5th Annual White Party

    It's White Month here in Buryatia, and a few years ago we started a tradition to have a White Party.  It's been a chance to share and learn more about Buryat culture as well as to share about how we can truly be clean and whiter than snow.  We served white foods, including the traditional Buryat food- pozie!  (it's a meat dumpling)  We also had meat, white salads, white pizzas, white chocolate fondue, and white desserts.  The kids all took part in preparing for the special night.

     These two friends brought a traditional Buryat bread, called Boobyn, that they made.  It's hard to see the design on the bread in the picture, but it was made with a wooden stamp that he carved himself. It's very good- almost like a tea biscuit (but not as sweet).  It can be stored for a long time- over 10 years!


     In years past we have made pozie with friends before the party.  This year we just steamed them.  Zhenya is the expert on how long to steam them!
   


     We enjoyed talking and eating all of the delicious food.  People came in waves, which made it nice for conversation and not feeling too crowded.




     Martina made these awesome white cheescakes with the Buryat New Year's greeting.  We the traditional gifts of tea and chocolates to our guests.  We attached a Bible verse-blessing to each one (written in both English and Russian).  Leif shared about how he loves that blessings are a big part of Buryat culture and how in the Bible, blessings are very important, too.

 Leif shared a bit more as our girls passed them out.

      Then we played a couple of silly games.

      In this game, people had to draw a steppe, sheep, and moon on the plate while it was on top of their head.

     Following the "white" theme, we played a game where we had to put cotton balls into the cup on our heads while blindfolded, using a plastic spoon.  It turned out to be really funny!

    Everyone took a turn, including our kids.  One guy that came is normally so serious, but he kept laughing and laughing during this game.  It was really fun to see.

     We spent time mingling and talking more.  Our friends drove a car load of people back to their village 1.5 hours away and they had great conversation as they traveled.

      We're thankful for these new friends that we've made and for a successful party!

Thinking of the Next Generation

     Some day (hopefully very soon!), I will share more about all that's been going on these past weeks.  But for now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the construction on our church building.  When we first came a few years ago, the whole church fit inside what is now our main meeting room.  Since then we added a bathroom (running water!), kitchen, and kids' room.  Something wonderful is that our church is bursting at the seams with KIDS, and so just last month, construction began on a second floor (for more kids' rooms).  Kids are so important, and I love to think of families becoming healthy and the next generation rising up to praise our Lord and to share Him with others!

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!