Women's Retreat

 

      This past weekend, the ladies on our team rented a little house on Lake Baikal for a retreat.  It was soooo nice to get away and have time to get to know each other better.  It was a great little house with three bedrooms (and twin beds for each of us) and an open room for meeting/cooking.  Ike still nurses, so he got to come along... lucky guy to be with all of those ladies!!  He really likes ladies.

  

     Renata, Inka, and I went ahead of everyone (and nicely synchronized the driving time with Ike's nap.)  We took a nice walk down to the lake.  It was a sunny and beautiful day!  The snow was just beautiful! 

 

     It's always amazing to see the lake frozen over.  Recently a group of guys from the local churches made a trek across the lake and back.  If you're interested in seeing some amazing pictures from their excursion, click here.

     When we were at the lake, we saw this babushka getting water (for drinking, washing, etc.) out of this hole in the lake.

Then she had to climb over these mounds of ice to get to the shore.

  She went back for a second bucket of water and then went on her trek home, with no gloves, heavy buckets, and metal handles (probably digging into her hands).  I can't even imagine it in the middle of the winter!

   
     We had a great time singing, sharing, and praying for one another.  There was lots of time to talk and get to know each other better.  Even though we're on the same team, we often are so busy with all that's going on in each of our lives and ministries that we don't have time to really connect. 

     Martina gave a couple of great devotionals from a book on spiritual warfare by Warren Wiersbe.  It gave us  a lot to think about and discuss.  It was very applicable and encouraging.

     And Ike was a good little guy.  He cried in the night both nights (which he never does!), but everyone was gracious.  I think he was just scared to wake up in a different place.  In the daytime he slept great in his stroller through all of our chatter and moving about.

And we ate great food! 

     One night Lisa heated chicken enchiladas that she'd made in the wood stove.  They were sooo yummy!  The caretaker of the house came and made fires in the stove for us.  So nice.  The caretaker also stoked the fire in the banya (steam bathhouse) and Lisa, Renata, Melly and I took advantage of it!  I just love the banya! 

I love how the ice on the lake gets pushed up from waves!

     When I got back from the weekend, Leif's mom was here!!  It's been so great to have her here this week.  Leif was supposed to be on the mountain climbing trip this week, but then because of his shoulder accident he couldn't go.  But it worked out because he was asked to go to a conference and meeting for local leaders in the city of Chita.  It took 12 hours for them to drive there, and he's gone all week.  Without Irene, it would be a hard week, but instead it's really fun!  More on that to come...