Work Continues in St. Mary's Lutheran, Saratov

Saratov, Russia

  The church of St. Mary in Saratov, besides its ordinary congregational work, also does a lot of social service projects. These include diaconal projects for supporting the sick and elderly, a cloths barn, the annual youth camp - “Hope,” a Christian rafting camp, the “iVolga” youth forum, etc. During each of these events congregational members meet with a large variety of people. In this way every member of the congregation becomes a representative of our church for others; this means that members have a lot of responsibility to incarnate the values we confess. It is possible to give many concrete examples. At present the congregation is continuing to build a new building, St. Mary's. Much is done by congregational members themselves, e.g., waterproofing the roof, the grounds work and many other things. The church building is in a residential region and surrounded by high apartment buildings. For a long time the territory around the church was an abandoned lot. Before the church building was built local residents paid little attention to this area, but then the church began to clean things up; congregational members hauled away garbage and began to beautify the area. This example has already began to show fruits – neighbors now not only look after the surrounding territory, they also gently remind one another to keep things clean; they thank us for improving the neighborhood and tells us that they look forward to visiting the church when the construction is done. This is a great miracle that God works through the hands of each congregational member! Just by doing this good work dialog with local residents has begun; this opens up the path for the growth of the congregation. We always need to remember that each of us is an ambassador of the Good News, whether we are conscious of it not.