„Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my joke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls“ ( Mathew 11:28-29).
„For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me....I will tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me“ (Mathew 25:35-36,40).
Last year while serving as a pastor of Tauragė UMC, Itried to generalise the whole life of this church.
Spiritual life:
·Bible Studies;
·Prayer Group;
·Holy Worship services;
Personal life of the members of the church:
·Daily needs and desires;
·Everyday life;
·Social status;
The importance and the impact of the activities in the church:
·Pastoral ministry;
·Diaconal ministry;
·Christian education.
Partnership bonds:
·Planning of the annual budget;
·The issues of the construction of the church building;
·Skype conferences with our partners from Geneva UMC ( USA);
·Writing of letters;
·Planning of group visits;
·Sharing of personal experience in ministry;
·Sharing of one’s history of faith and spiritual growth;
·Cooperation with the partners while creating the documentary “Faith in Lithuania. The cost of freedom”
Worship services were served every Sunday at 10:00 AM. Also we had an additional worship service served on Great Friday. During my vacation worship services were lead by the member of the church Vyda Samuchovienė. Weekly Bible Studies were held every Wednesday at 4:00 PM. During the last several years the church has been conducting Diaconal and Christian Education programs.
The activities of the year 2010:
·February-the action Children’s Christmas’ in corporation with the organization “Samaritan bag”. It is a unique and the biggest charity action of this kind in the whole world. Its aim is to provide children with joy and hope and to tell them the Good News about God’s love. Therefore it is pleasant, that our congregation has been adding to this action for several years in a row. During the time of the action 120 gifts were given out to the children of Tauragė Children Care home „Šaltinėlis“, to the children of the congregation and to the childrenfrom socially neglected families. A program for children was organized in the church, we watched the video “Jesus” (the adapted version for children), played games, sang songs.
·March-we took part in the Global Women’s Prayer day;
·April-the church was visited by our partners from Geneva (USA)-pastor Mathew Johnson and Blaine Sinderson, who continued the filming of the documentary “Faith in Lithuania, The cost of freedom” and the interviews fromthe members of the church, the families, living in the remote villages, from me, as the pastor of this church and my family, from the youth.
·May-together with 5 women from the congregation I visited Pačeriaukštė (Biržai district), „Pagalbos centras“and participated in the seminar on preventional program.
·June 20-23- 7 children and one youth took part in the District children camp under the title „The Market of Jerusalem“.
·In July we went on a planned outing around the suburbs of Tauragė. We visited the mountain of Rambynas, where I lead a Bible Study on the top of the mountain, in the forest. We also visited Žukai and a one-hundred-year old Lutheran church, Vilkyškiai, the Great (Witche‘s) fir-tree, which is listed in the Register of Natural Monuments of the Lithuanian Republic.
·September- 5 women from the Women‘s group participated in international women‘s seminar „One in the Spirit“, which was held in Šventoji, in the Health Center of “Energetikas”, at the seaside, for three days.
·October -the evening of poetry and music “My way” was held in the church with the participation of Regina Juškienė, a solist and a member of Panevėžys UMC.
·November -the women visited and cleanedthe graves of the deceased church members and the grave of the methodist pastor P. Plyčiuvaitis.
·December-before Christmas we visited the children of Tauragė Children Care home with our Christmas program and the gifts from Sweden, donated by Swedish Women Organization (over 80 gifts were given out to the children). The same gifts were given out to the children and grandchildren of the members of the congregation.
·Also, special offerings were gathered for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti and for the celebration of the one hundredth jubilee of Methodism in Lithuania. We carried on “Bread” program-bread was given out to the people in the congregation, to the children of the Children Care home and to the homeless.
·Humanitarian Aid program is one of the most important programs in our church, which enables us to make the lives of the elderly a little bit easier. The pensioners, the sick and the lonely are involved in this program.. Those people were provided with hot food five days a week, the poorest and the people living in the villages were given food packages monthly and 22 people received a support from EU organization Food Bank.
·I regularly visit the family of a lonely mother, who has got 5 children and a sick mother, living in Joniškės village. They are provided with a support by food, clothes and other items of daily necessity.
·The building project is being successfully carried out-the architectural plans have been completed. It is the greatest need for us today and the dream of Tauragė UMC is to have a new church building. For the church has been renting the premises, which are difficult to use for the needs of the congregation, to implement the programs. We are praying with hope and are impatiently waiting for the beginning of the construction works of the new church building.
A very difficult economic situation in our country has influenced the minds of the people, their lives. We experienced how it is important to save and try to add more to the activities of the church and its maintenance by our offerings and work. This year we reduced our expenses and gathered more offerings than last year. Also, for the second year in a row we put aside a part of the offerings for the construction of the church building-10% of the annual offerings of the church. Now we do not employ a cleaner. But the church premises always look clean, since the women of the church help to do this. They also clean the windows. The refreshments have also remained a nice tradition in our church. I am very thankful to our creative, industrious women, who bake cookies, pies, make sandwiches,using their own money.
Plans for the next year:
·To preserve and to strengthen partnership bonds with Geneve UMC and Plauen EMB; to solve the issues and the works of the construction of the church building;
·To continue and to expand the programs, implemented in the church;
·To strengthen the faith of the people, who come to church, through fellowship, prayer, Bible Studies;
·To arrange seminars on Christian education in the local church.
Pastor Vidas