This year, March 12-15th Tyumen UMC of Salvation hosted young brave and humble leaders from all Eurasia United Methodist Church.
Pastors and leaders under forty from 14 different cities gathered to learn more and to plan actions in one of the major directions of the development of our Church – Missions and mission work.
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Leaders from Church of the Resurrection, one of the largest UMC in the world (Pastor Adam Hamilton), District Superintendants of Eurasia UMC Alexander Vecherskiy, Irina Margulis, Andrei Kim; Bishop Eduard Khegay; Global Ministry coordinators were speakers, preachers and mentors for the participants.
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Methodism started as a movement. Today the goal of our church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace [be] unto you: as [my] Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21, KJVS)
Christ commanded them to go on a mission always and everywhere, where it is possible. Being mission-focused is one of the main characteristics of the Methodist church.
The reality of our time is that few of us have an opportunity to devote all their life to a missionary service. Lately, the interest for long-term missions and their support greatly decreased. However, good news is that most of the churches report about the growing interest to short-term missions.
Short-term missions is an effective way for Christians to serve, using you gifts and talents, no matter whether you are a nurse, or an accountant, a student or a bus driver. One of the ways to serve God is to be a volunteer, a part of a missionary team during vocation time. Short-term missions give us an opportunity to grow in faith, break barriers of cultural differences and other.
This year Eurasia UMC provides several short-term mission opportunities:
• Tyumen UMC «Salvation» needs Christian leaders for the development of mission in the neighboring villages. Another mission opportunity in Tyumen is to help in organization of summer children’s and youth retreats. Also, those who are skilled in construction work are invited to work on finishing several rooms in a church building.
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• Christian Retreat Center “Chrystal” in Voronezh plans remodeling and invites volunteers.
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• Stavropol UMC develops of ministry to the gypsy children. They need leaders to help with this work.
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Leaders of forum «Brave and Humble – 2016», and also youth and youth leaders from different churches of Eurasia UMC are already planning to take part in those mission trips.
If you feel God’s call and you want to know more about those mission trips, write to us to e-mail office@umc-eurasia.ru (Katya Kim).
Text: Katya Kim
Photo: Ivan Perestov, Dmitry Sherbakov
Translate by Katya Zubkova, pastor of Tyumen UMC «Salvation»