of frequent Skype or Tokbox conversations between me and Pastor Saulius of City Church. This trip was primarily a vision trip for our church, combined with a focus on building business relationships between our churches. We learned a lot about the culture and how our churches can continue to learn from each other.
I love to invest in other pastors and churches and this provides a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other. They currently are meeting in a T-shaped attic of an old hotel the church has purchased and is renovating, so the picture of me speaking here actually shows one smaller portion of the crowd. They average about 150 people each week, which in relative terms makes the church a thriving Protestant church in a country fairly new to freedom of religion.
Last Sunday I was blessed to stand where Saulius stands each week before his people. By the way, I love the cheer of applauds the speaker receives before he or she delivers the message in Lithuania. (Their custom also has them applaud a safe landing of an airplane. I thankfully got to experience that custom also.)
If you have never experienced a translated message before, here is an example of one. Click HERE to hear last week’s message from City Church Lithuania. This was a simple message of hope, something the Lithuanians (and all of us) need a lot more of, but God somehow used it last Sunday in some people’s lives, according to the feedback from Saulius.
I am praying for the years of partnership between our churches to strengthen each of us and help further the Kingdom of God. This week I will continue to share highlights of our trip.
