Posts from June 2019

Posts from June 2019

MIRACLE OF CHRISTMAS

Miracle of Christmas The birth of baby Jesus was surrounded with many miracles. Virgin Mary conceived from the Holy Spirit – it is a miracle. Angel appeared to Joseph – it is a miracle. The prophecy from the Old Testament was fulfilled – it was also a miracle. ‘Look! A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, And they will call him, Emmanuel which means “God with us.”’ (Matthew 1:23) The name of the baby boy was…

AND SUDDENLY, THE DOOR WAS OPEN…

by: Urs Schweizer MAY 17, 2019 Student Ministry in Pleven, Bulgaria Pleven is the seventh most populous city of Bulgaria with approximately 100.000 inhabitants. It is not only the biggest economic center in Northwestern Bulgaria, but also home of a major Medical University with more than 1.000 students and academic employees. How can United Methodists reach out to these students if Bulgarian law does not make this easy at all? In 1916, despite very difficult circumstances, a United Methodist church…

NO FEAR TO SAY YES TO GOD!

20 MAR 2019 It’s crucial to realize how important it is to find time for the talk with God within your daily hussy routine. It’s vital to know that we need this time, our relationship with Jesus, on a regular basis, not only in relate to some spiritual events…. In the end of January, 2019, a youth event “God’s calling” took place in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. The event initiated by the United Methodist Church in Eurasia was held…

RESPECT AND TRUST AMONG EUROPEAN DELEGATES IN SPITE OF DIFFERENCES.

by: Christian Alsted 18 JAN 2019 Story from pre-General Conference gathering of European and Eurasian delegates in Braunfels, Germany 11-13 January 2019 It is no secret that there are different understandings of human sexuality, and of what the best way forward is, among the 40 delegates from Europe and Eurasia. This was quite clear when the delegates met in January in Braunfels, Germany for three days of worship, prayer, conversation, reflection and fellowship. The purpose of the gathering was to…

VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA HOSTS SOCIAL PRINCIPLES TRAINING

by: Clayton Childers 11 DEC 2018 Seventeen Russian pastors and church leaders, (3 men and 14 women), gathered on October 15-20 near the city of Vladivostok for a five-day training on the United Methodist Social Principles. Rev. Andrei Kim, DIstrict Superintendent for the (Eurasian) Far East District, said: “This is our first opportunity to host a Social Principles training in the Far East of Russia. Travel is always a challenge in our district; the district covers three zones. A number…

ONE PARTICIPANT’S EXPERIENCE

by: Elvira Solnechnaya 21 Sep 2018 The Christian Conference on Discipleship and Covenant Groups that took place in June of this year in the hamlet of Oktyabrskiy near Moscow was the second such conference. The previous conference took place last summer. This Conference was designed for Christians who were already “on fire,” for seekers, for those who were not satisfied with their current spiritual lives, for those who wanted to grow as people, for those who wanted to know the…

SPIRITUAL FORMATION INSTITUTE – 2018

автор: Tatiana Vladimirova “For the first time, I visited Academy for Spiritual Formation in Voronezh in June 2015. That was the first ASF in Russia, which was intriguing by itself. I couldn’t even guess how astounded I would be within these 5 days. ASF theme that year was Renewal relationship with God. I had almost 20 years of walking with God, tons of lectures and seminars attended, as a pastor I myself organized different classes. But I truly can’t express…

THE CONFERENCE IN LOCKUM-2018: “THE CHURCH IS AN INTERMEDIARY IN THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN CONFLICT”

Which role is the church playing in solving the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, and which one should it play? That’s the issue the Conference that took place in the Evangelical Academy in Loccum (Germany) was trying to address. More than 10000 of civil and military victims, thousands of the wounded and traumatized, more than 3 mln. refugees – that’s the outcome of the conflict that started in 2014. What solutions may the church offer in this situation? The…

HOLIDAY FOR THE BIBLE GROUP IN A STRICT REGIME COLONY

by: Galina Kolesnikova 9 Feb 2018 That kind of the miracle only God can do! In the dungeons of concrete, iron and bricks, in the steel-clamped hands, the heart and the soul of the man are free, and his body became the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who lives in him. The Lord hasn’t got any locks and any barriers. The condemned see the hands of the Lord Himself, Who gives them a cup of holy communion, a cup of…

YOUTH FESTIVAL 2018 “WHEN GOD CALLS…”

by: Natalia Smirnova 5 March 2018 Mission is one of the key areas in the development of the United Methodist Church in Eurasia. We have been repairing church buildings, organizing summer activities for Roma children and people with disabilities, initiating Christian motocross for bikers and assisting in ministry to HIV-infected children in South Africa. You can become a missionary at any age. It is especially joyful when young people begin to prepare themselves for such hard ministry. The festival “When…

“THE WISE VIRGINS” – WOMEN’S CONFERENCE OF THE VOLGA DISTRICT

by: Elena Melnikova 28 Feb 2018 One more seminar of the women leadership training series, initiated by Women’s Ministry of Eurasia United Methodist Church Coordinator, Elena Melnikova, took place in October of 2017 under the umbrella of the Women’s Conference of the Volga District called “The Wise Virgins”. It was based on the biblical parable of the wise and foolish virgins, but this time we wanted to focus on what exactly makes the difference between wise and foolish, and what…

SOCHI UNITED METHODIST CHURCH RENEWAL

by: Katherina Tokareva 2 Feb 2018 The “Transfiguration” (“Prieobrazhenie”) Sochi United Methodist Church has been renting the audience for Sunday worships for a month and a half already. We’d like to share the joy with you, because for two years in a row we’d been gathering in our pastor Nadezhda’s apartment and realized one thing – we need to find a new accommodation so that new people could come. New people, as willing as they could be, would be unlikely…