Lithuania

Hello everyone,

Its been a couple weeks since I've updated this. I want to inform you that everything is going very well. Tomorrow I will begin orientation for school. Sharon is beginning a discipleship program this year. It involves students coming for one year and really developing a relationship with God. Her biggest focus is character building. I will be one of the students for the remainder of my time here. Indre is another student. She will be here at the center learning for the full year. God is really working here. The biggest change that I have seen is not even here in Lithuania, it's in me. I know that through Sharon's help and mentoring my character will grow. God is shaping my dreams and desires.

This past weekend starting from thursday till sunday I attended a camp. It is a secular camp but it is led by believers and has much christian influence. Over 70% of the people who were there were not believers. God set me up with divine appointments there and it was absolutely wonderful. I met an indian couple who are believers and they were very encouraging. I was also able to plant seeds in peoples lives. Praise the Lord! I have a prayer request. I have a friend named Gabriella who's cousin has cancer of the blood. His name is Lucas and he is 5 years old. This week Gabriella is getting her blood tested to see if she is a match for a blood transfusion. Please Please Please Pray!!! God wants to do great things in her life. Thank you all so much for your prayers.

Teen Challenge Center

Hello everybody,

As most of you know I have been living in a teen challenge center for 5 days where those there only speak Russian. Wow ok so this week has been very hard but it has benefited me very much! My Russian teacher is incredibly gifted in teaching and I know God has set this up. By the end of the first day i learned how to read. I knew all of the letters by the second day and could count to 1,000,000. I also knew many basic words and phrases and I wrote my first paragraph intruducing myself (what I like to do, what I want to be, ect). Granted the paragraph wasn't entirely gramatically accurate. By the end of the second day I had a venacular of well over 100 words! I have been learning so much. I have been praying for this whole summer for God to bless my learning of the Russian language and I know that he has blessed me. It is my prayer that he will continue to bless this time of preperation. Today I heard two of the womans testimonies from the center. It just about broke my heart. In a country with thousands of alchoholics and drug addicts God has specifically picked these few and saved these few so that they can reach so many others. One of the women who gave their testimony said at the end that she justs wants to help people. It was so genuine because she knows what its like to hurt. Praise God. Please pray for those at the center. Many are rough around the edges but God loves them very much. Pray for Alexander, the director of teen challenge, to have wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit. I know that God is working.

Be blessed so that you may be the blessing

Joseph

Teen Challenge

Alright everybody,

Tomorrow I am leaving the confort of Sharon's home and I will be living in the teen challenge center here in vilnius. I am starting Russian lessons as well. They will be for 2 hours a day with up to 4 hours of homework a day. At the teen challenge center the men there only speak russian. So this will an emmersian in russian and the culture here. Please pray for me and for the work that Sharon is doing. This week is going to be very hard and very intense. But it will be worth it. God is good.

Remember that we are blessed and highly favored,
Joe

I made it!

Hello friends and family,

Thank you all for your prayers and support. For those of you who don't know, God has raised all the money that I needed and more in order to be able to come to Lithuania. I have successfully made it here. The planes and airport went fairly well. I ended up missing my flight out of Chicago due to a delay with the plane in Detroit. But long story short, everything worked out. I arrived into Lithuania at about 1:11 in the morning. This first week I am just getting acclimated into life here. I want to keep you updated as much as possible but I will not always have access. Please keep on praying for me, missionary sharon, mindaugus, indra, and the macissacs. Mindaugus is 16 and he will be showing me around Lithuania and helping wherever is needed. Indra is one of the students here working under Sharon. The Macissacs are missionaries here as well. I have been to lunch here already with all those that were just mentioned and had a very good Lithuanian dish. I forget what it was called but it was good =).. Please also pray for me, I have one bag that has yet to arrive with alot of supplies for Sharon. And also I believe my wallet was stolen. I cannot find it. I am in the process of taking care of everything with that. God will always provide though so I am not worried. Please just remember that in prayer. God is so good. Make sure you thank him for what He has done for you.

Keep the Fire

Joe