Mercy Moment

Caring for People in Russia

The LCMS supports two outreach centers in Russia that provide pastoral care, counseling, financial assistance and other services to those in need.

Story by Sarah Reinsel | Photography by Erik M. Lunsford | Fall 2024

For 20 years, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) has supported two outreach centers in Russia that provide a wide variety of services to people in need. Both centers are run in connection with a local Lutheran church. Clients who come seeking pastoral care, counseling, financial assistance or other resources also come into contact with the Gospel, often for the first time.

In St. Petersburg
Hope Family Counseling Center, located in St. Petersburg, operates in partnership with St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria, an LCMS partner church.

The center proclaims the Gospel and performs mercy work by offering crisis pregnancy counseling and marital counseling, and by supporting pregnant women and single mothers with clothing, food and medicine. In recent years, the center has also reached many elderly women by offering computer classes.

These classes teach students how to use computers, tablets and smartphones. In addition to mastering basic computer skills, students learn how to use Bible apps and practice using Microsoft Word with passages of Scripture. The classes also set aside time for learning about the Bible and the Small Catechism.

Attendees of the classes often suffer from loneliness, strife in their families, illness and all the physical hardships of growing old. Taking a class provides a much-needed social event, and it also builds trust between the participants and members of St. Michael’s, opening up conversations about Christianity, sin and forgiveness, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many of the women who come to Hope for these classes keep coming back because they are interested in Christianity. Sometimes, participants become members of St. Michael’s.

For example, 77-year-old Tatiana started out as a student in the computer class, but after many conversations about Christianity, she went through confirmation and became a member of St. Michael’s. Another example is 70-year-old Liudmila, who became an avid reader of Scripture once she learned to use a Bible app on her tablet.

Tatiana Riyumina, the director of the center and a member of St. Michael’s, reports that “our every meeting turns into a spiritual conversation, where this experienced and wise woman is open to asking her questions. We talk about current politics and her worries about the future. … We talk about God’s answer to our prayers, about death and our attitude towards it.”

In Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk, Russia, the largest city in Siberia, is home to the Christian Counseling Center. The center operates as an outpost of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, which is a member of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church, another LCMS partner church.

The center offers a variety of educational opportunities and social services, such as training programs for Christian doctors and medical workers that equip them to be evangelists in the health care field. It also hosts a chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, and center staff are in the process of starting a sobriety club — both of which are focused on helping alcoholics and their families heal from addiction.

In partnership with Lutheran Theological Seminary in Novosibirsk, the Christian Counseling Center recently held a lecture series on Lutheran architects and artists. Often, people come ready to discuss theology, but they are more hesitant to attend church services. The center offers the perfect environment for people not only to learn about Lutheranism, but also to build relationships and come to understand what it means to be part of the church.

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