So after more than a month of intensive ministry I found myself flat on my back with my anckle swollen and painted in every color of the rainbow. I am still interested to see how I will lead a Bible study and preach on Sunday in the two churhes that have been entrusted to me for three weeks. Nonetheless, I found this time of forced Sabbath to be a rather fruitful time of theological reflection.

My most faihful companion has been dear John Howard Yoder whose book I was supposed to have read this academic year but for many reasons have not. Thus now I am silently arguing with him and furiously scribbling my notes on the margins. I hope that at the end of my reading I can write some more structured reflection. Actually, I find myself agreeing with Yoder most of the time but it is the learning to read in another tradition that throws me off. I have been trained to read and argue in the orthodox or classical theological thought and when I am reading something that comes out of radical reformation I have to read beyond theological vocabulary into the deep structure of his thought and to see where Yoder essentially agrees with Luther, Melanchton, Calvin, or Wesley and where he is really different, not just names things differently. If I come though with what I want to do now, I want to take Yoder's notion of the church and his four notes and contrast/compare them with the classical notes of the church.

I have also found myself totally absorbed into another historical - theological read, History of Christianity in Lithuania. It is a compilation of essays by the young generation of Lithuanian historians covering the 1000 years of Christianity in the country. I am missing women's voices in the book but otherwise it is worth every cent I spent on it. As I am preparing to give a lecture on Lithuanian reformation for lay leadership of the Lithuanian UMC, it has definetely been a find.

So far so good.