Today was our last day of classes in 2006! We'll have a two week break until they resume. In the meantime, we'll be going to a village for a few days to encourage a young church there (Leif will be preaching again), and the following week a short-term missions team is coming to Ulan Ude.
Speaking of Ulan-Ude, the whole city is preparing for the New Years celebration. Huge, intricate ice sculptures are displayed downtown, depicting the year of the pig and three major religions: Buddhism, Islam, and the Russian Orthodox Church. (We find it interesting the the Orthodox Church made it into the sculptures but not Shamanism). There are also a few ice slides in the central square that the children LOVE to play on. It was so fun watching them today.
This evening I (Jami) went to a ladies Christmas tea. Christmas in Russian isn't celebrated until the 7th of January. At the tea we ate delicious soup, sipped tea and devoured Christmas cookies. We also talked about the miracle of Jesus coming to this earth and read the Christmas story aloud, taking turns in reading. I even read a couple of verses! I think I'm getting braver with just speaking out and not worrying about what I sound like.
We discovered today that we thought we were drinking filtered water since we've been here, but we weren't at all! (even the Russians don't drink unfiltered water) Ha! Thankfully, God is our great protector. And we're drinking filtered water now. Have a happy New Year and we'll write again when we return from the village!!
2 comments:
... and we are still waiting for snow ;(
Hi Guys!
The funny thing is that we just bought a Brita today too! Not because we weren't drinking filtered though, but because we were drinking bottled and it was getting stinkin' expensive for things like soup and stuff like that. I did drink tap water in Ulan Ude for 6 weeks on summer project when I was far more daring, and I didn't die either (as you may have noticed). You might glow in the dark for awhile or something, but oh well.
We think of you guys a lot and can't wait to hang out sometime! Please come stay with us in "warm" Krasnodar if you get a chance! We hope to make it to UU of course too. Happy New Year!
~'Jamin and Ashley
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