January Light

"If there were no light in the universe, we should never know it was dark" - C.S. Lewis

The sky was a faded blue and the clouds were red and yellow when I left the main building after my last class of the day. It was after five pm and I was walking back to our apartment and I was thinking about how the sky was still lit. I stood there in the late-day sun, soaking up the light that had so quietly stretched itself into the evening after it had been disappearing in the early afternoon for so long now. Things around here seem to have a way of doing that.

Every friday morning starts the same. The alarm goes off early, much to Becky's chagrin, and the only true success in the alarm clock's week happens when I get out of bed on the first attempt. I make my way around the inside of our place with a special kind of slowness for two reasons. One- having my senses dulled due to staying awake too late the night prior to get up at that time, and two- because our place is rearranged in such a way that our tables, being stretched out and slid together, take up most of the walking space in our apartment. I turn on the little light above the stove and once my slow eyes adjust I begin to make breakfast. My grandma's recipes seem to be everyone's favorites ever since I first made her famous Christmas Egg Bake a couple of months ago. By the time people start to show up just before 7:30am Becky has usually made her way out of our bed and her stooper, and we are ready for them with some coffee and fruit. Sometimes only the latter due to an overflow from the shoddy coffee maker.

There is a need in Christian communities to gather frequently and talk about what has been happening in our lives and in the life of the community. For us, we do it over a meal every friday morning. It breathes fresh life into all of us involved. We ask questions and listen to the responses. We share our lives and experience what it is to be in a community.

This morning continued a pattern that has been occurring as of late: the increased inclusion of students in our stories of thanksgiving.

It may seem like a small change, but thats only when taken out of context of this place. Much like the small increase of light might seem from someone who experiences only subtle seasonal shifts. But here, on these sable mornings, we huddle around these stories like candles. Every time we hear of students seeking for the Light and realizing that there is truth in the world that one can hold on to, trust in, and rest on, we are full of thanks.

December in Review

I often spend time crafting specific blog entries in my head while walking to and fro in my life over here in Lithuania. I have to admit that those thought-provoking blog entries rarely make it to a posting status here on johnstrandband. It is very similar to my habit of carrying out conversations with friends from back home in my head, complete with all of my latest personal updates and all the wonderings I have about their life's happenings as of late. More and more, I think I truly understand the meaning of being with someone 'in spirit.' Thank you for the many times you friends and readers send emails with answers to my unspoken, and even unwritten, questions. I appreciate the connection that can continue to happen across the distance.

The last month in 2009 had some of the fullest days of the school year so far, as well as some of the quietest and most peaceful moments for us Johnson's here at LCC in Lithuania. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and so I am going to give a report on some of the main events of the last month through photos. Never short on words, I'll insert a few of my own explanations, descriptions or whatever else I deem necessary. Here goes!


This year LCC's annual Christmas Program was a modern-telling of the events of the Christmas story from the Gospels; a sort of parallel to what the story could have looked like if the Messiah had been born in our town today in the year 2009. Who would some of the key characters involved have been? Leading up to the program, I assisted the student actors (who represented the shepherds visited by the angel chorus) to prepare for their scene that takes place in a university residence hall as students are studying for final exams. It was probably my most enthusiastic group of students that I have worked with thus far and I appreciated the enthusiasm and the spice they added to my usual meetings. Erik stole the show in his role as Hector, one of the 3 amigos (who were of course casted to fill the roles of wisemen arriving from the east) that see a star during a card game where they are trying to find the fourth king (get it? the fourth king is where the star leads them). The 3 amigos were toting guitars and a mandolin and would break into song as they travelled. Everyone else was amazed at the energy and character Erik brought to his role. I, though unsurprised by his expert performance, was a proud wife in the stands. The program even included The Hallelujah Chorus sung by a brave group of faculty and staff and Silent Night sung in a number of languages by various student groups formed to represent their country in song. The evening concluded with a Christmas cookie reception in the lobby...what a great start to the season.

Hector's performance was so well received that Erik was sought out by the university's president, Kyle, for a follow-up appearance of Hector (turned into a Mexican singing Santa) in an appearance at Kyle's own Christmas party for the VPs and department Chairs at LCC. Kyle reworked the lyrics to the John Lennon song Imagine and Erik and I (supposedly dressed as some sort of elf assistant to Hector) showed up after dinner to sing the LCC version of the song and pass out gifts to all from Santa's sack. We turned quite a few Lithuanian heads as we traveled to and from the party on Klaipeda's local buses dressed in all our get-up.

Each department on campus has their own Christmas parties to plan, including ResLife. The 3 of us Resident Directors planned an off-campus gathering at our supervisor's home for our student RAs, complete with a white elephant gift exchange, of course. Here is Steve Hanson, my co-worker, with Vasile and Artsiom, a couple of guys from his staff, showing off their ugly Christmas sweaters purchased at the local thrift store for just the occasion. I am finding that white elephant gifts and ugly Christmas sweater parties appear to be practiced worldwide.


I was given the chance to present a leadership seminar on Friday, Dec 11, the last day of classes, on whatever leadership topic I wished. All students are invited, but the usual participants are those students who are enrolled in LCC's Leadership Development program. I could have been better prepared, but still, I surprised myself with how much fun I had during it. I discovered that I really enjoy teaching and the process of trying to involve students in a new concept or idea. I chose the topic of Assertive Communication and then briefly introduced 3 main points: active listening, using "I" statements as a leader, and the process of giving and receiving feedback. I explained at the beginning that all of these concepts appear to be very Western in their approach because of their direction communication style. It made for lots of great dialogue and at least opened students up to the practice of these communciation techniques. Who says I am not using my Communication degree? By the way, this picture has nothing at all to do with the seminar I gave.

I had my own Christmas dinner celebration with my RAs too. Erik and I hosted them for a lasagna dinner in our apartment and we all shared about our family holiday traditions. Before allowing them to sit down and eat our meal, I sent them on a wild goose chase together following clues posted all over Neumann hall to find their stockings. Not being an eastern European tradition, this was the first stocking all of them had ever received. Here they are, looking only slightly enthused to discover the contents inside their stocking.


Of course, the end of the semester brought its usual craziness and extra tasks. Erik completed his first semester as a full-time student at LCC with seven finals! My RAs and I had our hands full getting ready for and carrying out winter break inspections before every student left their room. This year a youth conference that the school was helping to host over Christmas vacation added a few extra steps to our usual winter break preparations.

We hosted our Christmas Celebration Breakfast early on the last Friday morning of the semester. Erik has been organizing and cooking for these weekly breakfasts that we host for staff and faculty every Friday morning since fall break. We gather to eat good food, talk about the week, and give thanks together for the ways we see God working in our lives and the greater LCC community. This was an especially great Celebration breakfast as it was identical to Grandma Johnson's Christmas brunch menu back home - egg bakes & porridge!

And last, but certainly not least, the other important news of December is that Erik switched his focus of studies from working towards a degree in Business Administration to a bachelor of arts in Theology! I am confident that Theology will be a perfect fit for Erik's gifts and interests. He is super stocked about the change and has already begun reading his textbooks for the upcoming semester classes. I am pretty sure I can't say that I was ever that motivated while I was in school. Conveniently, this change allows him to be on track to complete his undergraduate program by the end of spring semester 2011, as he plans to be enrolled in courses over the next couple of summers.