SMS Blog Update #4

As week 5 of SMS 13’ comes to a close I’m so thankful to be here. Just a quick summary of what else has been happening. On Saturdays, our missions school does an outreach in Dresden,  (one of the larger cities in Germany) We are divided into 8 different groups, Art, prayer, music, dance, cinema, drama etc. I have the blessing of being the leader of the dance ministry group. I never expected this opportunity to arise, but it wonderfully has. My dance ministry team consists of 2 lovely young women. Maira from Brazil, and Ana from Madrid. As a missions school, we set up our groups by this large tree in one of the parks in Dresden in the afternoon to the late evening. This week for the dance ministry we hope to have a space where people can come and dance for fun. Then, I’m hoping to dance to this evangelistic metal core song by the band For Today. After that Ana will teach a salsa lesson, and we are trying to put together a fire spinning show. I am curious to see how this outreach will go. Aside from the weekly outreaches, life has been wonderful. I’m enjoying the daily lectures and learning about what it truly means to love Jesus with everything inside of me. It’s been such a blessing to be living in a small village that is directly immersed in God’s nature. It’s so refreshing, it’s hard at times to realize my entire summer will mostly be spent in the middle of German nowhere, but I think I’ll survive anyways. The weather is about 16 Celcius, with cool gentle breezes and sunny. I honestly can’t complain. God blessed me with an amazing dear sister. She is from Croatia, and it’s been such a blessing to hang out with her. Our missions school also had a Brazilian and Polish barbeque. Eating Polish food, reminded me of how much I miss eating Lithuanian food.  In about 2 weeks, our missions school is going to do our week long international out reach. Destinations include Madrid, Berlin, Polish Woodstock, Poltava, Ukraine, Beirut, Lebanon, Istanbul,Turkey. I’ve been praying about where God is leading me to go to. I’ve been debating wither or not to go to Poltava or Polish Woodstock. In Poltava the outreach there is going to bring Steiger 13’s Brazillian metalcore band to minister to the clubs and night life in Ukraine. Polish Woodstock is Europe’s largest secular music festival that gets up to one million people from all over Poland and Europe. The atmosphere there is very hardcore. There is drugs and drinking. For the past several months, as I pray I believe God is calling me to go to Polish Woodstock to do evangelistic outreach. I’m excited and terrified at the same time. It is going to be a very challenging experience, but I know that it will be worth it.  Also this past week, I’ve had the blessing with connecting with more Polish missionary families. I’m so excited to make these connections for future ministry opportunities in Poland and Lithuania. I feel as though my thoughts are very jumbled, but I hope dearest friend that this gives you a more clear picture of what God has been doing in my life these past weeks.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Love you all so much,

God Bless,

~Aiste <3 <3 <3

SMS Blog update #3

I can’t believe today marks exactly that half of the Steiger Missions School is officially over. It seems so unreal. I feel like I’ve been wonderfully lost in this European dream for the past 5 weeks. It’s been such a blessing to be here. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. It’s also been SO HARD for me to keep you dearest friends updated on what God has been doing. My mind has so many thoughts to express and I was wrestling with the ideas of having a missions news letter, updating my RuslanaEvelyn blog, updating my missions blog……For now I think I’m going to simply express my Lietuve heart just like this…Freely artistic as God’s heart speaks to me.  Last Saturday, our missions school had the blessing to go to the  SLOT  Art Festival in Lubiaz, Poland. It is a small village town. It took about 3 hours by bus from Krogis to get there. This art festival has been happening for the past 20 years. This festival gets up to about 7,000 people from all over Poland, and surrounding European countries. The main highlights of this festival: You can sign up for creative workshops such as, singing, dancing, painting, fire spinning, learning how to make music with a saw etc, go to a variety of concerts (styles include acoustic, jazz, rock, pop, rap, club, reggae, metalcore) go to a cute artistically colorful coffeeshops, or try amazing Polish food. The festival itself is a week long, so there are hundreds of tents scattered everywhere. It reminds me of the European version of Sonshine Festival. (Minnesota’s largest Christian music festival). The event is held inside an 800 year old monastery. The architecture of the building so intricate and beautiful. SLOT also has a strong Christian presence here as well. There are prayer rooms set up inside the monastery. The idea behind this festival is simply for young people to express their creativity.

My heart and soul are so blessed and touched by the creativity of my European brothers and sisters. I felt so at home artistically here. It was surreal to simply walk around the festival grounds and just look into the colorfully creative eyes of my dearest Polish brothers and sisters. Seeing “them” for the first time in my life. I enjoy how every person has their own sense of style. Every person there is a walking piece of fashion art. I also enjoyed rocking out at my very first Polish metal core concert in the late evening. I had the blessing to meet even more Steiger missionaries at the festival and make connections. In the early evening, I went to a Polish worship service. That was one of the most touching moments of my life. I’ll elaborate in greater detail in another blog post. Most of my missions school stayed at the festival until 1am. Did I mention we left at 5am the previous day? I was so tired and for the rest of the late evening I just watched a few more melodic/electronic concerts with my friends. My artistic soul has never felt more alive, being surrounded by so many amazing Polish artists. Next year, God willing I’m hoping I can go to SLOT for the entire week. I HIGHLY recommend this art festival to all of my dearest friends. It’s a unique experience that  will just kiss your soul.

Steiger Missions School 2013 UpdateZ

Blog Update #1

Dearest friends,

I can’t believe it’s been exactly 2 weeks since I’ve been in Germany. I don’t even know where to begin. It has been absolutely AMAZING. I wish I could just upload the entirety of my journal so you could just read what God has been doing. I’ll do my best to summarize this crazy missions experience.  My friends who came with me on this journey (Sam & Gau) We left Minneapolis on June 12^th, 7:30pm from the Minneapolis airport and arrived in Rekejavik, Iceland around 6:30am. We had 10 hours to spare so we walked to the town of Keflavik which was about an hours’ worth of walking. It was cold, cloudy and the town was deserted and smelled like deceased fish. We got to walk on this black mountainous rocky shoreline which was the Atlantic Ocean. Then we flew to Frankfurt, and arrived at 9:30pm June 13^th. I’ll never forget the feeling when the plane was landing in Frankfurt. I started crying. Just realizing that it took 2 years to get to this missions moment. My heart was SO overwhelmed. A lady in her 60s also started to cry as she saw me crying. It was such a precious moment. Realizing all the obstacles, scars, joys, hells………..to be alive for this very hour, that God had carried me to His heart, in the most unlikely of circumstances………

I was SO naïve with this traveling experience. Little did I know the madness that lay ahead. We waited about 6 hours at a train station for our 4:37AM train. My patience was growing very thin. This was my first time riding a train in Europe. We didn’t even know if we were on the right train. We went to Nurberg which was about 3 hours, then 7 more hours to Meissen. We almost missed our train to Meissen. Then from Meissen we bused to Krogis……I was SO deathly tired…….it wasn’t even funny. When we arrived in Krogis, this kind German lady who didn’t speak English told us to walk down this pathway to the missions school…… We got lost, walked forever, Sam & Gau went to find someone to ask for directions, and I just sat by the roadside and started playing my guitar and singing…5 FREAKIN KILOMETERS LATER, after dragging our freakin HEAVY luggage, we arrived at the gates of Steiger, Krogis. I was SO mad, tired, and ticked off at life…..I’ve never been in such a ridiculously long travel experience, but I couldn’t have been happier. (Let’s be honest, what really made me survive the rest of the day was when these 4 good looking young Brazilian men, helped carry our luggage the rest of the way….)

SMS Blog Update #2

The Atmosphere

There are about 100 students at this missions school. They are from Brazil, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Finland, USA……..I live with 4 other crazy young ladies. Olga & Magda from Poland. Gau, and Anna from Spain. I couldn’t have asked for better roommates. What’s really nice is that they appreciate my wild Lithuanian craziness. I’ve promised myself that I’m going to continue to learn Russian and start learning Polish. It’s going to be really hard, but for future missions purposes my heart would love to evangelize in Lithuanian, Russian, & Polish.  Krogis is literally in the middle of nowhere. The only store in the town closes at 8pm. AHMEN. I’ll survive. I absolutely LOVE living in such an international community. It’s interesting to see the culturally awkward moments unfold. A typical mission’s day…… Spending time with Jesus…..chores………..several hours of church services………….working on creative evangelistic outreach projects…….learning Russian…..learning Polish……………..hanging out with amazing dear friends……..

Sermon Quote Highlights

(The top sermon quotes that have really blessed my heart & life so far……too much amazingness to write down all at once)

“The good shepherd takes the lost sheep, puts it on his shoulders and walks with it home, lovingly. ~The heart of Steiger~

If we are going to get the world’s attention for Christ, we must be foolishly passionate ~David Pierce

“I’m going to have a fire in my soul, until I go to Jesus.” Jodi Pierce

Go to the place where you need a miracle.

When things start happening with God, you’re not going to want to continue sometimes, you’ll be really exhausted, you’ll want to quit, but you MUST keep going and NEVER give up. #SEEK.GOD.

IT DOESN”T MATTER WHAT PEOPLE THINK! IT’S NEVER ABOUT THE MONEY. PEOPLE CAN’T HOLD YOU BACK. YOU HOLD YOURSELF BACK.

“Clean the toilets” Life perspective

“If I was going to win that race, it was going to mean PAIN.”

“If I don’t die….I’m NOT going to quit” ~David Pierce

Your experiences, not others, take initiative; don’t wish you lived someone else’s life. Live your life in such a way, you aren’t jealous of anyone else’s. ~Jodi Pierce

When people say you can’t do this, remember you can do it, with God.

If you are SO afraid of criticism, IT WILL DESTROY YOUR CREATIVITY.

“I don’t like that man, I must get to know him better” ~Abe Lincoln

The Polish Boy

I’ll never forget that night

It was one of those evenings that you dream of that only happen in books or movies

The last thing I dreamed of is that it would happen to me

It was a cloudy warm summer German night

For some reason in my heart I felt that I should go play guitar

And so I took my dearest colorfully musically clown barfed Ruslana Evelyn

And walked into the unknown darkness of this European forest

I sat down on the wavy green grass, and started tuning my guitar

The tuning was taking a long time, and I was getting frustrated,

Finally, moments later I inhaled my first musical breath on German soil,

And as I was about to strum a G,

I heard a rustling of footsteps behind me,

A young man wearing a hooded sweater,

Walked closer and closer,

My heart started racing, waiting for him to reveal his identity,

He then took off his hood,

And my Lietuve heart just died.

It was my Polish crush.

I thought to myself,

Is God really that good?

How in the world did he know I was here?

Seriously mano Jezus, TOLI!?!?!? TOLI!?!?!? TOLI!?!?!?!?

He smiled and calmly said, “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything, mind if I join you?”

I was just sitting there like WOW……just WOW……this is too good to be true, and I was like yeah, that’s just fine.

We then started sharing our life stories and his curiosity just made my soul smile

We continued to sit there and stare off into the black stormy lighteningy sky,

I realized this moment was an answered prayer.

I dreamed my whole life of this very hour,

That I would be blessed to meet my European generation, who passionately loved Jesus,

And get to share my musical heart & story with them.

As this young Polish man talked, I couldn’t help but gaze into his sparkling light blue glass eyes as they reflected off the distant lightening.

I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better way to start this European adventure.

I will forever hold this moment close to my Lietuve heart.

Dearest Polish boy, for your sweet kindness and boldness…….thank you so much.

You have inspired my life in ways you may never know.

Judgement

This word has been on my mind alot lately for some reason.
Growing up, I was that girl who was always judged by my classmates. Public school was a hell from day one for me. From that Auschwitz experience I learned to embrace being different. I was the only Lithuanian in my town, and personally I felt like everyone was culturally ignorant to Eastern Europe. People struggled to say the word "Lithuania" and "Aiste". I have chosen to disown my identity with this town. That may sound harsh, but in all honesty a Lithuanian like me had no place there. 

I know God has a reason for everything. I have yet to understand why. Being the only girl who had a passion for music ministry, becoming a European/Russian missionary, enjoying Euro style fashion, loving Christian music, set me apart like black and white. Fast forward to my college years, and living in Minneapolis for the past 2 years. I've noticed I'm the type of person who offers so much grace to humanity. Like in all honesty, who am I to judge ANYONE in God's creation?  I think it also has to do with the fact that I've traveled to 14 European countries by the age of 20. Being immersed with  hundreds of thousands  of dear souls from all over the world, my heart has come to understand humanity. I'm a very over adventerous soul, it's my stigma for life. I was that type of girl growing up who would have plans on "meeting everyone at the entire  Christian music festival" mindset. I was shy at first, but over the years, I learned to be outgoing and just take that random shot in the dark and introduce myself to people.

What really breaks my heart is when people judge me. I do realize that the people who judge me are as LAME as a white wall, and are not friend worthy, but sometimes it really simply bothers me. I just want to throw up at the cultural ignorance of society. If I could buy every dear soul in the world a plane ticket, so they could experience culture, I would. Your eyes would be so opened. Rich ASS American mindsets would be humbled. (excuse my strong words, but in all honesty) Maybe if you would have seen what I would have seen, you wouldn't have judged me. Walking the streets of the poorest village in Macedonia, with garbage all over the streets, looking in the eyes of an 8 year old beggar boy on the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania, not overlooking dear souls who have health conditions such as type 1 diabetes and realizing the reality they have to live with, experiencing God's love at Sonshine & Lifelight Festival, seeing the joy in a Serbian worship service, experiencing the scars & brokeness of post-communist Lithuania.............I've been through so many experiences of life, I wouldn't trade the memories for the world. They have shaped me into who I am today. As a result of these cultural experiences, I am learning to become FEARLESS. I have a very bold personality, (as what we Eastern Europeans & Russians are known for culturally) I am not afraid to express my artistic, musical & fashion heart to the world. I realized this year I'm not as "conservative"  (to hell with earthly labels) as I thought I was. I'm not ashamed of it. Someone like me in all honesty, has no choice but to be bold and fearless day in and day out with life. With the radical missions calling that God has placed on my life, it would be a HUGE mistake to live a quiet, "NON OFFENDING" life.

Burning My Coffee Stained Journal

It'll never be the same again,
When you ask me for my passport,
and ask about the last 20 years,
why I was there,
and not here,
that knife stabbing question,
that brings and indescribable pain to my heart,
that goes deeper than political boundaries,
into the directionless map of the human soul,
that makes my knees so weak,
I fall to the cold  ground and cry  endlessly,
There are some things that happened,
I will never speak of again,
You just met me,
I can choose what I tell you,
You do not need to know about certain scars,
but a wise soul once said, "Honesty is the key to intimacy..."
Maybe it's my natural "European ettiqutte"
Present myself as being perfectly fine outwardly,
Deny that any weakness exists,
and pretend that it is not there,
behind the scandalous wine is everything lipstick smile,
 eastern euro dress style,
In all honesty,
you'll honestly never know.
If I choose not to tell you,
You'll simply never know.

Learning to Fly Again

It wasn't easy to let you go,
but I knew the day was coming when I simply had to.
It was as hard as hell,
 to look you in the eyes one last time,
In all honestly, not knowing when I would ever see you again,
but I trust with all my heart that God has a plan, that is far greater,

after I thought about it,
you know,
maybe I wasted my time?
To even worry what you thought about me,
about us,
I have dear souls who care about my life alot more than you probably,
so to get caught up in a life of worry,
was completely worthless,
to simply smile with confidence,
look into your wishful eyes,
and then over confidently walk away,
a slap to your face,
knowing that whatever you do,
I'm not going to let how you feel about me,
define me,
God has given me the grace, and an overwhelming heavenly peace to move on.
For now.
I trust whatever happens next is for God's perfect and beautiful pleasure.
With that said, it is now time for me to go live my life.
To restore the fully alive joy that my worrying over you made me lose.