We Are The Winners, of Eurovision!

Blog blog blog. This takes it out of you. I mean not doing it takes it out of you. You start iwth good intentions to write witty, informative and insightful stuff, and then all the urge to write goes out of you.

Well my excuse for not writing more in Lithuania is simple. Leading a team makes you very very busy, and when you do have a smidgen of spare time you don't want to spend it writing a blog, you want to spend it talking to your girlfriend or just getting some quiet personal space.

But for those who are wondering, the project went amazingly well. I shan't write all the details right now - I'm going to write a summary for the Agape webiste, and shall copy and paste that here in case anyone's interested. But suffice to say, we had a great time, God did huge works in all of us who went and a load of people we met.

My personal highlight was the Lithuanian version of Live8 (and it was nothign to do with the girl who turned around and told me "I like your face. Eet's sexy!). A big open air concert for charity with lots of famous (At least locally) Lithuanian bands, the stand out one for me being one called Camp that had an Irish singer (?) and a flipping awesome saxophonist. It was made all the more better by the guy on the laptop who did the samples breaking off mid-song, into a early-90s style white man's rap (and yes, complete with shell suit). He would have made it in East 17 if he was a little younger.

The night was capped off with a performance from LT United, the country's Eurovision Entry - they came 6th by the way- which was composed of members of all the previous bands. Check out the video and watch the bald guy dance. Possibly the best gig I've seen? Well no. But possibly more fun than the Electric Six and Libertines gigs I went to.

So. Maybe no more blogging action for a while - I'm off to California on holiday for 2 and ahalf weeks tomorrow. Maybe I'll get excited and bash something out. But maybe I wont. Maybe I'll post some pictures on Flickr (You can at least see Lithuania pictures on there now). We'll see.

They still play Boyzone here!!

Ok, I thought it might be interesting to post a couple of funny stories from here. if you want to know what's been happening ministry-wise, check my prayer email (or ask me to send you one). But suffice to say things are going well and someone became a Christian on the first day!

Story 1. (Disclaimer: I think these are funny, but then I'm tired and have a warped sense of humour. I accept no responsibilty if this wasted all your time)

Walking up a cobbled street in the old town of Vilnius, we were acosted bya rapidly moving bar coming the other way. yes indeed, it was a bar on wheel, fully motorised , with 2 draught pumps and a pretty waitress. Needless to say it was surrounded by raucous british men, perched on tall bar stools, with one of them dressed in a power rangers costume. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new Prague.

Story2. Sitting on the bus with one of the Lithuanian staff minding our own business in a conversation, a man smelling lightly of booze leans over from behind me and says (this works better if you insert oyur own Eastern European accent here), "Excuse me, but you two are Scottish (pointing to me and Steve) and you two are Lithuanian (Pointing to Andy, who is Irish, and Jolita, Lithuanian)?" This was then followed by a conversation where he mostly ignored us and commented on how great Jolita's english was, while she offended him by saying he looked Turkish rather than Lithuanian. Then he finished up with this " I would like to hear you talk English some more, maybe in a restaurant, or cafe? (this is where the accent is most effective). Jolita, slow on the uptake looked confused "What?", she said. "Do you 'ave a telephone number?" he persisted "No!" Jolia excalimed "You're married!". "Oh. I forgot"

At least I laughed loudly when it happened. Maybe it wil lbe funnier when I act it out when I get back.

Iki