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December 2004— Russia A GOOD WORD FROM CAMP from Leif & Zhanya Camp

ПОРА—pa-RA—it’s time

Romans 13:11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

As I mentioned last month, this month I will talk about film ministry, stewardship seminars, and English Worship (which starts this first Sunday in Advent).

During Advent we prepare to celebrate the birthday of our Lord—celebrate His first coming. This reminds us that we are always in a state of preparing to celebrate His Second Coming. For us Christians, we will surely celebrate the coming of the Bride Groom, the coming of our King, the coming of our Savior. For those who are outside the Kingdom, for those whose allegiance is to a different lord (be it self, money, or different god), the arrival of our King will be met with fear and trembling as it will be a time of judgment. So especially during this Advent season, let each of us make a special effort to call those outside faith into the faith through our use of God’s Word and our deeds of love in His name.

Advent marks the start of the new Church year, and we don’t look back thinking, “Oh, another year farther along.” We look forward knowing, “Another year closer to meeting our King.” Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Seeking Sinners Through Cinema

1 Corinthians 9:22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

In 1996 when I was a volunteer missionary sent to set up a new mission in Nizhniy Novgorod, God blessed us with a video projector. It was then I discovered the value of film ministry. Showing a Christian film was a non-threatening event to which the congregation members could invite their unchurched friends and relatives. It was also a good way to acquaint the community with who we were as Lutherans (and through our film ministry and other ministries, we handed out a lot of Lutheran literature: Good News Magazine, Lutheran Heritage material, Bibles and Small Catechisms). With all the other work we had in setting up the mission, another plus was time. Since the goal was mainly to bring people in contact with the local congregation, serving as a way to “publicize” its other ministries (Sunday Worship, Catechism classes, Bible studies, etc.), such a film evangelism event did not require as much preparation as a lecture, concert or evangelistic Bible study. What we did in Nizhniy was to review the film to see what things we needed to discuss before or afterwards (Hollywood is more concerned with “art” than with proper understanding of Scripture). After the film, there was always time for asking and answering questions.

This last summer when Pilgrim Lutheran in Ontario Oregon presented me with a video projector, I was very excited, and I have already made much use of it. It not only makes my own seminar teaching “multi-media” and more interesting, but it allows me to “attach” to any seminar I do the opportunity of showing of a film—making for a quick evangelism event.

In Karelia, for the youth group at Olenetz, we showed the “Passion of Christ” to about 30 youth, many of whom are unchurched. At St. Michaels we have shown the new “Luther” film twice. At the showing November 21 more than 80 people showed up, at least 70 of whom are not members of the St. Michael’s congregation (and several of whom expressed interest in Lutheranism after viewing the film).

Again, such a ministry will not likely bring people immediately to baptism and faith, but rather provides a non-threatening contact point to which the unchurched can be invited. The key is to have the other ministries of the Church in order and ready to receive those “contacts” who are moved to attend Worship, Bible studies and so forth. Such a film ministry itself is not enough, but provides a first step towards joining a the Church—a first step to acknowledging Christ as King.

Stewardship Means Giving

2 Cor9: So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Back when I served with LCMS World Mission, one of the goals we had was to help establish self-supporting congregations for our partner church. Although World Mission budget cuts in Russia ended my service with them, my staying and accepting a call from Ingria has allowed me to continue to move toward this goal. This last month I went along with the Ingrian Missionary Committee to Olenetz, home of one of the central parishes in Karelia and spent two days with representatives of several Karelian congregations talking about how God provides to support His Church—in short, through the means of the offerings of parishioners.

The Lutheran Church of Ingria now has about 80 registered (or registering) congregations with over 100 preaching stations—but not one is self-sufficient, having its budget met completely by its weekly offerings. Film ministry, pro-life, teaching seminars, other evangelism, All the ministry that other missionaries, the Russian pastors themselves, or that I am currently doing, if it is going to last, depends on the congregations becoming financially independent. Given the current Russian economy, the needs of the individual congregations, and Ingria’s rapid growth; given that 70 years of communism destroyed or robbed from the Lutheran Chuch in Russia what it had built up over 350 years; given the ripeness of the fields (so why wait to harvest?), self-financing is still several years away, but the time is also NOW for each congregation to begin moving in that direction.

The Russians Christians I met in Karelia were not opposed—in fact, each congregation represented asked for the Russian text of my lecture to present to their congregations. This coming month I have been invited by the Pushkin parish to do a seminar there, and I hope that after the busy Christmas season, I will be invited to other parishes as well.

Prayer Requests

Say a prayer of thanks for all the opportunities God has given to us to minister to believers and spread the Gospel to unbelievers. Continue to pray for our documents (see below). Pray for the stewardship of the Russian Lutheran congregations, pray for St. Michael’s which is still going through remodeling (both physical and some organizational), pray for all those coming in contact with the Lutheran Church through film ministry and other ministries, that seeds of the Gospel may be planted and that they take root. Pray for the English Worship service. Pray for our health—cold and flu season has hit St. Petersburg hard and there was a recent out break of hepatitis in the schools. Pray for Bishop Aare Kugappi as he works to strengthen the pastors and congregations under his care. Pray that all the Lutheran organizations—both foreign and Russian—may form better and better working relationships to bring more people into the Kingdom and glory to God. Pray for the US economy (as the falling dollar seriously impacts our lives here). Pray that God grant us more wisdom faith and strength to follow through on all the ministry opportunities He is opening up.

Other News in Brief

We are currently working on setting up a pro-life website connected to the Ingrian Church’s Website. This last month I was invited to visit Narva to see some mission work going on among “Ingrians” living in Estonia. English services start this week at St. Michael’s. Along with the parish council, we are hoping that the services not only reach out to Americans and other English speaking foreigners living here in St. Petersburg, but also as reach out to those Russians who speak English. I am working with two English speaking Ingrian pastors to ensure the services continue regardless of my schedule and in the eventuality that I would accept a call back to the USA.

Family News

Karl received his first “A+” in Russian class—he has already received 3 for English class. Nastya is working on reading. Zhanya has been invited to be superintendent of the Sunday school OR assistant bookkeeper at St. Michael’s. The head bookkeeper and the pastor will have to work that one out. As far as our documents—well, I need a document from the USA stating plainly that I do not have a criminal record in the whole territory of the USA (I have one from my local county court). For this I need fingerprints taken at a US police department (of which there are none in Russia). The US Embassy does not usually provide this service, but if I can get such a document, with an international notary (apostille), the central visa office said we would most likely, maybe, possibly, no promises mind you, get our 3 year living permits.

A Finnish Joke

Finns are known here as people who really love their sports. At one match in particular, where even the scalpers refused to sell their tickets because they wanted to see the game, a man was very surprised to see an empty seat next to him. He commented to the man on the other side of that seat, “there must have been a very good reason for that person to miss such an important game.” To this the other man replied, “that seat belongs to my wife, we have season tickets.” The first man, surprised, then asked, “well, why couldn’t she come?” To which the second man replied, “unfortunately she died.” The first man was sorry to hear that, he said, but asked why a relative or friend couldn’t have taken her place—as important as this game was and all. To this the second man replied, “someone would have, but they are all at the funeral.”

Hymn verse (TLH #71)

Watchman, tell us of the night, what its signs of promise are.

Trav’ler, o’er yon mountain’s height, see that glory-beaming star.

Watchman, doth its beauteous ray aught of joy or hope fortell?

Trav’ler, yes; it brings the day, promised day of Israel

In Christ,

Leif & Zhanya Camp

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