For Men Only

I came across this on my recent trip to Turkey. Some people from Russia brought it and I took a picture of it:


I was told it says: Keep away from women!

Not politically correct

MySpace

Oh yeah, I have a spot on MySpace now. This way I can keep up with my girls.

Hello Boys!

I'm Baaaack! In the words of my generation....

Anyway, so much for the lines from Independence Day. Better stop while I am ahead;-)

I have returned to Lithuania. We came back last Saturday and have been busy getting caught up with everything.

We are sure missing our girls. I can't believe that we are actually back here alone without them. I am sure we will stay busy though.

I have been an adult for 24 years. I can't retire and go back to being a child again for another 25 years. Sounds like a good time to start saving. Now, is the time I can really have that honeymoon I didn't really have with my wife. We have enjoyed a few nights on the balcony this week. Nice long talks. I don't know what I would do without her.

The coolest thing is that Stef left a bunch of little notes all around the house saying things like, "I miss you!"or "I miss your hugs!" or "I wish you were here eating all of this yummy food!" What a great kid. I leave them so that I can find them more than once. Kandra collects them....who can explain that?

America!

I love it! My family and I are really enjoying our time here in the U.S.! It is wonderful to be home, though we are running like crazy from morning 'til night. Things are just very comfortable here. As much as I want Lithuania to be my home, I don't think there will be any place quite like the U.S.A.

Raimondos Kirijanovienės concert at „Pakeliui“

„Pakeliui“ Concert

27 April 2007 19:00 - 23:00

Raimondos Kirijanovienės concert

Raimonda will be playing and singing some of the songs she has written. Everyone will enjoy her songs and the spirit in which she sings them. The concert will start around 8:00, but feel free to come as early as seven and relax and enjoy a cup of coffee. The concert is free!

Raimonda atliks savo kūrybos dainas. Visiems patiks jos dainos ir tai su kokia dvasia ji jas atlieka. Koncertas prasidės 20.00 val. Tačiau jūsų laukiame jau nuo 19.00 valandos. Ateikite pailsėti, atsigerti puodelį kavos ir pasidžiaugti gera muzika. Koncertas nemokamas!

Good Friday Event

I would like to tell you about a special event we had at our church on Good Friday evening. We wanted people to experience in as personal and participative a way as possible, the suffering that Jesus went through on that great and terrible day.

We had two rooms. The first room was a contemplation and music room (see picture) where people viewed images of Jesus’ suffering, the poor and homeless, sang an occasional song, read Scriptures from the gospel accounts and other thought provoking texts as well, like poetry. They faded in and out. We kept them fast enough to keep their interest, but slow enough to allow them to contemplate. In the background was a guy playing an acoustic guitar quietly.

People were taken from this room to our main gathering room where we normally have church. This area had several stations which I will describe in detail below. We had the group stand around the table/station and the guide stood behind them and read from a prepared text. We basically followed Matthew’s account, but we inserted from Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 some verses at appropriate times. During the whole time in this main room we had a song playing: Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Jars of Clay. It is a very catchy and memorable tune.

Station One: Jesus was condemned. Here we read the account of Pilot’s caving in to the crowd and declaring he is innocent of this man’s blood. Each person washed their hands in slightly red water. There was a rope that bound Jesus’ hands perhaps, and a gavel representing the sentencing we all handed down.

Station Two: Jesus was scourged and mocked. There was a scarlet piece of cloth that the soldiers mocked him with. There were thorns there that each person was encouraged to touch, and pictures of a whip, as well as some branches to give it a more realistic feel.

Station Three: Jesus receives his cross and Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry it for him. There were rocks on this table that we asked people to carry which symbolized, not just the weight of the cross, but the weight of our sin.

Station Four: The crucifixion of Jesus. Here we basically had 3 areas.

1. The first was a table where we had three large nails and a candle representing that we rejected Jesus as the light of the world.

   

2. The second was an actual cross where we carried our rocks to. We used our rocks to pound a nail into the cross and then left our rocks there, symbolizing that we nailed Jesus to the cross but that we leave our sins there at the cross.
3. The third was a common work of symbolic art. Basically we dipped our hands in paint and put the paint on a piece of linen in the shape of the cross This symbolized that we all had a hand in Jesus death. This is eventually going to be a piece of art for our church.

Station Five: The death of Jesus. We went into a small room and read some verses of Scripture and tasted the wine vinegar that Jesus tasted and then turned off the lights as even the lights of heaven mourned the death of the Savior. We stood there in total darkness until it was too uncomfortable.

Station Six: The burial of Jesus. At this station we looked at a wrapped body lying on a table. We read the scriptures and were told to think about the death of Jesus and the suffering that he endured and then also to go home and wait.

Response: This table was for response, where people wrote in our journal, on papers that they left there, or took with them about their reaction to the event.

About 60+ people went through and everyone that we talked to had a most favorable reaction.

The follow-up on Sunday was that we had the strips of linen on the cross and I let them cut a piece of the linen cloth because, you know, Jesus doesn’t really need it anymore!

Thanks for praying for this event it went better than I had planned.

Blessings,

David

Pray for Mom

My mom, Nancy, is in the hospital again with pneumonia. She has leukemia and this perhaps is a part of that. She can't seem to get over it. They are doing a CAT scan today (Saturday) to see what is really going on.

Please pray! Thanks

In Her Own Words

You can find Calcutta anywhere in the world. You only need two eyes to see. Everywhere in the world there are people that are not loved, people that are not wanted nor desired, people that no one will help, people that are pushed away or forgotten. And this is the greatest poverty.

- Mother Teresa

Flight of the Concords

My friend Brad pointed me to this funny video.

Very creative!

A Conversation

I would like to invite you to the first official "conversation" of the Emergent Village - Vilnius Cohort.

The theme will be:

“The Mission of the Church: ways of expressing the missional calling of the church”

The location will be in Vilnius at “Katpėdėlė“ on P. Lukšio g. 34 (Across from Hyper-Rimi in Žirmūnai. The restaurant is located on the east side of the Senukai parking lot) on Saturday, March 3, 2007 from 10:00 to 12:00. You can stay longer if you like and talk but I want you to know that there is a beginning and an ending time. We will be eating breakfast or drinking coffee(s).

I hope to see you there!

David

Core Values

I have a question for readers of my blog: Should a church's core values be placed on their website? If so, why? If not, why not?

I see both sides of the issue. On the one hand, interested people should be able to know what the church sees as its core values. After all, these values have been written down to serve as a public resource for the church's general direction.

On the other hand, isn't that just marketing to church people? Who reads these core values anyway? Shouldn't core values be an internal document for the church and its leadership to use when making decisions?

Talk to me!

Five Streams of the Emerging Church

I just posted a lengthy comment on the Emergent Village- Vilnius Cohort blog. Check it out if you like.

My New Motto

Oharaville wrote in his blog about Today at the Mission, a blog about "Daily Life in a Homeless Shelter." The author is an incredible writer and has some insights that are pretty humbling. For example, his "Following Jesus Manifesto" is a tall order and the "Irreducible Minimum" is something that I will use over and over.

"Love God. Love each other - everything else is culture." I have changed my header to reflect this new motto. I think it really catches the essence of the change that is necessary in my life and ministry. It is what I have been trying to say for some time now. It is the Jesus Creed. Perfect!

What significant thoughts! I am speechless over the manifesto, and the Irreducible Minimum is something that goes beyond the typical definitions and gets to the heart of the matter. It reveals what is fluff and what is core! We need more core at Kelyje!

I Did It!

I figured out, finally! the puzzle! You know, when you figure it out, it really isn't that complicated. I guess it is that way with a lot of things in life. Things that seem hard at first seem simple once you are on the other side and have a different perspective. It is all about perspective then isn't it.

Life, and what we do with it depends a lot on our perspective. It affects our understanding of the world around us. Every individual has his own perspective or lens through which he views life. The more varied the person's life experiences the large one's perspective. That is one of the reasons I am glad I have raised my daughters in a foreign country. They have a different perspective than the average American.

This whole idea of perspective also applies to the various trials we have in life. It seems that we can look at our problems or difficulties straight on and say, "Wow this is really hard!" Or, we can think about our difficulty with the thought in mind that, "Hey, there is a different way of looking at this." Perhaps we can take some kind of inspiration from this idea of trying to see things from a different perspective.

When I saw the puzzle from a different perspective, everything about it changed.

Keeping New Years Resolutions

I have made some New Years Resolutions, as I am sure most of the world has. I have decided to call them commitments. Does anyone have suggestions for ways that I might be more successful at fulfilling them?

Su Naujais Metais!

I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year! We stayed up really late last night. I finally went to bed at 5:30 a.m.! I didn't get up until 2:30. That is the latest I have slept in for a long time. Of course that is going to throw off tonight's sleeping schedule. Oh well, it is a holiday.

We have spent the day playing games and eating. Now we are watching the last 4 hours of 24 (which Eliza hasn't seen but the rest of us have) so that is kind of interesting. I can do things while watching it and still catch the good parts. Jack rocks!