A Trip To A Little Village

     Recently we took a trip to a little village a few  hours away.  A family from our church is living there at least for the summer (maybe long term) and they are isolated from other believers.  There are only 100 people in their village and no churches around for many, many miles.  We decided to visit them and hopefully bring some encouragement and fellowship.  It turned out to be a great time!

     Leif helped Denis build a fence while we were there.  Denis was very grateful, as it would have taken him an extra week to complete all that the two of them were able to do.

Anneka helped a bit with hammering in some nails.  =)

     This family is living with Denis' parents.  They were very welcoming, having 5 extra people sleeping in their home!  While we were there, their first cucumbers of the season were ready for harvest... an exciting day!  Anneka loved watching the milking process of the cow and goat.  And, of course, we all enjoyed drinking the milk!

     In Ulan Ude that weekend it was over 100 degrees, and it was also hot in the village... BUT not quite that hot AND we were right by this BEAUTIFUL river!!  It's about 30 minutes from Lake Baikal, and I thought it was more wonderful than being at the lake.  At the lake, I'm often cold on the shore (even in the peak of the summer) and then the water is icy cold.  But this river was delightful... cold, but refreshing.  And we actually got hot enough to want to go in.  I didn't get many up close pictures because our friends' little girls often went swimming without their suits.  =)

     Leif and Denis enjoyed a break at the river to cool off from their fence-building work.  Ella loved playing with little Diana and all of the kids loved being outside constantly.

     I love watching Ike playing in the sand.  Every so often he would ask me to fill his bucket with water.  Then he would watch the water soak into the sand.  It was like he was doing little science experiments, watching to see what would happen in various situations with the sand and water.

     On Sunday we all had a church service together.  Denis and Yulia's moms joined us, too.  We sang some hymns, Leif gave a message from the Bible, and we prayed together.  It was an encouraging time.

     This little girl, Dasha, reminded me of pictures that I've seen of my mom when she was a little girl.  I liked to carry her around and think about her being my mom.  =) Anneka kept calling her "Baba" (which means "Grandma").  It was really funny and cute (and a bit confusing for Dasha at times, I'm sure!)

     The timing of this trip worked out perfectly.  The kids and I were able to meet Leif on our way to the village and on his way back from a training time at a camp. We had a couple of days before we needed to be at our next place (I'll share about that in our next blog).  And we all had a great time!