Words of Hope

A letter from Eric Hinderliter serving in Lithuania

Fall 2016

Greetings from Lithuania. This Fall is a time of anniversaries. Becky and I celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary in November. Where has the time gone?

LCC International University, our mission partner, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this academic year. What began as a summer English language program in 1991 has grown into an accredited university with eight academic programs, four building on its main campus and ambitions for a satellite campus in Tbilisi, Georgia.

We recently asked three of our colleagues to help explain LCC to our U.S. donors. Most all the Presbyterian mission workers around the world today are sent to work with partner Christian churches; obviously LCC is an anomaly in Presbyterian mission work as it is not a church. Therefore our donors may question how teaching at a university can qualify as “Christian mission”—at least when compared to palpably urgent and dramatic needs in Africa, Asia and the Middle East today.

These three have many things in common that our donors, especially U.S. Presbyterians, will understand. All are LCC grads, all have taught in the LCC theology department, and two are Princeton Theological Seminary graduates. And of course Becky and I would like to think of them as fellow Christian pilgrims on a lifelong journey of faith. The theme is their views on the Christian context of LCC International University.

Donatas Ramonas is also an LCC grad, a former theology teacher and a Princeton Theological Seminary graduate. He runs a successful management consulting company in Lithuania. “Both my wife and I graduated from LCC already 18 years ago. Although so much time has passed, probably there is no single week that we haven’t referred to our experience at LCC. The first thing that LCC equipped us with is to practice our faith in our daily activities and most importantly in our work. By receiving the necessary skills and Christian worldview, we are able fully to engage in economic, political and social life issues. We understand that being a Christian is not just to attend the church service on Sunday (although this is very important) but also to bring the Good News to where we spend most of our time—in our jobs and professions. The second thing that LCC embedded in us is to care about our spiritual life. ‘Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ We Eastern Europeans are easily influenced by the Western culture in which materialism is at the center of life. As LCC graduates we are rooted in both understanding and practice that the success of life is not measured just by the quantity of materials things, but that the success of life depends on your daily relationship with God. Third, LCC has expanded our understanding of who are our brothers and sisters in faith. Brought up in the Catholic tradition and keeping in mind that church activities were limited by the Soviet regime, we grew up in a very homogenized society. LCC from the very start established itself as an ecumenical community welcoming different Christian traditions. As LCC graduates today we are able both to worship and work together with Christians who are not part of our tradition. This experience has encouraged us to seek larger unity within different Christian traditions. LCC remains the only educational institutions in Eastern Europe that equips young people to practice their Christian faith in the complex issues (economic, religious, political or social) of the modern era.”

Our third colleague offers some thoughts about nurturing Christian leaders. Romualdas Barbarskas is the interim president of the Evangelical Bible Institute in Lithuania and a part-time teacher at LCC. He entered LCC in 1992 as a practicing Christian shaped largely by a Pentecostal/charismatic experience. He writes: “Most of the LCC’s students back then were either non-believers or only nominally belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. … At the time, I did not realize that making a lasting or long-term impact is a long process that requires patience and the cooperation of those we work with. Neither did I realize that my concept of Christian spirituality needed a challenge. Looking back now, almost after 20 years since my graduation from LCC, I can appreciate the long-term effects of this school’s approach to Christian service more clearly than ever. Being born in the ’70s and growing up under the auspices of the socialist regime, I could see only one style of leadership in practice, mainly, dictatorial. This was, unfortunately, practiced not only in politics and business, but also carried over into many churches.” In his view LCC offered “a distinct model of leadership, one that would encompass both churches and secular institutions, that would be based not only on the textbooks but also on the personal examples of those who taught there. This element of personal example, in my opinion, is what has accounted for the lasting influence of the school and its high moral ethos (which I believe cannot be manufactured in any artificial way but can only grow out of sincere commitment to Christian principles over the long haul).” “It is not just the contents of the curriculum, i.e., what is being communicated, but especially how it is communicated that leaves the imprint in the minds and memories of those who studied here. And this imprint, I believe, stays for good. As a pastor of the local church, an academic dean at the local Bible Institute, and now also as an interim president of the same school, I attribute a great deal of my formation as a leader to LCC. And knowing about the school’s impact on those who chose to follow the vocational paths different from mine, I wish for even greater variety of academic programs at LCC so that the influence may be spread to the other sectors of our society. … There is so much potential to carry this influence with you and spread it around. I pray and hope that this influence may continue and that it is exerted to an even greater degree than ever.”

Thanks to our three friends for speaking a word of hope—speaking the truth in love—to our donors in the U.S. And thanks to all of you for your generous giving. We ask that you continue your faithful support throughout the rest of 2016 and beyond with fervent prayers, frequent cards and letters, and generous giving to our designated mission account. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2).

Grace and peace,

Eric & Becky Hinderliter

Please read this important message from Tony De La Rosa, Interim Executive Director, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isaiah 43:1b-2, NRSV)

Dear Friend of the Presbyterian Mission Agency:

Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support of Eric and Becky Hinderliter this year, and any previous year. We hear from our mission co-workers how much your prayerful financial support has meant to them. Please know that you are a vital part of ministries throughout Lithuania.

Even as I thank you, I want to let you know that this is a critical time for our congregations and all people of faith to commit themselves to support mission co-workers like Eric and Becky. Our global church partners greatly value their service, and you well know how important this ministry is in building connections between the body of Christ in the U.S. and Lithuania.

We have historically relied on endowment interest and the general offering from congregations to sustain the vital work of all of our mission workers. Those sources of funding have greatly diminished. It is only through the gifts of individuals and congregations that we are able to keep Eric and Becky doing the life-giving work God called them to do. A year ago, in May 2015, we had to recall some mission workers due to a lack of funding. World Mission communicated the challenge to you, and you responded decisively and generously. Through your response, we heard the Spirit remind us, “Fear not!”

Today, I’m asking you to consider an additional gift for this year, and to increase the gift you may consider for 2017. Sending and support costs include not only salary but also health insurance and retirement contributions, orientation, language training, housing, travel to the country of service, children’s education, emergency evacuation costs, and visa/passport costs.

My heartfelt thanks for your prayers and support of our Presbyterian mission co-workers. In the coming season, we will celebrate God’s sending of the Christ child, the source of the good news we share. May you experience anew the hope, peace, joy, and love that are ours because “perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18).

Thank you for saying “yes” to love.

With you in Christ,
Tony De La Rosa
Interim Executive Director, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)