Merry Christmas

Dear Brothers and Sisters,    

The most wonderful Christmas gift is a birth of Christ! As we think about this year we cannot stop thanking God for calling us to be His co-workers in Gloucester, England. We share this privilege with you. It passed by just a few month, but God’s faithfulness is overwhelming, because you are part of it. We hope that we all continue to grow in the knowledge of God in the coming year and, 

          we pray that out of  his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And we pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God. 

         Now to him who is able to do measurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Eph. 3:16-21).

with LOVE

Vidas, Rita and Rugile Rimkai

God is at work!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Philp. 1:2)

This morning I woke up with the thankful heart. The Lord blessed us so much in the past month. We had a time of struggles and He comforted us. We rejoiced and He rejoiced with us. We are thankful for His faithfulness and we pray that the Lord would bless you in the most unexpected ways. 

We pray, ‘that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God (Philp. 1:9-11). 

Eugene and Aneta family
Eugene, Aneta and their three children David, Erik and Joana arrived to England about 4 years ago. Since then, they have been attending Brunswick Baptist Church. We are very happy to be able to make friends with Eugene and Aneta as we all have a heart to preach the Gospel to the Polish people. 

                            

Since Polish people still facing difficulties in meeting the ends back home. As a result of this, Eugene’s brother Slavik has moved to Gloucester. We met him on Saturday and we were able to talk about the love of God and that He is looking after him in this difficult time. 

Please, pray for Eugene and Aneta to have wisdom and share their love for Christ with Slavik that he would find hope and peace in Him.

         

 

                               Family reunion

At the beginning of November Rita’s sister visited us. She has never been in England. We had a great time together and rejoiced that we were able to pray and show the love of Christ. She said that she never had such a peaceful holidays. Please, pray for Loreta to find this peace in Christ. 

                                                          

  God is a team Leader!

God is full of surprises! A few weeks ago we received a letter from an elderly woman from one of our partner  

churches. As we read the letter, God spoke to us, 

‘I have called you to this place’. It reminded us about Gideon in Judges 6:14-16). 'The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you? "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel?" My clan is the weaker in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together." 

As we think about ourselves being God's team in Gloucester. We are just like Gideon thinking how weak and incapable we are, but God warmed our hearts, when he said that 'We will work Together'. He won't leave us on our own. This is the best promise! 

As an angel talked to Gideon. In our case we received a letter from a woman who have had a heart for Polish people since the WWII. The letter encouraged us so much! God confirmed our calling once again. If He decided to place us in Gloucester He will open up doors for the Gospel in this city. Please, write us! We need your prayers and your life stories that demonstrates His faithfulness and encourages us.

We know that working on our own, we would never bring glory to God, because the whole concept of mission is about being part of God’s mission, we are His team. He is the Leader and we are His fellow workers. 

Praise Him:

for Saturday prayer meetings with Eugene and Aneta; 

for Rita being able to make contacts with Polish people;

for Vidas being able to provide for the family;

for Rugile doing well at school and making good friends’

for growing number of supporters; 

for partner churches: St James, Brunswick Baptist Church and Kendal Road Baptist Church for being supportive and encouraging at the beginning of our ministry.

What we have not done in order to be able to preach the Gospel?

We are quite strange missionaries. In one hand we are in the ministry, but on the other hand we cannot do anything for a very simple reason. We have not raised our support yet and we are struggling financially. We all know that anyone who goes on the mission overseas, they must raise support and then go, but we are not going overseas. We are here! 

Recently, we had a meeting with our partner churches and European Christian Mission to talk about this issue. 

We concluded the meeting with very clear view, that for us to begin our ministry we need to raise support. 

However:

we will continue meeting with Eugene and Aneta;

we will keep contacts with Polish people that we met during these three month; 

learning Polish;

we will do some more research on Polish community in Gloucester; 

but the main focus of this year is support raising. We need to raise £13 000 a year. 

We would appreciate your prayers!

As you all know Rita has been learning Polish. She has a great teacher Ola and she helps her a lot, however, Rita feels that she does not have enough opportunities to practice Polish. We have done some research on language learning possibilities. We found out that Cheltenham Campus offers ‘Polish Beginners’ course. The course would help Rita immensely! The course will begin from the 5th of January. Rita will need to register this week, because if there are not enough people, the course will have to be cancelled. We humbly ask you to pray that we would be able to pay for this course.

If you feel that you can support Rita with £156 ( also £60 for a bus tickets) for 12 week Polish language course, please contact us. 

Thank you for your prayers and support!

In Christ,

Rita, Vidas and Rugile Rimkai

Vidas, Rita and Rugile Rimkai,

8 Casey Close,

Gloucester, GL1 3QP

01452 548363

rita.rimkiene@ecmi.org

vidas.rimkus@ecmi.org

European Christian Mission

Freepost NH-4573

50 Billing Road

Northhampton

NN1 5BR

Inspired by God's faithfulness in Gloucester

'Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about to the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then' 

Joshua 14:10-11

These verses have been coming to my mind again and again. In six years we visited quite a few churches in Gloucester and beyond its borders. One and the same thing occurred to us, that churches are aging. Of course, this is not a new discovery to many of you. Sociologists, missiologists and other scholars noticed this phenomenon years ago. I thought it is interesting that many aging church goers or better to say believers think or assume that mission is for young, lively folk like us. I dare to say that neither churches encourage elderly people to be active in church life. Personally, I believe that there is so much to learn from elderly folk, because not long time ago they were our age and did amazing stuff. Thus, the younger generation should remind them about 'no age limit' in God's mission and get them up from their comfy seats to share and encourage the young!  Does older generation think that they have no gifts, skills and not vigorous enough for mission? Or missionary organisations have set up age limits? I do not think so! We are all exited to see young people going to mission. Also, we admire and perhaps pray for ourselves to have the same strength and joy of being a servant of God when a 70 year old lady or a gentleman gives a testimony of his walk with God. We need all generations to be active for the kingdom of God!

A few months ago we have been approached by an elderly man. He asked us if we would help him to 'restore' their church. According to him, church has lost all its congregation and now there are four elderly people praying for revival of their church. He was about the same age as the Caleb son Jephunneh Kenizzite, who approached Joshua by reminding him of the land that Moses promised, but also assuring Joshua that he is not too old to look after it. What Jephunneh was saying, that there is no age limit for those who serve God. There is no battle that people in their 80's could not fight. 

But the man that approached us showed no interest in God's mission himself. He surely loved God, but according to his own standards. He was sure that only young people have a gift of evangelism, preaching, encouraging, teaching and etc; only young have time and skills. In fact, he had a vision of a church that he wanted to have. But here is one problem, he forgot that church is not man's, but God's. Sometimes we all think that a particular church belongs to us. We have ideas and desires how this church should look like, but the good news is that church is God's and all we need to do is to follow His lead. 

This Sunday we visited our partner church, Brunswick Baptist church were a women stood up and prayed, ' Lord I know I am not young, but please, show me how can I please you and how can I serve you despite of my old age!'. This is a woman who seeks the Lord wholeheartedly and seeks not according to her own understanding, but God's, who has no restrictions to the age of His servants.  I truly pray that we all would have a character of this woman.

On the Sunday afternoon we prayed that we would grow old and never tired of serving the Lord. We asked God to fill us with strength and passion for His kingdom. We prayed that when we will be eighty we would be vigorous as forty years ago and ready to face a new day, new battles, new tasks, new skills and gifts. And if we'll lay in the bed of death we would pray for zealous followers of Christ to take our place and serve the Lord wholeheartedly. 

But while we still young we praise the Lord for:

Rugile has shown a great deal of interested in Lithuanian language. She has been reading and writing very well. She is proud to have a second language and she thinks that she might be able to learn the third.  She is doing well at school, enjoys playing piano and loves going to church club on Thursdays.

Recently, she was diagnosed with psoriatic plague. It is a skin condition that becomes hard and sometimes painful or itchy and can spread all over the body. The common place of psoriatic plague is elbows and knees. At the moment, her both elbows has been covered in hard yellowish spots. The doctor prescribed a special cream. Please, pray for Rugile's illness that she would feel as comfortable as possible about it. But also that God would heal it!

Vidas has been busy during the holidays. He painted our bedroom, kitchen and the corridor. It looks tidy and nice! He is working hard at Redcliffe. He is a shy man, but while he is at work and do not see what I am writing here I must tell you something: he is a very gifted man not only fixing stuff, but he has a gift of encouragement and prayer.  He enjoys hanging out with teenagers, he says, 'I will always be young in spirit'! His gift is to inspire young people! Please, pray that he would have a chance to witness to teenagers at Kendal Road Baptist church as well as to Eastern European men. 

English teaching is going well.  The Bible reading as another way of learning English slowed down, but I know that this is a very unusual way of learning English, therefore I prefer to wait for Edita to feel more comfortable and see a benefit of it. 

We visited our partner churches St. James and Brunswick Baptist Church. Both churches are very welcoming and encouraging! We are happy to be partners with them and seek God's will together. 

On the 6th of November we will be having a Polish couple at our house to discuss a possibility of having a Polish Bible group. Please, pray for us to be able to explain our vision and encourage this couple to be part of it. 

Needs:

We are still struggling with support raising! Please, please, please pray for people to come alongside to support us financially. 

Pray, that we would seek God's guidance and take time to pray. 

Pray, that more churches would come alongside us and recognise mission at home as their calling and responsibility. 

Pray, for Gloucester churches to be open to mission together. People to be open to enjoy diversity and praise God for being faithful in their communities and beyond. 

We thank you for your prayers and courage to walk an extra mile with us. Please, remember there is no age limit in serving our Lord Jesus Christ, just a challenge of trust and submission to Him. 

Please, write us and tell us about your ministry, challenges, difficulties and joys over defeated battles.

Our contacts:

rita.rimkiene@ecmi.org

vidas.rimkus@ecmi.org

In Christ,

Rimkai

October 2010 Newsletter

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

God really put us into the right place and there is no doubt about it. Enjoy reading it!

Polish mums and toddlers group

Every Monday I help at Polish mums and toddlers group. The group meets at Gloucester Community Church. We think that this is a great way of learning language as well as meeting Polish women and getting to know them. The first day I observed women they observed me. I was a novelty! They were surprised to meet a person who is studying Polish, but not English. They welcomed me, but did not speak much or asked questions. 

My second time was much easier, because women knew that I will be there and greeted me po Polsku. 

Such gatherings are essential for these women. Here they share their frustrations, difficulties and joys in their native language. Ola, the leader of Polish mums and toddlers group said to me, ‘Sometimes when life gets tough I find a Polish person and just talk and talk and talk’. For this reason, I need to master this language to be able to respond and support them in any way I can, to help them overcome frustrations and share my faith and hope that I have in me.

Learning ‘Polski’

How is my Polish? Well, I am reading ‘Bajki po polsku i po angelsku’ (Fairy tales in Polish and English). I have a Polish lesson once a week. I learn rules and words, which always change their endings and sometimes words sound the same, but have a different meaning (grammar is similar to Russian, I think I will be able to learn this language!) Also, I read Bible for children and translate it into English. Learning language is fun, but tough work. I understand and read well, but can’t speak yet. Please, keep me in your prayers!

Teaching English

On Tuesday Edita came to her first English lesson. I knew her for a quite some time. Finally, the day has come when I have no essays to write and can focus on helping someone like Edita. 

After explaining basic rules of English language she asked me how much would I take for a lesson. I did not really thought about it and because English lessons is a way of making friends with Polish I told her that this is a gift. This encouraged her to ask more questions. I had nothing to hide from her and told her that God has called us to work among Polish. Edita is a Catholic and I knew that religion is an important aspect in her life. She listened carefully, evaluating every word I say and asking questions like, ‘Why is this so important to you?, ‘Why us?’, ‘I go to church and religion is very important to me, but I do not understand different churches’, ‘Are you happy?. Our conversation developed into a short introduction of Church history. I was happy to answer to all ‘why’s’ and share the story of God who changed my life. We talked about Pope’s visit to England and what it meant to her. Our talk about faith and church took us back to English grammar. I told her that there is another way of learning English - reading Bible. I asked her if she would like to have an English Bible. She accepted my gift, hugged me and said, ‘Rita, I have never received such a wonderful gift in my life. This is better then flowers!’.  We agreed that English lessons won’t be only about the language, but learning about God and growing in faith together, praying for each other. 

We pray that this story will inspire you to give thanks to God the way He leads us into ministry among Polish migrants. Polish culture is very much about personal relationships. As Lithuanians we believe that a friendship is the best way of reaching out to Polish and others Eastern Europeans. I knew Edita for three years, but I had to wait until God moved her heart. We pray that our relationship would grow stronger and God would be glorified in Edita’s family. 

Rugile

She is doing well at school. Recently, she read a book of 200 pages and could not stop talking about it. She is a bright and creative girl, loves science and art. She shares her thoughts about the Kingdom of God and concerned about injustice in this world. Please, pray for her faith. Pray, that Rugile would grow proud of what God has done in her life and would be brave to share her faith with friends.

Pray for:

Continue to pray for Edita and her willingness to learn English through Bible. I believe that this is the beginning of a great journey for both of us and hopefully her husband and children will join us in.

Pray for Polish mums and toddlers group. There are mums that struggle with loneliness, uncertainty, lack of English language makes them vulnerable. Pray for a boy Eric, who has developed a difficult character and sometimes is uncontrollable. His mum is exhausted with such a behaviour. She talked to several doctors and child development supporters, but it seems that she also needs help to learn how to deal with difficult situations and not to give up.

Our support is still a stumbling block in our ministry. Please, pray for people to be open and sense a calling to be part of it by supporting us financially. 

Thank for Vidas job at Redcliffe. At the moment he is the main supporter, but we hope that he will be able to join me when we raise enough support.

NEEDS:

Vidas and I strongly believe that to be good missionaries we need to do more studies. 

As you know Vidas has accepted Christ only 3 years ago. He has been discipled by a church member, but this is not enough for a cross-cultural missionary. He would like to do some serious studies at Redcliffe.  Vidas would like to begin studies next year, but because of financial difficulties we cannot afford it. 

One of our ministry tasks is to teach English. I hope that my grammar mistakes do not discourage you from reading our newsletters! I am not a qualified English teacher, therefore to continue English lessons I need to obtain TEFL certificate (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). This qualification will enable me to set up small groups of English classes that hopefully will include scripture studies. Please, if you think you could support us in our further training contact us or ECM Britain. 

Contacts: 

Rita and Vidas Rimkai, 8 Casey Close, Gloucester GL1 3QP

rita.rimkiene@ecmi.org, vidas.rimkus@ecmi.org

European Christian Mission

Freepost NH-4573

50 Billing Road

Northampton

NN1 5BR

www.ecmbritain.org

Praying for good soil...

A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. This seed began to grow, but soon it withered and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop one hundred times as much as had been planted (Luke 8:5-8).

September Extra news

Dear all,

We are so inexperienced with newsletters updates that forgot to mention the most important thing in our September 2010 Newsletter. Please, forgive us and be patient while we are still learning to remember how and what we suppose to do and what not and must mention in our updates. We would not know our mistakes if you did not read out newsletter! Thanks to our friend who pointed out.
Here we go again!

On the 19th of September (10:30 am), Kendal Road Baptist Church will have our Commissioning Service. 
This is a historical event!!! We like to mention our country's history a lot, because it is still fresh in our minds.  Only 20 years ago we were under the communist regime. The purpose of Soviets was to purge religion from peoples lives. The biggest enemy of the communist regime was religion and nationalism that were closely related to one another. The Lithuanian Catholic church was the best example of this.
Today, we witness that God has been hard at work through Lithuanian believers (Catholics and Protestants working together) that never gave up their faith in times of persecution. Also western churches encouraged persecuted churches by praying for them.
We invite all our friends to pray for us, but most importantly to pray for the persecuted church that one day all those Christians would be able freely to stand up in their communities and witness the love of Christ as Psalm 30:1 says, 'I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me [us]. You refused to let my [our] enemies triumph over me [us].' Indeed, we praise God for His faithfulness!
We think that it is quite interesting for Eastern Europeans to be send by the western church, but at the same time this is a powerful witness of Christians working together for the Kingdom of God. 


Peace and love,


Rimkai

September 2010 Newsletter

Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up (Hosea 6:1). 

Calling to witness Christ among Eastern European migrants

As I got involved deeper into mission studies I knew that this is just the beginning of our journey. When Vidas made peace with God I prayed that his heart would be open to God’s mission. 

After three years at Redcliffe College [www.redcliffe.org] I had a chance to work alongside Darrell Jackson, Director of Nova research centre [www.novaresearch.eu]. We were asked to research Polish migration in the UK in order to help local churches and mission agencies to reach out to growing Polish community. MA studies provided an opportunity to do my own investigation on Polish migrants and what difficulties they face and how receiving country response to such a huge influx of migrants. My interest remained in local churches response to growing Eastern European communities (Czechs, Polish, Slovaks, Slovenians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Russians). I discovered that churches struggled to find ways of engaging with Eastern Europeans. There are churches that organise English language classes, but lack in making deeper connection with people. It seems that there is a cultural clash: Eastern Europeans come from community focused society ( it is slowly changing), while English are individualists. Our observations led us to an obvious mission field. Eastern Europeans have been neglected by mission agencies. People keep coming, settling down and establishing new communities. While churches seems still not sure about the concept ‘mission at the door step’ or do not know how to witness Christ to their fellow neighbours. God had opened an opportunity for us to be people in between the cultures where transformation of lives is inevitable. 

Tips for integration: 

Many times we have been asked how did we manage to adapt to English lifestyle. We followed several rules that we thought were important living abroad:  learn language, observe, learn their way of speaking ( thank you, please and sorry are the key words), listen and ask questions (still do), do not criticise, read local newspapers, watch TV programs and make friends with neighbours, learn customs and traditions, participate in local elections (show interest and knowledge in politics and sport), invite English friends for a wonderfully cooked English meal, go to local church and pubs (local ales connect people:)). 

We hope that our experiences will help in our ministry and will encourage local churches to join us in this journey. There is nothing more exiting to share your faith with others. Faith is infectious! We desire to see people living Hope in their communities and beyond. 

Polish friends

Ivona, Robert and their children Maria and Oliver lived next door for a year. Their English was very poor and we had to rely on our knowledge of Russian that helped us to make first connection. Ivona and Robert (their English improved) for the sake of their children decided to stay in the UK and are eager to learn English, but find it difficult, because they have no connections with locals and surrounded by Polish friends. 

We learnt that they go to St. Peters Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is the mainline church in Poland, therefore most of the migrants make friends through Polish Catholic Church.  Maria (8 years old) attends Saturday Polish school where she studies Polish history and language. Oliver (3 years old) will start creche at St. Peters Catholic Primary school. Rugile and Maria are best friends and spend a lot of time together. 

We had a chance to talk about church and God. They are both open to talk about God, but have doubts if God is really a living God and can help them. 

We also shared our desire to help them with English language. Ivona and Robert both have university degrees and sometimes struggle with not being able to use their qualifications. 

We did not have a chance to host them as their schedule always planned around their family. We would like to ask you to remember them in your prayers:

Pray that we would be able to find a way to invite them to our home and that their busy schedule would not be an obstacle to our growing friendship. 

Year One: 2010-2011

What are we going to do this year? 

Polish language lessons on Tuesdays;

informing local churches about our ministry and invite them to be part of it;

raising support;

occasional preaching;

working alongside St. James and Brunswick Baptist church: forming prayer groups;

making contacts with Polish people.

Please, pray with us:

We would like you to be part of this ministry. You should know that without your support we won’t be able to move forward. This is not our mission, but God’s and we are all partners in His mission.

Vidas will continue to work this year. This year we will be raising support. We need to raise £13.000 per year. Please, pray that the Lord would bring people alongside us who would like to be part of this ministry and see mission at home equally important as mission overseas. 

We agreed with European Christian Mission that Vidas will begin his studies from September, 2011. Please, pray that this year Vidas will be able to choose a course that he would like to enroll from next year.

Many churches still think that mission is about going overseas. Pray, for churches to be open to mission at home. 

Pray for our meetings with local churches. We will be establishing prayer and support groups. We hope that one group will be a mixture of people from our sending church and churches that will be involved in our ministry.

Pray, for Polish lessons. Our teacher is a Polish lady, who agreed to teach me (Vidas won’t be able to take lessons, but we agreed that I will pass on my knowledge to him until next year::)).

Pray for our contacts with Polish people. 

Thank for: 

The Lord has been at work! We were concerned about raising support, but God has brought to us people, who joined us on this journey by supporting us financially. We are very encouraged! 

St. James and Brunswick Baptist churches are very positive about working among EE migrants and it gives us great joy to such enthusiasm. 

We would like to receive your letters and prayer requests. Please, write us!!! 

Our address is: Vidas, Rita and Rugile Rimkai, 8 Casey Close, Gloucester, GL1 3QP, UK. 

Email: rita.rimkiene@ecmi.org, vidas.rimkus@ecmi.org

If you would like to support us financially, please contact us or:

European Christian Mission, Freepost NH-4573, 50 Billing Road, Northampton, NN1 5BR, UK

www.ecmbritain.org 

Peace and love to you all! Rimkai.

Journey begins with prayer

First of all we would like to thank all who decided to join us on this journey. This is a great privilege to be able to share our joys, struggles, challenges, failures and blessings. We hope our travels won't be exausting and if they will be, may they draw us closer to God in prayer and devotion.


Let us begin with a short story that we thought was a good example for the beginning of our journey. Every morning I sat in one of the Redcliffe libraries and prayed that God would give me strength, a little bit of wisdom and a gift of writing to finish my thesis. I really struggled to put my thoughts together, make them nicely flow in the text and that they would make sense. One thing you should know about me (Rita) I can be quite an annoying person, because all my thoughts and I believe, wisdom come from talking to other people. So, I tend to wonder from library to library searching for someone to share my struggles and sometimes to hear other mourners like me. I think we all felt much better after an hour of mourning. After exchange of grieve we all returned to 'our library'  (students are very selfish people, we have our favorate library until we finish our essays).

So, as I was walking back to my library I was told by a friend that there was a Polish woman waiting for me at the door. I rushed to see her and thouhgt to myself, 'what a shame! I have got a few lines to write down and someone decided to destruct me'.

Soon I recognised my guest. Ania is a remarkable lady! She is working with seasonal migrants from Eastern and Central Europe in partnerhsip with Gorsley Baptist church. Every day she meets tons of people, who travelled far to find a better job to support their families at home. Unfortunately, their journey to the UK often reveal more than just a need for a better job. They come to meet with God.  Ania is always ready to help them in any way she can, but most of the time she offers a prayer.

Soon I foud out that Ania came with a friend, who was diagnosed with a cancer and they were on their way to hospital. All I could think was that I could not do much, what can I say to her, do I give a hug, do I say 'I am sorry'... There was not much time to put my thoughts together. I walked towards Maria (changed name), greeted her and asked if I could pray for her. She noddedd and followed me into the Redcliffe garden. As we walked to the closest bench I thought if this garden could speak.  How many stories of sorrow, grief, sadness, despair, pain, joy, blessings and laughter it could share.  And every time God was there, listening, crying, laughing, kneeling...

I think Maria have never thought that her journey to 'a better life' will bring her face to face with God. Sometimes we need to travel to another country, city or a continent in order to meet Him. Although, Maria looked calm, her eyes could not hide fear and uncertainty that she was going to face in just a few moments. We squeezed on the bench. Our shoulders touched each other. I took Maria's hand and prayed. God was with us! As I prayed I felt warm tears running down my face. We stayed in silence for a few minutes. 

After they left I could not go back to my studies.  My thoughts were filled with prayers for Maria and thanked God for being with us. I realised that there will be times in our ministry that we wont' be able to say or do much to comfort a person, but we will always be able to pray. This is a privilege we have in knowing God through intimate moments like prayer. This is His moment when He takes time to speak to the most hidden places of our hearts. He meets with us in the most unexpected places of our journey. We often think that we travel on our own and than we discover that God has been on this road before.
I do not know what happened to Maria after her visit to hospital. Ania told me that since that day she met many believers who prayed for her. I believe that this is the beginning of Maria's journey.


Till next time.

the Beginning

Dear friends,

This is the beginning of our journey together. As I write these few lines I am thinking about wonderful adventures that God has prepeared for us as a family and as individuals. Of course, there will be hardships and the road that we chose to travel won't be always easy and smooth. We expect to bump our ankles into sharp stones and fall, but the thought of a sweet remedy that is in Christ will make this journey worthy, for God keeps His promise, 'Do not be afraid, I am your shield, your very great reward' (Gen.15:1). We pray that our life would be a visible sign of His glory and love, compassion and mercy, for He has loved us first and sent us into the world to be His companions in sharing His grace. Please, join us in this journey. Rita, Vidas and Rugile Rimkai

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)