RUSSIA WITH LOVE -- Annual Report January 2014

The inter-confessional Russia With Love project is co-sponsored in Ann Arbor by Journey of Faith Christian Church and St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church. The current members of its Steering Committee consist of people from the Disciples, Orthodox and Presbyterian church communities in Ann Arbor. Members of the Ann Arbor church community are invited to participate in the Steering Committee.

Our goal is to help the Russian Orthodox Church during a difficult period of transition and by doing so to establish long-term ties between American Christians and Russian Christians. Along this line our committee solicits monies to support a joint Danish Lutheran/Russian Orthodox outreach to the needy in Moscow. These monies go towards pre-and-post natal care for expectant and new mothers, emergency medical assistance, assistance to help families avoid evictions, monies for food for the poor, help to Sunday schools and other needs. In addition, Russia With Love has initiated and supported medical exchanges between institutions in Russia and the University of Michigan medical complex. It also has taken initiatives to promote student exchanges with Russia. With more funding we hope to continue these efforts.

Over the course of 2013 Russia With Love received a total of $14,169 from donations and supporters. Of this $5,454 was for designated projects in the student exchange area and $5,255 was from donations received at the end of the year which are available for 2014. Of the $14,169, there remained only $3,451 available over the course of the year to apply to supporting Connie Meyer’s and Fr. Pavel Vishnevsky’s outreach in Russia. During 2013 Russia With Love transferred a total of $6,200 to support that outreach, just half of our monthly goal. Much of the focus of our Russia With Love program during 2013 was on exploring possibilities of initiating student exchanges largely with Russian Orthodox Church schools. As part of that effort Russia With Love had a special meeting in June 2013 with Fr. Sergey Kiselev a senior Moscow priest with a church related school at his parish in the Sviblovo District of Moscow. In addition, with generous support from Journey of Faith Christian Church, Russia With Love worked on initiating a program of providing English language tutoring in Russia to help prepare Russian students to come here with good language preparation.

All this would not have been possible without generous help from the Anderson family, Journey of Faith Christian Church, Zion Lutheran Church, St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church and the help of faithful respondents to our letters of appeal for fund raising.

For this coming year, we hope to strengthen our efforts to help the church in Russia in our own community and among our own church organizations. Along the lines of the latter endeavor, Russia With Love with the support of our church sponsors has initiated a request to the national organizations of the Disciples, the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad to form an inter-confessional consortium to assist us in finding sources of funds to help finance two way educational exchanges. We hope to pursue this to a successful conclusion in 2014. Also we are hoping to bring Connie Meyer and Father Pavel Vishnevsky here this coming (2014) fall for a program with the Ann Arbor church community on the needs and possibilities in Russia to which our efforts are directed.

Russia With Love Steering Committee

RUSSIA WITH LOVE -- Annual Report January 2011

(Memorial Christian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan) (St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church)

The inter-confessional Russia With Love project is co-sponsored in Ann Arbor by Memorial Christian Church and St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church. The current members of its Steering Committee consists of people from the Disciples, Lutheran, Orthodox and Presbyterian church communities in Ann Arbor. Other members of the Ann Arbor church community are invited to participate in the Steering Committee.

Our goal is to help the Russian Orthodox Church during a difficult period of transition and by doing so to establish long-term ties between American Christians and Russian Christians. Along this line, we brought Fr. Gleb Grozovsky to the Kalamazoo Russian Festival last November as a catalyst to try to engage the church community there to become more involved in the St. Petersburg area where Kalamazoo has a sister city relationship with Pushkin where Fr. Gleb serves.

Our committee solicits monies to support what has been a joint Danish Lutheran/Russian Orthodox outreach to the poor in Moscow. These monies go towards pre-and-post natal care for expectant and new mothers, emergency medical assistance, assistance to help families avoid evictions, monies for food for the poor, help to Sunday schools and other needs. The monies sent are to be spent at the discretion of Connie Meyer and Fr. Pavel Vishnevsky for these purposes.

Over the course of 2010, we have raised $10,731.40 for this effort which is down noticeably over previous years. This money has gone towards our goal of sending at least $1,000 a month to sustain Connie's and Fr. Pavel's ministry to the poor in Moscow. Despite the decline in donation, we, just barely, met this goal for 2010. This would not have been possible without very generous help from the Anderson family, Zion Lutheran Church and the help of faithful respondents to our letters of appeal for fund raising.

In late April 2010 we brought three doctors from Moscow for a two week program at the University of Michigan Hospital Burn Unit. The program was an outstanding success in part due to the very good support of members of the St. Vladimir Parish. The cost to Russia With Love was $4,602.93. An additional $1,000 was made available in Moscow by the International Women's Club for which we are grateful. As a result of this effort, Dr. Stewart Wang, the Director of the Burn Unit, will be taking a group from the unit for a program in Moscow this coming April. In addition to the Burn project, some interest from Russia has been expressed in a similar program for nurses to which we hope to respond. A copy of the report by the Russian doctors can be found on our website: www.russiawithloveaa.org and a community report on our efforts can be found at www.annarbor.com.

For this coming year, we hope to strengthen our efforts to help the church in Russia in our own community, in Kalamazoo and among our own church organizations. We also hope to promote contact and exchanges with students in Russia.

                                    John Howard Wilhelm, Chair
                                    Russia With Love Steering
                                    Committee

Memorial Christian Church's work with Russian students

 Thanks to the 1989 Resolution on Student Exchanges which
Russia with Love Ann Arbor initiated and was passed 
by the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
of that year.

Our efforts to help students include the following:

Igor Salnikov  Studied at Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma 1997-1998
Academic Year.

Nadya Levedeva  Studied during the Summer of 1999 at the Michigan Language
Center with support from Memorial Christian Church.

Elena Lavrouchina and Olga Goronkova  Helped to finish their study at
the University of North Carolina-Spartanburg 2000-2001 Academic Year.

Olga Salnikova  Studied at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri
2002-2003 Academic Year.

Following are copies of two relevant resolutions.


		RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE CHURCH BOARD
		      MEMORIAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH
		   Ann Arbor, Michigan October 1998


Whereas the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) adopted a General
Assembly resolution initiated by Memorial Christian Church of Ann
Arbor; and whereas the much anticipated transition from a Communist
USSR to a democratic Russian Federation is proving painfully
difficult; and whereas Memorial Christian Church continues to be very
concerned about the well-being of Russia's millions of people, many of
whom are fellow Christians; and whereas one of Russia's needs still is
higher education which will allow its people to make a smoother
transition to well functioning democracy; therefor be it resolved by
the Official Board of Memorial Christian Church that we urge our
General Minister and President, and other appropriate officials, to
re-study our resolution with a view to more active implementation of a
plan to help Russian students attend U.S. colleges and/or
universities; further, we offer the good offices of our To Russia with
Love Program to help such aspects of implementation as searching for
scholarship funds.


	   RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE 1989 GENERAL ASSEMBLY
	    OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST)

			       No. 8917

    RESOLUTION ON PEOPLE TO PEOPLE EXCHANGES WITH THE SOVIET UNION

WHEREAS, the General Assembly of our church, meeting in DesMoines in 1985,
called for an improvement in relationships between the United States and the
Soviet Union, and more recently the heads of the two states have met to discuss
these relationships; and

WHEREAS, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has always supported higher
education and communication among peoples as a means of fostering international
understanding and peace; and

WHEREAS, it is clear that more attention needs to be given to exchanging people
and promoting understanding between these two countries if differences are to 
be worked out peacefully; and

WHEREAS, it is also clear that the promotion of the student exchange and of the
language training necessary for meaningful participation in such exchanges is
a crucial element in this process; and

WHEREAS, experience since the establishment of official exchanges has shown that
government sponsored and supported exchanges, while useful, have not effectively
promoted the type of exchanges so sorely needed; and

WHEREAS, an initiative needs to be taken by American colleges and universities
if exchanges are to be put on a more stable basis and to be greatly expanded;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the General Assembly of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) makes a commitment to support the promotion of wider
exchanges and encourages foundations, businesses and churches to seek funds
FOR A PERMANENT ENDOWMENT which would be devoted to:

   a.  promoting the teaching of Russian and other languages of the
       Soviet Union in secondary schools and colleges and universities
       across the USA

   b.  promoting American--SOVIET educational exchanges.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all manifestations of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) seek to convey this resolution to inter-church
organizations and funding organizations on local, state, and national life and
to support an effort to carry out its purpose including the encouraging of their
own church-related schools to become involved in exchanges and in promoting the
type of instruction, especially language instruction, needed for participation
in them.  

                      Christian Church in Michigan

______________________________________________________________________________

      The Committee on Reference and Counsel recommends that the General
      Assembly ADOPT Resolution 8917 as amended.  (Debate time 12 minutes)
______________________________________________________________________________

ACTION REPORT 2007

During its nine years of operation, RUSSIA WITH LOVE has raised money from the Ann Arbor community through appeals and has provided funds in the tens of thousands of dollars to:

respond to over 1000 needy persons after the 1998 Russian economic crash.
assist expectant and new mothers with pre and postnatal care
provide poor families with food help and avoid homelessness
support poor people with emergency medical need
help children from poor families with social and medical needs
strengthen the church's Sunday Schools and summer school camps to keep children off the Moscow streets
care for homeless children and orphans

RUSSIA WITH LOVE -- Annual Report January 2008

(Memorial Christian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan) (St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church)

In 1999 MCC initiated and sponsored the interdenominational Russia With Love Steering Committee which is now co-sponsored with St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church. The committee solicits monies to support a joint Danish Lutheran/Russian Orthodox outreach to the poor centered in Moscow. These monies go towards pre-and-post natal care for expectant and new mothers, emergency medical assistance, assistance to help families avoid evictions, monies for food for the poor, help to Sunday schools and other needs. The monies sent are to be spent at the discretion of Connie Meyer and Fr. Pavel Vishnevsky for these purposes and to fill in the the holes of other pressing needs that arise from time to time that are not covered by other sources. Our work in Moscow simply would not be possible without the very good support of the Danish Lutheran St. Paul Society for which we are very grateful.

Over the course of 2007, we have raised $17,413 for this effort. This money has gone towards our goal of sending at least $1,000 a month to sustain Connie and Fr. Pavel's ministry to the poor in Moscow and to special needs such as urgent surgery for a child from a poor family and tuition support for a Russian Orthodox student in need. This would not have been possible without very generous help from the Anderson family, our Disciples Week of Compassion, Zion Lutheran Church and the help of faithful respondents to our letters of appeal for fund raising. In addition, during 2007 Russia With Love received some very good support from the joint benefit concert put on by the First Presbyterian Church choir and the St. Vladimir Church choir on October 14, 2007. We are especially grateful to the choir directors, Susan Boggs and Julis Easson-Meyer, for making this possible.

Our goal is to help the Russian Orthodox Church during a difficult period of transition and by doing so to establish ties between American Christians and Russian Christians. Along this line in 2008 we would like to organize two group trips to Russia for church people interested in learning more about the situation there. We hope to have participation from Disciples in this.

We hope this coming year to continue this effort since the needs continue as Connie points out. In the course of 2008, we hope to broaden our church support base within our denominations and among local churches such as First Presbyterian and Zion Lutheran. In addition, as a result of our contact with the Orthodox Brotherhood in St. Petersburg, we hope to find churches in an area like Kalamazoo which would have an interest in organizing an effort to help that ministry as well.

As part of our Russia With Love effort, MCC has also helped (consistent with its initiation of the 1989 General Assembly resolution on educational exchanges) students from Russia to study here. Currently John Wilhelm is working to help a student, Konstantin Kovalev, to study here for an academic year at Transylvania University. To do this, we will need to raise money and are hopeful in getting support from local church sources here and in our regions (i.e., Michigan and Kentucky).

                                    John Howard Wilhelm, Chair
                                    Russia With Love Steering
                                    Committee

RUSSIA WITH LOVE -- Annual Report January 2007

(Memorial Christian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan) (St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church)

Over the course of 2006, we have raised $25,273 for this effort. This money has gone towards our goal of sending at least $1,000 a month to sustain Connie and Fr. Pavel's ministry to the poor in Moscow and to special needs such as oxygen equipment for a children's hospital in Moscow and tuition support for a Russian Orthodox student in need. This would not have been possible without very generous help from the Anderson family, our Disciples Week of Compassion, Zion Lutheran Church and the help of faithful respondents to our letters of appeal for fund raising.

Our goal is to help the Russian Orthodox Church during a difficult period of transition and by doing so to establish ties between American Christians and Russian Christians. Along this line, a trip for a small group of people was organized in May as a trial run. It went very well in part because of some very good help from former members of St. Vladimir's now living in St. Petersburg. This coming May we want to organize another group and hope that Fr. Gregory of St. Vladimir's or another American Russian Orthodox Priest can lead such a group. We hope to have participation from Disciples in this.

We hope this coming year to continue this effort since the needs continue as Connie points out. In the course of 2007, we hope to broaden our church support base within our denominations and among local churches such as First Presbyterian and Zion Lutheran. In addition, as a result of our contact with the Orthodox Brotherhood in St. Petersburg, we hope to find churches in the Detroit area which would have an interest in organizing an effort to help that ministry as well.

As part of our Russia With Love effort, MCC has also helped (consistent with its initiation of the 1989 General Assembly resolution on educational exchanges) students from Russia to study here. Currently John Wilhelm is working on getting admission for Konstantin Kovalev to study here for an academic year at Transylvania University. If we can get that commitment, we will need to raise money to bring this about and are hopeful in getting support from local church sources here and in our regions (i.e., Michigan and Kentucky).

John Howard Wilhelm, Chair
Russia With Love Steering Committee

1992-2002 Report of the Danish St. Paul Society

Project 1 Pregnant women and newborn babies. We distribute vitamins to pregnant women as well as providing clothes, toiletries and vitamins for newborn babies.
Project 2 Impoverished Families. We provide food, cleaning supplies, toiletries and payment of housing and education.
Project 3 Families without Fathers. Economic support as well as food and clothing.
Project 4 Orphanages Three orphanages are supported with food.
Project 5 Children's Hospital Morozovskaya Children's Hospital is supported with medicine.
Project 6 Distribution of food and medicine Distribution of food and medicine to needy individuals.
Project 7 Acute Help Support for acute/emergency situations such as treatment of illness including operations, as well as coverage of the associated costs of death and burial arrangements.
Project 8 Private Christian School The school is supported with food for three meals a day for students.
Project 9 Sunday Schools Two sunday schools are supported with teachers and materials as well as a summer camp.
Project 10 The Dagmar/Maria Feodorovna, Danish Princess - Russian Tsarina Memorial Sewing School The students are women who learn to sew vestments for the Russian Orthodox Church. The school has also made vestments for the Danish Evangelical Church. The school is also responsible for teaching embroidery, knitting and lace making in the Private Christian School.

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