Just the beginning...

     Since I'm two months behind on blogging, and it feels like there are about 1.2 million things to share, I decided to start with what is recent and work backwards.  =)

Elaine brought her ukulele and delighted us all with her musical talent.

    We were SO BLESSED to have our friend, Elaine come to help us with "English Camp on Baikal".  It was originally supposed to be a team of people coming from the States, but due to unfortunate events, no one else was able to make it.  We know Elaine back from our college days.  We were in CRU (then called Campus Crusade for Christ) together, and she is very dear to us!  She jumped right into our family and to serving in many ways. We are so grateful to her and cherish this time in our hearts!

I was amazed at how quickly she got over jet lag!  She had about 24 hours to recover before we left for camp.

At a café in Turka.  Ike is into making monster faces these days for pictures.

      Leading up to the English Club on Baikal was our church's family camp.  They had a baptism planned for Sunday morning at 7:00am, and we didn't want to miss it, as it's been so special to see these people grow who have grown in their relationships with God!  But we also didn't want to get up at 3:00 in the morning to drive there.  We were so happy when our friend in Turka (20 minutes from the camp) called us and said she had room for us to stay there on Saturday night.  We rode with Inka, as she also wanted to be there for the baptism.  It turned out to be a special little excursion and a nice way to ease Elaine into camp life, giving her one more night in a bed.  =)

 

     The weather was so calm and nice that Saturday evening.  We sat on the beach of Baikal and threw rocks and enjoyed God's wonderful creation and one another.

Ella and Mama, inspecting rocks

Our kids delighted in attention from Elaine and Inka

     We woke up early, and arrived at the campsite before 7:00

     There were 4 young people from our church who made decisions for baptism.  It's so encouraging to reflect on how God has brought them into His family and to see their dedication to Him.

It was such a beautiful, peaceful morning.  A group of Chinese tourists watched and asked us what was going on.  I called Elaine over to talk with them, as she lived in China and Hong Kong for 7 years.

Dead to self and Alive with Christ!

     One lady, Oxana, fell in love with Elaine immediately.  Even though they didn't speak each other's languages, they still hung out all afternoon, playing games, talking with their hands, and eating sunflower seeds.  It's so neat how God can connect hearts.

     I didn't get too many pictures of our kids because they were running all over the place with friends, climbing trees, eating pinecones, licking ant sticks, and picking huckleberries.  Elaine called our kids "little forest kids".  They could camp forever.

     Anneka was munching on a green pinecone, and Elaine asked for a taste.  As you can see by her expression, it wasn't her favorite!  One lady asked Anneka and Matthew to collect a bunch of the pinecones for her so that she could make jam with them later at home.  The big pinecones they roasted over the fire and ate the pinenuts inside.

     Ike enjoyed playing with his buddy, Rostik.  They're friendship is an answer to prayer.  Ike told me "once Rostik wasn't my friend, but now we're friends".  And it's true!  I'm so thankful!

     I got a migraine on this day and was resting in our tent.  I couldn't really sleep because of voices, but two interesting things happened.  The first was that I heard Anneka telling Ike to lick a stick and then stir it around in an ant hill until the ants got really angry.  Then she had him lick the stick.  It made it taste tangy! Of course, they both think this is great. The second thing is that I could hear a lady in the next tent over.  She'd met us through a kids' day camp we'd done in the city and came with her granddaughter.  I felt really strongly that I should pray for her, so I prayed and prayed.  Then a couple of hours later, I saw her praying with some people and heard that she was giving her life to Christ.  This was so encouraging to me and was a reminder of how even when we are weak, God is at work.  There was another lady who made the same decision on this day. May they grow and grow!

    And then it started to rain, which was just a little foreshadowing of  the week ahead!  You'll hear about that soon!