Common Ground

There are different kinds of journeys that people take - different kinds of trips. We as people decide to go out and find something. Maybe for some it's to find something new, maybe it's to come to peace with something, maybe it's to say good-bye. But, often I think we journey in order to know, in order to understand something that we don't quite get. It was for this reason that Becky and I found ourselves traveling over 1 400 km in a car that shared the size and safety that a gnat would afford its passengers.Since being in Lithuania we have glimpsed at what we felt was Lithuania. Having nothing to chalk these decided differences up to other than the sole fact that they weren't American, made us start to wonder, "What is Lithuania? Who are Lithuanians?" This is clearly an enormous question that to do it any sort of justice would require an in-depth, unbiased research methodand highly sophisticated minds that are capable of crunching the data that would be presented. Lacking the resources for both the former and the latter, we were faced to make a series of decisions. The only thing thatwasn't Americanabout our decision to have us two uncultured, inexperienced individuals take a road-trip was the Deawoo we affectionately called the Tao, we drove.

The Road Trip

It was a good start. And for that statement to be true you must know that I am speaking comparatively. It was, after all, monday evening around 5 30 pm, and we had planned on leaving Sunday bright and early. What's 36 hours, right? Did it bother us that the car we wereborrowing had managed to brake down before we got it? That the bakes literally fell off of the car while it was getting driven to us? Nope. Way better that it happened ahead of time than if it had happened after one of us got that rubber-band motor spinning full-speed going into a roundabout.

We did eventually get the car from its wonderfully gracious owner, Emas, and then got a pep-talk from the expat who we were copying in doing the road trip. She informed us of how wonderful Lithuania was when you get out there and see it all first hand. She incouraged us to go and see whatever we wanted, there is plenty of time and it's a small enough country. We happily took her advice since we had not planned anything yet and we would be leaving in

under two hours. We grabbed her map, Lithuanian travel books and GPS and threw them in the pile of clothes, shelters, food, and camping gear we had assembled. Saying goodbye to Klaipeda, we rolled the windows down and opened our eyes for what was ahead.

Our days were filled with camping, exploring, walking in new cities and towns. We got to see Lithuania and Lithuanians outside of our school and our immediate community. It seemed like the aspects that were consistent from our city to the rest of Lithuania shone through. We went through enough villages and towns to see what village life looks like compared to city life here. Lithuania has 5 different regions, with their corresponding stereotypes, and we pretended that we could tell the difference. We could see the difference between the types of land, and consequently the farming, fishing, and general living.

What we did discover is that a small Lithuanian town will most likely have:

a large outdoor crucifix at the entry and exit of the village and they are usually wooden, beautifully landscaped gardens, little stands with people selling vegetables, mushrooms and fruits from their garden or the forest, a bus stop with two things - a bench which has no back and at least one vacant, empty beer bottle. The towns also have a statue or bust of someone, a church - located at the very highest or best place in town, a gas station, a village drunk walking through the streets, at least one babushka (elderly grumpy grandma who somehow owns and runs everybody's everything) who is walking or biking, either way she has a loaded basket of goods (possibly stolen, ha), a village name sign announcing entry and a sign with the village name on it with an X through it to signify your departure, lots of huts, dilapidated buildings, at least one Soviet relic - some cement building/structure/form left from the old days, colorful homes with decorative tree limb bridges, fences, arbors, flower boxes, and all towns have many, many people walking the streets.

One of the places we stopped was at a museum of sorts. It is a man's property that has many of the old Soviet statues from during the occupation. He purchased them after independence, and set them up in his yard. There are two huge loops that have all sorts of statues along with the propaganda that people were told. Most of the statues were of Stalin and Lenin, but some were of other heroes. I loved this statue.

As I said we camped the whole time. The forests are beautiful, and for the most part free. They have completely different philosophies when it comes to property and land. Most of the space is Lithuania is Lithuanians. Not the governments, but just the peoples. It can be used as wanted by the people, but no one owns it individually. They are just forests and fields left to the care and use of the people. Which leads to free use of the space, for the better and worse. We loved though. The lakes that we would camp next to were some of the most clear lakes I have ever seen.

We got to meet new people on our way. One of our favorite was Ryma from the south western corner of Lithuania. We camped in her campsite for night. It was actually just her yard, but her and her husband turned it into a great little campground. They live in the National Forest because their house was built before the country even had national parks. She was a terrific hostess and treated us graciously. I love how the Lithuanians we get to know always want to hear our impression of Lithuania. We always tell them how we love it here, and what shocks me is that our answer always surprises them. They want to know why we love it, and then a number of them tell us what's wrong with it. It seems similar to how people back home think about America in a very different way than the rest of the world. It's interesting how outsiders can often see the brighter spots in our own situations than we can. We'll be headed back to see her soon.

One other thing that really stuck out to us was the depth of history. Its so crazy to live in a place that has been lived in for thousands of years by people who are still carrying the stories along. A bit different than the story of Europeans in America. One thing that Lithuanians have deep in their traditions is how they deal with death. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but you can clearly see it through their maintenance of graveyards. They have many graveyards that are hundreds and hundreds of years old that are still meticulously kept up. Every village and every church have them, and they often seem to be a central part of the community, being decorated with flowers and light up with candles. This graveyard was from the German settlers from the 1800's. I think it wasn't as well cared for because of the tension between Lithuanians and Germans. Nevertheless, it was impressive to stumble upon driving down a tiny road in between farms.

Overall we loved our trip. Our favorite times were with the people we got to meet and the half understood conversations. The last night of our trip we met up with a Lithuanian friend of ours, Vaida, with her Mom, sister, daughter and nephew in a town 75 Km north of Klaipeda named Plateliai. There is a huge lake there which is about two hundred feet deep where people learn how to scuba dive. There is also quite a bit of sailing there. We spent that night hanging out with Vaida, her family, and her friends' family (the scuba diving instructors) with our first experience of Lithuanian Vodka. We enjoyed ourselves and had a great night chatting with new friends about the same old things: family, children, politics and what we all love to do in life. It's beautiful to see how much we all have in common, and how it comforts us to be around people who among all our differences we can find good, honest, common ground.

The trip put us in a good place to start this next year, and more experiences that will help us understand more completely, but never wholly, the people who we are trying to serve here at LCC.

Farmer Boy 5K 2010 Results

For all of you that have been anxiously anticipating the results of the fabulous Farmer Boy 5K Fundraiser that took place at Rod's Berry Farm on the 24th of July...here they are! Sorry to have kept you waiting. I hope that the photo display I have put together below allows you to experience the blood, sweat and tears that all of our participants, racers and spectators alike, shed as the cutthroat competition unfolded.

Runners and bikers assembled at the starting line, race tags attached, and the official race clock ready to tick-tock. This is starting to sound like the old poem Casey at Bat. I'll stop. Note the official starting gun being waved in the background by my youngest brother, Paul Henrik. He returned from showing his steer at the county fair just in time to fire the Farmer Boy 5K's starting shot.

And they're off...the race begins!

The course traveled across the front lawn and in between the sheds...

...down the dirt road...

...and around the bend. Out of our desire to not reveal too many details about the course terrain, we will refrain from posting photos of the remainder of the route. To give you an idea of the Farmer Boy 5K's difficulty, we can tell you that the route crossed over alfalfa fields...up and over creeks...and through the woods. Needless to say, this race was not run by the faint of heart.

Ten minutes after the race began, Erik hopped on his 4-wheeler with a supply of water and band-aids to bring aid to the weary racers.

My dad, the Rod of Rod's Berry Farm, represented 1 of our 3 bike entries. Here he appears to be riding Schwinn's latest model - complete with a very flat rear tire. Good on ya, Dad!

TJ, our youngest competitor, was 1 week away from celebrating his 3rd birthday.

Look at TJ's strong finish!

Speaking of strong finishes, here comes our 2010 Farmer Boy 5K Grand Champion, arriving at the finish line an incredible 23 seconds ahead of anyone else...

'ol Mr. Caleb Hudson!!!

And here comes TJ's proud grandpa...another strong finisher...his first time back in running shoes since the 1970s.

A recap of the awards ceremony following the completion of the race.

Our Running Victors

1st - Caleb

2nd - Nate & Jonah

3rd - Tyler

Our Incredible Cyclists

1st - Paul Hank

2nd - Ash

3rd - Dad

A huge thank you to all of our race participants and spectators. Thanks for coming out to show and share your JohnstrandBand support, both in physical exertion as well as financial donations. Over $500 was raised towards our work this next year at LCC International University. We are so grateful. Thanks to the many of you that stopped by to give us a proper farewell. We are well loved. I couldn't resist ending with the photo below. Jaxton (pictured below) was demonstrating how we all felt at the end of the day. We'll look forward to seeing you all next summer at the 2011 Farmer Boy 5K.

The End

Farmer Boy 5K Fundraiser coming up July 24

Who?

YOU and anyone else you can get to come along.

What?

The FARMER BOY 5K FUNDRAISER

When?

Saturday, 24 July 2010

10-10:30 am – Registration

11:00 am – Official Race Start

Where?

Rod’s Berry Farm

How much?

We are still raising funds for our work and ministry at LCC International University (www.lcc.lt), so we ask that you consider making a free-will donation instead of paying the usual flat-rate race fee.

How?

You can race any way you want. This includes running, walking, biking, skipping, crab-walking and even sitting. You are invited to join us whether or not you want to race.

Sign up for the FARMER BOY 5K FUNDRAISER by replying to johnstrandband@gmail.com with the number of participants by Thursday, 22 July 2010.

Yard games & lunch will take place on the lawn at the completion of the race. Burgers and hotdogs will be provided. Please bring a dish to share.

Hang out as long as you can. This event will serve as the send-off for our 2^nd year in Lithuania (as we plan to fly out of Minneapolis on the 27^th of July).

We hope to see you there!

Becky & Erik

more Elmstrand's in Lithuania

Somehow almost a month has come and gone since we waved good-bye to my parents and brother, Paul, and sent them off on the early morning train out of Klaipeda...and I am ashamed to admit that I haven't shared anything about their 2-week visit to Lithuania with you. Erik and I feel extremely blessed to have had the 2 communities we come from and are a part of meet together in one place.

"Thank you mom, dad & Paul, for each of you jumping into life at LCC with both feet. We are so grateful. Our visit at home this summer will be richer because you were able to experience the people and places that make up our life here. Thank you for bringing your love and support across the world."

While my family was here, we did just about everything but sit down. This included meeting & talking to LCC students, attending campus events, going to classes with Erik, watching the Inauguration of LCC's new President, getting our hands dirty at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new residence hall, getting cepiliniai-making lessons from Vaida, participating in a Seder Meal with some of our friends, visiting the public sauna followed by a cold dip in the Baltic Sea, taking an international road trip to Latvia & Estonia for Easter weekend and hopefully drinking & eating plenty of European cappuccinos & pastries to make the visit worthwhile. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words...and for that I am thankful. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

our town

Today is one of those days, upon getting to the end of it, that I realize my life is actually here in Lithuania. That Klaipeda isn't a city in Eastern Europe I am merely exploring and experiencing, but it is our home. It is our town. We belong here. Well, it is about time - it has been growing on us for 8 months now. There used to be a day when that amount of time in one location was long enough for Erik and I to decide it was time to move to another state. It makes me ask, "What makes a place become Home for the wildly wandering tumbleweed that I am?"

3 things come to mind:

one-usual places,

two-neighbors, and

three-baking.

Usual Places

And by places, I mean shopping. The Old Town market, the bandele bakery, and all of the little shops between Old Town and campus in which I stop to buy my multiple odd grocery list items of toilet paper, olive oil and red pepper flakes are now the norm. I really am dreading the day I must attempt to step back into Super Target and try to find toothpaste on aisle D46, remembering that I must make a decision about what kind of toothpaste I want to buy. No thanks. I have found that this kind of shopping is much more my style. I have 3 or 4 choices in Lithuania and I have reached the point of knowing where and how to find/ask for our typical necessities. It wasn't this easy back in August, but I realized on my walk home from the market today loaded with potatoes, onions and eggs how far I have come. I was even able to recognize a lot of the faces selling their wares from my early adventures at the market last fall. Much to my surprise, I bought my 2 kilos of potatoes from my favorite maintenance man at LCC. It's nice getting used to usual places and usual faces.

Neighbors

Of course we have had neighbors all along. We live in a dormitory with 200 college students running around on the floors above us. We go to bed after midnight on weekends to the sound of high heels click-clacking all the way down the hall on their way out the door on the other side of our wall. I am talking about the kind of friends in the community whose door you can knock on without calling ahead. Alene & Carrie have grown to be those sort of friends for me this semester. I am thankful for times of being out and about in town and being able to stop in to drop something off, say hello, or just use the bathroom since public restrooms in town are so hard to come by. The timing of finding neighbors seems to be ordained as well. At the same time that I realized my deep need for female friendships outside of work, my interactions with these ladies happened more frequently. Gotta love how that works out. I am thankful for my chance to drop off produce from the market at Alene's this afternoon and the impromptu cup of tea we were able to share together, in spite of her being too sick to feel like leaving the house today. Now that's a sign of a good neighbor.

Baking

Lastly, I know I have settled into a place when I have started to bake. Baking is probably one of my favorite therapeutic practices; though I must admit it comes after cleaning for me. When all is chaotic in my world, I start to clean. If life is busy, but I am getting into some sort of groove, I begin to bake. Cookies, apple crisps, granola, scones, cinnamon rolls & bread to name them all. My repertoire has been limited since living in Lithuania due to difficulties in finding the same ingredients, but I still enjoy being in the practice of baking here. I am attracted to baking bread because of the intensive labor of love that it requires. I love how hands-on it is and how accomplished I feel when I see the golden loaves on the cooling rack and have the aroma of homemade bread swirling around our cozy apartment. Before I go, I should also mention here that having a love for baking does not necessarily mean that I am a good baker. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. There were quite a few times this semester that my initial attempts to make whole-wheat bread turned out super-dense, wheat bricks that we choked down only out of principle.

Surprising as it sounds, Kretingos g. 36, LT-92307 in Klaipeda, Lietuva has become home for us. It doesn't mean that we don't miss people and places back home terribly, but this feeling is something new for us Johnstrand's. I might even go so far as to say that maybe familiarity, routine & commitment aren't so bad after all.*

*Don't hold me to that. :)

So what makes a home a Home?

I would say a walk to the Market,

a cup of Tea, & homemade Bread.

a spring break lesson

I'm the RD On Duty for spring break this year, so that means Erik and I must limit our exploring to within Klaipeda's city limits. I am not complaining though, as it feels like we need a break from the consistent pace of school and a reason to take time for the less commonly visited places around us here. Thus far into the week has been a lot of soaking up time together inside our apartment with carefully budgeted trips out and about happening here and there.

I thought I should fill you in on the Lithuanian holidays that are happening this week. They are the kind of holidays that feel like Groundhog's Day does back home (Who celebrates Groundhog's Day in the United States besides AmySue and me?), but people actually get a day off work for these ones. I suppose they are actually more similar to our President's Day weekend. All that to say, I have been doing some of my own research to try and understand the holidays observed around here and so it seems appropriate to give you the scoop as well.

+St. Casimir's Day+

St. Casimir was a Prince of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who became a patron saint of Lithuania, Poland, and the young. "Little Casimir's" Fair (or Kaziuko mugė if you want to say it in Lithuanian) is held in cities in Lithuania on the Sunday nearest to the anniversary of his death, March 4. Some helpful info from Wikipedia I inserted below explains what Erik and I discovered in the theater square downtown this weekend. It's the closest thing to the MN State Fair we have experienced since being here. Definitely worth checking it out. Erik and I tasted hot beer and waffle cakes, bought the most creative palm fronds I have ever seen, and then wished we could buy heart-shaped honey cookies for all of our friends who had to remain at home. It was a joyful celebration of everything truly Lithuanian.

Kaziuko mugė

• The arts and crafts at the fair include hand-made goods from local craftsmen, such as apparel, knitted clothes, footwear, toys, utensils, metal crafts, souvenirs, and paintings. Foodstuffs like rye bread, bagels, honey cookies, meat and diary products, natural honey, beer, and gira are sold as well.

• "Palm" bouquets (called "verbos", hence Verbų sekmadienis) are one of the fair's specialties. Made of colorful dried flowers and herbs, they are taken to churches on Palm Sunday. The shape of the "palms" resembles a lily, a flower which St. Casimir is traditionally associated with.

• Another popular product at the fair is the "muginukas", an often heart-shaped honey cookie, decorated with colored sugar flowers, zig-zags, dots, and birds. Popular men's and women's names are written on the cookies. People buy them to give to their loved ones. It is a customary tradition to bring back some cookies for anyone who had to remain at home.

+International Woman's Day+

Yesterday, March 8, was a major day of global celebration of women, but it wasn't until I moved to Lithuania that I witnessed its observance in any form. I was informed by students at LCC that Woman's Day is an old Soviet holiday that they have grown up celebrating in many of the countries previously occupied by Russia. I was also told that the usual custom is for men to give the women in their lives - mothers, wives, daughters, colleagues, etc - flowers and other small gifts. It all became more clear when Erik and I finally understood what an older gentlemen at the bus stop was trying to communicate to us through a mixture of Lithuanian/English & sherades - he wanted to make sure that Erik intended to give me a flower in honor of Women's Day. Now that I think about it, I don't know if I ever did receive that flower in honor of Women's Day. :) I did notice that there were a number of public events advertised this last week to promote awareness of women's topics. Once again, a quick search in Wikipedia enlightened me on the history of this holiday's beginning and the various ways it continues to be celebrated in different places today.

• Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the formerSoviet bloc. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

• On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day was declared as a non working day in the USSR "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."

That's enough of a cultural lesson for now. To be continued...coming up this week on March 11 is Lithuania's Restoration of Independence Day. More about that next time.

a Holy communing

Mug 'n Muffin arrived at LCC this weekend. Just in time for the ladies here on campus, or so it seemed. It was an idea that came to mind sometime for me last fall, briefly shared with some fellow gals on our Student Life team and then brought back up in our conversations at the start of the new semester in January. Mug 'n Muffin refers to an event just for ladies that started back when I was an RA at Northwestern College. It occurred on a couple of Saturday mornings during the semester and almost guaranteed feminine bonding, all scripted to happen as sleepy female students wearing slippers listened to wise older women share their life stories openly and honestly while sipping homemade mochas from their mugs topped with extra whipped cream. It was an intentional way for women to pass down wisdom to those of us in the next season of life. As a student, I absolutely loved it. My adoration of stories has only continued to grow since then.

I observed early on in my arrival to LCC International University that there is a large female presence on campus...and later found that over 60% of the student body are women. Thus, the ladies have a strong voice in the classroom and are generally the leaders in extra-curricular activities on campus. I started to think, What better way to treat the hard-working ladies of LCC than to their very own Mug 'n Muffin? So, there you have it. I gathered 4 other staff that are about my age, organized a few meetings, shared my vision of what I thought a Mug 'n Muffin could look here, and poof! our very first Mug 'n Muffin appeared this last weekend.

390 handmade invites were sent out to every female student beforehand and about 35 RSVPs were returned. I was impressed by the turn-out as it was a non-traditional way to advertise for events around here. The typical approach is to send out as many emails and hang up as many posters as possible in order to lure in all sorts of unsuspecting attenders. My desire was to create a meaningful time for the women on campus that were wanting to be present. The only problem was that students didn't have any idea how to know whether or not they wanted to be at this women's gathering that invited them to wear their slippers, bring their own mugs and show up with a smile at the early hour of 11 o'clock on a Saturday morning. All questions were supposed to be directed to bjohnson@lcc.lt. No questions appeared.

We were overwhelmed by the crowd that filled the 6th floor hall kitchen on Saturday. The only delay we were experiencing in our preparations was that the homemade chai tea recipe was taking longer than anticipated. Otherwise, the couches were arranged, the coffee was steeped, and the muffin platters were stacked. We watched as ladies continued to file in through the door, taking time to put on a name tag and fill their mugs with their own delicious hot beverage creations - complete with whipped cream & cinnamon-sugar sprinkles. There were almost 65 women in total once we had a chance to count them all. I was even more impressed by the eager spirit I was sensing from this room full of ladies that I hadn't felt at LCC before now. I started out by sharing my hopes for this time together as women and then introduced the 4 women from our community that had been invited to share that morning. Our topic to guide the sharing for our time together was on the different roles that women are able to play in the professional world & at home within the family, as well as all of the combinations of ways you can combine the two. We had women representing all seasons of life share pieces of their life story, including the joys and struggles and decisions along the way.

It was beautiful. The girls seemed to hang onto every word that was spoken. The openness and vulnerability was refreshing. There was lots of laughter and there were sometimes tears. The time for questions that followed lasted more than an hour. All of the questions we had prepared in case no one was asking questions were tossed aside... it seemed as if everyone in the room couldn't get enough of the realness being offered to them so graciously. I was in awe of the respect that filled the room. It truly felt like a Holy moment in which God was smiling upon us. This group of women were giving and receiving wisdom so naturally with one another, in spite of the fact that we were all coming from different backgrounds and beliefs. I am honored to be in a place where provision met a need so effortlessly. It's one of the more encouraging stories to share about being here and why I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. Thanks for celebrating with me.