Bible School in Kazan (Russia) January 2005

In the beautiful Krutushka Sanatorium in Tatarstan, the Brothers and Sisters of Eastern Europe gathered together. Here 56 people from seven countries gathered together to grow closer to God. The love of brothers and sisters was clear. I arrived in Kazan a day early, because of how the train timetable was. But in a strange town, I wasn’t alone. In fact six others arrived earlier too. And we were welcomed to the home of Sister Ludmila Kuritsyna. We were so grateful for her hospitality to us.

 

Kazan Bible School

 

Receiving-in of the six new members

Brother Viktor Filatov had arranged everything and hired a bus to transport us from the city to the Sanatorium. We settled in and then we had the talks in a special lecture room. It was really convenient. So we studied the Bible together in a very nice cosy atmosphere.

With great interest we listened to the speakers, Brothers Bruce Parker from USA, David Bushell from England, Michael Floyd from South Africa and our brother Duncan Heaster. In the evenings, the brothers told us about the lives of other brothers and sisters in many places, like England, South Africa and Bosnia. We watched pictures and movies about those places.

Six men and women, who had truly learnt of the truth and accepted Christ in their hearts and confessed this in interview, were baptized. For the first time, they took the symbols of our Lord’s sacrifice, the bread and wine. Brothers and sisters, these are like new-born babies. They have joined our Christadelphian family. Love, care, constant attention and patience must surround them. They are to grow up in the faith with us their older brothers and sisters. To celebrate this great event, we made a small concert, and in the evening, a ‘sweet table’.

There was lots to do in the free time. There was a lot of snow, to make snowmen, and also there were skis to go skiing. The spiritual atmosphere, the feeling that we were being built up in your faith, the great weather and pretty countryside, these things will remain in our memories even more than the many photographs that were taken.

We realized that those who organized this gathering worked very hard for us. But their reward was that they helped us to come nearer to the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. So finally on 10th January the bus came to take us back to the city, from where one by one we got our trains home, to different parts of the earth. There were many tears as we said goodbye. From all my heart I want to thank our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the lecturers, those who gave money for this, the organizers, for allowing us this great opportunity to meet together, to feel our unity as brothers and sisters, to encourage each other as true brothers, and to grow in our understanding of God’s word.

 

Above: young Brethren and Sisters and Sis Vanessa Floyd congratulating our aged Russian Sister on giving an excellent confesson of faith. Below: two newly baptised, David and Michael, and by himself Bro Michael Floyd from sunny South Africa who could easily be mistaken for a Russian!.

Sis. Ludmila (Poltava, Ukraine)


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