Guests

 

 

 

     Recently, we had some guests from Chita (the next large city to the east of us) come and stay with us.  They were here for a meeting of many pastors church leaders from Buryatia and the Chita region.  We didn't know if there would be anyone staying with us until the day they came, and even then, we didn't know how many.  It turned out to be 3 men the first night and 5 the second. =)  The kids enjoyed interacting with them.  It's really fun that Anneka knows Russian from going to kindergarten here, as she can tease and express what she wants to communicate.  

 

 

 

     Our family has been trying to be more creative with playing games in the evenings.  On this day, Leif had been at the meeting all day.  The kitchen flooded (right after I gave the kids fudgesicles... needless to say, my attention was not on keeping chocolate drips contained).  Right after we got the kitchen cleaned up, the kids and I played a game where I had written a bunch of silly things to do on fish that were in a box.  In turn, we'd each draw out a fish and do the silly thing.  Well, the men arrived while we were playing.  The man in the orange shirt began playing with us.  The first fish he drew was to "jump on Mama's bed 10 times".  haha.  He loved the game, and the kids loved sharing it with guests.  Pretty soon more men came over and we all had fun playing together.

 

 ... and singing silly songs...

 

 

 ... with silly motions!

 

 

      And we sang some praise and worship songs, too. 

 

     The next day there was a big meeting here.  There were ten men in the meeting, and I made lunch for them.  The funny part is that I had just assumed there would be about four men (with three being foreigners), so I just made minestrone soup and put it in the crockpot that morning.  Minestrone soup is TOTALLY not Russian.  I think it's probably very weird to most people here.  We were gone all morning, greeting John and Sharon at a welcome breakfast.  We got home one minute before 1:00 (when the meeting was to start), and I knew I needed to make something to go with the soup.  Lunch is the big meal of the day here, so you need to have soup and then a second course.  I had planned on making some toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, but when I went to the bread stand, I ran my idea past the lady there.  I told her that we were having a bunch of people for lunch and asked if I could make ham and cheese sandwiches as the second course.  "Of course not!", she said.  Yikes.  So I quickly ran home and made some noodle/ham/cheese thing as well as the toasted sandwiches.  It's so nice because I put on a video for the kids and they ALL sat and watched.  Even two months ago, Ike wouldn't have sat for that.  And four years ago, this would have all totally stressed me out, but it doesn't now!  I love how God grows us.

    

     The meeting was an important one and it went really well.  It's encouraging to see/hear how God is working in people's hearts and how He's at work here!