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
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
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