Chocolate or Sour Cream?

When I first came to Russia, I was repulsed by all of the sour cream ("smetana") that Russians ate. I would stand in line at a cafeteria for soup and before I could move my bowl out of the way, a lady would plop a huge spoolful of sour cream into it. I then spent the rest of lunch time spooning around the blob, hoping it wouldn't rupture into the rest of my soup. Russians love their sour cream, and I think that I'm slowly becoming one... because I LOVE sour cream now!! We both love sour cream! The other night during dinner, Leif and I had a discussion over which food item we'd give up if we had to choose: chocolate or sour cream. And we both decided that we'd rather have sour cream than chocolate. Don't get me wrong, chocolate is wonderful. But sour cream can make an ordinary dish extraordinary, where as chocolate stands alone.

We buy these bags of sour cream and go through about one a week. Each bag holds about 2 cups. Notice how "20%" is written on the bag. This is the fat content. In Russia, people consider a food item to be better if it has more fat in it. This gives a person energy. So instead of labels like "nonfat" or "less than 1% fat", we see labels where the good yogurt is labeled 12% (Mmmmm.... the best!) and sour cream 20%. People think we're crazy because we buy the 1.8% milk (the lowest fat content in milk at our local store) when we can afford the 5% variety. Speaking of milk, it's packaged in boxes on shelves at room temperature. It must be safe because we are still alive. The yogurt is at room temperature, too. And eggs. And pig heads. And a lot of things.

Reaching the Buryats

Following our conference this fall about sharing Christ with Buddhists and Shamanists, the local churches have begun a monthly meeting of prayer, brainstorming, and planning how to reach the Buryats for Christ. It is so encouraging to see the beginnings of this. Churches in Ulan Ude are becoming more aware of the need to reach out to their own people and travel to villages throughout the region. Yesterday was the third meeting of it's type. One lady made CD's with Christian songs in the Buryat language for all of us to have.

Last Sunday, for the first time at our church, a group of 6 people sang a hymn in the Buryat language. This may seem like a small step, but we really think it is huge in terms of people developing a heart for their region. We are excited by how God is at work. The picture above is a few of the Buryat believers who were at the meeting.

May I Take Your Coat?

Okay, so a few days ago Jami wrote in a blog that she thinks I'm a cute driver. Well, I think that everyone will agree that she even cuter in her work as a coat checker! I know that some of you may be thinking that that is not exactly what we came here to do, and I can assure you it is not a part time job to supplement our salary. No, actually this is just Jami being her normal self and volunteering to do just about anything to help out. You see there was a concert being put on by a team from Canada at one of the large auditoriums in Ulan-Ude, and they needed someone to help with checking coats (that is a pretty regular thing with how much people have to wear in the cold winters here). It was so fun to see her working side by side with a lady who does this as her job. You can see in the picture that you have to deal with crowds in this line of work. I love that Jami felt comfortable doing this, and I think that is shows how well she is progressing in her language. It was great to be a part of this concert in this way. We did get to enjoy the show as well, and were particularly encouraged to see one young lady who works at a cafe we often go to near our school. Many of our relationships are still in their early stages, but it is encouraging to know that God is bringing different people into our lives, and that He will help to grow those relationships.

VTI Team

For three weeks, a Canadian group is here in Ulan Ude from Venture Teams International. There are four guys and three women (one is a translator) on the team. We get the privelege of hosting the women while they are here. This group uses music, drama, and chalk art to share the love of Jesus with people here. Yesterday and today they traveled to a couple of nearby villages to perform. Leif is one of the drivers. He's such a cute driver.

It's refreshing to be around this group and their energy. It's also always good to be reminded of the beauty of the gospel message. I love when the creativity in God's children reflects their Creator.

Grand Hospitality

While we were in Zakamensk (town six hours away) over New Years weekend, we stayed with a wonderful couple. They were an amazing example to us of hospitality and we had a great time getting to know them over the few days we were there. This couple just got married in September, but because of visa issues have already had to be apart for two months. The wife is a "German Russian". She lived in Kazakstan until she was about twelve, but has lived in Germany since then. After their marriage, she had to leave the country to get a visa.

This couple took us in (and another girl, Lena), gave us their bed, fed us, and kept us warm by continually stoking the fire. They had no running water and yet hauled water for us...not to mention the sheets they would have to wash after we left. We did get to help one day as you can see in the picture. Besides all of this, the wife had to leave the same day we did for Mongolia for another month to get a new visa. And yet she never complained about having us there as guests, taking time away that she could have had with her husband. This was truly a blessing to us and a lesson in hospitality... and a reminder of what a servant Jesus is. We have so much to learn!

We congratulate you with the new year!

In the Russian language, it is common to congratulate people for lots of things- including the new year. So we congratulate you for 2007! Leif and I spent the weekend in a town that's about a 6 hour ride away. It took more like 8 hours to get there because we were transporting a mattress on the roof and at first it didn't like to stay there. Thankfully, God protected us and other cars from accidents with the flying mattress.

We stayed with a Russian couple (more about that tomorrow) and met some of the people in the church there. We saw huge needs and felt oppression in this town but were also encouraged by how God is at work there. He loves them and wants them to know Him.

Leif was asked to preach again on Sunday... thankfully he was able to use his same sermon from the week before. And all day Sunday was a celebration at the church to bring in the New Year. We ate lots of Russian salads, potatoes, and bread with fish in it (it was on the dessert table, so we were both very surprised when we bit into a chunk of fish!) There were two men (see picture above) who really took a liking to Leif. It was really neat to see the three of them talking together and praying together throughout the weekend. I (Jami) felt like the weekend was really good for my language as well. Shannon's friend Emma is here for two weeks from Ohio and often I was the "translator" for her with Russians. I also felt like I got to know some of the Russians on a deeper level. I was thankful for this.

In Russia, the New Year's celebrating starts just before midnight, while in America it's the opposite. Many people stayed up all night and climbed a mountain at 6:30 in the morning! We, however, got a little sleep and went later on New Years day up a beautiful scenic mountain (see picture above). It was so beautiful. On the way back to town from the mountain, we saw Father Frost on the side of the road!!! We had to stop and get our picture with him... and discovered that he was a she... and very drunk at that. It was another reminder of the emptiness of so many people here. You'll notice that the man who joined into our photo is positioned in a traditional Russian squat. Many men will sit around outside chatting in this position. And, of course, he has his vodka bottle.

This town had many free range cows. The cow in the picture was in search of a little snack.

"My Dream-My Mom"

Happy New Year to you all! We had a wonderful trip to a small city in one of the southern regions of Buryatia. The trip was packed full of interesting stories, people to pray for and wonderful relationships, and we want to share with you about some of those in the next day or two, but right now we want to share about our time today. On the way home from this town we stopped in a village where there is an orphanage. There are about forty kids in this children's home. Some of these are true orphans who have lost their parents from tragic deaths while others have been brought here because their home situations are so terrible. The picture at the top was painted by one of the boys in the orphanage. Both Jami and I were drawn to it right away because of the beauty of the picture, but what cemented this image in our hearts was the title, "my dream-my mom". Thinking of this brought tears instantly to Jami's eyes, and we both just looked at each other and thought of these kids crying out for something, for someone to love them. I don't know how many of you have been in children's homes like this, but the kids always tug at your heart and you always feel like you can do so little because you just want to take each one of them home to love and raise as your own child. Our program was pretty simple. We shared with them about Christmas (and in that, shared the wonderful news about Jesus' life, love and salvation), played games, sang songs, did a craft and gave gifts for the workers to pass on to the kids. It was really impressed on our small group that the workers there are so important. We were plesantly suprised after some horror stories we had all heard of different orphanages here in Russia. The conditions were sparse, but nice, and you could tell that the workers care about the kids. We were talking afterwards about how we would like to see the church do more work with this children's home and to make sure we look to the workers to serve and love them as well. They are the only "parents" that so many of these kids know and how powerful would it be if there were believers bringing the love of God to these children every day. Orphans have been on our hearts a lot lately- and all the more as we left these beautiful children. We can't help but be reminded of James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We pray that we can live a life that exemplifies this.