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April 2006—St.
Petersburg,
(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.)
ВРЕМЯ ГОДА—VREMya GO-da—Season
Genesis 1:14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons,
and for days and years;
Russian life runs on a rhythm connected with the seasons and the times. The Church here is no different. Whereas the surrounding culture centers on the beginning of Spring as the beginning of “Dacha season” (and Fall as the end of “Dacha season”)—Dacha being a garden plot outside of town often with a small cottage or more if one is well off—with all the attached planting, garden tending, harvesting and putting up preserves. This affects life in the Church, of course, as with so many people leaving town on the weekends to tend their gardens, attendance falls off. The has her own rhythm, centering on two celebrations, Christmas and the central holiday of our faith—the Resurrection of our Lord.
The rhythm set up by these two forces—the Church year and the planting season—also affect the rhythm of mission work. Seminars and work in the congregations are best planned and executed between the beginning of October and the middle of May (after the harvest and before planting), but not during Advent and Lent since at these times pastors and Church leaders are busy with their “planting and harvesting” seasons. This is why a large number of pastoral training seminars, congregational seminars are crammed into the time from October to November and then from the middle of January to the beginning of Lent and then the time immediately after Easter until planting season.
The Summer months have their own rhythm—youth camps, summer evangelism, etc., and Advent and Lent with their culminating celebrations also have their rhythm, which is all to say, there is ever so much to do. I say this not so much of myself, but of my Russian coworkers—pastors and deacons who also bear the responsibility of trying to grow and tend their flocks, find the necessary financing to rent, build, or repair worship space, and at the same time try to grow in their own faith and understanding (since so many are still rather new to the faith).
Lone Rangers
Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy
others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place
where He Himself was about to go.
The longer and more closely I work with my Ingrian brothers in the ministry, the more I realize their needs. Many seem to think at first that their needs are primarily financial—especially those with families with no permanent housing (and most of their small pay going for rent each month) or those facing major building or remodeling projects with imposed government deadlines, fees and fines, and threats of losing buildings or property. Many, however, begin to see past this and realize that what they may need even more is help. So many work alone, so many are “lone rangers” (but that without even Tonto!).
This month besides leading English Worship, besides attending a mission conference hosted by the Ingrian Missionary committee for the heads of various mission agencies working with them, besides preaching at the Church wide Easter celebration at St. Mary’s, besides filling in and leading a Bible study there as well, besides spending two or three days a week at the Russian equivalent of INS working on our documents (which are still unresolved), and besides planning and holding a 3 day seminar in Kondopoga in Karelia, I spent a lot of time this month on the telephone in contact with such “lone ranger” pastors.
One such pastor is Vachelsav Shadrin in Minuisinsk, who is the
only Ingrian pastor available to serve 6
congregations in an area larger than the state of
Another such pastor is in Tver, Sergei Shanin, working to remodel an apartment there so that his congregation will finally have permanent worship space, at the same time seeking to find ways to grow his small congregation.
Yaroslav Boichenko in Nizhniy Novgorod had to forgive me once more for not being able to come to follow through on work there—he is busy trying to keep the land promised for building a church there, as well as continuing work among the medical students and so forth in efforts to grow his congregation.
In my visit to Karelia, to the congregation at Kondopoga, I met Vadim Lisachenko, a young deacon working in that congregation is busy trying to do work among youth, among the underprivileged (which the congregation members are resisting) and expand the out reach of that congregation.
The list could continue.
People often ask why I took a call from Ingria when LCMS World Mission cut our positions because of budget shortfalls, why I would forego a regular paycheck, pension and benefits. This is always part of my answer—I could not before God desert my Russian brothers and close my eyes to the needs and opportunities for ministry here simply over a question of finances.
Ingria has 6 districts—each district could use a pair of Biblically sound and confessional Evangelistic pastoral missionaries (as opposed to administrators) to work with the pastors in those districts, strengthening and supporting them, fortifying their faith, working with them in their evangelistic efforts, and upholding them in prayer and with spiritual care. We need to consider what truly drives mission—the need and the Great Commission or budgets and programs.
Kondopoga
Acts 20:20 "how I kept back nothing that was
helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to
house,
Kondopoga, a city in Karelia, does not have a Lutheran history dating back to before the revolution, the congregation there has its roots in those who began worship in their homes during communist times on returning to the area after deportation in the late 1950s. The congregation officially registered in 1990, and finally built a church with the help of the Finns in 2004. The congregation has an official membership of over 200 with an average attendance of 100.
This month from the 27th to the 29th, along
with Pekka, a Finnish Pastor and Missionary who
recently began serving in Ingria, I traveled to Kondopoga in
Prayer Requests
A prayer of thanks for the birth of a healthy baby girl, Christina, to pastor Fedor and Elena Tulinin. Pray for all those pastors and deacons working alone that God send help, for our documents that we remain faithful, for the congregation in Kondopoga, Serega, Chalna and Kem (all Karelian area); for the remodeling in Tver, for the unrealized building project in Nizhniy Novgorod, for the Minusinsk congregation and its need for permanent space (and for the Shadrin family that has just received word that they must find a new apartment to rent), for the Pro-life ministry of Ingria, for the continued work of the Missionary committee of Ingria, for English Worship service and our group as we seek to find ways (and time) to do more outreach, for Darren and Irina Johnson (Darren is an American student studying at Koltushe Seminary—he is a life long member of the LCMS and helps out at English services) who will be visiting the USA this Summer, for all the planting that is going on (not just on the Russian dachas, but more so for the seeds of the Gospel) that the harvest may be full and that faithful workers may be found for that harvest. Pray for my mother-in-law and for us as we seek to help, a pipe burst in the attic of her apartment building, the water seeped down the wall and the ceiling of her room in the communal flat where she lives (when not staying with us) caved in.
God
brother
Sunday, April 22, at the afternoon service Christina Tulinin was baptized and thus reborn into the kingdom of
our Lord. Fedor
asked if I would be the baptismal sponsor, and I agreed—of course, in
Jesus lives! The vict’ry’s won! Death no longer can appal me;
Jesus lives! Death’s reign is done!
From the grave Christ will recall me.
Brighter scenes will then commence;
This shall be my confidence!
TLH 201 verse
1
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:
Easter
St. Mary's: Every year the Ingrian Missionary
Committee hosts a church wide Easter Celebration (we also host a Christmas
celebration) to which all the Ingrian parishes are
invited as well as the surrounding community--church choirs sing, children's
choirs and so forth. This year I was asked to preach as
"evangelistic" sermon as well (but specifically not from the
pulpit...).
Kondopoga1
My teaching about developing good personal spiritual habits (prayer, regular
Scripture reading, family devotions, regular church attendance, etc.) at the
district meeting at Kondopoga,
Kondopogaguit Here I am leading singing with my
guitar--I had a good talk about modern music, the idea not being so much the
music, but the necessity of all our songs and our message being clearly Christ
centered (not merely God centered or with catchy religious phrases).
KondopogaPL I had to replenish the pro-life literature
3 times (until I ran out). We had a good seminar talking about the general
problem of abortion in
aPushkin After English service
we rode out to Pushkin for Christina Tulinin's baptism--I
also helped out with the distribution
Iklumeeting The group after the annual meeting of
mission societies working with Ingria
Kondopogalchurch The Church building in Kondopoga
ChristinaFedorKarlNastya Karl and Nastya
looking at their new sister in Christ (with the proud father)
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 St. Petersburg, |
Stateside contact address: Leif and Zhanya Camp, C/O Marli Camp 902 N. 12th |
Ev. Bolshaya Konyushennaya dom 8 St. Peterburg, |
Telephone: after getting an international line by dialing 011, dial 7- 812 (our area code) 321-1508(our phone number)
Note—Between St.
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
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