Winter Happenings

New people continue to come to our English Club every week

    While on one hand, the winter seems to last forever, on the other hand each day seems to race by.  A lot of Leif's time recently has been on preparing talks for our church in a series from the book of Genesis.  It's been encouraging to see some of the other men step up and learn and grow through this study.  Of course, a lot of time is also spent in preparing for our move to the village.  The shell of our house is completed, with a roof on top!  We hope to get windows and insulation in next.

     We continue to be amazed at all of the new people who are coming to our English Club!  We have a great group of students, and many already speak English well enough to engaged in our discussions taken from different passages of the Bible on the life of Jesus.  We always enjoy the tea time at the end where we can mingle and get to know these students on a more personal level, too.

   

     We have been wanting to connect with these new friends outside of English Club and have found various ways to do so.  On this day, we invited several friends to the village where we'll be living (at Sasha and Yulia's house) for a game night.  They live not so far away from this village in another village.  We had a lot of fun!

    I like how games bring out people's personalities in new ways.  It's a fun way to grow in friendship.

    And speaking of friendship, I just have to say that our friends Adriana and Marius are AMAZING!  They had all three of our kids overnight that night, and Ella and Ike were both throwing-up sick throughout the night and in the morning.  Adriana told them she didn't want to call me because I would worry and come right away.  So she just kept them and told me when I came to pick them up! (And they have a new baby!) So we missed having our kids during the super-sick stage and just got them when they were tired and snuggly sweet.  =)

     Our kids continue to barter ice outside with their friends during English Club.  They collect and freeze ice on our balcony throughout the week.

     A bunch of kids at church have been sick lately (it's that time of year!).  Two of the kids in the youngest group were in the hospital the last couple of weeks with pneumonia.  One week Ike was the only kid in my group, so we made sandwiches for everyone in the church for after the service.  He took his job very seriously and was super cute.

      Leif's birthday this year was on the same day as the Superbowl.  The girls designed him this Seahawks football shirt that says "You are the best Papa" in both English and Russian.  Ike got this helicopter balloon for him.

     It created the perfect opportunity for us to have a Superbowl/birthday party!  We invited old friends and new (from English Club) and projected the game onto the wall.  It was fun for Leif to explain the rules to people. as most people aren't at all familiar with American football.  I didn't get any really good pictures, but we had 23 people total.  It was very fun!

     Last week we had our annual day of prayer as a team.  I was in charge of organizing it this year.  It's wonderful to take this day out of our schedules to be together and pray all day.

   
     Daniela led us in a time of worship songs that were great for including the kids. We look forward to this day each year.

And So 2017 Begins...

Happy 2017!

     New Year is the biggest holiday here, and it's a tradition for almost everyone to enjoy the ice slides downtown and enjoy the beauty of the ice sculptures.  Bruce invited us for sliding, hot chocolate, and treats soon before the turn of the new year.

Ike is right behind Leif 

The sculptures are always so amazing!

Ella in the Ice Maze

Mama and Ike (we're on little sleds)

We all enjoyed warming up and playing at Bruce's

     Then on New Year's Eve we invited guests for our tradition of fondue.  Our whole family prepared together.

Our neighbor came for a short time.

We feasted...

...and played games (the kids all played together in their rooms)...

... went outside for a bit...

... and set off a couple of small fireworks and had sparklers.

     Then at midnight we watched everyone from the neighborhood set off fireworks.  There was quite a show!

     The Brubachers went home soon after midnight, but the Giura's slept over and we had breakfast together.

It's so fun to enjoy these special friends and this special holiday!

A Very Merry Christmas

Gerard van Honthorst Adoration of the Shepherds

     I really enjoyed listening to the Christmas story in Luke this year while studying this painting.  I was struck by the warmth and joy surrounding the birth of Jesus.  I was also thinking about how Mary was very likely away from her family, as she traveled with Joseph for the census.  I'm sure it was hard to be away from what was familiar and those she loved- in such a life-changing time as the birth of a baby. Her first baby!  But God provided.  He provided a quirkly group of shepherds who shared in the joy and amazement of Jesus.  I couldn't help but think of the parallels of being away from our family in America and missing them during the special season of Christmas.  But how God provides a special group of people for us to celebrate with- people from Romania, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Russia, and the USA.  He's so faithful to meet our heart's needs.

     Each year we enjoy the tradition of a team Christmas party on the 24th.  We always act out the Christmas story.

I love watching everyone get into it!

Here were the actors in our little play.  There were 26 of us total.

 Bruce picked out special gifts for each of the kids to open from the team.

     Some of the kids played some Christmas carols that we sang along with.  Anneka played "Silent Night".

Ella played "Away in a Manger"

We also enjoyed an indoor snowball fight.  Guys against girls.

     The adults had a gift exchange.  Nettie made me homemade applesauce, which I LOVE!  Also, a group of us went ice skating (too cold for pictures!) and others stayed and played games.  When we returned we ate dinner together and then sang more Christmas carols by candlelight.  A very special time!

     Our family has the tradition of sleeping in the living room the night before Christmas.  We awoke and saw that Mary and Joseph had a baby in Bethlehem (our nativity set has a pregnant Mary until Christmas morning).  We opened stockings and had our traditional Swedish pancake breakfast.

     At church that morning, the kids put on a Christmas play.  Ella and Anneka were stars and did a great job!

Ike was a hedgehog and also did great!

Then we came home and opened gifts.  Ella got this life-sized doll.

     We were so blessed by friends who sent gifts.  Ike got a Lego set that he could construct easily by himself.  He was soooo happy.

Anneka got her very own camera.

     Our friend, Lena, came the next day and shared with us a song that she wrote for Christmas.  She said that for several years she's wanted to write a Christmas song, but she never had the words.  This year it just came to her- in like 10 minutes!- and it was beautiful and worshipful.

Thank you, God, for your many blessings!

Joy in the Advent Season

     How wonderful that the Chistmas Season comes during the darkest time of the year.  What a gift to focus on the Light of the World when all around is dreary!  We cherish taking extra time as a family the month leading up to Christmas to be amazed together at the God of the universe coming to earth as a baby.  We light candles each night, hang an ornament on our Jesse tree each with a symbol that points to the story of Jesus, and sing songs together in addition to our normal prayer and Bible time.   

     We also have an advent calendar with something special that we do each day.  We try to do things that reach out to or connect with others... and we have lots of fun!  On this day we made Christmas cookies and delivered them to several neighbors and local store workers.  This is not something people here do, so we were met with surprise (but it was a pleasant surprise).  ;)

     We picked out toys for orphans and prayed together for these kids by name.  

     We made beautiful Christmas artwork!

... and went tubing with friends.

     Of course, it's always cold here, but this year we've been blessed with weather that's not TOO cold to be outside.  This truly helps our family to be able to get out and exercise a bit.

We had Bogdan over for a couple of days to give his Mama time with their new baby.

Leif and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary!

     ...and while we did that, dear friends took our kids and played with them!  Nettie took Anneka cross country skiing for her first time, and Ike and Ella had a wonderful time with the Blakers.

Ice skating with Bruce

We made special bird food and waited while the pigeons flocked in to discover their treat!

We made costumes for the kids' Christmas play at church

... and made ornaments that we gave to others

     At the last minute my friend, Sveta, told me that the Nutcracker was playing at the ballet theatre downtown.  It was a busy time, but we squeezed it in, and we're so glad we did!  It's so beautiful to watch the beauty and talent that God has created in people!

  This year our kids all said it was the best Christmas season ever!  I'm enjoying our kids at these ages.  These are special memories we will always treasure!