Omsk
From May 2nd to the 7th in the Omsk oblast the women's seminar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia and Far East - “Jesus Christ – the true caregiver of souls.” This hinted at the broad theme of the seminary – pastoral care and counseling. Sister Louisa, a deaconess from Germany, analyzed Jesus' conversations with people from a pastoral care point of view. Nina Dmitrieva (Vladivostok) and Anastasia Razinkova (Shelekhov, Irkutsk oblast) gave an overview of the upcoming World Day of Prayer for 2019. Tatyana Serevbrova (Krasnoyarsk) introduced the seminar and ed a lesson on women in the Bible. Besides this participants enjoyed the natural pine forest, sang hymns, prayed together and shared a warm atmosphere of fellowship.
Much of my ministry here is teaching; at other times my role as a pastor comes to the forefront. Yet another significant aspect of my work is related to organizing educational processes; one of the concrete ways I try to do that is to put together the right students with the right teachers.
This year this included two important events – the September seminar on men's ministry (see below), and the first in a series of seminars on pastoral care. The approach for the latter is called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), and it is what most pastors in America go through as a part of their Master of Divinity program. A long-time friend of our church from Germany, Kurt Schmidt, is a CPE teaching supervisor; he and I have been working together to attempt to not only run the full course of CPE, but also to go further and train a few teaching supervisors who can act as founding members of the Russian Association of Pastoral Care and Counseling.
While it will take a couple of years to reach this goal, I could hardly be more pleased with our progress so far. The group of participants was made up of 12 men and women (half pastors and half lay leaders), most of whom had previously expressed to me their desire to get further education in this area. Yet the approach to learning in CPE is so different than the lecture approach that is familiar to them; we were not sure how smoothly the course would run. Additionally when a group comes together to work on pastoral care, difficult issues (including deeply personal ones) are raised; it is typical for there to be resistance, tension and conflict as part of the process. To our surprise, however, all of the participants displayed openness to one another, to a new kind of learning, and to the self-discovery that is necessary for quality pastoral care. The 10 days they spent in Novosaratovka were very productive.
While students evaluations in Russia tend to avoid specifics, after this course I saw a pattern of positive results: “I learned how to listen;” “I saw how important it was to avoid giving direct advice and to instead accompany the care-seeker as he/she finds his own solutions;” “I now realize that... empathy is at the center of pastoral care.” “My job as a pastoral caregiver is to be a sojourner along the path of life that the Lord has given us.”
For some of the participants the seminar was transforming on a personal and professional level: “I understood that pastoral care is interesting to me, is a gift God has given to me;” “Before this seminar I saw pastoral care from a different perspective and what I learned is really valuable and important;” “This... was a turning point in my understanding of the means and methods of pastoral ministry;” “I thought about...aspects of my life that I hadn't considered before;” After this seminar “I feel healthier spiritually and physically. I've been sleeping like I haven't slept since I was a child. Many thanks once again for accompanying me on the way, for caring about the healing of my soul.”
By the end of the seminar the participants were so motivated to continue their studies that we moved up the schedule; while I had planned on one seminar in each of the next two years, we've decided that it is desirable and possible to do parts two and three in June and October of 2018.
There are at least another six people waiting to take part in the next round of such a course, so I will continue to pray for Kurt's ability to come to Russia to teach, for the financial gifts to the “Equipping...” program to keep coming in order to make the funding of the seminar possible, and the support of the church's leadership as we attempt to make pastoral care a significant part of the life of our congregations.
Bradn Buerkle
Zadorozhe (Kaliningrad obl., Russia)
10 years ago in the village of Zadorozhe in the Ozerskiy region of the Kaliningrad oblast an unusual home was opened. For the first (and so far only ) time in our church's recent history, a home providing medical care for the elderly was opened under the auspices of the Evangelical Lutheran church. The first director of the Carl Blue House was Pastor Tatyana Petrenko.
On September 17th of this year the Carl Blume house once again welcomed guests as they did 10 years ago; these guests include the person who inspired the building of the house, former area dean Pastor Heyer Osterwald, former area dean Pastor Thomas Passauer, a representative of the Order of St. John, a representative of the administration of the Ozersky region and the town of Ozersk, ad representatives of the administration of the Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Dean of the Central Deanery Elena Bondarenko and preacher from the Central Deanery Artis Petersons. Local church guests included current Dean Igor Ronge as well as pastors and staff of the deanery.
The celebratory program was led by the director of the home, Irina Mitrokhina. There was a concert program with local children's and dance groups to entertain the residents and guests. The staff of the home put out a lot of effort in order to arrange a wonderful buffet.
The anniversary was a good opportunity for old friends from Germany and Russia to meet. All the guests expressed hope for long and blessed work of the Carl Blume home.
Happy anniversary!
Volgograd / Sarepta
On April 5-7 in the Volgograd / Sarepta congregation the third educational seminar for pastors and preachers was held. It was led as part of a project on continuing education and support of church state for the Volga region. This project was supported by the “Berlin Mission” and “Bread for the World.”
The theme of the seminar was “Pastoral Care and Counseling” was a topical issue. People are coming to pastors and lay ministers ever more frequently to share their concerns and worries and they expect help and answers to their questions.
The teachers for the seminar were the pastor for the Volga Region from the “Berlin Mission” Pastor Lars Haake and the Pastor of the “Emmaus” Germany Evangelical Congregation in Moscow Alyona Hofmann.
Participating in the seminar from the Lower Volga Deanery were: Dean Oleg Stulberg, Lay Minister Otto Kammerer (Volgograd), Pastor of the Astrakhan congregation Vera Zauer, Lay Minister of the congregation in the village of Lebyazhe in the Volgograd oblast Sergey Miller and the Pastor of the congregation in Marx Vladimir Rodikov.
The lecturers led theoretical and practical lessons on pastoral care. They spoke about 6 methods that can be used when working with people in difficult life circumstances. These methods can be used in order to establish communication and dialog with the person seeking care and can help clarify the situation of need. By learning these methods in a consistent way pastors can provide quality care to those who have spiritual needs.
Tatyana Stulberg
