Click image for Saratov webpage
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Matthew 13:8
Seed is Sown
The seed for a 5,839 mile relationship between two St. John congregations was sown years ago in Concordia, Missouri.
While Pastor Peter Lange was associate pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Concordia, Missouri from August 1990 to August, 1999, he met Pastor John Mehl. At that time Pastor Mehl served St. Paul in Lincoln, Kansas, but he would occasionally visit his father Dr. Lambert Mehl who was the retired president of St. Paul's College in Concordia.
In 1993 Pastor Mehl, under the guidance of Dr. Wallace Schulz of the Lutheran Hour, accepted a call to become the first Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod missionary to Russia. Consequently, he spent more time in Concordia, Missouri as he studied the Russian language and prepared for his Russian ministry, and later when he came home on furloughs. He preached at a mission festival at St. Paul's and gave presentations to the Lutheran Laymen's League. During these visits, Pastor Lange and Pastor Mehl became better acquainted.
The Seed Germinates
Pastor Lange accepted a call to St. John's Lutheran Church in Topeka in August of 1999. That fall, Marvin Kohlmeier, Mission Awareness Coordinator for the LCMS Kansas District, encouraged St. John's to support a mission field under the Together in Mission program. At Pastor Mehl's suggestion, on 24 February 2005, Mr. Kohlmeier told Pastor Lange of Pastor Olav Panchu. of St. John's Lutheran Church in Saratov, Russia. Pastor Lange then contacted Pastor Panchu. Because of the liturgical history of the church in Russia, the fact that the missionaries there are ordained ministers and because some of the parishioners of St. John's are descended from Germans from Russia immigrants, it was decided to support and encourage the reestablishment of the Lutheran church in Russia.
And Bears Fruit
Since that time the two congregations have regularly communicated with each other, and regular financial support for St. John's Saratov commenced in 2000. Pastor Panchu first visited 22 May 2005 and four times since then, most recently on 17 January 2010. In July of 2008 a small group from St. John's headed by Pastor Lange, journeyed to Moscow where they were met by Pastor Jon Muhly, the current LCMS missionary in Moscow. The delegation then traveled by train to Saratov and were warmly welcomed by Pastor Alexander Furs, associate pastor of St. John's Saratov; his mother Ludmilla Furs, organist and choir director, and the members of the St. John's Lutheran Church, Saratov.
Although we are separated by miles, language and culture, we are united in the grace of God. May we continue to enjoy God's blessings.
On what has now been sown, thy blessing Lord bestow.
The power is Thine alone to make it spring and grow.
May Thou in grace, the harvest raise and Thou alone shalt have the praise.
(John Newton 1725-1807)
by Linda Currie