Russian partnership to create shared ministry
“Mission is just so important,” said the Rev. Charles Harrell of Trinity UMC, who leads the conference’s partnership with Russia. “It’s a vital part of discipleship. Russia is an opening and an opportunity.
Harrell has been on seven mission trips to Russia. It was his involvement in helping to renovate a camp in the Black Soil District that laid some of the groundwork for the partnership.
In May, this partnership was cemented when bishops John Schol and Hans Växby met together at the South Russia Annual Conference session at Camp Voronezh. 
Harrell was present at the conference, so was the Rev. Rod Miller, director of the Conference Council on Ministries.
“The Black Soil District is one of two large districts in the South Russia conference. There are 20 churches in the conference and 13 churches in the district. Located south of Moscow, the district is the size of France,” Miller said.
Late this summer, Katia Guseva, who leads the programming at the camp, visited the United States for a meeting of the United Methodist
Division of Young People. On her way home, she stopped in to visit Miller.
A member of St. Peter and Paul Church, Guseva is excited about some of the opportunities a partnership can provide.
She knows from her experience with young people at the camp that when God’s love is shared, people’s lives change. “Whether you want it or not, God’s Word works,” she said. “The Word of God is alive.”
For Guseva, part of living this Word involves opening herself up to the diversity of people from all over the world. “At the conference, and in our partnership, I look and say, ‘how can it be?’ The church is so different. My head splits with how different. But it broadens your mind. I learn it’s not only about Russia. God created things so much bigger.”
Harrell agrees. For him, moments when people come together to worship are very meaningful. “When we worship together, some sing in Russian, some in English and all understand one another and are joined in praising God, it’s one of the coolest things,” he said. “It brings a deepening of your spiritual life.”
For Harrell, it’s important not to fall into “mission tourism,” dropping into interesting places on a short-term basis. The partnership enables people to get to really know each other. It makes a difference to the people of Voronezh, he aid, when you go back again and again. “It tells people you care about the shared ministry and that you love them.”
It also provides opportunities for learning from one another.
Guseva gets teary eyed when she thinks of the lessons she’d like to share with the people of the United States. “You have so much,” she said. “You take for granted what you have. You could do so much more with what you have, so much more for God.”
The wasted potential saddens her, especially the time many United Methodists tend to spend sitting in meetings, rather than being out among people in ministry. “You could, we all could, do so much more for Christ,” she said.
Guseva grew up in a village in the former Soviet Union. Her grandparents were Russian Orthodox. At age 18, she met missionaries from America. It was the first time she had heard of Christ.
After that encounter, she said, she started to read the Gospel. She read late into the night, stopping only when she became confused by the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
Today, John is her favorite book, and the Gospels are something she’s eager to share.
A translator during the workday, she says her work often feels like a hobby. “Church is everyday life,” she said.
“It’s really about God’s love,” Guseva added. “I felt it. I saw it. Now I share it.”
The Baltimore-Washington Conference’s Russian Partnership is eager for churches to join in this ministry. One of the group’s first goals it so connect to congregations in the two regions. For information, contact the Revs. Rod Miller at or Charles Harrell at
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