Little Snippets From The Last Little While

 
      Ike and I were in the right place at the right time the other day when we saw this man fall outside.  He was hardly able to move and lived a couple of blocks away.  We had the car that day, so we gave him a ride home, helped him get inside, and made him some soup.  He was so delighted to have a little boy to give an Easter egg to (and play a game where they crashed the eggs into each other) and to put jam in his tea.  Ike was skeptical about the jam.  He prefers his tea plain.  =)  We talked a bit about the meaning of Easter and told him how very much Jesus loves him.  We helped him one other day to get to the doctors and to do odds and ends around his house (fill the teapot, make phone calls to clinics, peel potatoes, collect bones for the neighborhood dog, do dishes, etc)  It's interesting because this one simple act of helping this man has somehow gone public (probably because he fell right outside of the store and lots of people saw).  Several people have said things to me about how nice it was that we helped him.  It's a reminder to me that often God will do things in moments we're not planning for or expecting... and even when we're not really doing anything great.  He just wants us to be available and it's His job to shine!


 
     We've gotten to do some special things recently, and one was to go to the symphony and listen to our friend who we met through her coming to English Club.  She plays the violin, and we loved that she invited us.  We've been getting to know people more and connecting with them more outside of the club.



     Dima also came with us to the symphony.  He's our friend and comes every week to English Club.  Our whole family likes him a lot and he likes us, too.  ;)

     We've been having some great discussions in English Club recently with lessons that both Bruce and Leif have come up with.  We're mostly working through the Old Testament, with some other passages about Jesus surrounding Easter.  We've had more students come lately who are wanting to practice their English before working in the States this summer.  Leif offered practice interviews one week, and a lot of new people came (all of the pictures I took from that day didn't really turn out).

     Leif has also been preparing and giving several talks at church recently.  On Tuesdays the guys have been going through a training called TNT, on how to study the Bible and then to take what you learn and teach it to others.  They've had a really good turnout, with men from different churches coming.  From what they've been learning, four of the men gave talks from the book of Jonah.  Leif had the final chapter and did a really good job, I thought, of explaining it and bringing life to the story.  Even as I type now, Leif's translating his next talk into Russian (a passage from Mark 9).

   

      We recently had a church work day, cleaning inside and out, chopping and stacking wood, etc.  When I took this picture, I was standing outside, looking in at Ella and her two friends.  I ended up getting a picture of Leif in the reflection instead.  But if you look closely, you can see Ella's little face in the middle.  ;)