On February 17, a consultative meeting of the Family Ministry Department of the Southern Union Mission took place in an online format. It united, in work and communication, the leaders (and their spouses) of the OSS of all church organizations in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The meeting was conducted from Almaty, Kazakhstan.
February 17 was not chosen by chance, for on February 13–20, the annual Christian Family Week was held throughout the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. In all the centuries of the existence of the church, the enemy of God and mankind threw the forces of evil in order to destroy the first monument given by God in Eden: the family.
The participants in the meeting discussed and considered important issues, such as preserving the Adventist family in modern conditions, uniting family members around the Word of God, and serving each other in the church and families in the surrounding community. The leaders of the Family Ministry Department of the Euro-Asian Division, Axenia and Pavel Libransky, presented a detailed, comprehensive strategy for the development of family ministry for the upcoming "I will go with my family" emphasis, and this strategy made it possible to see the goals, objectives, and ways to achieve them.
Representatives of the territories of the Southern Union shared reports of their experience of ministry, as well as future plans. Despite the challenging year of 2020, Adventist families from the six countries of the Southern Union Mission have been united in personal, family, and community prayers, offline and online family meetings, events, and worship services.
For example, for the past eight months, by the initiative of the YUM administration, joint, online Sabbath services have been held every Friday, to which Adventist families are invited as guests. This Friday worship service has become popular in YUM and beyond, with the number of participants reaching into the thousands. Brothers and sisters await and do not miss these meetings of common worship.
The Southern Union has hosted special family nights every year for the past five years. Thus, on February 12 and 19, the Friday evening services were devoted to issues of concern to many Christian families: how to maintain the spiritual health of the family, how to build your home and family, faithfully fulfilling the role of mother, father, husband, and wife, following God's advice, how to raise and educate children, realizing children are a precious gift from God, how to be good stewards of God's blessings and funds in the family budget, and how to resist temptations and create harmonious marital relationships day after day.
These topics were presented by the heads of the Family Ministry departments of the Southern Union Mission—Svetlana and Vladimir Mikhailovs (South Kazakhstan), Elena and Ivan Talalaevs (North Kazakhstan), Natalia and Mikhail Dil (Kyrgyzstan), Nigina and Bakhriddin Sanginovs (Tajikistan), and Diana and Aleksey Meshkovs (Uzbekistan)—as well as the heads of the Family Ministry Department of the Euro-Asian Division, Axenia and Pavel Liberanskiy. A thread of reflections led the audience from topic to topic. Prayers were made for the needs of families, and families praised God by singing.
At the end of the Family Week, the hosts of the evenings, Vladimir and Elena Kotov, invited all married couples participating in these online services to renew their marriage vows. You can visit these services at this link: https://youtu.be/bTsNghN6_2Y.
All initiatives that contribute to the creation and strengthening of the family, encourage active service to people, and bear fruit for heaven make families harmonious and happy in God.
Today, God’s church is at the borders of the heavenly Canaan, and for all of us, as never before, the call of Joshua is relevant: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15, NKJV).