The rain fell so hard and fast on the plastic roofing sheets that it was almost impossible to hear oneself think, let alone to catch what the teacher was trying to say. It was time to take a break, to wait, to take in the sound of God sending nourishment to the earth...and then to consider our options and to proceed with the best solution available to us. In this case – to move our meeting from the camp's veranda/cafeteria to the bar. That moment was in some ways typical of the summer seminar of the Far East deanery, held in July. The weather forced us to modify our plans from time to time, but in no way did this negate the feeling of thankfulness for God's showering of grace onto us. Our group over 30+ participants (photo, left) were once again in a beautiful setting surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ. Our differences taught us to need to be patient with one another, to just wait and listen from time to time. Plans for the deanery are in flux as it is obvious that we are in a period of leadership transition, but we are confident that the Lord is accompanying us as we move forward along the way. In our week together God nurtured us through fellowship with one another, through worship together, and through the lessons built around seminar's theme - “our people – other people.”

Three guest speakers came to the Far East for the purpose of stimulating our minds and inspiring us to action. William Yoder, a church journalist who has helped in our deanery before and is currently living in the Kaliningrad region, shared with us his knowledge of our neighbors in the Far East – the Christians in China and Korea. By speaking about their context, he helped us understand them better and hoped to show that there is the possibility of fruitful cooperation. Dean Vladimir Vinogradov from Omsk spoke about how congregations could be more welcoming to those from the outside and the factors that are related to congregational growth. His experience in congregations in Siberia provided real-life, working of examples of practical changes that congregations might make for the sake of mission.Vladimir attended together with his family – his wife Olga (see below) and their son, Dmitry. The twice-daily blocks of lessons held by Vladimir and William were supplemented by shorter, thematic classes led by myself, dean emeritus Manfred Brockmann, Pastor Alexander Lapochenko, and preacher Nina Dmitrieva. Representatives of six different congregations led morning or evening prayer services, many for the first time.

In my first year of organizing this seminar (already in its 26th year), we introduced two innovations – one was having a bit of small group work together with those lay leaders who preach and preside at the liturgy in congregations (photo, right). The other, more difficult change was to add a youth-specific component to our event. This is where Olga Vinogradova comes in; she is the volunteer leader of ministry with teenagers in our Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia and Far East. She is herself a child of the Omsk congregation's Sunday School and Youth programs, and her rich experience there and as a camp counselor paid off when working with the youth from around our deanery. Despite the variety in age and experience of the young people, Olga won their respect and trust and succeeded in uniting the group. In reading their evaluations, I saw that she also inspired them to want to have more contact with the church in the future. It will be our job to make sure that we make a compelling case for the importance of the community of faith as they move toward their adult lives.

While the rain did not allow us to spend us much time out in nature as usual, I organized a couple of longer “hikes with the dean” to some of the most interesting spots on the cape where we were located, and the Sea of Japan welcomed plenty of swimmers from our group. And though the dean was exhausted by it all at the end, the others in attendance came away from the seminar rejuvenated for their daily Christian walk...and hoping to meet again with one another – if not at the January deanery seminar – at least at the same time next year.