Women's Ministry in Tomsk

Tomsk, Russia

  In May of 2016 I participated in the women's seminar “Friendship is a Gift from God” in Omsk, where I got acquainted with sisters from other congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Urals, Siberia and Far East. 
  We discussed various themes, sang hymns, prayed and made crafts. I learned much that was new and interesting to me. A few times I was moved to tears by the heartfelt and sincere atmosphere. There I was so much positive emotion from fellowship with sisters of various ages, with various point of view on life and with their own problems. From all that I learned that we have one thing in common – our faith in God. 
  When I returned to Tomsk I had the desire to share this knowledge and these emotions, and I decided to use discussion of the book of Ruth for this. Our meetings took place on Wednesday evenings during Evening Prayer services. After the first lesson I began to be less nervous when I saw that what I had to say was interesting to participants. 
  At the end of the final evening the question was raised - “will we continue our lessons?”
This interest and trust could not leave me indifferent. I also wanted to continue our meetings. Therefore we decided that we would meet the next time on the day of the Visitation of Elizabeth by Mary. We plan to have small group lessons with large group discussion and conclusion. 
  Many thanks to the organizers of the seminar for their preparation and organization of work and rest, as well as for their sensitivity and positive attitude. 
  Natalia Pushkareva

Happy Day in Tomsk

Tomsk, Russia
  On February 27th the foreign members of the congregation in Tomsk took part in the annual Festival of Non-secular Music “Oikumena.” It was dedicated to the annual Worldwide Week for Inter-religious Relationships which was founded by the UN General Assembly in 2010. Alfa Edison Ilela, Richardo Alexander Nunumete, Rafael Patuan Siahim, Giapfy Iboa Ebinizer performed the song “Oh, Happy Day!”
  Since 2010 these young people have attended the Tomsk congregation and frequently bring joy to the worship service with their songs.  Alfa and Richardo (from Indonesia) are graduate students at the Tomsk Politech University, Rafael is also from Indonesia and he and Giapfy (from Giana) are in the bachelor's degree program at the same university. These young men are the core of the youth ministry of the congregation and take part in all congregational events. 
  Vitaly Schmidt

New Pastor in Tomsk

  On Palm Sunday, March 29th, the congregation in Tomsk (central Siberia) installed Vitaly Moor as its new pastor. After almost two years of a pastoral vacancy it was wonderful to receive the new pastor for whom the congregation had been hoping and praying for so long.
Vitaly Moor was born in Barnaul (also in central Siberia) in a family of Russian Germans who had been displaced there. In 1998 he finished the foreign languages department in Barnaul, and worked for a time as teacher there. In 2002 he and his family left for Germany, and in that same year he began his studies at the Hermannsburg seminary, which he finished in 2011. Vitaly had an internship with Manfred Brockmann in Vladivostok, and that positive experience helped him see that he would like to work as a pastor in Russia. The synod council decided to invite Vitaly to become a pastor in ELCUSFE,  and in 2015 all the details were worked out to make it happen. We wish Vitaly and his congregation God's blessing on their new path together.

Chris Repp visits the Tomsk congregation

  Our congregation anxiously awaited the 17th Sunday after Pentecost - just a regular Sunday in ordinary time, on the one hand, but on the other - we had been waiting for a long time for an ordained pastor to visit us while dealing with a vacancy.  We were particuarly happy that our guest was a particularly interesting and deep person – Pastor Chris Repp from the USA, former lecturer at the Novosaratovka seminary. He arrived at the congregation thanks to the help of the former Area Dean, Bradn Buerkle and Bishop Otto Schaude. Despite technical difficulties which delayed the start of the worship service, we were still very happy and thankful to God that we were able to worship together in this way.

 Vitaly Schmidt. Church Council President.