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СВЯЩЕННИК-svya-SHEN-nik—Priest

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Although some protestants in Russia use the word “pastor,” for the culture as a whole, all pastors are simply referred to as “priests.” This used to bother me, because doctrinally speaking, all believers are priests (as in the priesthood of all believers) as we now all have the right to bring our prayers and petitions to our Lord without the necessity of a mediator (since our one and only mediator is our High Priest and Lord, Jesus Christ). The New Testament office of Pastor is a different office than the OT Priesthood. The distinction is important, but I don’t want to discuss that here. I simply bring this up so that what follows is better understood. For despite my theological hypersensitivity to being called “priest,” I have discovered that if I refer to my self as “pastor,” most people in Russia haven’t a clue as to what I am about. So, if I capitulate and refer to my self as a priest—even admitting that I am Lutheran and not Russian Orthodox—this opens many doors to some very interesting conversations. This month I have decided to share a couple of examples. Everyday people need “priests”—someone to talk to about God, someone to bring then God’s word, His direction and comfort, someone to pray with them and for them. This is not just the job of missionaries and pastors, but the role to which God calls each of us as reborn-through-baptism children of God, and therefore, members of the His kingdom of priests.

Princes and Princesses

Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

As often as I plan seminars and other evangelistic events, I have discovered that often the most fruitful witnessing I do happens in the pauses of my everyday life—with the happenstance interaction I have with people I meet on the street, waiting in line, and so forth. Some one strikes up a conversation with me and when they find out I am a pastor—or as I said above, “a priest,” once the surprise wears off, they begin to ask me their religious questions. The other day I dropped my children off at a nearby gym to play volleyball with other students from International Christian Academy (where both our children are now enrolled). On the way into the gym the security guard tried to say a few words in English, assuming my children didn’t understand Russian. As the kids went into change, we struck up a conversation. Not too far into our talk the security guard asked what I was doing in Russia, and I explained that I was a Lutheran pastor working with the Lutheran Church. As she was Russian Orthodox, this immediately put her off, but once I explained a little about the history of Lutheranism in Russia and reminded her of the few still existing historic Lutheran Church buildings (St. Michaels on Vasilevskiy Island, St. Mary’s and St. Peter and Paul on Nevsky prospect), she relaxed. Then her questions began. She began by talking about all the religious rituals the church requires and how important it seems that they are done properly. The root of her question was that her mother recently died, and during the funeral, she had wanted to throw some money in the coffin, as was the tradition in the village where her mother grew up. The Orthodox priest who was at the funeral forbad her to do such a pagan thing, saying if she did, he would leave and refuse to pray for her mother’s soul (I would agree with the priest that this was a pagan thing—as the money is used to pay the souls passage to the other world, but under the circumstances, I hope I would have taken the time to explain why a Christian would not do such a thing as the guard was more than willing to listen to my explanation.).

I listened further as she asked about all the fasting required by her church (and did my church practice fasting), liturgy and so forth. The details and all the questions we talked about are not important—since the conversation lasted over an hour—but clearly her understanding of God and religion (the structure through which she is relating to God) was based on fulfilling a set of rituals and actions. She believed in God, and she was seriously seeking to fulfill her obligations to Him, but something was missing.

I asked her if she knew the most often repeated prayer from the Bible—the Lord’s prayer. She said, “yes.” I asked her how it began, and she began, “Our Father.” Such a basic truth, yet so many christians don’t hold on to this simple, lovely, comforting fact. God is our heavenly Father, Who loves us. I talked about how all the Sacriments and rituals were meant to help us build a relatoinship with our Heavenly Father (Baptism being our birth into the Kingdom of Heaven, and so forth). We so often forget what it means that we are God’s children—we are heirs to the Kingdom of heaven. We are princes and princesses, sons and daughters of the King of Kings. As we parted she looked at me and said, “that is really a wonderful thing, to be a princess, and so we should live with that in mind!” I am sure we will meet again as the school often uses that Gymnasium…

Fill’er Up with Regular…

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

A few weeks ago as we were working on the dacha, some young men came by looking for work, and asked if we needed any help. We did, and since the wages they were asking were fair, we agreed to their help. So as I was talking to the young men and told them I was a “priest,” one asked if that meant I could take confession and absolve his sins. I said I could, but we would have to go some place a bit more private. I explained that often confession and absolution involved some more specific spiritual care on addressing the sins one had confessed and how to defend against repeating them. He replied, “you mean I would have to try to stop doing the sins I have confessed?” I then explained that true confession meant a desire to change one’s sinful behavior. Confession and absolution was not simply a rite or some kind of game. Then his friend chimed in and revealed the specific sinful lifestyle that his friend was thinking of confessing. He didn’t want to change his behavior, he did not want to stop the sinful behavior, but he did want to fill up his tank with forgiveness for the next few weeks—sort of like someone goes to the gas station to fill up the tank with gas. Fill me up with grace so I can sin some more—interesting idea, but not true repentance, and not a true confession. I am still hoping to take the young man’s confession—praying that he sees the wisdom of truly repenting and turning his life around.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for the children, especially Nastya, as they begin the new school year. Nastya is particularly concerned about studying everything in English. Pray that God guide us in this coming year—with finances, with choosing on what and where to focus our time and resources (there is always more work than I can do, and sometimes I say yes to too many things). Pray for Zhanya as she is also re-evaluating her role in things and seeking God’s direction as to where she should focus. Pray for Zhanya’s grandmother, Elena, who is still bedridden, pray also for Zhanya’s mother Galina and her aunt Katya as they deal with the stress of their mother dying (and all the decisions about care, inheritance, and so forth that that involves). Pray for pro-life work here as we seek to open work in a new parish, and pray that work continues in Volkov (we took a break over the summer). Pray for English Worship service as we begin fall services. Pray also for work at St. Mary’s parish in St. Petersburg, as I have been invited to help with some youth work there (how I will be able to fit that into everything else). Pray also for our use of the GOOD NEWS journal in Russian. It is a very valuable teaching tool, yet we have a very limited supply on hand. We on the Ingrian Missionary committee have been using them first to fortify local parish libraries, and then using them as follow through to various seminars we have been teaching. Pray for the possibility of finally building the Church building in Nizhniy Novgorod—the pastor there had a big meeting with the bishop this month. Pray also for all those that have been supporting us—those individuals and those congregations. The financial crisis in the USA has forced everyone to cut back. That affects us as well. So we are praying that God continue to bless all those who have been such a blessing to us and our ministry here.

Visitors

This month we had a lot of guests—Pastor Yaroslav Boichenko visited from Nizhniy Novgorod. He had a big meeting with the bishop and if the funds can be found, the building will start. Pastor Boichenko stayed with us. We were also blessed with a visit from Pastor Mark Zuehsow, seminary friend and an LCMS pastor serving in Chicago. Also pastor Vyacheslav Shadrin from Siberia paid us a visit—also a good friend. He has invited us out to Siberia when we can put together the funds and find the time. We also had some other guests—including a mouse that found its way into our apartment. I love guests, and we shared some very good times with all our guests excluding the mouse which I made vacate the premises within an hour of his discovery! We have had a major problem with mice this year (this is the 7^th one I have had to deal with in the last 3 months).

Jesus, the very thought of Thee,

with the sweetness fills the breast;

But sweeter far Thy face to see

and in Thy presence rest.

TLH #350 verse 1

In Christ,

Leif & Zhanya Camp

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Click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulmp/ to see photos of the Camp’s work and life. These photos will not remain here indefinitely as Flickr is no longer a free service for me. The most recent 200 St. Paul photos will be displayed. -LW.

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. 12^th

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

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