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Bakery building offers bread of life for Russian congregation

 


Bakery building offers bread of life for Russian congregation

Feb. 12, 2004

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
UMNS photo courtesy Brentwood United Methodsit Church

A former bakery in Russia has been transformed into a United Methodist church thanks to the vision of a congregation in Brentwood, Tenn.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (UMNS) - A former bakery in Russia has been transformed into a United Methodist congregation, thanks to the vision of a church in Tennessee.

The building housing Perovo (Russia) United Methodist Church is now offering the "bread of life," says the Rev. Galina Gonchukova.

The 110-member congregation had been meeting in basements, halls or any space it could rent for the last 10 years.

"It was very common for them to be evicted from the spaces they rented when the owners found out they were Methodists," says Wanda Stone, international lay leader at Brentwood United Methodist Church.

Brentwood has had a financial relationship with the Perovo church since the Russian congregation was founded and pays half of the salary for a pastor. In 2000, a Brentwood team visited Perovo, just outside Moscow, and returned to America on fire. The team members were determined to give the Russian church a permanent home.

"The trip to visit our sister congregation in Perovo was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life," says Keith Lawrence, a member of the Tennessee congregation. "After returning to Brentwood, I began exploring the possibility of our church helping the Perovo congregation obtain the item most needed, a church building of their own."

Perovo's congregation consists mainly of elderly women living on limited income and with no means of raising money on their own, Stone says. The church has about 110 members.

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
UMNS photo courtesy Brentwood United Methodist Church

Sabine and Don Barnett traveled to Russia for Perovo United Methodist Church's 10th anniversary celebration.

When the first team returned from Russia and told Brentwood's serving team (outreach committee) of the need to send $250,000 to Russia, Stone says a few people were more than a little skeptical.

"Some thought they had lost their minds," she says. "Others where untrusting of the Russia government. But God was working through several of the team members, and they would not stop seeking funds."

"My most important and significant impression came from the opportunity that we all had, which was to be guests in the homes of the church members," says Sandra Miller, part of the team that went to Russia in 2000. Seeing the distance the Russians traveled "just to get to the church was amazing," she said.

Bishop Ruediger Minor, who oversees the church's Eurasia Area out of Moscow, and the Rev. Lydia Mikailova, then pastor of Perovo, visited Brentwood one Wednesday night in 2001. After they spoke to the church, a love offering of $75,000 was raised. With that offering, the church had raised $150,000 and needed $100,000 more.

The church decided to focus its 2003 Easter offering on raising funds for a building for the Perovo congregation. Church members were asked by letter to consider giving $80 per household.

In part, the letter read: "Our church could take comfort in knowing that many, many others would hear the true message of hope in Christ and His wonderful saving grace. It is not often that our dollars can have such an immediate impact in saving a future generation by bringing them to Christ."

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
UMNS Photo courtesy Brentwood United Methodist Church

When renovations are complete, this room will be the main sanctuary of Perovo United Methodist Church.

The goal was achieved and the money sent to Russia.

Sabine and Don Barnett traveled to Russia in November to represent Brentwood at Perovo's 10th anniversary celebration. The couple, members of Brentwood, have lived, worked and studied in the former Soviet Union. To see the United Methodist Church flourish there is amazing, Sabine says.

"The Russian Orthodox Church is so powerful in Russia, they have so many beautiful buildings, they are a visible sign of the church," she says. "Protestant churches have had a hard time. The Methodist church has a good reputation, but our sister church had no place of their own to met."

Despite the need for many repairs, the congregation joyously celebrated its anniversary in the new building, she says.

"Just the ability to celebrate this anniversary in a place that we can call our own, by God's grace and your help, is a tremendous testimony to the reality of God's work in this world and in our lives," the Rev. Gonchukova said in a letter to the congregation of Brentwood United Methodist Church.

Brentwood will send a team to Russia to help the congregation transform the bakery into a sanctuary. "We are going to send a team of very construction-oriented people hopefully in April or May," Stone says.

"God wanted this to happen," she says. "We are a large church, but the majority of us are just everyday working people. I hope other churches can see what we were able to do and realize they can do it too."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.  News media can contact her at  (615) 742-5470 or newdesk@umcom.org.

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