Baptist Church

Pastor Vladimiras Sereda: "/.../ In 1980, I came to Lithuania with my wife after our wedding. As people of faith, we were looking for some community. At first, we used to go to Vilnius, because there was a community of the Seventh Day Baptist Church. Later someone told us that there were several sisters in Kaunas, who gathered to pray. They used to gather in the house No. 23 in Sodų Street. When we went there, we found four or five sisters, their age was around 70. They were very happy, when young people arrived. The next Sunday, I was already preaching something from the God’s Word, and this was actually when my spiritual service started. I became the leader of this little group. /.../ The Soviet government had overtaken [the church building] and turned it into a club, and when it could no longer be used as a club, into a salt warehouse. In 1988, we found the church with bricked up windows, broken roof, full of salt and garbage. We decided to ask for permission to use the building and on 20 December 1988, we received a document allowing it. Reconstruction was a difficult process: as it was characteristic to those times, it was difficult to purchase building materials. We had to look for people who could help.  But with the Lord’s help, on 26 July 1991, the house of prayer opened its doors to the community and remained open ever since. (2014)