New Space for the Chernogorsk Congregation

On July 31, 2016, the new congregational space in Chernogorsk (Khakasia) was dedicated – the conclusion of 4 year's worth of effort. They were supported along the way by the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (Hermannsburg), and Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW). The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Urals, Siberia and Far East (ELCUSFE) also contributed to this project through offerings gathered throughout all the congregations of the church on Harvest Day celebrations.

The space that the congregation was using earlier was not large enough, and rent costs were high. “Your new space is a sign of hope for you, for us and for many others beyond the congregation's walls,” said Enno Haaks, the General Secretary of GAW.

Goodbye, Pastor Schweitz!

Abakan, Russia
  On March 13th the congregation in Abakan held an event for the whole region in order to give a proper send off to Pastor Dmitri Schweitz as he concludes his service in Siberia. Representatives from the local congregation as well as from Chernogorsk, Bograd, Borodino and Kuragino were in attendance. They blessed their pastor, who served for over two years in the region and made an invaluable contribution to the life of the church there, on his future service in Germany. Words of sincere thanks were spoken both to Dmitri and to his wife Natalia, who actively contributed to many part of congregational life. Dean Vladimir Vinogradov passed on greetings from Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Urals, Siberia and Far East, Otto Schaude and from the congregation in Omsk, where the Schweitz family worked before moving to Khakasia. Pastor Schweitz served in ELCUSFE as a mission worker with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Lower Saxony (Hermannsburg Mission).   
  The congregations of the region asked Preacher Zoya Heinze to prepare a report summarizing the ministry of the pastor, highlighting the most significant events. In particular she noted Pastor Schweitz's gifts as a preacher; his sermons made one think and touched the lives of those who heard him. Another important achievement made during Dmitri and Natalia's time was the beginning of a summer children's camp. Participants o the camp (both children and adults) will miss Pastor Schweitz's warm and interesting Bible studies. During his years of service Dmitri Schweitz continued regular congregational visits and contributed greatly to the financial health of the region (a new car, the renovation of the kitchen in Abakan, the purchase of a place to worship for the Chernogorsk congregation, etc.). A new edition of the songbook for the region made under the direction of Pastor Schweitz will be yet another reason for the congregations of the region to remember his ministry kindly. 
  Saying goodbye was very sad, but the Lutherans of the Khakasia region hope that in the Lord all His children remain in fellowship and, perhaps the future will hold more happy meetings with Pastor Dmitri Schweitz. 

Anna Guray

Soon it will be summer! Time to get ready for camp!

Abakan, Khakasia (Russia)

  From January 8 to 10 I had the happy opportunity to take part in an educational seminar for organizing summer Christian camps in Khakasia and work with children.

  This meeting was a gift for me. For three days I talked with people whom I know more than 10 years and with whom I've worked a lot. Therefore I was filled with nostalgia and emotions. The atmosphere of our time together was warm, friendly and stress-free. At the same time we all gained new experience and information, we remembered old and learned new games which we could use in work with children.

  On the first day we waited for our guests – Olga Kryukova and Anastasia Razinkova . Together with them we prepared the program for the camp. The guests from Omsk shared their experience from using the program “Jesus – Superhero.”  We liked it very much and dove into various aspects of the program step by step, making suggestions along the way for how we could adapt it to our needs. We considered our past, positive experiences, and we wanted to make a program that was full as possible with interesting games and tasks, but we need to make sure it all fits into four days time! 

  The creative spirits hovered while a spring of new ideas bubbled; we decided then that we wanted to include a night game into the program of the camp – something that the kids remembered from previous camps and hiking trips. We also concluded that the high point of the whole camp (spoiler alter!) would be Family Day. 

  The first day ended with games for getting acquainted; I became convinced once again that there is not age limit for games. My feelings were just the same as they were when I played them 5-7 years ago – they still are a great pleasure.

  Real work began on the second day. Olga Kryukova is great at teaching methods. We talked with her about how to “translate” Biblical stories (which sometimes even adults don't understand) into kids' language. What does the main idea look like? How to make understandable lessons out of every paragraph on the Bible?

  To be honest I never could imagine that it was possible to make Bible lessons so creative and fun. We learned how to “code” Bible verses, think up gestures for every word, we sang and made motions to the tunes of popular kids' music. And it was serious preparation for the next day – practical work with children.

  Day 3.  Today we all tried out what we had prepared during the previous days. The children were waiting for us in the Chernogorsk congregation. We were a little worried, since we had serious work ahead of us. There were a lot of adults, so the kids were tense at first. Then we used a game to get acquainted; we moved around a little bit, and the kids began to feel more relaxed.

  Anya Guray presented the “anointing of David” in a vivid and interesting way, and then we tried with the kids to re-tell the story to Andrey, who had come late. By the time we had crafts (either clay or origami, as they chose) the children already had opened up and were having a good time. It was nice to see how 10-13 year old boys were playing with play-dough like little kids. We sang spiritual songs and played a game where we tried to hold on to a slowly shrinking life raft. We ended the lesson with prayer and with individual prayer stations. The kids could chose where to go and what concerns to pray about. 

  After closing all the adults in the delegations when to the village of Borodino and my small daughter and I went home, having been revived and inspired by the work together and with the kids. 

  Elena Fedorova

Regional Meeting in Khakasia

October 31 and November 1 were days filled with events in the congregations of Khakasia and the south of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.  There were many reasons for this - Reformation Day, the installation (after commissioning in Omsk) of Andrey Masiorov as a preacher, and meeting guests from the Hermannsburg Mission - Director Michael Thiel and Asia Secretary Helmut Grimmsmann - to discuss current issues and plans for the future. 

On Saturday morning the 31st there was a celebratory Reformation Day service in the congregation in Chernogorsk. At the beginning of the services guests from the city's music school had a small concert; afterwards there was a lengthy discussion of the possibility of buying property for the Chernogorsk congregation. After lunch the guests attended worship in the village of Bograd, where congregational members have finished a serious reconstruction of their prayer house. Not it has a wonderful exterior to match its interior. It is a happy thing that the congregation is filled with children; regular Sunday school is led by Viktoria Reva. 

Sunday worship in Abakan was attended by guests from all over the region - from Chernogorsk, Bograd, Shira and Kuragino. It has become a good tradition that once a year all the congregations of the region come together for common worship and fellowship, which is followed by a annual meeting to share problems and joys. This year a special event was the installation of Andrey Masiorov as preacher for the Abakan congregation. After worship there was a discussion of news from the synod assembly and plans for the future. The latter is particularly important in light of Pastor Dmitry Schwartz's upcoming return to Germany - plans need to be made for the time of pastoral vacancy.
Our guests from the Mission highly valued their time in our region. They took with them many impressions and much information. They spoke at our meetings and had a lot of personal interaction with our members. We were happy to hear from them that they desire to continue our cooperation. Small congregations need support. And such meeting show that we are not alone in our congregations - we have the support of our region, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia and Far East, there is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, and our partner churches abroad. But most important - God is with us. 
The Lord has wonderfully made everything. And we give over our human concerns into God's hands. For that which is impossible for humans is possible for God. (Lk 18.27) 
Zoya Geintse. Preacher, Chernogorsk.

Conflict and Humillity - Seminar in the Abakan Region

Abakan

In the family and at work, with friends and among strangers, almost in every situation in life we run into conflicts. They also are part of are lives as believers, and they disturb peace and harmony in our families and in our congregations. Some Christians look at conflicts pragmatically, others are disappointed, others still close their eyes to the facts because they have the illusion that conflicts and Christian humility are incompatible.

Thinking about this, understanding the nature of conflicts and finding a Christian approach to them was the goal of the seminar held in the Abakan region of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia and Far East from September 24 to 27. Various themes were approached, such as examples of conflict in the Bible, psychology and conflict studies, the theological concept of humility. During lively discussions we looked at real life situations that are part of life in and outside the congregation.

The main teacher for this seminar was the leader of the “Equipping for Service” project, Pastor Bradn Buerkle from St. Petersburg. The congregations in Khakasia and the south of the Krasnoyarsk krai know him well and respect him.

In order to include the most people possible it was decided that the seminar would be held in Abakan. Besides the locals, then, members from congregations in neighboring Chernogorsk and also congregations further away – Bograd and Kuragino – were able to attend.

The participants of the seminar are thankful to God for the possibility to have this wonderful meeting and hope that the knowledge and ideas gained at the seminar will provide spiritual enrichment and further development of congregations in the Abakan region.

Pastor Dmitry Schweitz

Fall 2014 Seminars through a New Educational Initiative

  2014 was filled with opportunities for the development of the new educational program of the ELCR (supported by the ELCA and the Hermannsburg Mission) - “Equipping for Service.”  The core idea of the “Equipping...” project is “to maximize accessibility to quality educational opportunities in the Evangelical Lutheran Church through a program that is collaboratively planned, flexible, and decentralized.” While in the first part of the year this mostly involved Bradn Buerkle (responsible for the program) teaching at various seminars, in the second part of the year the program was also responsible for organizing independent events.

   The first of these came together in a place very familiar to Pastor Buerkle - in Krasnoyarsk, a congregation where Bradn formerly served as Acting Dean – the theme was “Two Issues in Christian Ethics.” This active congregation values educational opportunities, and  it was possible to try an experiment there by talking about concrete (and sometimes sensitive) issues in Christian ethics. In a society that leans towards either a legalistic or a nihilistic approach to ethical questions, Lutherans sometimes would prefer to avoid the question altogether. But given the conflict between Russia and its neighbors and the influx of refugees from easter Ukraine that have come even to Siberia, it is important to help congregational members apply their faith to engage these questions. The two evenings brought together a total of 24 participants, which is pretty successful for weeknight seminars in a context where people are dependent on public transport.

   The second event was south of Krasnoyarsk in the region of Khakasia. The region has 10 congregations spread over a 150 mile radius; most of them get only monthly visits from their pastor, Dmitry Schweitz, who was instrumental in helping organize this retreat, called "I am a Servant." The main idea of this seminar was to support the team of people leading congregations on a week to week basis. The idea was to reach this goal both through fellowship and through thinking about the following questions together - “What does it mean  to serve? When do I feel like a  servant? How can one serve effectively?” In the process related questions also arose - the way service is understood in society and in the Bible, Jesus as a model of  service, love at the center of Christian service, the Lutheran understanding of internal and external call, and the communal call as the church in this place. A number of concrete ideas were raised that the leaders intend to bring to  realization – e.g., fund-raisers to help those in acute need, printing fliers about Lutheranism for distribution, and a cooperative attempt to form a new youth group in one of the congregations.  

  In October the church was  pleased to welcome Pastor Chris Repp back to  Russia. Pastor Repp taught Church History, Systematics and Ethics at the Novosaratovka Theological Seminary for four years, though for most a decade now he has been serving congregations in the United States. Chris was invited to participate in an academic conference co-organized by ELCUSFE, and in addition to being there, he also helped Bradn lead two 3-day seminars, one in Omsk  (Siberia) and one in Ulyanovsk (in European Russia on the Volga). The title, “Law, Gospel and the Lutheran Confessions Today,” was aimed mostly at pastors and students, but while there were participants from these groups, it turns out that the topic had wider appeal than was originally expected. In Omsk there were 9 full participants (along with 7 others who were in and out) and in Ulyanovsk a week later we had a very large number – always more than 20, and most of the time around 30. Although the theme of the seminar was the same, in each case the material was adapted to the different audiences.  In Omsk the main thrust of Bradn's teaching was to help participants see that we do have official confessional documents, though we are far from familiar with their contents and that we need to familiarize ourselves with them in order to decide for ourselves what role(s) they are to play in the life of our church. Chris focused on the issue of Law and Gospel as address in the Augsburg Confession and the Apology, demonstrating why this was important and how it applies to the interpretation of Biblical texts. (In this he has been influenced by the theological approach of the  Crossings Community). In Omsk Seminary President Anton Tikhomirov was also available to teach and he first spoke about the confessions as a textual expression of Luther's Reformation break-through and then traced the development of Western (especially Protestant) theology from that time forward.  In Ulyanovsk the approach was kept simpler, giving the most attention to the uses of the law and to Biblical interpretation. In both places local leaders (a special thanks to Tatyana Muramtseva in Omsk and Vladimir Provorov in Ulyanovsk) did an excellent job of solving logistical issues.

Omsk

Ulyanovsk