Catch-up (Somewhat)

     I haven't really blogged about our lives for what feels like a bazillion years.  So this is kind of a catch up blog (not all-inclusive, of course) from the past couple of months. One of Leif's roles as a team leader is to keep good relationships and to encourage pastors from throughout the region.  He's had the chance to visit several villages recently and has spoken at several churches in the past couple of months.  This is one of the pictures from his visit to Zakamensk.  The church there is very small and always is so happy when other believers come and connect with them.

     On another Sunday, Leif went to Shabur.  He spoke at the church service in the morning and then the rest of the day he took part in an outreach to the youth in the community through an indoor soccer tournament.  Oleg, the pastor there, is really gifted in reaching out to those in the village.  Everyone knows him and he's built a lot of trust with the kids and parents.  He appreciates it so much when men (like Leif) come from Ulan Ude come to help him put on bigger events like this.

Leif, sitting with guys on his soccer team.

     Leif was a champion this weekend, in my opinion.  He was up all night sick the night before the tournament, and yet he still went (driving a couple of hours on bumpy roads), spoke at the service, and played soccer all day!  I don't know how he did it! 





     Here Leif was, speaking at one of the churches in Ulan Ude that we have a relationship with.  It's neat to see how there's unity between these two churches.  One of the things that struck me when I heard statistics about church growth in Mongolia (rapid growth!) is that it happened when the churches (from various denominations) began working and praying together.  May the Lord do that here as well!



     We had tea after the service, and I was looking around for Ella.  I found her happiy sitting at this table with strangers.  So cute and funny!

     Some of the men from our church have been traveling to a village to bring encouragement and counsel to a young family.  This past time they drove in the middle of the night.  Dima works odd hours, so he fell asleep in the middle of one of the meetings.  =)

 
     We've had a lot of new people come to our English Club these past few weeks!  It's been encouraging to meet them.  When two of the guys discovered they were from the same region of Buryatia, they both began speaking in Buryat.  They knew immediately that that would be the first language of the other.


     Leif's been having some really good discussions in his advanced group about spiritual things. 

     There's a dear family in Germany that we've never met that sends us care packages!  Our kids just LOVE to draw, so they were thrilled with these huge books of blank paper.

     They also love the new costumes that this family sent.  Ella's new princess dress was perfect for a program she had at school, as it's important to wear very beautiful, frilly dresses when you're in kindergarten!

     They also sent us this game that we gave to a little girl in our church.  She loves when I lead the kids' group during English Club because I play games with them.  She told me that she doesn't have any games at home to play.  When I gave her this game to take home as her very own, she was thrilled!

     This feels soooo far away by now, but we had a Superbowl party right at the time of Leif's birthday.  I made Leif a German chocolate cake.  It was so gooey it kind of exploded!  At least it tasted good.  ;)

     We watched the game projected onto the wall.  It was an international event with people from Canada, Switzerland, Buryatia, and of course, America.  It's fun to share a bit of our home culture with friends here.

     Then as a family for Leif's birthday we went to a cafe that has a little play area for the kids.  Ella made friends with a little boy.  She kissed him goodbye before we left.  We gotta watch these little Gustafson girls!

For Men's Day Ella made this picture of Leif.  I just love it!

     Our teammates snapped this picture at a store, and I had to post it, too.  It's interesting how many store workers still use an abacus to add up the prices of items.  But now many stores have credit card machines, too.  It's so interesting to see the old and the new next to each other like this!

    We had another church work day.  It's nice when everyone pitches in to get a lot done!

Everyone sharing lunch together on the work day

     Vera (a lady from our church)'s mom died, and I went to the funeral.  It was encouraging to see how many people came.  It was bitterly cold that day with a wind that bit to the bone.  This funeral was drastically different from the last one we went to, as her mom was a believer.  The whole atmosphere is different when there is the hope of heaven.  All the same, this is a very sad time for Vera.  She was her mom's sole caretaker and spent much of her time preparing meals and caring for her dear mom.

     Here, we walked around the casket that had already been lowered into the ground and sprinkled dirt over the top.  We plan to have Vera and her son and his family over soon to reach out to them.  We know this is a tough time for her son, too.  We pray that the Lord will draw them close to Himself in this time.

     Ella had a holiday on a Monday so she got to go to the pool with Anneka and me.  We invited our friends Ira and Sasha to come with us, too.  There's a new little cafe in the building where the swimming pool is.  We had hot chocolate and potato piroshky with our friends.  The girls were "best friends" that day and wanted to share a chair.

     Often Ike will fall asleep in our room at night and then we move him to his room.  I sometimes find interesting treasures on my nightstand.  These heart stickers on my glasses were no exception!

     On the days that both Ella and Ike have kindergarten/preschool, I pick up Ella first and then we go to get Ike.  She loves to run back and get him (and he loves it, too!).  Both kids love to wear Leif and my hats.

Stay tuned for some more catch-up blogs!