Once again, it's hard to keep up on everything, and we don't take pictures of everything, but I'll try to fill in a few holes from our fall. =) Together with some neighbors, I've been walking at 6:00 in the morning a couple of days a week. It's a nice way to get to know one another better and get exercise at the same time. When we first start walking it is pitch dark. It is getting very cold in the mornings and we will stop soon for winter.
We took a course on how to do an ethnographic study about a year and a half ago. It's taken us awhile to begin one of our own, but now we're in full swing! We've been interviewing various Buryat Christians to hear their stories. After we collect them, we will study and compare them to find similarities and differences and to better learn how we can be sharing the good news.
We've made a lot of progress with expansion of our church building, now having a whole upstairs for children's classrooms. This picture was taken on a church work day. Anneka painted a primer on the walls.
We have a friend who lives in the coldest inhabited place in the world- Yakutia. He was in Ulan-Ude for a few weeks for some university coursework and while he was here, he helped Leif to calculate how much insulation we need for our house to be warm enough. He also took a day to come out and show Leif how to put up the layers. What a gift this was to our family!
Even after we found a family that would take Nettie-the-dog, we needed to keep her for several more weeks so that they could prepare a place for her. We needed to take her to the vet to have an extra nub clipped off of her paw. While she was there, they offered to sterlize her, too. We decided this was a good idea, as Siberia has a problem with too many puppies! The family that took her was thankful, too. When we finally took her to her new home, it was a happy day for everyone. We could tell that Nettie-the-dog was going to a place where she would be showered with lots of kid-love. =)
Leif and Anneka made a dog house together. I took this picture while they were still working on it, before it was finished. Leif looked online to calculated what size of doghouse to make for Cinnamon and how much insulation her house would need for a -40 degree winter.
Leif made a trip to a region where the Soyots live. This is one of the unreached Siberian people groups. Before he left, he was asked if he wanted to buy yak meat while he was there. We decided we wanted to, until we found out we'd have to buy the whole yak! That was a little more meat than we thought we could handle!
One of the exciting things about this trip to the Soyots is that it was Sasha's idea, as his heart is really growing in wanting to figure out how the message of Jesus can spread to everyone, starting in the regions nearby. Leif was thrilled to be invited on this vision trip and to join with these guys in scouting and praying for the future of this area.
While Leif was gone, I had to step it up and be the emcee at English Club. =)
... and Ike was my helper in cleaning out ashes from the furnace.
We had this family for hamburgers and to play games one Friday night. We all had a lot of fun!
My homeschooling the kids alone has ended for a few months, as Art and Lisa Blaker are back from helping another Russia team! We made it work, but were sometimes met with challenges. On this day I took the girls with me to wait for Ike while he had karate. At first we were the only ones in the room, and they were enjoying reading their books (This picture isn't staged. They both had these sweet smiles while they were reading.)
... But within 30 minutes, the girls were surrounded by other girls who wanted to meet them.
1 comment:
So fun to hear and see about these adventures!
Mama Irene
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