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Bill and Helen Lovelace are missionaries with the United Methodist Church. Helen is from Norway, an Ordained Deacon of the United Methodist Church and Director of Diaconal Ministries for the United Methodist Church in Lithuania. Bill is a pastor and District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church in Lithuania.
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For more information about Lithuania, click here.
Moving to Lithuania after 14 years of ministry in Ukraine in September, 2011, has been a time of adjustment and settling in for Bill and Helen. A new language needs to be learned, a new culture awaits to be discovered and it sometimes feels overwhelming to be back at the beginning of language and culture acquisition. But the joy of ministry and the grace of God gives them the inspiration for the challenge ahead. Here is a little of what they do:
Bill is the District Superintendent of the Lithuania District of the Estonia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, meaning he is the head of the Methodist Church in Lithuania. Lithuania is the southern most of the three Baltic countries of eastern Europe, bordering Latvia, Poland, Belarus and the Kaliningrad district of Russia. The Methodist church in Lithuania was restarted in 1995 after being closed while a republic of the former Soviet Union. In 2011, the United Methodist Church of Lithuania celebrated it’s 110 year anniversary of ministry and the 100 year anniversary of the church building in Kaunas.
While administration of the district, signing payroll sheets, overseeing contracts and other paperwork does consume time, there are plenty of ministry opportunities. In the pastor’s meetings in the fall or 2011, Bill led a discussion on the renewal of the church in a ever changing 21st century. How can we as the 10 Methodist churches in Lithuania be a light in the community we serve, not simply repeating the same thing we have always done , but giving answers to the questions non-churched people have about God? How can we be creative with new ministries and possibly start new churches?
Church conferences will start up after the New Year, so every weekend for 2 months Bill will visit a different church in the conference for the churches yearly “state of the church” meeting, where ministry and financial aspects of the church are reviewed.
Helen is the Director for Diaconal ministries for Lithuania, overseeing and consulting with the diaconal work done in the district. One of the highlights this Christmas for Helen was to be with the "Food Bank" project, an initiative launched by the government in collaboration with humanitarian aid organizations, both religious and non-religious.
Organizations can apply to join, where they are assigned to a shop one weekend before Christmas and before Easter to collect products which in turn will pass it on to those who do not have the opportunity to buy a little extra for the holidays. People who come into the store to shop, shop a little extra and give it to the organization that has been assigned the shop. The Methodist Church in Kaunas was awarded one of the city's supermarket stores and they collected food for about 3,600 litas ($1,400) - which will go to the poor at Christmas!
In January, 2001, Bill and Helen started working with street children in Kiev, Ukraine, with serving soup and playing with children living on the street. They did it twice a week. Later, they worked every day and they also had a center where they could invite street children and families at risk. They could invite them to a great fellowship and a safe environment.
They started working with street children in a park in downtown Kiev. From there they moved to one of the Subway stations in the outskirts of Kiev, After a year they moved from the park to a rented basement in one of the apartment buildings in the same area. They again had to move outside and continue working in a park before they were able - with help from Methodist Churches in US and Norway - to buy the first floor of a apartment building for their work.
Then they expanded their work to include families at risk and they opened a new UMC congregation. Every day they had 15 - 25 children, youth and mothers coming to their center and every Sunday they had about 25 people coming to the worship service. Their center was a safe harbor and a place to develop skills and give hope for the future.
In the beginning of their work in Kiev, they worked with street children. After 8 years they were asked to also reach out to families at risk. They said yes to do that, and they contacted 5-7 families. They had an after school program. They had a computer class, mother's groups, a project to teach people how to develop work skills through a micro-business and other activities for those who come to their center. They also looked into the possibility to start a new children's group every morning.
Since January, 2010, they worked with the preparation for open a new ministry at their center. They started with two kids and grew to about 10 pre school children in September, 2011.
Bill served in the former Soviet Union in 1992, first as a pastor in St. Petersburg, Russia and later in Kerch, Ukraine as district superintendent of the “Southern” region which includes the Ukraine, southern Russia and the north part of the Caucuses region of Russia. He also served as pastor of the Kerch United Methodist Church.
Bill is married to Helen Byholt Lovelace, who also serves as a missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries. The former General Secretary for the Board of Church and Society in the United Methodist Church in Norway, Helen’s responsibilities are focused on social outreach and include ministries with families affected by drug and alcohol abuse.
Bill was born in Orlando, FL, and raised in Knoxville, TN. He entered the ministry after spending almost eight years in computer science, once working primarily in the defense industry. His participation in the secular work environment helped him perceive some needs of people outside the influence of the church, and he eventually joined First UMC, Carrollton, TX, and became active in teaching Sunday School, evangelism programs, and home Bible studies.
Since leaving the computer science field in 1987, Bill has been a volunteer worker with Cambodian refugees in San Diego, CA; a summer intern at First UMC, Carroilton; and a summer chaplain at the Veterans Hospital of Lexington, KY. He has also tutored Japanese business professionals in English.
Bill has studied languages (Latin, French, Russian, Arabic, Biblical Greek and Hebrew) and has a B.A. degree in computer science from the University of TN, Knoxville. He also has master of divinity and master of theology degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY.
Missionary code: 11872Z
E-Mail: whlovelace@gmail.com
Blog: umcumc.blogspot.com
