February 2002

Dear Friends,

I want to ask everyone to thank God with me for the amazing blessing of a seminar for teacher trainers that our Narnia Educational Center held this week just outside Moscow for 17 women and 4 men from Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and Pentecostal churches in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Each one of the participants has responsibility for training people for children’s ministry in their region of their church or for their entire denomination. This was the first time we have organized and conducted this type of a seminar. We have been working for a year on a Russian language training manual for Sunday school teachers. We printed 30 copies of the first draft to test it out with this group and we got some important feedback on it. But most of all we were blessed by the contribution made by each of the participants who all came ready to share with one another their creative ideas for ministry with children. We asked a number of people to pray for this event, and we worked hard to plan it, but like all our efforts, we went into it less prepared than we would have wished. The enthusiasm, joy and creativity we experienced at this seminar far exceeded my expectations. Many times the participants expressed deep gratitude to us and to God that we had made the effort to give our attention to the needs of those who are working in the area of children’s ministry.

We prepared talks on teacher development, team building, leadership, evaluation of teaching literature, adult education, games, creativity and our new children’s ministry bulletin. The seminar participants came loaded with camping programs, puppet theaters, songs, stories of their own work in teacher training, crafts, and many creative ideas. Every one was amazed by the outpouring of creative ideas that were shared around our seminar tables.

By means of this seminar we have found some people who can write articles for our bulletin on children’s ministry, who can write book reviews and collaborate with us on other children’s ministry projects.

Last night we had a celebration by candlelight with tea, candy, fruit, and cake around the table in the dining room. It is hard to describe the atmosphere of love, joy, and fellowship that we experienced with 22 Slavic Christians who are united by a common desire to minister in the name of Christ to the children of their countries as for more than an hour we sang one song after another. This morning as we brought the seminar to a close the group sang a song which they themselves wrote to thank God and to thank me and the other seminar leaders, naming us their new father, mother, and sister. They presented me with a card congratulating me on the birth of a new baby.

I also want to thank God and thank those churches which have prayed and supported the educational ministry of Narnia Center. This kind of event is possible and is blessed because of you.

We feel that God has shown us a group of people that are really in need of the kind of support and training that we can offer, so this is an answer to prayer. We plan to hold another such seminar in October.

Grace and Peace,

Donald Marsden

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94