LCC International University is a Christian liberal arts university located in Klaipeda, Lithuania, founded as the Soviet Union was collapsing in 1991. The vision was big. As a private Christian institution, we began during a window in time when the challenges often seemed beyond us—the cultural and political context hadn’t allowed for “private” or “Christian” for decades, and Lithuania issued an invitation for us to begin a university shaped by a Western, values based perspective. These are the perfect conditions for a God of miracles to utilize the strengths and gifts of his people for strategic action.

From our humble beginnings in the early ‘90s with just a few students, all from Lithuania, LCC has grown to a fully accredited global community with nearly 600 students from 55 countries, uniquely with no majority culture on campus. We believe that our students are the much-needed next generation of global leaders.

If you were to visit our campus, you would see students doing typical student things—enjoying sunny days outdoors, competing in community games, eating hot dogs together, studying in small groups. You would be welcomed by our faculty and staff, who this year come from more than 10 countries, all committed to our Christ-centered mission. You would see us celebrate our international community. You would notice the relational nature of our community with engaging professors who prioritize impactful relationships with our students. You would see crowds attending our LCC women’s basketball games, a program that is only in its fifth year, but we’ve already managed to claim second place in the nation and in the Baltic League. You would see residence halls on campus, located next to a small, picturesque pond. All of this would seem quite similar to many of our dear CCCU partner university communities. And yet, in our context, everything I’ve said so far is countercultural. LCC is radically countercultural.

HERE ARE A FEW OF THE REAL-LIFE CONTEXTS FROM WHICH OUR STUDENTS COME

• Some of our students have heard their parents talk about the Baltic Way—when, on August 13, 1989, two million people held hands in an unbroken chain from the capital of Estonia to the capital of Latvia to the capital of Lithuania. This was a powerful statement of nonviolent resistance to the Soviet regime two years before the fall of the Soviet Union. This recent history of the region has had a direct impact on hundreds of our students and alumni, along with faculty and staff.
• In the past nine years, we have served 100 war-affected students from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan—students whose education was disrupted because of war and genocide and economic collapse. We have Yazidi students from internally displaced people camps who were pushed up Mount Sinjar in 2014 by ISIS, and whose families each bear the scars of this genocide.
• When the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, our 12 Afghan students at LCC panicked. They urgently requested a meeting to consider any possible ways that we might be able to support their families who would now be trapped inside Afghanistan. We tried. We wished. We prayed. But there was little that could be done. These students were passionate. They were desperate for the peacebuilding work of God’s family business. And . . . beautifully . . . the following year, in the same year that the Taliban shut down all educational opportunities for young women, our valedictorian at LCC was a young woman from Afghanistan. A newly prepared bridge-builder in a war-torn world.
• On February 24, 2022, our 200 students from Ukraine and our nearly 50 students from Russia lost their identity. When Russia invaded Ukraine, our Ukrainian students were essentially refugees, unable to return to their own country. And our Russian students were now “enemies”? Neither group knew what to do with their new realities. And so, they teamed up and worked together as bridgebuilders in God’s family business. Together, they launched the Ukraine Care Initiative to support the thousands of Ukrainian refugees who flooded into our city.

OUR RESPONSE IS CONSTANT

• The outpouring of support for our own students from our campus community has been humbling. Our Campus Ministries team has offered meaningful pastoral support. Our Peace Center has supported listening circles, our trauma-trained counselors have met with individuals day and night, and we have hosted frequent prayer vigils.
• We have recognized the many global wars that have had a direct effect on our own students —Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia, Israel and Palestine. We are called to be a part of God’s family business, to be bridge-builders in a war-torn world.
• Lithuania is a member of NATO. In fact, national security would be almost nothing without NATO. NATO officers have visited LCC and commented that we are doing the peacekeeping work of NATO— an observation that we see that as affirmation of our bridge-building role in a war-torn world.

Unfortunately . . . “The 21st century isn’t for tidy minds!”

This statement, made by a world-class entrepreneur, is a sobering reminder that there is little, if any, time for us to plan and put everything neatly in place on one project before the next one begins. We must all learn to live with disruption rather than certainty, with a sense of interdependence rather than “I’ve got this.”

What if our roles as institutions of Christian higher education were created exactly for this messy world? As countercultural, peacebuilding communities with Christ located at the center, we are called to be bridge-builders in a war-torn world. Wouldn’t that be a remarkable legacy of love for each of us to leave behind? Wouldn’t that be exactly what we would pray for each of our students?

At LCC International University we are incredibly grateful for the global community of the CCCU. We could list the many colleges and universities who have trained our faculty, where our faculty have taught, and who have sent their study abroad students to us. Thank you for your years of collaboration. And thank you for your prayers.

We only persist in this work because of our God, who by the power of His spirit, calls us to these spaces. These experiences give us an imagination for the world to come, as described in Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Today, and every day, we stand before the Lamb, looking for opportunities to join together, in service to others, and in service to our world.

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Marlene Wall, Ph.D., serves as the president of LCC International University, located in Klaipeda, Lithuania.