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.