On January 3, a family program called "Mosaic of Happiness" was held in the community of Biysk, Altai Territory in Russia. The community has been holding family club meetings for three years, attended by both church members and invitees. Within the framework of the festive New Year's meeting, the 50th anniversary of one married couple's life was celebrated, and two new married couples were initiated into the family club as members. As a result, about 40 people gathered for the event.
“During such meetings, people open their hearts and communicate. I don't want to leave. We like to attend such events and invite new people,” says Tatiana Grebenshchikova, community member.
The program also consisted of the following blocks: Singing and poetry, creative assignment for families (making a crossword puzzle from names), games, spiritual guidance from the pastor, having tea. The head of the family department of the community, Yulia Pitunina, presented to the assembled audience the idea that the mosaic of happiness should be collected bit by bit, and it does not come at lightning speed, but on the basis of many small and seemingly insignificant events, and that the very structure of family happiness is built through the joint work of spouses. The assembled couples suggested ideas of how they imagine the structure of happiness in their family and how they will construct it.
Jasmin Matevosyan, head of the family department of the Central Siberian Mission, presented on the theme, “Mosaic of Happiness.” During her speech, attention was drawn to the following: “Preparation for marriage is not the wedding, and not family life. Family life is not only joys, but also sorrows, and developing one’s marriage and family relationships can take place and develop only on the basis of sincere, true, free love."
A special event during the program was the presentation of a married couple and a celebration of the 50th anniversary of their marriage. Lyudmila Nikolaevna and Boris Vasilievich were invited to take a place of honor, from where they spoke about the miraculous experiences of God's guidance in their married life. It was on New Year's Day, 1970, that they were married. The couple shared how the Lord had blessed them throughout the intervening years and gave them children and grandchildren.
Roman Ershov, pastor, performed a prayer of blessing for the spouses and, on behalf of the community, presented them with a diploma of a successful family.
“We hope that this event will become a kind of grain of happiness for all visitors,” says Yulia Pitunina, head of the community’s family department. “After all, people are so lacking today a sense of peace and security. We want the Adventist Church to become a kind of ark of salvation, where families can find reconciliation with each other and with God.”
God is the cement of family happiness. He wants to hold the family together with the glue of his love. God is a God of miracles, and he can and wants to unite the unconnected into a single and strong family union.
This article was originally published on the Euro-Asia Division’s news site