Graduation

It was one week ago that I was buttoning my shirt, looking out my window onto the sidewalk that runs in front of our dorm apartment. Down the sidewalk were small families of two's or three's walking around with rare, unreserved smiles on.
The soon-to-be-graduates were scurrying about, their excitement clearly warn along with their black cap and gown. I was running a bit late, but I wasn't in too big of a hurry. I knew the drill, we had run through it so well the day before. We were to all go into Neufeld Hall auditorium, sit in our assigned, alphebetical, marked-by-number-order seats, while Michelson Center gets filled with parents, relatives, loved ones and friends. Then we were to descend from our assigned seats in an every-other-row to opposite door order and walk across campus with a rose in our left hand to the awaiting graduation ceremony. Since I had it all memorized, and since LCC is notoriously late with any event, I stood tying my tie in ease, watching my fellow classmates run past my window.
Ceremonies serve as signs that mark certain days, and in doing so those days in some way become sacred. They allow you to reflect on the growth and gain, on the loved and lost. I realized that this day was a ceremony which encompassed the past ten years of my life -- it was a closing of many things in my life which I have kept open for a long time. My openness has led me through the past ten years. It was as if I were going wherever I pleased. I made many plans and shared many dreams, but no one could tell where I was coming from or where I was going.
This way of living may very well have led me to become a permanently open and utterly unformed person, but I found the opposite happened. I have been molded. I have found a center and boundaries. I have lost family members. I have found true friends. I have committed to marriage. I have been given so much, and what I was given was exactly what I needed. I was given love by those around me and by God. And that love came in the shape of pushing and pulling. If it were not for that rising and crashing of these years I would not have become a man who can identify up from down, right from wrong. I would not be able to stand at that window, Becky's and my window, in Lithuania, watching the gathering of a community of which I am a part.
In the stage of life which was closing before me, I became aware that I knew how to stand for the first time--how to stand as a son, as a husband, as a friend. And it is not by strength of self. I learned that one can only stand in the midst of others. One will only stand because of others, for others.
I didn't know it then, but this awareness was soon to become only more poignant when, later that night and over the next few days, Becky would hand me a stack of letters from what would amount to nearly everyone from back home. How could I have foreseen the filling up of my heart, and the accompanied longing for home which was to come? How could I have known my inability to express my gratitude? How could I reflect all that I have been given for so many years?
And as I put a light cotton sweater on over my shirt and tie, and then my cap and gown on over those, I could feel that I was standing. And I see now that standing was, in itself, what I could do to reflect what I was given. I can be present for all the people in my life. I can be there for my family and friends. I can be a source of love and support for Becky. If it were not for all of the people surrounding my life, I would not know how to do any of these things. I could not stand if I had not been picked up so many times.
As I walked out the door, I felt the loving hands of my parents from my childhood, from my friends which I've had for half my life or would give my whole life for, and the enormous amount of others, pressing against me, keeping me standing up and giving me the desire to stay standing.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Becky and I have had quite a year. The year of 2010 was good to us. We spent most of our year here, in Lithuania, but we were fortunate enough to head back home for just over two months in the summer. To look back on a year from abroad is different than looking back from home. The sting of physical distance between family, friends, and ourselves is more present the greater that distance grows, and it makes us stop and reflect on our life here, together. And when we do, we see our blessings rise as if from sightlessness to sight (W.B.).

This past year Becky came into more familiarity with her job as an RD. She was able to get more of a routine with her work, so that she could invest more relationally with her students. She spent many hours this year sitting and listening to students share about her life, whether that was in her office or in our home over tea. She has quite an open ear for all those who are willing to share, and, as I’m sure you know, she is pretty good at talking too, so those students got to learn about her as well. I have watched her grow through the difficult aspects of being here also. She has been a light of caring, patience, and love to all those that surround her. That is one of the reason’s why I fell in love with her, and to see her grow even more in that regard is beautiful. I have learned much about selflessness and giving from her this past year. She is becoming an even better woman than the one I first met almost 5 years ago, and I am honored to have her as my wife.

I spent most of my 2010 days getting tossed between some sort of abstract wonder and real life. From attending classes and reading an accessive amount theology and philosophy, I would return to earth by trying to join in around the community here wherever I could be of use. I loved helping out in the seasonal events like community day, ugly duckling cup, oktober fest, or the Christmas pageant. And sometimes I was able to work with local high schoolers here on campus, or visit an elementary school and presenting about where I come from. I look forward to graduating this spring and finding out where our next steps will be.

Aside from our work here at LCC, we spent much of our last year around a table, eating or drinking with friends. We have many people here who have shown us much love, and three scenarios stand out the most. One is on our Sundays mornings. We often meet the Kaethlers, Andrew, Alene and their two little girls, for breakfast. Usually we are slow to rise and slow to leave, so it turns more into brunch, and we love those mornings. It is great to have friends who we feel so at home around, and who let us enter their lives so freely. Another scenario is our Friday morning Celebration Breakfasts, where we gather with 5-20 people in our home to share about the past week. Doing that breakfast has tied many of us closely together and has been a highlight of our time here, getting to learn about one another and share in what we have seen God do here. Lastly, our friend Vaida and her family will not be forgotten when looking back at this year. She is a Lithuanian co-worker of Becky’s, who has become more like family through opening her house and home to us over this past year. Her, and her family’s care and affection has made this year so valuable for us. We have spent many evenings speaking broken Lithuanian around her table, in her sauna, or celebrating a holiday with her family. We are so thankful for her.

And the final piece of this past year that we will share is about our cherished summer months back home. There was nothing more needed than time to see family and friends. We crammed in all that we humanly could, squeezing every day for what it was worth. We worked some and met up much. We got to join in with our family and friends' lives, going to cabins, meeting up for meals, hosting races, building things, and worshiping together. We did fewer things than we normally would be able to in an entire summer, but we felt like we were able to see our family and friends enough to be recharged. No matter how much time we had, it did not quite seem like enough on the day we had to leave. We miss you all, and look forward to late May, when we return home.

We wish the best for everyone this next year. We pray that your Christmas was filled with hope and joy, and that the New Year will treat you kindly.

The Johnsons

Happy Thanksgiving

Yesterday we gave our RAs a cultural experience by introducing them to the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving. We have our own staff & faculty Thanksgiving gathering the weekend after all of you back home in America are eating turkey and stuffing until the point of comatose with family and friends because it is hard for us to survive an entire year without a Thanksgiving of our own. Still, students only get the chance to hear about this magnificent American tradition. This year we decided to show them how it is truly done. The other Neumann RD, Alexandra, and I came up with a menu that would display a variety of typical Thanksgiving dishes, which included turkey, stuffing, cheesy mashed potatoes (it must be an East coast thing because Alexandra is from New Jersey), gravy, cranberry sauce, broccoli, homemade bread with butter, deviled eggs, and of course, a pumpkin pie. The food was a success with everyone at the table, and I was happy to hear that the stereotype of American food looking like a fast food burger with fries was quickly being wiped out of their minds.
We began by gathering around the table to tell a brief history of the reason we have this holiday back home before we prayed and dove right into explanations of all the dishes present. The eating and conversation brought us to a jolly place of laughter and we paused before dessert to go around the table and share our thanks. I was not sure what to expect from this activity because around here it less common to be open about personal things in a large group such as ours. I was blown away. It was incredible to hear student's reflections about their thanks, starting from supportive family and friends to the multiple opportunities they have been given in life, remembering the gift of being able to wake up each morning and walk around on 2 working legs, and for the challenges and hardships during this past year that are part of the beauty of life as they look back on the growth that came from those times. Many of the RAs mentioned the life changes that have happened and are happening at this place that brings all of together, this place we call LCC International University. It was a blessed time together to practice the state of thankfulness.
Prior to eating the delicious pumpkin pies with whipping cream, we had a wishbone war. That is something that all the cousins look forward to around our extended family's Thanksgiving, so of course we had to include this silly tradition, with Roman (one of the RAs on my staff last year) coming out with a victory. I hope he had a good wish! Then we settled in to the couches to conclude the evening by watching the classic It's a Wonderful Life. Afterward, we were half expecting the snow to start falling and Christmas melodies to start playing as we cleaned up the kitchen and went home. We will be thinking of you with thanks in our hearts as you are celebrating this wonderful tradition together this week.

My LCC twin?

I have been meaning to share this photo with you for a while now. The big news is that I finally met my twin here in Lithuania. Ieva (pronounced Yev-uh) made an appearance on campus this fall as a freshman. I kept having people tell me that I looked like someone else on campus or that someone else looked like me...and I have to admit it felt a little eery when I officially met Ieva for the first time. I'll leave the final say up to you all. It's not the greatest photo, but even her squinting looks vaguely familiar. ;)

PEEP OF THE WEEK

This week marked the beginning of a small, yet hopefully meaningful practice of building community in the residence halls. We claimed a spot on the bulletin board near the elevator that everyone walks by multiple times on a daily basis to highlight selected residents from Neumann Hall with personal photos and interesting biographical information. This week it was Vasile and Cristina from East side (both students who hail from Moldova), and our only set of twins on campus, Masha & Dasha (from Belarus), representing the West side. Next week it will be a new group of faces with their own personalized stories that are chosen to make a special appearance as the ‘Peeps of the Week. Not knowing how students would respond to my idea, I was pleasantly surprised to see the smiles it brought to faces as well as witness the simple sense of belonging that happens when we are given the opportunity to make ourselves known to one another.

My favorite part happened when we celebrated the start of this weekly tradition by hosting all the ‘Peeps of the Week’ for dinner in our apartment late on Friday night. We had quite the feast to help us celebrate. One of my RAs, Anton, taught Erik and I how to make plov (a delicious dish made with rice, beef, onions & carrots) according to his mother’s recipe. We are learning that plov is such a traditional dish in all Central-Asian countries that every family has their own recipe along with their own ‘way’ to make it. Maksat, a student from Kazakhstan, showed us his family’s recipe last month, and this week Anton showed us the way his mother makes plov back in his home country of Kyrgyzstan. I do not think we could call ourselves plov experts yet, but we are definitely acquiring an affection towards the consumption of this tasty dish.

Mr. Clean unveiled

Finally, the long awaited photo of my last RA. You'll have to refer back to my earlier post to get the scoop on Mr. Clean. Although my face may not reflect it, I am really looking forward to working closely with this individual. He is an independent thinker and adds a unique perspective to any group. He likes to remind me of the differences between Eastern Europeans and Americans, especially in our interpersonal interactions. I like to remind him of all the similarities between Americans and Eastern Europeans...

Крузенштерн

Did I mention that we live on a port city? In fact, one of it's claims to fame is that it is the northernmost 'ice-free' port city on the Baltic Sea. Since Erik spent every summer weekend of his growing up life on a sailboat with his family, it's a good thing I get a similar thrill from watching all the boats - I mean ships - sail their way in and out of the harbor here in Klaipeda. We often find ourselves mesmerized by the lights bobbing far out on the shoreline as we imagine the stories of sailors and other crew members coming and going from our home. I am sure it is more romantic in my mind than in actuality, because I am pretty good at that.

Last weekend the world's 2nd largest tall ship was in our port. We had the opportunity to tour this huge and very old (built in 1926) Russian ship that continues to be used for training purposes and is normally docked in Kaliningrad, the port city to the south of us. The sight was impressive, although I was wishing that the sails would have been out for us to see this old ship in all its glory.