Party At The End of White Month

 
         Two weeks ago we had a party to celebrate the tail end of White Month, which is a big Buryat holiday here.  We ate white food and played games and invited an assortment of people.  We've had a ton of new people at English Club lately, and we want to help some of the college-aged church youth to reach out better to newcomers.  So we invited a wide spectrum of people, with the hopes of sharing more about Jesus as well as helping others to share their faith, too.  I didn't get any pictures when everyone was here, but I think including kids there were 25 people packed into our little apartment. 


     Dave and Martina joined with us in putting this party together.  We were all thankful for Zhenya's help in cooking the pozie (traditional meat dumplings) to perfection!  We also had white chocolote fondue and white pizzas to keep with the white theme.


     It was cute how at home Ike felt with our guests.  Since many of the people who came are contacts through our English Club, he was happy to talk to people in "our voice" (that's what Ike says instead of "language")  He also really likes "pretty people".  Once when Ike was sick, I asked him if I could get Papa to lay with him for a bit while I did something else. And he said "no, I just want you or pretty people".   Of course, he LOVES his Papa and will always choose him over me for things like wrestle time and playing with cars.  ;)

     We played the game "pass the gift" where each person unwrapped a layer of paper when the music stopped to reveal a small gift.

     It was a fun way to interact and laugh together.

     Then we broke into teams to wrap up eggs and see if we could drop them without breaking them.

 
     Larissa's team dropped the egg just as it was into a "nest that they built out of newspaper, toilet paper, and cotton.  It only had a tiny crack after falling from the ceiling.

     Then Leif took a little time to share from the book of Revelation about how one day people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship Jesus before his throne.  He also shared how God is the God of everyone- not just Russians or Americans, but Buryats, too (and everyone in the whole world!)  Then we gave this small gift of a children's Bible in the Buryat language with some white chocolate and Bible verses attached (English on one side and Russian on the other).  People seemed to like the gift of the Buryat children's Bible.  Our girls' piano teacher, Sveta, was on the same bus as 2 of our Buryat friends who came.   Sveta said they seemed really interested and were reading the Bibles on the bus.  When she asked them if they could read the Buryat language, they smiled and said, "oh, yes!"  It was really special for them to receive a printed book in their native language. 



     Some people had to leave to catch the bus before the routes ended for the evening, but several people hung out and played games afterward.  We're thankful for this oppurtunity to grow in relationship with these dear people!