Russian Pastor to Share Message and Music at Immanuel Batavia

Pr. Yaroslav Boychenko is preaching at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Batavia (950 Hart Road) on Sat. Jul. 22 at 5:30 PM and on Sun., Jul. 23 at 8, 9:30, and 10:45 AM. The community is invited to attend and hear his inspirational message. On Tue., Jul. 25, Pr. Boychenko will share a concert of classical piano music in the Immanual sanctuary. The concert is free and all are welcome to attend.

Yaroslav Boychenko (Slava) was born in 1969 in Ukraine. He grew up and studied in the city of Vinnitsa,
Ukraine. He graduated from the College of Music in Vinnitsa and the Music Conservatory in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, majoring in music history and musicology and moved to Nizhny Novgorod, 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Moscow. Slava began wondering about God when he was a young musician.

His curiosity was further piqued by the compositions of his favorite composer, J. S. Bach. He grew up in an atheist Soviet family where they would never talk about God, yet he always sensed that atheism did not provide answers to the questions about the meaning of life and why he was alive. He always felt the Creator's presence and something inconceivable, causing him to feel, in Slava’s words, “Awe and joy. It was the phenomenon of music that first made me think about God. I was not baptized at that time.”

After teaching college level English, composition, English as a Second Language, and communications
courses at institutions such as Northern Illinois University, Truman College, Robert Morris College, and Literacy Chicago for ten years, Pr. Leif Camp became a volunteer missionary with the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. His first posting was St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1995, where he met his wife Yevgeniya
(Zhenya).

In 1996 Pr. Camp and Zhenya came to Nizhny Novgorod and opened a mission next door to Slava’s apartment building. Soon Slava was coming by the mission every day after work and it is then that Pr. Camp first told him about Jesus. They had many such talks, which helped him come to an understanding of Christian teaching and fellowship. Slava was baptized in November 199 and little by little he began ministering at the church through the library ministry, helping with the film ministry, playing the organ during services, and helping with janitorial work.

In 1997 Pr. Camp and Zhenya came back to the States and he attended seminary at Concordia-St. Louis. Following his graduation, he and his wife were sent to Siberia and stationed in Novosibirsk. As a result of
a mission budget cut in 2003, Pr. Camp and Zhenya were informed that their mission could no longer be funded. They temporarily relocated to St Petersburg so Zhenya could say goodbye to her mother while the pastor worked on getting his name onto call lists in the United States. In the midst of this, Arri Kugappi, the Bishop of the LCMS partner Church called the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia (ELCIR), contacted him saying, “We can’t pay you, but we would like to call you to be a missionary pastor to continue help to the Church here.” Since the LCMS mission was no longer able to support the pastor and his wife, and he had not received any other call, he accepted the call to Ingria under the partnership agreement signed by both churches at the LCMS 1998 convention.

Eventually Slava began attending multi-day seminars in Moscow, which were led by prominent teachers and organized by the LCMS as continuing education for pastors and church leaders. He continued participating in these seminars for more than 13 years, attending more than 52 of them. In 1999 he was allowed to teach in
church when the pastors were away and in 2001 he was ordained as a deacon for the congregation in Nizhniy. After completing his studies (and testing out of most of the required classes) in 2005, Pr. Yaroslav Boychenko was ordained as pastor of Nizhny Novgorod Evangelical Lutheran Congregation.

Pr. Boychenko’s duties as deacon included delivering sermons, leading the services, sacraments, organizing and leading various seminars, organizing outreach events such as concerts, family camps, etc., and receiving foreign guests and delegations from the United States, France, Germany, Finland, England, and Holland. For the last several years, he has been organizing musical evenings as a form of outreach where he shares about the life and work of classical and jazz musicians.

Pr. Camp has been serving in Ingria since 2003 and is currently responsible for helping plan and lead parish seminars and mission events, teaching and developing curriculum at the Ingrian Lutheran Theological Institute and its extension programs, coordinating short-term missionaries and groups, leading weekly English language worship services at St. Anne Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg, and helping with leadership development.

Pr. Boychenko believes that being a Christian is following the right path in life. For him this means to believe and to live according to the Gospel. He is convinced that his imperfections and sins have been redeemed by God, Who forgives all. “Evangelical life is a difficult path of daily choices between right and wrong and good and evil, following the Lord's commandments or breaking them, being faithful to God in everyday activities. It is not always easy,” he says.