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June 2005—
ГОСТЬ—ghost—guest
1 Peter 4:9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
One little quirk of the Russian
language is that when names and some words are transcribed, often the Russian G
is used to replace H. The German name
“Hass,” for instance, is “Gass” in Russian. So the word above, pronounced “ghost” would
have the same root as “host” and “hospitality.”
And one realizes that as mixed up as things got at the
A Wide Variety
of Ministry
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.
The coming of Summer affects all
facets of Russian life. People leave the
cities every weekend to work on their dachas—growing potatoes, carrots, and cabbages for the coming winter and harvesting fruit and berries
to can as well. Even a city of 7 million
like
This is not the case for the English Language service at St. Michaels, however. With summer tourists, with several groups of short term volunteer missionaries coming through town on their way to and from their work, we actually had to put up extra chairs. I especially enjoy such groups of short term lay volunteers—their love for their Lord, their desire to spread their faith, their willingness to take a chance at going to Petrozavodsk, Karelia, or Tichovitza (a village close to St. Petersburg) to spread the Gospel through various ministries is encouraging, and keeps me mindful of why I am here.
One group came from St. Olaf’s
College to do music ministry—a music professor there of Finnish descent heard
about the Lutheran Church of Ingria and decided to
try to work directly with them. Another
large group was organized by the Eastern European Mission Network, an
organization founded by a Lutheran pastor from the AFLC. They have organized a Christian Language camp
in Petrozavodsk for the last several years (at
present they have been working with a non-denominational Christian center which
has close connections with the school system there—as the organization has many
connections to Lutheranism, we are all hoping to strengthen connections with
the camps and the Lutheran congregation in Petrozavodsk
and other Karelian cities). Another group was organized by an LCMS
congregation to do VBS with orphans in Tichovitsa, a
village outside of
In the smaller cities and villages where contact with foreigners is rare and curiosity is high, such camps offer a great outreach opportunity—especially to the Russian youth. The variety of ministries and talents all have one goal—plant seeds of the Gospel. When such activities can be connected to and organized with local congregations, then there is built in follow through—someone to tend, nurture and harvest the seeds planted by the short term group after they leave.
Scaffolds
and Cornices
Amos 9:11 "
On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And
repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of
old;
When the weather
warms in
When the Communists took the building from the Church in
the late 1930’s, they took out the two tiers of balconies, put in two more
floors, restructured the roof thus taking out the vaulted ceiling, and put an
elevator shaft where the altar had been—adding pipes and cables and ventilation,
all the things necessary to convert a “useless” church building into a
productive ball factory. When pastor Sergei Tatarenko
accepted the call to serve at St. Michael’s parish after the sudden death of
pastor Sergei Preman, one
of the major concerns of the congregation was to remodel the building. 10 years ago when the government returned the
building to the
The need for remodeling was one of the “headaches” inherited by the new pastor, who immediately decided that the best aspirin was an aggressive remodeling plan—whether there was money in the bank or not. The major concern is the roof, but since the congregation meets on the third floor which the previous pastor had remodeled into a sanctuary, first, a new sanctuary had to be made. This was done on the first floor (English services have been meeting in this sanctuary since Lent, the Russian services have just been moved there).
As I understand it, the next phase is the roof and
cornices (which will be done in some sort of fiberglass-plastic rather than the
original cast-iron). Of course, Sergei has his hands full trying to keep the contractors on
task, getting all the necessary documents and licenses from the government for
construction and trying to find support for the building expenses. Still, he moves forward in faith. One of the city inspectors came by a while
ago and said, “Sergei, you have a problem, this
scaffolding is too far onto the side walk” (implying that it would have to be
removed or a large “fine” would have to be paid). Sergei answered,
“the government shot our pastors, deported our parishioners to
St. Michael’s has a long and rich history—we are all hoping and praying that it will continue to the glory of God and the service of His people on earth.
Prayer Requests
Pray for pastor Sergei and the
remodeling at St. Michael’s, that the government extends the agreement with the
congregation allowing more time to remodel, that resources come forward, that
workers and the public are kept from injury during the work. Pray for peace and harmony in the
congregation and between the various groups now using the building (the
remodeling is going to cramp space).
Pray for all the seeds planted by the short-term mission groups—that
they take root and that God raise up someone to tend to those new seedlings so
that they may grow and bear fruit themselves.
Pray for my wife and me as we have a few other visitors for whom we need
to help plan. Pray for the possibility
that we might take a short vacation.
Pray for the relationship between Lutheran Churches in
Plans
for Next Year
With so many congregation members, pastors and leaders out of town for the Summer (on the dacha, traveling for fundraising and inter-church talks and so forth), and with summer camps and short term groups coming is, regular ministry gets “interrupted.” For instance, there is no point in holding a stewardship seminar with half the congregation gone. Still, this does not mean things are not happening. Summer is a time for planning. I have already met with the Probst (district president) for the western Ingermanland district to discuss doing both stewardship and prolife seminars in his area, we have begun discussing plans with Don Richman for another pro-life seminar in St. Petersburg proper this Fall, and while we are waiting to see if some project support will come through, my wife is working to develop some new materials for next year. As for the English service—we are setting aside a portion of the offerings to pay for adverting in the English language newspaper this Fall hoping to reach more foreign students (those from America, Canada, Britain and Australia). Since the congregation is technically Ingrian, I am busy making some final editions to the liturgy to bring it more in line with the liturgy used in the Russian service.
Other
benefits of short-term groups
God also uses such groups to help us who are here for the long haul discover new talents—for instance, my wife discovered she had a talent for negotiating for busses, negotiating with train officials to reimburse for unused train tickets (because of changes in arrival times and flights of some people in the groups), and negotiating with Aeroflot personnel about overweight baggage.
.
How shall they
hear who have not heard
News of the Lord
who loved and came;
Nor known His
reconciling word
Nor learned to
trust a Savior’s name?
Hymn verse--#868 hymnal
Supplement 98
In Christ,
Leif & Zhanya Camp
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CONTACT ADDRESSES Feedback, questions, whatever are most welcome.
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Our Russian home address: Leif and Zhanya Camp 18 line V. O. dom 43 Kv. 7 |
Stateside contact address: Leif and Zhanya Camp, C/O Marli Camp 902 N. 12th |
Ev. Bolshaya Konyushennaya dom 8 |
Telephone: after getting an international line by dialing 011, dial 7- 812 (our area code) 321-1508(our phone number)
Note—Between St. Petersburg and central US time, the difference is 9 hours. Stateside contact telephone: 708-344-4472
E-MAIL: lzkcamp(at symbol)mail.ru & leif.camp(at symbol)elci.ru. Prolife web site
with Russian materials you can down load: prolife.elci.ru. Other websites: Lisa Stapp has set up a
website which has some of our last newsletters (with their cover letters and
pictures): http://www.worthywomanpage.com/camp/index.html.
Also my mother's home congregation has our newsletters--the latest can be
downloaded from: http://www.stpaulmp.org/camp/
a second site archives our past newsletters since 2002 http://www.stpaulmp.org/archives/ .
Please feel free to share this newsletter with
your Church, friends, or enemies if it might help (just please do not quote
things out of context or edit my words in such a way as to change their
intent). If you would like to receive a
copy via e-mail, simply email me directly and ask!
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