Lena's Baptism

      Last Sunday, we gathered on the banks of the Ude river and witnessed a miracle!  Lena, a lady in our church who came to Christ a few months ago, declared her faith publically through baptism.   It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the air was filled with a sense of celebration!

     Some of us ladies gave Lena flowers and gathered for a picture.

     We had our church service before the baptism.  It was significantly shorter than normal, as we were all standing. 

      And after the baptism, we took part in communion and singing praises to God together.

Ella, with her friend, Rostik

     Of course, the kids all loved being outside for the service!  Here are Anneka and Matty, playing in the dirt/mud.

     I love this picture of Baba Ira and her husband.  And their car.  It's my dream car.

     Inka helped get Ike to sleep in the stroller and he slept for a couple of hours.

     We all celebrated after the service by having lunch together.  Usually I make something homemade, but this time I got the idea to order a bunch of hotdogs wrapped in dough from the bread lady.  It was a bit of a risk because we both had to trust that the other person would follow through, but it worked out great!  Super easy, kid-friendly, and less expensive and a lot less time than making pizza (which is what I probably would have made.)

    

     One of the guys in the church at one point during the picnic shouted out, "Leif! Jami!".  I was afraid that Anneka had fallen into the water completely.  But she was just playing the mud.  Anneka had spent the whole week learning/practicing how to tie her shoes (Leif taught her and she was so proud!), but then she couldn't wear them for her first day of school because they were so caked in mud and we couldn't dry them in time.  A little disappointing, but she got over it.  =)