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Ukmerge ChurchUkmerge UMC Thursday Bible Study 17:00Meeting Address: Geologu g. 19, Ukmerge, LithuaniaGiedrius Jablonskis, Pastorgiedrius.jablonskis@gmail.comPhone: +370 679 12286
Pastor Giedrius A very brief history would be helpful. On April 1, 2007 Ukmergė UMC moved to the community library and attendance dropped to 1 or 2. Previously, on Wednesday evenings, there were 3 adults and 3 children attending including the pastor Ev Erbele plus 5 to 6 who came in the van from Vilnius UMC. At their last meeting on May 31st, 2007 they voted to cease meeting for the remainder of the summer. All UMC property was inventoried and stored at Naugardo 8. The plan was for me to contact the group at the end of the summer, giving the group time to think and pray about what they wanted for the future. But … two of the small group of 4 became ill and were not able to consider a meeting to re-organize. In fact it was in late winter of 2008 before health was restored to one of the members; and then they called me and asked us to come back … this time to Veronika’s home. On our first visit we noticed the room for worship was completely bare. Veronika said, “But I knew you would be back because you left one chair”. The following weeks were full of activity. All of the chairs, Bibles, hymn books and supplies for tea were transported back to Veronika’s house and we were ready to begin again. And since then, it has been a story of growth and enthusiasm. While one of the two who were sick was still having serious medical problems, he was able to attend during spring, summer and fall but as soon as snow fell … he started tripping and having falls because his problem left him nearly paralyzed on one side. As a result we have been making home visits to him and his mom and taking communion and Bible study to them. Another growth spurt happened just a few months ago. This was prompted by a member of Šančiai UMC facilitating several members of the community to visit our Bible study, meet folks and see if they wanted to return. „Yes“ was their answer. Now these 3 have also become regular attendees and a fourth new person ... has been coming. Our discussions are very lively ... often three or four are all talking at once as they discuss the Scripture passage for the evening. We sit around the little table in the kitchen, hardly big enough for us to all squeeze in ... so that the children can have the larger room for their Bible study, crafts and games. Kids need space. Then we all have tea together. One of the important developments is that we now have a teacher for the children and youth. We were unsuccessful in finding a local teacher so we bring a very enthusiastic young woman from Kaunas when we travel there every Tuesday night. Occasionally we also enjoy getting in the sauna which is located just outside Veronika‘s house and the kids love throwing cold water on each other too. The young ones range in age from 4 to 18 so it is challenging to design a lesson that speaks to all ages but the teacher is resourceful in this. Two outreach efforts have been established along with home visits to several of the homebound. This is the food packet program and our visits to the old people‘s home which is located about 20 kilometers away. So far we have visited twice and we plan to return right before Easter, each time taking fruit and candies and sitting on bedsides to hold a hand, wipe away tears and hear their life stories. We also enjoyed two special visitors ... two from Tennessee who did a boogie-woogie gospel concert and String Man from Oklahoma. There is definitely excitement in the air when we get together and I can see God is at work in Ukmergė church. |
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