Settling in to Winter

 

     Winter is officially here.  It's been -30 this week, and it's dark until almost 10:00am.  We've pulled out all of our many, many layers and have them heaped on a chest by the door for when we go outside.  Leif was gone last week at a seminar for pastors and local leaders on how to write sermons.  It was a really good week for him and the other men there.  And God took good care of us at home, too!  Nettie and Renata each spent a night here so I didn't have to bundle all 3 kids before 8:00am on two of the mornings.  It was so nice to have that time with them.  And the other mornings we had this handy-dandy sled that I just pushed them all on.  (I took this picture before the super cold days).

 

    Things have quickly returned to busy/normal.  We've had a cold run through our family, and we're a little worn down.  It's nice to have some Thailand memories to brighten our days!  Here are some fun ones of our family jumping on the beach:

 

 

 

     Leif was gone this last week with a bunch of local leaders/pastors at a training on preaching in Chita.  One evening, the kids and I were lighting the advent candle.  The theme of the week is love, and so I was talking a bit about God's love and how when we ask Him for that kind of love in our own lives, he gives it to us freely.  Out of nowhere, Ella interrupted me and began praying, "God can you please come into my heart?" She was so excited, she wanted to call Leif right away and tell him.  And she loved when Anneka told her that the angels in heaven are celebrating!  We pray that Ella will live her whole life for Jesus and will shine His light wherever she goes.

Conference In Thailand

  Whenever our long winter can be broken up, even just a little, it lifts our spirits soooo much!  We had the privilege of going to our SEND Russia conference in Thailand this year.  It was so nice to have time with people from our team, leadership from America, and to get to know others serving in Russia more closely.

 

     It's also a breath of fresh air when we can hear good teaching in English and sing praise songs in our heart language.  It was also very encouraging to hear reports of what God is doing- not only in Russia, but all around the world!

 

 

 

     One very special gift is that Leif's mom, Irene, came to the conference to help with the children's program.  The kids loved being with her (and not just our kids!), and it was fun for her to see us in a beautiful place, enjoying flowers and interesting animals together.



 

      The kids program far exceeded any of our hopes or expectations!  They had a whole super-organized and fun program on what it means to stand strong for God.  The teachers had costumes and acted out Bible stories and the room was made into a castle.  Here, the kids were building a wall.  They still talk about the time and the lessons they learned.  It's so special when third culture kids can have these times with other kids just like themselves.  They really bond.

 





    Anneka and Lina were inseparable the entire week!  Their common language is Russian, so at any given moment you could hear little girls chattering away in Russian.

 



     It was really special to have Anna Blaker come and help with the kids program.  She lived in Ulan Ude with her family a couple of years ago and is now grown up and living in the States.  Ella and Anya also just love to be together.  They call each other "My Ella" and "My Anya". 

     The kids got to act some things out, too!

 

 

     The place where we stayed is a service for missionaries and Christian workers.  It was a lovely property.  In the afternoons we had time to talk with others and play fun games like this one where you throw blocks of wood.

... and we spend a lot of time swimming!

 

 

I just love these snuggly guys!

 

 

     Kelsey (in the middle) is 16 and joined her mom at the conference.  Her mom is in charge of caring for SEND Eurasia missionaries and led a very special time for the women.  Kelsey also worked with the kids, and these two girls just LOVED her.  They would sneak up to her window in the mornings and follow her around.  She was very sweet about it, too!

 

 

     On two of the nights, they set up vans for anyone who wanted to go to the market.  On the first night, Irene stayed with the kids, and Leif and I enjoyed a date together.  We went to this place where hundreds of little fish bite off little bits of your feet and legs.  It was so crazy!  I can't believe we did it and actually sat there with our feet in the water for 15 minutes!  They eat off dead skin and calluses, so our feet were soft and smooth afterwards.



 

     The other market night, I went out with Irene while Leif stayed back with the kids.  We had a nice dinner with John and Sharon and did some Christmas shopping.  It was very fun to have this time together!

 



 

 

     The flight back is 6.5 hours, from Bangkok to Irkutsk.  The kids did great.  It's really nice not having to change time zones too much.  We don't have to deal with the jet lag like when traveling to Moscow.

 

     We waited in the middle of the night at the train station, before our final leg of the trip back home (an 8-hour train ride).  The kids were playing some sort of game, and the security guard came to watch.  We all slept almost the entire train ride!

 

      After the conference, we also had a week of family vacation time with Irene.  I'll tell about that in a blog post soon!

Grancy

It has been a tough stretch for us as far as having to grieve the loss of people we love.  A few days after Jami's grandpa Charlie died, a good family friend Cheri died (I will probably blog about this later), and then two weeks to the day after Jami's grandpa passed away, my grandma "Grancy" also came to the end of her days here with us.  She was very special to us, and we will miss our visits to her, her straight forward talk, and the cards that she would send for holidays or just to keep us informed.  She had really been waiting for this day for quite some time.  It was very hard on her when her husband, my Gramps, died now about 15 years ago and her soul left her body on what would have been their 72nd wedding anniversary.  We are thankful that she got to meet each of our three kids, but are a little sad that they will have little or no real memories of her.  I talked to my dad and he shared that the end went as well as he could imagine.  He and two of his three brothers were able to be there with her and hold her hand as they shared stories and memories before she passed on into eternity.  Their other brother is already there now as they will spend time remembering their mom together.  Dad had high praise for the care at the hospice house where Grancy spent her waning hours.  I have always heard good things and have such respect for people who spend their lives caring for those who are imminently facing death.  They were great for the family and helped the last hours go by well.  Deaths like this usually hit us twice.  Once when we hear the news, and then again when we travel back to the States and our loved one isn't there waiting for us.  We love our Grancy and are so thankful for the love that she showed up.  We will miss her.

The one memory that may stick with our kids, at least Anneka, is getting to ride on Grancy's walker.  I think sometimes it was tough to tell who was happiest about this, Grancy or the girls :).

We love our six year old!!

I had been planning on posting this blog the day I flew back to be with family.  Better late than never!....

      "Will you be sad tomorrow that you can't hug your five year old anymore?", Anneka asked me the night before her birthday.  "Nah," I said, "because I'll still be hugging my Anneka Dorothy, and I'll love hugging you at six!"  My mom always told me that she enjoyed me at every age, and I think that's helped me to not feel sad about my own kids growing.  It's really rewarding to see them grow and develop.  And I have to say that in this last year, it's been really great to see Anneka mature and blossom.

     For her birthday breakfast, Anneka wanted everyone to have their own puffed pancake.  Puffed pancakes are what we eat every morning before school, but usually it just takes 3 to feed the family.  =)

     It was special to have gifts from my parents and grandparents to open on her actual birthday.  Anneka wanted her hair fixed like a fairy named Fawn and then she wore her new fawn dress from her great grandparents.  So fun.  For dinner we let her choose whatever she wanted.  She chose walnuts in the shell, avacodos (hard to find here), pelmeni (kind of like dumplings) and these fish.  We all ate the fish to be polite, but were musing at her choice of foods!

     We wanted to emphasize relationships that Anneka has (through the team, church, and school from last year) instead of focusing on her classmates from this year that she'll less likely continue knowing. We also knew that it would be a great chance to connect with some parents that we don't really know and hope to begin a relationship with them.  We realized that she has a lot of friends and didn't even invite everyone  (as our space is limited).  Anneka took special care in picking out little gifts (notebooks and pens) for her friends and writing their names on them..

     When we first asked Anneka what she would like for the menu for her party, she said "soup" (probably thinking of her Russian friends).  This was laughable, as she doesn't herself really like soup.  We decided on pizzas and also veggies and dip and fruit/dessert pizza (pictured above).

     Anneka really wanted a clown to come to her party.  I asked around and got a phone number for this lady.  I didn't actually know if she was a clown or not until she showed up.  She led with lots of trivia questions and comparison games.  It was a little touch-and-go there for awhile, but she ended with games that everyone liked.  In this game, Leif got to dress like a famous Russian cartoon character.  

   

     We go to swimming lessons with this boy and his mom on Saturdays.  It was fun to see him get into the songs and games at the party.

These are Anneka's new friends from church.  

... and a friend from school.  Anneka's two school friends stayed after the party, and they all had a marvelous time jumping off of the bed and giggling.

Even Ike got into the games towards the end!

This picture is blurry, but I like it because it shows Anneka's pure joy!

     I had planned on ordering a cake, and we found a place where Anneka could choose what she wanted.  Unfortunately, the one she wanted (a Barbie cake) they couldn't make.  So I made her one.  I set it on our covered balcony to keep it refrigerated, but the sun shone into the windows and acted like a greenhouse.  All of the frosting began sliding down!  Thankfully I caught it before it all turned to liquid, and I just made a point not to point out that Barbies dress became strapless.  Anneka loved it.

      Happy Birthday, sweet Anneka!  Your name means gracious gift of God, and that is what you are. We look forward to another wonderful year together!

To God Be The Glory!

     On October 25th, my beloved Grandpa, Charlie Parsons, went to sleep and woke up in heaven.  My wonderful husband was so supportive to send me out on a plane the very day we heard the news so that I could come and be with family during this time.  I  brought little Ike with me, and his presence has brought joy during a time of sorrow.  I feel so blessed to be here during this very special time.

     My Grandpa told us before he died that he wanted his memorial service to be focused on Jesus and not on himself.  The song "My Tribute" (To God be the glory) was played, and this has been the theme of these entire two weeks.  God has blown us away by His goodness.  My grandpa lived his life well.  He would always quote Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths".  And he lived this verse out.  Jesus touched many people through the life of my grandpa.  Hundreds of people came to his service, and some people made decisions to trust God with their lives on that special day.

These are just a few of the things that I'll treasure from this time:
*sweet times with my grandma and staying a few nights with her, talking and praying
*seeing Ike and my parents interacting and just loving one another
* having the privilege of helping with  things that needed to be done for the memorial service (writing the eulogy and helping to put together a picture board).
* hearing stories of how God changed people's lives as my Grandpa was faithful to share with them
* hearing fun stories about my Grandpa
* time with extended family
* seeing healing in relationships
* marveling at how God  perfectly times things- even Grandpa's death- to bring maximum glory to Himself.

This week I ran some groceries up to my Grandma's room in her Senior Living apartment.  The lady who helps clean once a week was in there, crying.  She just couldn't believe that my Grandpa was gone.  She motioned to all of the cards displayed (already there are well over 100!) and she sobbed as she said, "I've never seen so many cards!  He deserves it.  He was so good.  I am so sad".  She said that my grandparents were like parents to her.  It was amazing to me that this lady, who only knew my grandpa for 4 months (and mostly in passing) was so touched by him and my grandma.  But then I realized that when we live allowing God's spirit to flow through us, God produces much fruit!  And everyone who trusts in Jesus has full access to His Spirit!  What a gift to have my Grandpa as an example of someone who lived out of the love and power of God's spirit.  I pray that my life, too, will bring God such glory!  I fly back to Russia this morning with my busy little guy.  I'm so excited to see and hug Leif, Anneka, and Ella again!    I'll close with a few pictures from this time here in the States:

And a picture that my family sent to me.  I think Leif and the girls got along just fine!...

Very Full Weeks

     Our past weeks have been very full and yet as I have a moment to type this afternoon, I'm having a hard time remembering everything.  I'll let the few pictures we have taken stir my memory a bit...

     A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a lady I met at the market this summer.  We've become friends over the months, and she was stuck in the village, doing whatever you do with dozens of pigs while her mom was stuck in the city with her two small children and no money or food.  The hired hands that were supposed to help with the pigs got drunk and ditched them.  And the pigs had gotten out through a hole in the fence and were attacked my some hunters' dogs.  All to say, my friend was needed in the village, but her mom needed help, too!  I was so happy to have the chance to bring her family groceries a couple of times and get to know her mom better.  They were so grateful and gave me this chunk of meat that was in their freezer.  (I'm so glad I have a crockpot... I just threw it in there with some spices and it came out really yummy!)  When my friend found out that I'd gone there by bus (about an hour ride) with little Ike, she said that we'd shown them more love than relatives would have shown.  I praise God for this, and hope that they continue to see how much God loves them!

     We've had lots and lots of guests over the past few weeks.  And most times I totally didn't get out my camera!  This time we helped feed people who helped the Blakers move.  This week we had our team over to plan out our goals for this next year.  Once a year we have this kind of long meeting.  It takes a lot of time, but it's really good and important stuff.  And it's also encouraging to thank God for all that He's done over the past year!

     Another time, we hosted a baby shower for Natasha.  It was a good turnout and many people gave of their talents and time to make the shower extra special for Natasha.  I think she felt very loved.  In this picture, two teams were in competition to make diapers out of toilet paper.  The kids laughed, as this was a funny sight to see a diaper on a babushka!

    Isn't this little guy so sweet?!  His parents are a part of our home group.  This last week we had two new people come... and one was my friend who gave us the meat.  We gave her a Bible, and I'm praying that God will use His words to really speak to her heart.  Another lady wants to invite one of her friends who doesn't know much about Christianity to come.  We're going through the book of Mark, so it's a perfect study to introduce the Bible and Christianity to people.

     Last week at English club a couple of new people came.  And two of my friends that I've met outside have expressed interest in coming.  A lady called Leif just last night who is interested in coming with her college-aged son.  Pray for this club, as it truly is way that we're sharing God's good news.

     So far it's been going well with being in charge of the little ones at church.  The lessons are so simple and organized that I don't have to do a lot of prep work.  I've found that if I capitalize on their short attention spans at the very beginning and then stuff them full of snacks that they stay quite happy!

     And now I've run out of pictures, so my brain is not working to remember anything else.  We know that the nature of our lives here is to have really busy times and then not as busy times.  Right now is a busy time.  We are thankful for all that God is doing and trusting Him for a little reprieve soon, too!