February 2006 —St. Petersburg, Russia   A GOOD WORD FROM CAMP from Leif & Zhanya Camp

(Click on St. Paul Photo Albums to see photos of the Camp’s work and life.  This month’s are here.  More info at the bottom of the page.)

 

ТРЕЗВЫЙ—Trez-viy—Sober (not drunk)

1 Thessalonians 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

      This, I suppose, is a strange word for this month, and I don’t want to spend too much time on it.  Sometimes, however, it pays to know some words that are a bit out of the normal vocabulary (as you will see when you read the end of the story about Kuzyomkino). 

      This month we had much to celebrate—my mother’s birthday and successful surgeries, Karl’s birthday, Karl’s baptismal birthday, my birthday (and baptismal birthday—which are the same day!), and more importantly the opportunities we have had to spread the Gospel through the English service, through mission seminars and short pro-life presentations, and simply in our daily lives.  The time is short, let us not sleep, but keep watch—watch for every opportunity to bear witness to our Lord and our faith.

Kuzyomkino

Titus 2:6 Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded,

      One of this year’s goals of the Ingrian Lutheran Missionary Committee is to present seminars on Stewardship and “home mission” (with a short pro-life presentation) in as many parishes of the Western Ingermanland district—this is the district between St. Petersburg and Estonia.  So this month Pastor Alexei Uimonen and I left for an over night mission trip to the village of Kuzyomkino, about 3 hours drive from St. Petersburg, 20 miles off the Tallin Road and just a few miles from the Estonian border. 

Kuzyomkino is a village of about 2000 people, 2 official liquor stores, 40 moonshiners—one for every 50 villagers— and an old stone Lutheran Church with boarded up windows, no heat, cracking walls and bullet holes in the door—from recent hunters.  The Church was built in the 19th Century and served the surrounding area.  Like most Lutheran Church buildings that were not destroyed by the Communists, in the early 1930s the pastor was killed, the building symbolically decapitated (the steeple was removed), and the building turned into a “house of culture”—a fancy name for government dance hall, movie house, and place hold communist lectures and ceremonies.   During World War II during the German occupation of the area, the Church briefly reopened, at which time over 400 people were able to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments.  After the war, of course, those attendees that were found out were deported to Siberia as “collaborators.”

Now the parish officially lists 150 baptized, confirmed, dues paying members who live in Kuzyomkino and 3 other neighboring towns and villages.  These people, many of whom are without regular work, remodeled the narthex of the Church so they can hold services, thus beginning the process of converting the building back to its original purpose of serving our Lord.

It was to this Church and to these people that Alexei and I had been invited by the local Lutheran Pastor, Grigory Lakomov, to teach, comfort and encourage the members in their faith and mission—on.  Our plan was simple—get acquainted with the parish, show a Christian film in the evening as an “evangelism” event (to which the parishioners could invite their friends and neighbors), and then the next morning do our teaching on stewardship and mission, followed again by another Christian film.  These events went according to plan and schedule—but I would say much more effective than the specific teaching and evangelism that we did was the fact that we simply showed up in person, giving personal attention and witness, and building a personal relationship with the people. 

In this age of high-tech, digital programming, education via satellite TV, DVD Bible studies that can even be tailored to fit a variety of situations, coming in the flesh is still the most effective way to do mission (not that we should not use all these other ways as well—we should and need to use every possible way to spread the Gospel).  God did send the prophets, He did send His Word which was written and proclaimed via the media of the time, but in these last days He Came in the flesh—Incarnate in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  As much as we need to use all the technology available to spread the Gospel, we must never neglect the coming in the flesh—the sending of missionaries in person. 

One more comment which I don’t know what to do with:  When we first arrived and met with some of the congregation, mostly grandmothers, I was a bit taken aback when after a few minutes half of them left in a hurry.  Of course, relaxed a bit when I saw them return about 15 minutes later with their grandsons in tow.  I don’t know, however, how to feel about the comment I overheard referring to Alexei and me—“see, Vanushka (the nickname for Ivan), this is what sober men look like, this is how you need to be.”  So I was again reminded that our Witness is not only in our words, but our behavior, and that I should never become so complacent with my salvation as to take grace for granted and willfully let my behavior dishonor the great Sacrifice and cost my Lord paid to redeem me from sin, death and the power of the devil.

Hope Center Opens in St. Petersburg

Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

One of the people we have been working with in our Pro-life efforts is lay leader Oleg Rumin, long time member of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church.  For over 10 years he has been running a family counseling center out in Pushkin, and this last year received a grant through LCMS World Relief/Life Ministries to open a similar center in St. Petersburg—since one of the major emphases of his Hope center is pro-life counseling. 

This last month he was finally able to find space for opening his center in St. Petersburg—the Ingrian Lutheran Central offices made two rooms available for him to rent.  The timing for this could not have been more well planned—the non-denominational agency that had been sponsoring the Pushkin center recently pulled its funding because they felt Oleg was working too closely with the Lutheran Church.  In our efforts to educate and motivate the Lutheran congregations to get involved in the pro-life movement, Hope center is a valuable partner as it offers a place for more concentrated counseling and training which at present the Church is not in a position to offer.  With the center now located in the Ingrian central office complex, we are praying that this will further strengthen our joint ministry.      

 

Prayer Requests

Pray for Russia and its scientific and medical community which is in the forefront of using aborted tissue for research and medical treatment.  Pray for Kuzyomkino and all the Russian villages where the Word needs to be sown, tended and harvested.  Pray that the Lord strengthen thei of Bishop Arre Kuggapi and Pastor Dr. Alexander Prelutsky (Ingria’s representative to the LWF)  in their respective roles as leaders of Confessional Lutheranism in Russia as they continue to witness to the Word of God and the uniqueness of the Christian Gospel.   Pray for Lilly, a Tartaran Mulsim lady who is an English teacher in Russia who happened into our English service—we had a long talk and she allowed me to pray for her.  She has a Bible, but did accept a Small Catechism in the context of our talking about Jesus, faith and the Christian Sacraments.  Pray for Oleg Rumin and the Hope Center, that their new location may strengthen their ministry, our partnership, and the overall witness of the Church for life now and in eternity.  Pray for Tanya, the St. Michael’s organist, who is pregnant.  Pray for Zhanya whose last wisdom tooth is causing her some pain, but the dentists still don’t want to do anything about it.  Pray for Alexei, me and the missionary committee, that God guide and strengthen all of us to work together for the spreading of the Gospel.  Pray for Pastor Grigory Lakomov and the Kuzyomkino parish.  Pray for next month’s mission seminars—because of the holidays, we have fallen behind and are now trying to reschedule and so forth.   Pray for us as we begin to file our documents for the continuation of our living permits.  Pray for Karl as he begins his 9th year of life in our Lord, for me as I begin my 46th year of life in our Lord, and for my mother who once more began her “29th” year of life in the Lord.  

Family News 

Next month we begin the process of filing our documents to continue our living permits—and possibly upgrade them.  This requires another round of physical exams, gathering various documents and filing them on time and with the proper forms.  We need to get all this done in time.  Both Karl and Nastya are doing well in school, for which we are thankful, but since it is Russian school, we are still concerned about their English skills—and working on those as we are able.  Karl has taken to liking everything to do about boats and such, Nastya has taken to animals.  She has decided she wants to be a vet, and has even begun to operate on her stuffed animals…

Joke: form over substance.

One of the regular practices of many churches is that when the pastor enters during the opening hymn, he kneels at the altar and prays silently before taking his seat.  A young pastor asks an older pastor, “so how long do you pray at the altar at the beginning of the service?”  The older pastor answers, “I count to five, that seems long enough—but slowly, and reverently, of course.”

 

 

 

 

Jesus, refuge of the weary, blest Redeemer, Whom we love,

Fountain in life’s desert dreary, Savior from the world above

Often have Your eyes, offended, gazed upon the sinner’s fall;

Yet upon the cross extended, You have borne the pain of all.

 

Jesus, Refuge of the Weary  LW page 90

 

In Christ,

Leif & Zhanya Camp

_________________________________________________________________________

Click on St. Paul Photo Albums to see photos of the Camp’s work and life.  This month’s are here and descriptions are below:

 

Pictures:

District meeting: the Pastors of the St. Petersburg district gathered this last month (I am officially a member of this district and an honorary member of the Siberian district).  We discussed developing a district wide mission plan and LCMS missionary Brent Smith was invited to share some things about ABLAZE and to see how LCMS mission might be of assistance to the district.

 

Karlbday: this is a family picture at our celebration of Karl's birthday--his friend, Sasha Schmidt. Jr., and his Russian grandmother (Galina) are also pictured with the family.  He is holding his birthday present, a model sailing boat.  It actually floats if I hang enough fishing "sinkers" on the bottom.

 

KuzChurchins: the inside of the Church in Kuzyomkino, the part the congregation does not use in the winter because there is no heat.  Alexei and I are standing on the stage that was built when the building was turned into a "house of culture"--it stands where the altar used to be.

 

Kuzyomkinoalexei:  Pastor missionary Alexei Uimonen and Pastor Grigory Lakomov lead the opening meditation for the congregation in the narthex of the building which has been remodeled and used as worship space in the     winter.  An electric space heater manages to keep the room above freezing so that the tea does not freeze.

 

Kuzyomkinochurch:  this is the exterior of the building.  You can see the windows are boarded up, the stucco chipping away from parts of the building and the general state of disrepair.  If repaired the building could easily seat 500 people.

 

Kuzyomkinofilm:  Because of the cold, we were able to show the evangelism film at the local library.  The librarian has begun a museum of local artifacts.  One of the interesting artifacts was a hand blown glass decanter for vodka--with the figure of the devil inside the bottle (unfortunately, I didn't think of photographing it).

 

KuzyomkinoLeif: As if you haven't seen enough of such pictures--this is of me teaching stewardship.  You can't really notice it in this picture (but you will in the next) is that I still have on my scarf.

 

KuzyomkinoPLbrochures:  with the blessing of the bishop and the support and agreement of the missionary committee, I am allowed to do a short Prolife presentation and distribute our brochures at the seminars I teach at—here my scarf is more visible.

 

Nastyaschool:  one of the things First graders do in Russia is have a special holiday called alphabet day.  Each is assigned one or two letters of the Russian alphabet and then memorizes a verse about that letter.  Parents are invited to see the "pageant."  So here is my wife with my daughter and one of her class mates (letter B in Russian or V in English, Nastya is letter X which actually is like the Greek "Chi").

 

CONTACT ADDRESSES Feedback, questions, whatever are most welcome.

Our Russian home address:

Leif and Zhanya Camp

18 line V. O. dom 43 Kv. 7

St. Petersburg, Russia, 199178

 

Stateside contact address:

Leif and Zhanya Camp,

C/O Marli Camp

902 N. 12th

Melrose Park, IL, 60160

Russian Lutheran Church Address:

Ev. Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia

Bolshaya Konyushennaya dom 8

St. Peterburg, Russia, 191186

 

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!

 

St. Paul Lutheran Church and School, 1025 Lake Street, Melrose Park, Illinois 60160; Church: 708‑343‑1000, School: 708‑343‑5000

Links to sources outside this site are provided for the convenience of members and visitors who may find them helpful or informative, but do not imply any kind of endorsement by St. Paul Lutheran Church, and of course we are not responsible for their content.

While we strive for accuracy, we assume no responsibility for errors on this site.

Please contact the church or school to verify information

If you see an error on the site please email the website administrator at:  lynette*

 

*Email addresses all have the extension @stpaulmp.org unless noted otherwise.  Where an email address that does not have our extension is used “(at symbol)” will replace the “@”.  Unfortunately, it is now necessary to put email addresses in a format that cannot be read by automated programs that search the web looking for email addresses to spam.  We apologize for the inconvenience.