A Little of This and a Little of That

     It's hard to stay caught up with everything!  I thought I'd do a little collage-blog, and get semi-caught up.  A few weeks ago, Anneka's teacher told me that she had a "holiday" on that Thursday afternoon and to come back at 3:30 for it and I could come, too.  She said for her to wear a dress.  So, Leif stayed home with the other two, and I took Anneka... and it turns out it was a school PROGRAM that she was IN!  I guess the word for "holiday" has a couple of different meanings.  Leif totally could have come with the babies.  Oh, well.  The funniest part is that Anneka REALLY wanted to wear this dress (pictured above).  You can't see up close, but she wears it so much to play in that it has holes and is all wrinkly and has little coins that have fallen off.  But when I told her that she should probably choose another one, she was so sweet about it, that I had second thoughts.  I decided that it was really important to her and I rewarded her for her good attitude when I said "no"... that I said, "yes".  But it was really funny when the other girls were dressed in such fancy dresses that they could have gone to a ball!!  (just a few are pictured here).  It was cute to watch Anneka sing and dance with the other kids.  We're so proud of her!

     I had some friends over one afternoon when  Leif was busy with the conference.  This boy (E) had a smart phone with games on it, so Anneka borrowed my phone (standard with a simple game on it), and they played next to each other.  It was cute to watch them.  She was in her dance outfit, as she danced for the guests when they first arrived (to a Nutcracker CD my parents sent).  She tried to convince Ella to wear a dance outfit and to dance, too, but Ella would have none of it.

     And I tried to teach this girl and her mom how to play a game that some of their American friends have given to them.  I realized that my vocabulary in the realm of games is very poor!  But somehow we managed and got through it!

     This is our neighbor cat.  The girls love her and always want to leave the door open so that she'll come in.  We like to have her for visits sometimes.  =)

     THIS BOY IS INTO EVERYTHING!!!!  Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind.  "Where's Anneka's homework?"  "Oh, I found it in the cupboard with the pots and pans".  "Where's my phone?" "Oh, it's in the drawer under Ike's crib.".  "Where's the spoon?"  "Oh, it's in the toilet!"... and on it goes.  But he's very happy and he keeps us on our toes.  We can't take our eyes off of him for one second.  He started walking this week.  You can tell when he's about to walk because he'll hold onto a chair or the coffee table and then pivot and look you in the eye and smile.  Then he toddles on over with his hands up in the air and he laughs!  He's so proud and so cute!  I'll have to get a video clip.  The problem so far has been that if I pull out the camera, he immediately crawls over (at break-neck speed) and tries to grab it out of my hands.  We'll keep trying.

   On this evening, I was so fed up with toys strewn everywhere that I brought them all out in the living room, sorted them, and then hid over half of them.  The girls didn't notice for a few days!!  And now things are much quicker to pick up.  Ike enjoyed the process and hindered only a little.  

I like this picture, too.  Our happy guy.

     I usually take Anneka a little snack when I pick her up from school, as she goes several hours without anything to eat or drink, and I know she's hungry.  On this day, I forgot to pack something so I bought some crackers at a kiosk on the way.  They turned out to be really gross crackers (they were sweet), so on the way home, I gave them to the girls to feed to the pigeons.  What fun they had!  Ella loved running around and making them fly.

I like how Ella has the crackers in her mouth here.  

     Ike was strapped to me.  He likes to look out at everyone, so sometimes I'm nice and wear the carrier that's harder on my back so that he can face forward.

     This is what Anneka looks like every morning when I pull her to school on the sled.  We use that time to go over memorized riddles for school and to say what we thank God for.  I LOVE the sled, as it's fast and easy to pull.

     Today it was -35 degrees!  I'm so thankful for our very-warm apartment!!  It's literally 83F degrees inside!  (almost 29 Celcius).  We come home after wearing many layers and put on our summer clothes.  These are the days of loads and loads of laundry, that's for sure.   But at least it dries fast!

     Ella has been our little buddy lately.  I haven't gotten too many pictures of doing every-day stuff, but she loves to help do laundry and cook with me.  And she loves to play and be the one to choose what we play!  She and Leif have special Papa-daughter time together while I take Anneka to school in the morning.  They're so cute when they snuggle together!

Okay, that's enough for today!

Sledding and Working in Z-town

A couple of weekends ago, several people from our team went the Zaigraevo to help the Ratinovs in building their house.  The government gives families the equivalent of about $10,000 for having a second child (an incentive to raise the population), but it can only go towards education or in improving your home.  The R's have to have their house all closed in by the end of December to receive this money next year, so we wanted to help them out.  The kids played on sleds while the men (and woman) worked.  Here's Vera, pushing Ella on our sled.

     It was cold that day... if I remember right it was -24 degrees.  Here are the kids, pulling the sleds up the hill.  Anneka was so sweet to pull Ella, and Ella was very appreciative!

They definitely made progress on the house!

     Ike slept in the stroller.  He was dressed in many layers, but I still think I had him out too long, as his little appendages were cold when I brought him in.  He didn't complain, though, and thankfully our family all continues to be healthy!!

A Little Car Accident

     After our women's prayer time a couple of week ago, Martina and I walked outside to see this man back into our van.  He was in a hurry and totally didn't see that we had parked there.  Thankfully we weren't near the van when it happened, but we still had to deal with the repercussions.  We had the choice of waiting 4 hours for the police to come or calling an company that works with the insurance in helping you to fill out paperwork.  They come right away but you have to pay 700 rubles (about $21).  The man asked us if we would pay this, which is totally laughable, as HE hit our van!!  But we also didn't want to wait hours for the police (we had kids with us), so we agreed to pay half with him.  

     Ike, up to this point, has always come with me to the prayer meeting.  Anneka came with me that day because I took her to the ear doctor beforehand. ( I thought maybe she had trouble hearing, but all of the tests came back clear... after talking with other ex-pats, we now think it's a sensory overload thing.  Her brain has to take in so much at a time and decipher which language people are talking to her in.)  We met Martina and her boys (who'd come from school) there after riding on the bus.  A lady on the bus had given Anneka 100 rubles (about $3) and told her to go and buy a pie with it.  So while we waited for the insurance guy to come, the kids and I went and bought... lollipops and bananas.  (but Anneka saved her money for pie later).  Ike fell asleep in Martina's arms.

     Once the guy came, Martina sat in our van with the 4 kids while I filled out paperwork in the insurance guy's car.  Amazingly, I didn't feel stressed at all... it actually felt like a mini-vacation, sitting in a warm car without kids.  Ha!  I even had time to clean up some old messages on my phone.  It was really interesting watching the man take out  a stencil and draw out the scene of the accident.  I asked him how many times a day he did this, and he just laughed and said, "a lot".  And he took pictures of everything, too.

     By now, the chunk on the side of our van has fallen off, and we're waiting to find out when and how the guy's insurance company will pay so that we can get the van fixed.  But we're counting our blessings that the van is still running well, that we weren't near the van when it happened (but that we were right there to take care of the needed business), and that Martina and I were together to "divide and conquer".  God takes good care of us!

Multicultural Guests!

     A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of having guests!  This lady, Annala, is from Nepal.  The kids really liked having her around.  The first day, Anneka heard her accent and kept trying to talk with her in Russian.  When she figured out that Annala didn't speak Russian, Anneka began speaking English with an Indian accent.  We got the sense that she was really trying to be helpful, communicating so that Annala could really understand.  Cute.  The first weekend she was here, Anneka had a school project to make something out of a button.

     While I made dinner, Annala helped Anneka to make a little owl with button eyes.  (I found a pattern online and gave them all they needed)  It turned out great!  It was fun to see the display at the preschool with all of the different button projects.

     Ike took a special liking to Annala.  She spoke his language.  For many days we heard Ike and Annala, in loud voices, saying "Da-da-da-da-da!"  When she left it felt strangely quiet.  Anneka made me promise to speak to Ike in his language or else Ike would be too sad.

     One day we ate lunch downtown and took Annala and Christian to the main square.  Nettie and Renata were with us, as they wanted to hear Annala and Christian's stories.  Annala was alone as a very small child and was forced to do child labor from 5-12 years old.  She was without food and clothes in a very cold climate.  Through a series of events she miraculously ran into her sister in Nepal (a different country) and was reunited with her parents.  She didn't speak their language and they tried taking her to the temple.  She kept hearing a voice (God!) that she shouldn't go in there, and kept refusing.  She didn't know Jesus, but was introduced to Him through dreams.  The community ostracized her for not going to the temple and called her a Christian, even though she didn't know what this meant.  She rejected by almost everyone, but Christ kindly drew her to himself, and now she's 60 years old and lives for Him!  Very cool. 

      Christian was a very fun guest to have.  He has a fun sense of humor and we stayed up talking many nights about interesting things.  I loved that about having both guests- hearing their stories and learning what's going on around the world.  You will notice in this picture that there are Cheerios all around the table.  It buys me about 1.5 minutes if I spread them out a bit for Ike.  =)

          When Annala left, Anneka sobbed.  She asked if we would ever see her again, and Annala said we could see each other in our dreams.  And of course, if not in this lifetime, we will see each other in heaven!

Fun Times With Papa!

     Once a week, Leif has to spend the night at the church as a guard (a few months ago someone broke in and stole a projector and some food, so now someone has to be there at all times).  This used to be my least favorite night of the week, as Ella went through a stage when she was waking up in the night again... and if she woke up while I was nursing Ike, then I had to choose which child to leave crying.  But NOW, not only are Ella and Ike sleeping better, but Leif takes Ella with him.  She LOVES it.  Anneka and Ella both went a few weeks ago, as there was a Russian holiday so Anneka didn't have school the next day.  

 

 The girls liked playing on Dyedye Denis's tractor.

 

     The three of them hung out together while the youth watched a movie and had a discussion in the main room.  Or maybe this picture is of breakfast the next morning.  But they did both.  =)

     And the best part- snuggling together after making beds out of the pews!

     Not too many guys would take their kids with them to a place with no running water, an outhouse, and no beds... but Leif does!  And our whole family is grateful!

As an end note, I can't remember if I mentioned this in another blog, but Leif saw the man who broke into our church on the bus one day.  The guy was wearing Leif's hat (he had kept it at the church for a work hat), and when Leif asked him where he got his hat, the guy got really nervous and fidgety and wouldn't answer him.  And then once they got off the bus, the guy walked away as quickly as possible.  Leif called a couple of guys from the church to see if there's anything he should do, but they said enough time had passed and they couldn't prove anything so to let him go.

In Mongolia.... in just 20 years!!

     In the past 20 years in Mongolia, Christianity has grown tremendously.  In 1990, there was just one church and 50 Christians.  Now there are 480 churches and 100,000 Christians!  The Buryats are very closely related to the Mongolians.  This is exciting for us to see, and we pray that this work will spread to our region!

Conference

     Have you ever come across something that you just really don't understand?  Where all you can do is scrunch up your brow and scratch your head?  Well, that is what every westerner runs into when they first encounter Tibetan Buddhism.  It is also what every Russian runs into.  In fairness it is really the same way for the Tibetan Buddhist who first encounters Christianity.  These things just don't make sense together.  Sometimes we use the same words, but what we mean is completely different.  We have come to see that this lack of understanding can create all sorts of problems as we try to reach out in love to those around us here in Buryatia.  Because of that we have been part of putting on conferences to teach those in the church about particulars of Tibetan Buddhism and to work out ideas for better reaching out to people from this background, and just finished one in November.  We had some great speakers who shared their expertise and experience and added a lot.  We had wonderful interaction with people from different churches and cultures, and we are praying that God will use what we learned so that we can better share the good news of Jesus with our friends and neighbors.

One thing that becomes very clear as we begin to talk about Tibetan Buddhism is that there are many spirits involved.  Because of this we realize how important it is for us to pray so that God will work to open our hearts and the hearts of those we are talking with to the truth.  At this conference we tried to not just talk about the importance of prayer, but to actually take the time to pray!

It is wonderful how God unifies us and works in and around us as we stop to bring our requests to Him and to listen to Him!

Another great part of the conference was time in fellowship around the table for lunch and dinner and tea breaks.  As much as people wanted to interact in the program of the conference, it was clear that people were really excited to engage in this informal setting.  I was encouraged as I saw people from different denominations loving and caring for each other as they talked and shared and showed interest in each other.

Actually a number of people mentioned that they really appreciated this time in the conference.  It certainly didn't hurt that the food was great!

This is part of the great kitchen crew that made the wonderful meals.  We are so thankful for the work and sacrifice they made to be there each day with long hours in the kitchen while the rest of us interacted in the courses and discussion groups.

Speaking of other people blessing us to allow us to enjoy the conference, I really want to say thank you to Jami!  She is such a wonderful wife.  So often she makes the sacrifice of watching the kids so that I can be involved in various ministries, and she did that again during this conference where I was really busy with the administrative side of things as well as participating myself.  I was glad that she was able to come with the kids a couple of days for part of the time so that she could be a part of things too.  I love her so much!

A few of the other kids got to come too.  Here's Anneka with a couple of her international friends.  They enjoyed playing together while the conference was going on.

Isaac got to borrow this stroller for a nap.  He slept for hours here, even with all of the noise and people walking by.   I think he enjoyed being at the conference too :).

Thanksgiving Blessings

     There's so much to catch up on from the past two weeks!  I'll probably post a few over the next few days, but I'll start with Thanksgiving!  We always miss being with family on Thanksgiving.  God blessed us this year with a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, however.  We had the Robertson family, Nettie, Renata, and Melly over to celebrate with us.  Anneka made placecards and herself decided where each person would sit.

     Here's a picture that includes Melly and me at the far end.  It's so nice having so much room in our apartment!

     Over the past weeks, our family has added a leaf to this "Thanksgiving tree" each day. (Leif and the girls helped me collect sticks outside to make it.) On one side of the leaf is a Bible verse about thankfulness and on the other side we've written something we're thankful for.  Then on Thanksgiving Day, every person read their verse as we sat around the table, and then shared something that they were personally thankful for.  It was encouraging to hear, and fun to see our tree filled with leaves.

     The girls also made these little hats leading up to Thanksgiving.  Here, Ella's was already missing several feathers.

     Anneka wrote different things she's thankful for on her feathers.  She came up with them all on her own.  She wrote "love, joy, Jesus, wisdom, and family and friends".

The girls loved having friends to play with!

     The kids "helped" Nettie make monkey bread, which was a HUGE help to us, as Leif and I were getting the last minute things ready (gravy made, turkey carved, etc) for the dinner.  This year we found BOTH a turkey AND celery... the first time for this to ever happen!

Here, Ella was helping Nettie to test the monkey bread to see if it was done.

     After dinner, we wrote on feathers ways that God has worked in and around us this past year and stuffed this turkey that Nettie brought with the feathers.  To name a few were Ike's healthy birth, people coming to Christ, friends and family visiting, and encouraging trips to the States.  We have so much to be thankful for!
   
     This morning, as I was pulling Anneka on a sled in the dark and subzero temperatures on the way to school, we shared, back-and-forth, things that we're thankful to God for.  It's so good to focus on Him and to see His many blessings all around us.

Thank you to all who prayed for our Thanksgiving away from our families back home!

The Best News!

Conference Near Irkutsk

So, for some reason I can't write text between the pictures today... but that's okay because I wouldn't know what to write... haha!  These are pictures from a church conference Leif went to with some of the guys from Ulan Ude.  The first part of the conference was on what it means to be a pastor and the second part was on true freedom.  I don't really know a lot more except that it was a good time, both learning and connecting with others.  Leif has his plate full this week with preparing for a conference next week, so I thought I'd post these pictures, and you can just imagine what happened... after all a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Coat Repair

     It's the time of year when we switch from wearing regular winter coats to needing to pull out our heavy-duty winter coats.  This morning it was 1F (-17C), and it's just going to get colder.  Ella and I took the coats in to get repaired.  My coat had holes in the pockets, so I had lots of treasures floating around in the lining.  Anneka's coat had a hole inside- right where the sleeve attaches to the coat, so if she put her arm in through the hole instead of through the sleeve, it got stuck in there.  And we needed some new zippers.

     So, we took this bundle to the repair shop, but the repair shop was closed.  I double checked the sign on the door.  It opened at 10:00 and we were there after 11:00.  I commented to a lady that it wasn't very convenient because I had a little girl with me and all those coats (and it made it hard to do other needed shopping!)  She told me that I should have come in the day before to double check with the seamstress to make sure she'd be there.  Oh, yes, that would have made everything easier!!  Thankfully that day, I had the van (normally we would have walked), so we were able to put everything outside while we did more shopping.

    After we bought a few groceries, the repair lady came!  I told her we'd be right back, I just had to grab our coats from the car. When we returned a few minutes later, she was gone and the door was locked.   By now everyone was staring at the little girl and her mom with all the coats.  Then we found the lady. And she unlocked the door.  And now we should get our coats back tomorrow and be officially prepared for winter!

Opportunites

     Last Saturday Leif and I were talking about how we would love to share about Jesus more with people, but we haven't had a lot of opportunities lately.  So we prayed.  And the next day, Leif had some great conversations with some of the people at the tea time after the English Club!  One young lady declined a ride home from the Brubachers because she had so many more questions and wanted to keep talking.  Leif came home feeling encouraged and energized.  It's so life-giving to share about the Life-Giver!  We are thanking God for this answer to prayer and are trusting Him to open more doors.  Please pray with us for more of these opportunities!

Russian Lessons and Homework

 

     When we first came to Ulan-Ude, I took Russian language classes in the university for a year.  During that year I was pregnant and felt like I had lost part of my brain... but of course, I learned a lot.  After that, we had a baby...and another baby... and another baby.  And frankly, official language classes went by the wayside.  At one point when Anneka was a baby, a retired Russian professor from the university came to our home to give me lessons.  But it was hard if Anneka woke up from her nap or if one of us was sick.  And it was a stress to clean up the apartment and make something to go with tea, even though the lessons themselves were good and I loved the teacher.

     But now I am LOVING taking lessons from a teacher from a language school in Ukraine via skype.  She is excellent, and the lessons are so helpful.  I just have one lesson a week, after the kids go to bed.  I go to the apartment next door so that I can focus (Leif is with the kids).  We have been going through basic grammar (the six Russian cases).  The difference now from the first time I learned the cases is that I know the vocabulary!  The first year I was so hung up on learning the nouns and verbs that it was hard to remember everything AND put it all into the proper form.  But now I know most of the words and am learning how to say things correctly, and I'm SO HAPPY about it!

     The first 30 minutes of our lesson, I talk about things in my life, and Irina corrects me.  It's great because these are a lot of the things I talk about with other people.  It has helped me to have more confidence with neighbors, Anneka's teachers, and people at church.  

     Last week I went to the church members meeting and Leif stayed home with the kids.  (he is the one who always goes, but this time we decided to mix it up a bit).  I was so pleased that I understood 99% of what was said at the meeting!  

     The one detriment of taking these classes is that I'm ALWAYS correcting myself now.  My mind tells me immediately if I've said something wrong and I stop and correct it.  This makes for longer conversations, but I'm guessing that over time, the right grammar will come more quickly- before I say it the wrong way!

 

     Anneka, of course, is also learning Russian in a more intensive way, as she's in school.  She has homework, too.  Each week there is a theme.  The first weeks were pretty basic themes:  seasons, fruits, vegetables... and then it went to types of birds and  then types of mushrooms!  I don't know types of mushrooms in ENGLISH much less Russian!  
   
     All of the kids are expected to memorize three riddles and one poem a week (a picture of two poems about autumn is above).  I wrote a letter to Anneka's teachers, explaining our goals for her and how it's really hard for her to memorize poems in another language.  I told them we would work with her on the vocabulary from each week's theme, but that she would most likely memorize less riddles and poems than her classmates.  The teachers have been really great.  And most weeks, Anneka memorizes two, and lately three a week!  We always choose the shortest ones possible, of course.  And lately, I've noticed that Anneka's mistakes are less with the sounds and more with the meaning.  For example, instead of saying the word for "to walk" differently (like "valk"), she'll use a different word that means walk (for example " to stroll").  This shows me that her comprehension is going up.

     And she continues to make friends.  We are praising God for this!