Activities in Lithuania

My husband, Eugene, and I have been in Lithuania for 8 years now.  We have lived in four different towns but the town where we are now lining, Ukmberg, seems to be where we have had most activity.  It could be because we have now lived here three years and we only lived two years each in the other towns.  My husband has been involved with a children's musical group consisting of mainly girls ages 7-13.  This group is called "Garsukai" which means little sounds. All the girls have beautiful voices and Gene teaches them
English songs which they learn very fast and then do a dance too.  They have learned "We are drops of one ocean," and "Magic Penny." They have also started to learn "I want to teach the world to sing."  all of
these songs have lyrics that express some of the Baha'i teachings, but other than knowing that Gene is
a Baha'i nothing has been said about the teachings. Gene has also been involved with a Country and Western Group which has performed on radio and TV.  

In February of this year when he was at one of these performances, it was mentioned to a lady who is involved with this TV program called Love Story that Gene had been married for almost 50 years and so she told him that she would like to put us on her program. We didn't hear from her until July.  Then one day when we were in Klaipeda enjoying a short vacation she phoned and said she would like to come the following Tuesday, with a cameraman to our flat to interview us for this program, "Love Story."  

Well, of course we said, "Yes," since most of our married life we have been Baha'is and we would definitely talk about our Baha'i Faith.  They came to our flat the following Tuesday and spent four hours talking to us and we walked around town looking at different sites.  Of course the program that actually was played on TV was only 15 minutes.  They took pictures of a framed picture of the Shrine of the Bab which hangs in our living room. There were also pictures of the Baha'is of Lithuania, and a picture of me with the Princess of Western Samoa.  The director of the program knew about the Baha'i gardens in Haifa because her father-in-law lives in Haifa.  

Gene and I were able to mention the Baha'i Faith many times in regards to our marriage as well as how it has changed our lives.  since we are pioneers in Lithuania we were asked how it was we were in Lithuania all the way from Alaska where we lived for almost forty years.  This was an unusual way to talk about the Faith but it was really exciting for us. We now walk down the street and many people say, "I saw you on TV: it was such a good story;" We are hoping that this program has broken the ice with the people of Ukmerge and of Lithuania so they don't feel threatened by the Baha'i Faith.  

Another interesting postscript is that the next week after our story was shown on TV the local newspaper printed an article about us which we interviewed for in April.  I guess this proves you need patience in teaching the Faith.

I know that this story would be enlightened by some pictures but we don't have any pictures of the groups
Gene is in that would reproduce very well. I hope this is something you can use.

Love,

Patty