Jackie Bartz
Lithuania Christian College
Kretingos 36a
Klaipeda LT-5808
Lithuania
Email: Jackie Bartz

After 10 years of service as a long-term volunteer in Lithuania, Jackie ended her service on July 31, 2008.

After hearing a missionary speak about her work in teaching English in Romania, Jackie Bartz felt that she was being given a message about gifts she had to share as an instructor of English for more than 25 years. Six years later and after two cross-cultural experiences with a teacher exchange in Denmark and an international church music festival in Switzerland, Jackie began the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) placement process for service in mission. She was commissioned by the General Assembly in 1998 to teach English at Lithuania Christian College in Klaipeda, Lithuania. She is now chair of the English Department.

Lithuania is a relatively flat land on the Baltic Sea. Winters are cold and snowy and summers are mild. Much of the land is agricultural with some forestland in the northeast section of the country. One-third of the country’s income is from the business of the port facility in Klaipeda. Having attained independence in 1991, the country is emerging politically and is open to Christian leadership. The purpose of Lithuania Christian College is to prepare leaders with a Christian worldview. The region is struggling economically because of its recent emergence from Soviet occupation and the dependence on Russia as a consumer of agricultural products. As Russia is in crisis, Lithuania struggles with poverty, suicide, and alcoholism.

Letters from
Jackie Bartz

• May 2007
• November 2004
• February 2003
• July 2002
• November 2001
• December 2000
• November 2000
• August 2000
• November 1999
• July 1999
• April 1999
• January 1999

Jackie graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, with a BA in English. She studied English at the University of Chicago in Illinois while teaching at Wilmot Junior High School in Deerfield, Illinois. After teaching at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois, for three years, Jackie moved to Fort Bragg, California, and taught at Fort Bragg High School for three years. For the next thirty years, 1968 to 1998, Jackie taught at San Juan U.S.D. in Carmichael, California. In 1981 she returned to school at the University of San Francisco and received her MA in education.

An active member at Celtic Cross Presbyterian Church in Citrus Heights, California, Jackie is an ordained deacon and elder serving on the session and board of deacons. She served as treasurer of Presbyterian Women at the church and later as its vice-moderator and a delegate to the 1997 Presbyterian Women’s Gathering. Jackie also has been a church school teacher, Bible study leader, choir member, and a worship assistant. She is mother of two adult children, Barbara and William.

Birthday: August 13