“I am happy to be here among you and see you as a part of God’s worldwide family,” declared Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, in his first visit to Lithuania part of a two-nation visit to Adventists in the Baltic nations of Latvia and Lithuania.

In 1994 Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania returned to the Western European family of Adventist churches after many years of separation caused by the Second World War. This was right at the end of Paulsen’s 12-year presidency of the Adventist church in that region so he was not able to visit until now.  Pastors Bertil Wiklander, Trans-European church president, and Valdis Zilgalvis, Baltic area church president, accompanied Paulsen during the April 27 to May 1 visit.

Paulsen met with ministers in the Adventist Church in Kaunas, Lithuania, where the church’s national headquarters are located. Donations from Adventist members worldwide through a quarterly offering collection and additional funds from the Trans-European region were used to purchase and renovate the building. Paulsen expressed great satisfaction with the facilities, recognizing how well they now serve the church. Adventist church membership in Lithuania has grown from 50 in the early 1990s to about 1,000.

After a meeting with the pastors and a public worship service, Paulsen took questions from the congregation. These ranged from “What challenges does our church face in today’s world?” to specific issues concerning ordination. He underlined the need to remain focused on our primary mission, evangelism. “All church members should participate in the mission of the church,” he said.

During his visit to Riga, the Latvian capital, Pastor Paulsen preached in three different churches on April 30.  About 1,000 people heard Paulsen speak at the Latvian church, Russian church, and the new church plant “Korinta”, which successfully operates as a “café church” for teenagers and young people.

At the Korinta church plant, Pastor Paulsen shared a brief message and encouraged the young people to continue to actively build friendship with others and make Jesus known. In a question and answer session, he dealt with issues facing young people in the church today, such as pre-marital sexual relations, divorce and remarriage, unclean food, worship style, and cultural diversity in the church.

When asked how he feels about his work, he said: “I can honestly say that I like my work, and I am thankful that God gives me strength. I cannot say how much I appreciate and value your prayers for me.”

“We are very thankful that Pastor Paulsen could visit our [region],” said Valdis Zilgalvis, Baltic regional church president. “Although we are a very small region in terms of membership, we are certainly not small in the terms of complexity. The Baltic church region includes three different countries and four different language groups, each one with a very different attitude.”

There are more than 7,000 Adventists in worshiping each week in the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.