An Exciting Saturday

Last saturday we were able to host our first short term team, very short that is....about 7 hours short :)
We coordinated with the Vilnius Team to have them come over and help us do some survey outreach in the dorms. There were 4 staff and 6 students from Vilnius, plus Tiana's friend Rima. Each of us Kaunas Team members were able to pair up with a student and head out to see what God had in store for us :)
I was paired with Ramune, a 2nd year student from Vilnius. It was such a glimpse of what we hope to see here in Kaunas in the future. The coolest thing about it was getting to watch her be a little timid at first then see how God used her to share her personal testimony with students in the dorms - some were really interested, some were really hung-over & some were really apathetic. Seeing how amazingly she communicated truth about Jesus and His love and grace was truly wonderful & natural. Great Job Vilnius students! You are all amazing!
OH! another HUGE praise was that we have continually had trouble getting into the dorms we went to on Saturday due to the huge language barrier between us and the dorm security guard ladies....well God truly went before us and once they understood what we wanted to do they encouraged us to do more rooms and other floors. We were even able to give one lady a copy of More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.
Glimpses of the future give us much hope and we can't wait until we have students here in Kaunas who are sharing their own story & how to know Jesus personally with their fellow students. Make sure you are praying for that friends!

So a couple weeks ago we did our Easter outreach and in that time we gave the students some questions to answer about spiritual things. One of the questions was would you like to meet with someone to talk more about what it means to be a Christian. Many of the students said yes, so it was our job to follow up. Now even though someone said they wanted to talk more about God and what it means to follow Christ your mind still plays tricks on you and you begin to doubt. It was easy to think that they didn't really mean it or that they aren't really interested. So there was a guy student that said they wanted to talk more and I (Matt) said I would follow up. The doubts came, but I really wanted to meet with him. So I prayed and then later we connected online and I carefully broached the issue by asking if he wanted to hang out sometime and talk. He thought it would be a good idea and then launched into how he would love to meet and talk more about deeper things since he doesn't have many guy friends who want to talk about such things. It was a great time to see God work despite my doubts and fears. I am looking forward to meeting with him this week.

How was the Easter Outreach?

So this past Tuesday we had an Event focused on the meaning and purpose of Easter. We entitled it "How Easter Saved My Life". We had 9 students come and enjoy the evening with us. We started with dinner then moved into testimonies. Laura, a Lithuanian student, and I (Jason) had the pleasure of sharing our testimonies. I was surprised at all the questions after we shared. It was very encouraging that everyone immediately wanted to know more about God's work in our lives. Next, Peter did an amazing job at sharing the Gospel by bringing our testimonies together with his own and the Biblical Gospel account. Then we watched clips from the Passion of the Christ, followed by a time of reflection. Matt wrapped up the presentation and we had tea and dessert.

During the time of reflection we had a few questions to ponder to help us process the message of the evening. The last question was, Would you like to meet with an Agape staff member to learn more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus? We had two or three students answer Yes to this question, which is Awesome. Of course these students will be contacted to set up one on one meetings. Over all, everyone responded positively to the Message. Everyone responded that, in some way or another, they are searching. We were given confessions of Emptiness, Self Reliance, Doubt, and Misunderstanding. From our experience it is amazing to have such openness in Lithuania.

Please pray for us as we follow up with these students. Pray that God would reveal Himself to each one of them. Here are their names.
Nerijus, Vaida, Rita, Egle, Giedre, Agne, Ramune, and Tatjana

Praise God for the Work He is Doing.