By Way of Copenhagen

The flight over yesterday was great; actually, it took us almost a day and a half to get here. On Wednesday, during our layover in Copenhagen, we found time to go into the city. At noon we attended a church service at a large Lutheran church and had a brief time of worship. It was a great experience for us. Bill is an excellent great tour guide and Lowell possesses that great ability to ask the right questions and get clear information. We spent last night, a good restful night, in Kaunas where our host pastor, Remegieus met us for dinner. As you can see by the photo, we all enjoyed a good traditional meal together.

This morning, that is Thursday morning, we are meeting with some officials of the United Methodist church here to ascertain the progress being made on the building. Lowell and Bill are going over some of those details as I am writing this and Lowell is taking copious notes so that we can have a clear idea of how to proceed. A lot of work has done by the people here, but the progress is slow because of European customs and traditional red tape. On the whole, things look good for us getting some final approval by February of next year. I suppose from our end we just keep praying and encouraging our partner church. We are meeting at the district office, and I have a couple of other photos for you bellow:

You can see our crew here: Bill, Remegieus, and Lowell. The office is in Old Town, Kaunas where we stayed in a guest house last night. The accommodations were very nice and it is not cold here at all; maybe in the fifties this morning. We have had cloud coverage and some rain for most of our journey so far. The streets in this area are narrow, cobble stone alleys like you might find in any European city. Our guest house was over a small restaurant where we had a good breakfast this morning. The food has been delicious, though very different from our "down home delights." Last night, Bill and I had beet soup that was so good I wanted the recipe. The breads likewise are delicious, much like the ones I remember from Israel, probably typically European again.

This is a closeup of the sign on the district office. It's so small we had to look several times before we found it. The office is nice and accommodating inside. Even though the district superintendent is not here, his assistants are being most helpful to us. He has a nice driver who picked us up at the airport last night, and his office assistant here is very knowledgeable and efficient. She has everything together for us and has been extremely capable in answering all of our questions.

We will be in Kybarti this afternoon around 4 p.m. to meet with the city officials. Remegieus and I have to wear clerical collars for that meeting as it is customary here for ministers and priests to wear such things in official meetings. It's the first time I have worn a collar since seminary so this might be something of a challenge for me. We'll try to keep you posted as we go along with something new each day. Again, keep us in your prayers. It is exciting work were are doing here among our partner's in ministry in Kybarti.