Church Work Day

We had a church work day last Saturday, and Leif took Anneka with him to help clean up the property. (I kind of thought it may be hard to do any work while holding a baby. And I didn't really want Ella crawling all over nails and dirt). Pictured above is a gigantic cement telephone pole that had been buried on our church property. It was SO heavy! The guys had to dig underneath it in order to strap ropes around it. They heaved and hoed and finally hauled it away.



Martina took this picture of Anneka with these buckets. The kids had a blast helping and playing outside! I had cleaned our apartment while Anneka and Leif were gone, and as soon as they entered through the door, our place smelled like really bad smoke (from a fire they had to burn up debris). Ah, well. This time of year it's impossible to keep anything clean. We have huge dust storms that leave piles of sand and dirt all over the windowsills and throughout the apartment.



Here's Leif hauling water. There's a well about a block away from the church. Water soon becomes a precious commodity when there's labor involved in retrieving it! On Sundays when Anneka pets the cat or touches the floor and gets black hands, I help her wash her hands by letting just a trickle out of a special little spout. We talk about preserving water because someone has to go out and get it.

Tomorrow is another church work day. Leif invited Anneka to go with him again. But today she hurt her foot on the playground and was limping hours afterwards. Leif and I were talking about it- it doesn't look swollen, but we also don't think a 3-year old could fake a limp that well. Hopefully she'll be better by morning and back to her running self!

It's so nice to be outside!

Here are Martina and Anneka at the little playground next to our building. It's really nice for Anneka to have such nice playmates right next door! Today I was at a playground with Rebecca and we met a lady who lives very close to me (even though we were across town). She was very interested in getting together again and took my phone number and gave me hers. She has a little boy who is 4. She even spoke a little English! I'm looking forward to seeing how that relationship may develop.



Ella likes Martina's phone because it plays music. Here, you can see she was very possessive of it when Matty came close.



This weekend we went to the river to celebrate Dave's birthday and the kids loved playing in the water. They especially loved finding garbage in the water and pretending it was fish. Nathan is normally very clean and tidy. Anneka may be rubbing off on him... much to his parents' chagrin. The little pond area at the left of the picture is one that Heidi collected water samples from for a science experiment. Her older brother and sister collected water from various places and never got much to grow for the microscope. But Heidi's sample from this water source was FILLED with beautiful specimens!



Ella and Anneka probably make each other laugh and make each other angry more than with any other person. It's fun to see their little personalities together. Thankfully, the anger moments aren't too common. =)

And a cool story: a girl who was on the mountain climbing trip with Leif will be teaching Russian in Montana where our friend Stephanie works with Campus Crusade for Christ. Both are such neat people and seem like they'll connect really well. I just love when God shows us glimpses of how He's at work on a bigger scope. And it's a reminder that He keeps track of people much better than we can!

More Easter Pictures

Jesus Is Risen!

We had loaned out our camera before we realized we wouldn't have it for Easter, but Martina took these pictures in front of our church gate. We had a lovely time celebrating Jesus' resurrection with our church family here. On Thursday we had a special service in the evening and Anneka CRIED afterwards when she found out we wouldn't all eat together. The pastor told her not to worry because on Sunday there would be a big feast and he would make a cake just for her. And he did. =)



This picture is missing about half of the people. But it shows the "feel" of the meal. =)

The First Flowers Of Spring

They're here! The first flowers of spring! Literally translated as "from under the snow", these little purple furry flowers resemble crocuses.



Writing on a rock in the woods behind our apartment with blackened tree bark.



A walk in the neighborhood with Heidi and John



Ella and Heidi in their horse shirts

A Day In The Life

Every once in awhile I write about one of our days here. Yesterday we have four pictures from different parts, so I thought it would be a good day to blog about. Although now that it was already half a day ago, I'm not sure if I remember what all we did yesterday! I'll try my best. =) Nathan and Matty went to preschool for the first time yesterday with Anneka. I love this picture that Martina took of them walking to the van. Matty and Anneka on their own decided to hold hands.

While the kids were in school, Leif and I went on a nice walk up the hill and in a pretty wooded area. Ella was with us and she slept happily in her stroller. (It's so cute how she loves to sleep in the stroller. She gets the biggest smile on her face when we carry her and the stroller down the stairs and she literally falls asleep within 30 seconds of being seated). We walked and talked and prayed for teammates, people in our church, and for Ulan Ude. I love looking down at the city and thinking of how much God loves the people here. We sat on a rock and sipped some tea that I'd packed in a thermos. We saw a man with his goats roaming the hillside. The weather was sunny and pleasant.

Martina braved driving in Russia for the first time on our way to pick up the kids. During that time, Leif make phone calls and checked emails. I got Anneka a little roll from the bread stand (a tradition on school days). We had lunch together as a family (leftover enchiladas). Then Leif went next door to listen to something Dave had prepared in Russian and I read to Anneka and tucked her into bed for her rest time. Leif came back and worked on some official paperwork that he needs to turn in soon. I made baby food (pureed split peas), but Ella was kind of fussy(teeth?) and needed me to hold her the whole time.



Then Ella went down for her nap and Leif headed outside to teach neighborhood kids how to play basketball. Martina called to ask if Anneka wanted to go out and play with her boys. She did, and I was so grateful for Martina's offer, as we were having guests later and I still had to get things ready. I took the picture above from our balcony. In the top left corner you can seen Leif with the kids and down at the bottom you can see Anneka and the boys playing in the sandbox. While they were outside, I got a call that we would be having some guests in about 20 minutes. I threw some cookies in the oven. Then I madly did dishes and took laundry off the clothes racks.



After Leif showed Heidi some basketball moves and let Anneka slam dunk a few baskets(and talking outside for a bit- Ella was awake by then), Dwayne (the guy who opened up SEND in Russia) and another man, Tom, came in for tea. It was neat to hear what they're doing in the States, training missionary pilots. Right now they're training Russians to do this in their home country. We shared our ministry with them as well. Heidi played with the girls. I went into the kitchen to make dinner (pizza) and more cookies. John joined us.

Oh, and I must add that when Anneka met Dwayne, she was SO THRILLED because she could try out her knock-knock joke on him. In a fit of giggles, she smoothly executed this joke:
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Dwayne
Dwayne who?
Dwayne the bathtub, I'm dwowning

He loved it. Silly girl!



Guests overlapped each other (but no pictures to show). Sasha and Lena came over and so did Dave and Martina. And later Sasha and Katia came, too. It was so nice to talk with them and have time together. Somewhere in there Lena read Anneka a book and I put the girls to bed.

Now I remember why I don't write these that often... it sounds kind of boring all written out. Also in the middle was time that we read our Bibles and more phone calls and emails. Sasha's borrowing our camera for a fishing trip, so I'll just post a few pics from this past week in the next few days.

чёлка (bangs)

A few weeks ago we got family haircuts. Anneka got a mullet and I got these bangs. It was not planned. We just sat in the chairs at the haircutting place and in one fell snip, it happened. I hated them (and I still don't like them), but I got to looking around, and I realized that I'm very stylish now. Everyone tells me that I look like a Russian girl with my bangs (чёлка). It's funny how your sense of style starts to change. And it can happen in one day. I used to think it was ridiculous how all of the ladies went around in high heels all of the time... especially high heeled boots in the winter! But then this week, I all of a sudden felt that I had man-shoes. And I find myself thinking a lot about high heels. I walked around with Ella in her stroller an hour before church today so that she could get a good nap in (and then I could just park her stroller outside). I like this time to pray and think. Anyways, I saw a lady walking in high heeled boots and thought, "she looks really good"... and just about the moment that I thought to myself that I need to get some heels, too, she tripped and fell a tremendous fall. And now I'm back to thinking that I probably don't need them after all.

Munku-Sardik

Our teammate Gardner (with me in the picture above) has a love for alpine hiking that he brought with him when he moved to Russia. A few years back, he helped with a project to get equipment together for the church to use to do hiking trips, and I got to benefit from this this last week. A group of 15 of us hiked up Buryatia's highest mountain Munku-Sardik (nearly 11,500 feet).



Much of this hike takes place by going up a frozen river. You get some idea of the general incline in the picture above but not of the really fun waterfall areas. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the waterfall areas on my camera.



We set up camp a few miles in from the road. It is a great place as you are still low enough to be in the woods with plenty of wood for a good campfire to cook on. As is often true, the campfire created a great environment for talking and sharing with each other. We had some times where everyone shared and where we all listened to some of the guys give their life testimonies, but there were also a lot of great informal times for laughing, sharing about life, and talking about our wonderful God who made the amazing world around us! This was refreshing for me to talk with people who seemed very open and ready for deep conversations. On the hike there were 15 people, and only 5 Christians.



We ate a lot of sausage, cheese and crackers. I thought it was great, but it seemed like the Russians really got tired of the crackers. They usually don't go a meal without bread, and crackers just weren't the same for them :).



After we woke up the first day, we hiked up a ways to get used to the elevation and to do some training on what to do if you fall on the snow and ice. People did great and had fun with all of this.



Then the big day came and we made our push to the top. Just like the day before, God blessed us with amazingly beautiful weather. Gardner and others have had to turn back on previous trips here because of weather. In fact we met a hiker who was leaving the day we came and he was kept from the top because of weather.



The last section before the top was a bit of a rock scramble.



It is always a great feeling when you finally get to the top of a mountain. You can see the flag in the background marking the summit.



It was so nice and mild, that we just hung out at the summit for a while. It was great to see that all 15 people made it to the top! This is the first time they have had the entire group make it to the top which is a testimony to God's grace and the great team that we had!



Of course once you go up, you must come down.



Sasha, from our church, also took a role in leading people and organizing the hike. He did a great job, and I'm really proud of him.



I also got to see my first large wild animals in Russia. It was a herd of mountain goats. Everyone else was pretty excited about this too.



Of course we had fun with things too :).



Please pray that this would not just be a conquering of a mountain, but that there would be great spiritual victory here too. God is at work, and it is wonderful to be in the midst of Him working!

Spring Burning

Dave and Martina have a couple of pictures of the burning in our area on their blog. Click here if you want to see!

Neighborhood Walk

Leif is back from his mountain climbing trip and will post a blog- with pictures!- about it soon. It went really well on all levels- beautiful weather, health, great conversations with people and connections, etc. I thought I'd post these pictures from last week while he gets his pictures together....





We went on a walk in the forest behind our apartment last week. It's so nice to get outside! Anneka really wanted to see animals in the woods and was disappointed that we didn't see any.





We DID find a dog scull, however, which was exciting enough to make the walk worthwhile (Anneka's holding it on the end of her stick). This is the season for dead dogs and trash. It all just kind of lays under the snow and ice all winter and then appears when everything melts. I'll post a more zoomed out picture to show the some of the garbage:




There are people in orange vests that work, work, work all around our apartments, picking up trash every day. I'm thankful for them- especially when they pick up trash on the playgrounds. It's also burning season, so a lot of garbage is burned up this time of year (we're still not quite sure why they burn such huge areas and fields- greener grass later? to get rid of garbage? to kill ticks?) All the same, we're happy it's spring and that we can delight in treasures like dog sculls and walk around without slipping and freezing.

Stomach Bug

Our sweet little Anneka got a bad stomach virus last week... and the worst part is that it was the day the Brubachers flew in. Anneka had been SO excited about meeting them at the airport and greeting them and then she had to stay home. We also had our team over for breakfast, and I quarantined Anneka to her room. I called all of the parents first to warn them, but I thought it would be safe, as I'd cleaned the house the night before (before I knew Anneka was sick) and she had only been in her room and the bathroom. I figured that the rest of the apartment should be safe. But sadly, poor little Matty Brubacher got the virus, too. Topped with jetlag, it's a miserable combination for everyone! Anneka was a sweet little sickie the first three days, thanking me for every little thing I did for her and warming my heart. After that, she kind of got cabin fever and turned into a wild animal. But I'm just thankful that she's almost recovered!



It's a miracle Ella didn't get sick. I caught her with Anneka's water bottle in her mouth on several occasions, and every time Anneka went to the bathroom, Ella would make a beeline for her. I finally just gave her her own roll of toilet paper to keep her occupied.



My sister gave these camo jammies to Anneka when she was little to go with her jungle-themed room. Ella recently made the move into the bedroom with Anneka, so I put these on her in celebration! (I wheeled her crib back into our bedroom when Anneka got really sick, but soon Ella will be back again). Ella is getting much more opinionated and dramatic. At the grocery store today I let her hold some dill. At the checkout stand Ella cried so loudly when the cashier took the dill, the the lady immediately handed it back to her. Ella is also very verbal. We recently remembered that babies can learn sign language (and we did it with Anneka) and decided to teach Ella "all done". She did both the motions AND the words right off the bat. Now she says all done with such pride at a meal... it empowers her. Before she would turn away from the spoon with her mouth tightly shut, neck craned back. Now she waves her arms happily while declaring "all done" and she knows that I won't force any more food on her. Funny girl.



Leif's been gone on a mountain climbing trip the past few days and is now on his way home! Anneka likes to choose to get sick when he's gone. I can't wait to hear how it went. I'm sure he'll have some beautiful pictures to show, too! The girls are both sleeping peacefully now, and I haven't gotten much sleep lately... so I'm off to bed!