Good evening, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Greetings to you from Vilnius Bible Baptist Church, where I go to regularly and where I belong to. It's great joy and privilege to be here among brothers and sisters in Christ. And it's amazing to see how Christ unites our hearts through faith in Jesus. And even though we are from different nations and from different countries, it's great privilege to feel that you are one family. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, Pastor Brown, for opening the door of his home. We feel really blessed to be here and to get to know more Northern Ireland and also how you work here in this country. And I would like to share with you what God has done and what he's doing in a weak country of Lithuania. My name is Sandra and I come from Lithuania. Probably not many of you know where exactly that is. There are some neighboring countries, Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Kaliningrad. We are one of the Baltic states. Lithuania is the largest of the Baltic states. Like Poland, it is mainly a Catholic country. Over 88% of people claim themselves to be Catholics. born-again believers we have less than 1% and that's why it makes it hard to share the gospel with the kids and with people. But this is great joy whenever God opens up opportunities. So first of all, I would like to share my testimony and then I will sing a couple of songs. And then I will share the ministry and what God is doing there. So this is the photo of our capital city, Vilnius. There are plenty of things to see. And here you can see the cathedral square. where is the main place for worship, where Catholics go there every Christmas and Easter. Also, we have lots of lakes and rivers in Lithuania, beautiful castles. Lithuania was established in 1009, so we celebrated quite a prominent anniversary, and this is a country with rich history. However, if you go to the Baltic Sea, you can see sand dunes which are moving and they are heritage of UNESCO site. So I would like to share more about my testimony and where I come from. I come from a Catholic family. My mom and dad, they were Catholics. However, as most of Lithuanians, we would go to church only for main celebrations for Christmas and Easter. The name of God was rarely used in our home. We would go there just on rare occasions. My dad was a successful businessman. He was selling cars. and he had a few shops. We lived in a small town called Ignalina, which has lots of lakes and rivers. We had a beautiful big house close to the lake. And for most people, it seemed that we had a very good and happy life, a happy family. Thank you very much. Can you hear me okay? However, this was just the picture from outside. My dad was also a car racer. He loved cars, he loved speed, and he was very self-confident in that. However, he didn't mind also going to pubs, drinking, and then driving. Whenever we were driving together as a family, I was often scared because sometimes he would be driving tired and his eyes were closing and he was speeding. So there was a life of mess and fear as well. There was a stage in his life when he got involved with local mafia. He borrowed some money from them and then Some days, I remember some cars would come and they would start shooting, asking for money to return, and my dad, he did not have enough to get them back. So, not many people knew this. They thought that we live a happy life, but deep inside there was lots of fear. Also, my dad would go on business trips to other countries, to Japan, to China. and he would go there alone without a family. My mom knew that he was unfaithful, he had other women in his life, and he was also gambling, and it seemed that lots of things were piling up in his life. But God had a plan, and I'm so grateful to God that He saves sinners. He has a plan to humble the proud and to bring glory to Him. And that path was not easy for our whole family. One night, he was driving after the pub. He was drunk. He was driving home, and he didn't see the man riding a bicycle on the side of the road, and he hit this man. He drove off, the man was killed, and there was a trial, and he was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. While being in prison, there was a chance for him to work a little bit. He was repairing cars. And he started to become successful in that, and there were some other prisoners who were jealous of that, and they decided to kill him. They made a situation where they were put together in one room, and my dad was defending himself with a metal chair, and he hit with the chair in the temple of one man, and that man got killed too. There was another trial, and he was sentenced to six years of imprisonment. And while at that time he was in great despair, once he was very successful and now he was very down in his life. And then one day he wanted to commit suicide, but that was the day when God showed to him his life, the filthiness of sin. And it was as if he was in a movie, sitting there and seeing what kind of life he had. And this brought sadness and repentance into his heart. Shortly after, he visited a meeting where a Canadian missionary would come and preach the gospel. He went there and he heard about Jesus who saves, who loves sinners, who came to save and die for them. And the Holy Spirit convicted my dad's heart. And one night he was kneeling, he was praying, and with God's amazing grace he got saved. And I could see that at that point of life, he was in despair. But then, since the moment of repentance, he started writing letters to the family about God. At that point, we lost our house. We had to move to a small town of Svencinelli, where my mom's parents lived in a very small house. It was hard for us kids who had a lot of things in our lives to move to a poor neighborhood. But it was exciting to receive letters from prison from my dad where he wrote about God. At that point, I was looking for meaning in my life. I was involved in satanistic groups that worshiped Satan. We went to concerts where music was played about Satan. After that, they would meet in flats and they would continue their worship. We started to read Satan's Bible written by Anton Sander-Lavey, and a straightforward attack against the Bible and Christian principles and values. We were reading literature written by Camus and Castaneda about the meaning of life, but it gave no meaning, actually. It gave just more despair and more meaningless in life. I praise God that he didn't leave me in that state. I became curious what happened to my dad, why there was such a huge transformation in his life. And I decided to visit him in prison. And I remember that day so clearly. In Lithuania, when you come to visit a person who is a prisoner, they all go to one room. And there are about 20 prisoners and their family members at the same table. And you could sense the atmosphere of tension, of depression, of hopelessness, of despair. And as he was waiting for my dad to come, I could see him coming with shiny eyes, with enthusiasm, a happy face, smiling. There was such a difference with those who were there without hope. And I could see that was the same person outside, but inside there was such strong evidence that he was different. And for the first time, we had a very good conversation, very open, and he shared what God had done in his life, how he convicted him of his sin, and what a beautiful plan of salvation there is for those who trust in Jesus. At that time, I was just interested in what happened to him. And then I was also in the last year at school, I was mad about English. I took every opportunity to learn English. And the missionary who was sharing the gospel with my dad was Canadian. And he said, why don't you go to that church? You can practice English there. You will hear English. So this is what attracted my attention. I had no interest, but I decided to go because of the language. And that was God's way to sow the seeds into my hardened heart. God was so gracious upon my dad. He shortened his period in prison because of his good behavior and he was there for four years. The next day when he got out of prison, there was an outright miracle because When you leave the prison there are not a lot of job opportunities for you. But the next day he got a job at a marketing agency and we could see that God was doing miracles in his life. At that time we were not believers but our unbelief was shaken because of what took place in his life. And by God's grace, my mom got saved, my brother got saved, I got saved, and my sister got saved. And that was just the grace of God in our lives that saved us. And for my mom, the greatest testimony was his new love for her. She could see that everything changed. He left his old way of life, and this led her to repentance also. Whenever he got out of prison, he felt that God was calling him to go back and to preach the gospel to those who are sentenced. And he was a chaplain for five years until he died. To cut a long story short, there was a time when my sister was being bullied at school for her faith, and she asked the dad to come and help her talk to this guy who was threatening to kill her. And while going on the way home, there was a car collision, and my dad died in that car accident. For us, that was a testimony that you don't know when is your last day. He was almost 50 years old, still very young. We thought that there is a long life in front of us, but it was very sad. But at the same time, we could see that life is short and we need to live with the glory of God. So that spurred our hearts, my mom's and my, to work with children and to invest ourselves in the kingdom of God. And before moving to ministry, I would like to sing a few songs that are quite popular in Lithuania. One is called What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and one verse will be in Lithuanian. Lithuanian is actually one of the oldest languages and very unique. Few people speak that, only 5 million people. And another song is As the Deer Pant as for the Water, and this was my dad's one of most favorite songs. As the deer panteth o'er the water flow, my soul longeth after you. You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship you. You alone are my strength and shield, to You alone will my spirit yield. You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship Thee. You're my friend and you are my brother even though you are a kid I love you much more than ever so much more than anything You alone are my strength, my shield. To you alone will my spirit yield. You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship thee. Kaip ištrošku si jel negejdžia, gaivim amčio vandes. Kaip ir mano siela ištrošku si jo vieš patie ta ves. You are my protection, and my strength is strong. And the long-suffering earth lives in you, my God. What a friend we have in Jesus All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless pain to bear All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged Take heed to the Lord in prayer Can we find a friend so fair? ♪ Who will all our sorrows dare ♪ Jesus knows our every weakness ♪ Take heed to the Lord in prayer Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Jezus drogas sam zhynasis, Ah, how we had so much We are not happy and sad What we did not want to believe Jesus' words are so holy It is a great privilege to serve the Lord among children. My dad's life encouraged me to take a course with CEF to get trained as a Sunday school teacher. And this is where I met my friend Narineh from Armenia. She's sitting over there. And God reunited our hearts. We have been friends for already 14 years now. We both serve with children in our home countries. And we opened up a goodness club in our home where we would meet every Friday to share the gospel, to share the Bible story with them, with the kids, and also to sing Christian hymns, to teach Bible memory verse, and also to have fellowship, to have food, and to encourage them to grow in Christ, those who got saved. Also in my hometown, I teach English and this opens up a lot of opportunities to meet parents, to know them so that they could be willing to let their kids to the Bible club because many of them are Catholics and they are very suspicious of any other denomination. So it helps to build bridges with families. So here you can see a club which takes place in the classroom where I teach English. And the kids who come to learn English, they are also eager to participate in Bible clubs that we have also for Easter and for Christmas. They come there for lots of different activities and we just are so happy that we can take the opportunity and share with them about Jesus. Among those kids, there are those who come from heartbreaking families. Here you can see a wee boy at the end. His parents left Lithuania to another country to work and he lives now with his grandparents. And this is the situation of many kids in Lithuania. And you can see that there is great need of love and care. And whenever we share the gospel, we see tears in his eyes. And we can see that God is doing work in his heart. Here you can see a girl who is already over 30 years of age. She herself grew up in orphanage and we met when she was 18. She was just out of orphanage and God united our hearts and we were helping one another to grow in faith. And she is an active servant of God. She loves kids. She loves teenagers. And whenever we have a camp or a club for kids, she comes to help with games. Once she wanted to become professional in that, but there were some certain limitations. But she is so happy and so excited whenever she has the chance to serve the Lord with sport. Here you see the kids that are learning English. Sometimes whenever they come for the class, they ask questions about God. In one club, whenever we were sharing about the attributes of God, that He is an eternal God who has no beginning and no end, One girl was putting up a hand and she wanted to ask a question. She said, I have a question that my religion teacher could not answer. And she said, who created God? And it seems that as they're growing up, they have all sorts of questions. Some of them are funny questions, some are very serious. And I'm so happy that she asked that question because she has the opportunity to hear the answer from the Word of God. Sometimes they would come to me after religion class. They are taught about Mary, about saints, and whenever we speak, we speak about the only way through Jesus, that not Mary, no saints, not the Pope cannot save even one soul, but only the blood of Jesus. And we're praying that God would speak to their hearts with plant seeds, that they would grow a new generation who knows God and who can go and continue to share the gospel with the other people from Lithuania. We have been greatly blessed by the teams from Northern Ireland who have come to Lithuania not once to share the gospel. And this is great help in the summer with camp ministries. I am so thankful to God for Phil Harton who organizes the teams to come over to Lithuania. And the kids love him. He is so passionate and so shining for the glory of God. And he also encourages us Lithuanians to keep going because sometimes when you see lots of unbelievers who get discouraged and frustrated. But different teams, they help us, not the children, but also us to keep on, to continue the work. Here you can see children who come to the schools. We had the opportunity for many years to work in the schools in two different towns. The directors were open because of English. They knew me as an English teacher and they were not against for us to have a camp in the school premises. and we had lots of activities there. We were doing crafts, games, songs, worship, and they were greatly, greatly blessed through this ministry. There was also a town called Adutishkis where there were lots of suicide. And one man didn't know what to do. He was one of my students. He called me and he said, you have to do something about it. So we organized an event, an Irish event for them. And we were playing games and there was a presentation about Northern Ireland. And this is where they learned that Giant's Causeway is one of the wonders of the world. But then it was very nice to share the message with them. You can see my dear mom, Niole. She is a great help in the ministry. She is a great cook. She loves cooking and she blesses kids with her wonderful cooking. Phil can say amen. And we are investing a lot also in young people and we work a lot with Teresa. We meet with her on a regular basis, we pray together, we speak about what God has shared, what God has put on her heart, what God is teaching her, and in this way we can grow in the Lord. I'm also so thankful that the pastor of our church is also involved in camps. Sometimes he comes and he shares the message with the kids, and sometimes we can take the kids and bring them to church in Vilnius, which is an hour and a half drive. And even though we don't see great fruit, we don't see many converts in this ministry, but we do believe that God is sowing seeds in the young hearts. And I would like to share prayer requests with you as well. Whenever you pray, please remember to pray for Lithuania, for the hard hearts of Catholicism, so that people would turn away from idols to the one true God. That the seed that those young people received throughout the years, that it would give fruit and that they would go and bring gospel to other people. Thank you so much for having us here and may the Lord be blessed through our lives.