Church members bring gospel message to Russian children

COLUMBUS - Seven Trinity Lutheran Church parishioners who returned recently from a Russian mission were so energized they say they will consider another short-term mission in the future.

Pastor Tim White, Cindy White, Doris Cerny, Don and Pat Olsen, Dennis Parker and Michael Blackburn were part of a 36-member team from seven states associated with the East European Missions Network. The Columbus residents returned June 19 from their three-week mission trip to Petrozavodsk, Russia.

White said the mission network “is working to bring the gospel to former Soviet Bloc nations, and is helping to re-establish the church, which was decimated during decades of communist rule.”

He said a contemporary English version of the Bible was used as the primary text during the three week “Friendship English Language Camp” held in Petrozavodsk.

“Reading and studying Bible stories was a totally new experience for most of the 450 fourth-grade through high-school-age students,” he said.

The trip to Petrozavodsk was Dennis Parker's first international missions trip.

“I've had an interest in missions for a long time,” Parker said. “This opportunity came along, and it just felt right.”

He spent his first week working with Cindy White, presenting a combination of music and English language instruction. His second week was spent with a group of fourth graders.

“My main goal was to make the point that we are all created for a reason, that not one of us is a mistake and to teach the students that Jesus Christ died for each and everyone of us,” Parker said. “When we first started out the students were very reserved, but when they heard me say that to them, it really got their attention. I thoroughly enjoyed both groups.”

Parker said the food was quite a change and that he ate a lot of rice, breads, cheese and borscht, a traditional cabbage soup, during the trip.

Parker said the experience has made him look more closely at the idea of becoming a career missionary.

“I felt so comfortable sharing my faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said. “It really has inspired me to look into the idea of career missions. If that's what God wants me to do, I'll go and He will make a way.”

Parker has kept up his connection with his host family and the Russian teachers via e-mail since his return.

Doris Cerny, a nurse at Columbus Community Hospital and Sunday school teacher at Trinity, was split off from the Columbus group and placed with a host family. Like the others, she worked five days a week from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. the first week and until about 2 p.m. the second week. She was assisted by Russian teachers in the classroom.

“It was a full day for the students, and I was ready to call it a day when we finished up,” she said. “My first week was spent with a larger group of students ages 9 or 10. My second week was at a boarding school working with a group of physically disabled children.”

She said the mission group “did a great job preparing us for the culture and the lifestyle we would encounter. I think just getting to know the Russian people a little bit and realizing they are people just like us with the same basic needs really touched me during the trip.”

Pat Olsen came to the mission with nearly 30 years experience in education. She served as principal of three Columbus area elementary schools from 1968-1997. Her husband, Don, had no previous experience in education.

“This experience has fortified and strengthened me and helped me to see more clearly than ever the need and the great opportunity that we have to serve missions in some way,” Don said.

Pat said the plight of the churches under communist rule impressed her with “how harsh it was for the Russian people, when most of the churches were closed under the communist rule. It was a very satisfying feeling to know we've planted a seed that for some of the students might become a new door for their faith.”

The Olsens both noticed the difference in their reception from the older to the younger Russian people.

“The older people are very stoic and suspicious,” Pat said. “The younger people are very accepting of western fashions and gadgets.”

The first week of the trip the two were in separate classrooms, but during the second week they team taught a group of seventh graders.

Don observed what he thought were mature responses to various questions he had for them.

“I would ask them questions like, “If you could sit with Christ and ask Him any question, what would it be?” Their answers were so thoughtful and mature it was just so amazing to me,” he said.

Pat said a tea held on the last day of their visit with their Russian teachers and translators touched her deeply.

“It was wonderful. “We sang our songs like Oh Susanna and others and they sang their songs to us. We really didn't understand the words all that well on either side, but we all came away from it knowing we were the same type of people with the same needs and concerns.”

The Friendship English Language Camps began 12 years ago following the visit of a Russian public school principal who visited American schools in Duluth, Minn.

“He saw that students in Duluth had a spiritual foundation for morality, which was something he believed his students also needed,” White said. “Since then it has grown to include two other public schools, as well as a camp for students from a Lutheran school in Petrozavodsk.”

Lyceum I, the Russian public school that hosted the language camp also provides a room at the school for a year-round Christian Center. When the short term missions team leave, follow-up ministry is provided at the center, which offers Bible studies, recreational outreach events and helps students connect with local churches.