"My Dream-My Mom"

Happy New Year to you all! We had a wonderful trip to a small city in one of the southern regions of Buryatia. The trip was packed full of interesting stories, people to pray for and wonderful relationships, and we want to share with you about some of those in the next day or two, but right now we want to share about our time today. On the way home from this town we stopped in a village where there is an orphanage. There are about forty kids in this children's home. Some of these are true orphans who have lost their parents from tragic deaths while others have been brought here because their home situations are so terrible. The picture at the top was painted by one of the boys in the orphanage. Both Jami and I were drawn to it right away because of the beauty of the picture, but what cemented this image in our hearts was the title, "my dream-my mom". Thinking of this brought tears instantly to Jami's eyes, and we both just looked at each other and thought of these kids crying out for something, for someone to love them. I don't know how many of you have been in children's homes like this, but the kids always tug at your heart and you always feel like you can do so little because you just want to take each one of them home to love and raise as your own child. Our program was pretty simple. We shared with them about Christmas (and in that, shared the wonderful news about Jesus' life, love and salvation), played games, sang songs, did a craft and gave gifts for the workers to pass on to the kids. It was really impressed on our small group that the workers there are so important. We were plesantly suprised after some horror stories we had all heard of different orphanages here in Russia. The conditions were sparse, but nice, and you could tell that the workers care about the kids. We were talking afterwards about how we would like to see the church do more work with this children's home and to make sure we look to the workers to serve and love them as well. They are the only "parents" that so many of these kids know and how powerful would it be if there were believers bringing the love of God to these children every day. Orphans have been on our hearts a lot lately- and all the more as we left these beautiful children. We can't help but be reminded of James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We pray that we can live a life that exemplifies this.

Ice Sculptures and Tea Time

Today was our last day of classes in 2006! We'll have a two week break until they resume. In the meantime, we'll be going to a village for a few days to encourage a young church there (Leif will be preaching again), and the following week a short-term missions team is coming to Ulan Ude.

Speaking of Ulan-Ude, the whole city is preparing for the New Years celebration. Huge, intricate ice sculptures are displayed downtown, depicting the year of the pig and three major religions: Buddhism, Islam, and the Russian Orthodox Church. (We find it interesting the the Orthodox Church made it into the sculptures but not Shamanism). There are also a few ice slides in the central square that the children LOVE to play on. It was so fun watching them today.

This evening I (Jami) went to a ladies Christmas tea. Christmas in Russian isn't celebrated until the 7th of January. At the tea we ate delicious soup, sipped tea and devoured Christmas cookies. We also talked about the miracle of Jesus coming to this earth and read the Christmas story aloud, taking turns in reading. I even read a couple of verses! I think I'm getting braver with just speaking out and not worrying about what I sound like.

We discovered today that we thought we were drinking filtered water since we've been here, but we weren't at all! (even the Russians don't drink unfiltered water) Ha! Thankfully, God is our great protector. And we're drinking filtered water now. Have a happy New Year and we'll write again when we return from the village!!

Sledding in 30 Below Weather

Today after class we went sledding with our teammates, the Wicker family. They call it "sliding", which is a fun Canadian term for it. They have the week off from school since the're on the North American class schedule. I (Jami) was terrible at staying on these sheets of plastic called "krazy karpets". We also attemped sliding on cardboard, but as you can see in the picture, it didn't work quite as well. We had a great time and didn't even get too cold... even though it was negative 30 degrees. Our eyelashes were white with ice.

After sledding, went back to the Wickers for some wonderful soup. While we were there, Sharon got a phone call saying that someone had found her purse! This was amazing because someone had stolen it a few days ago. Inside was a lot of money (she was out Christmas shopping and had just gone to the ATM), her passport, visa, credit cards, bank cards, driver's license, etc. Basically everything was in there that is a nightmare to replace. Well, someone found her purse on the street (minus the money) and called! We are all so happy that God provided in this way and returned these important documents. It's such a reminder that He takes good care of His children. Yippee!!

We had a nice Christmas here in Ulan-Ude. For Christmas Eve, Elizabeth, Shannon, and Shannon's friend Emma (from Ohio) came over. We made fondue. It was relaxing and fun. I had tried to make my grandpa's famous peanut butter candy the day before, but it didn't harden... so we used it as fondue for the fruit. Mmmm. That night we watched "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and awoke the next morning to presents under our tree and in our stockings. (Shannon and Emma stayed the night) Leif and my tradition on Christmas morning is to make Swedish pancakes. We couldn't find lingonberries, but we found a jelly that's very similar in taste. I also got to talk with my family over skype. It was so fun to hear their voices. After opening gifts, I prepared my first turkey! I was very nervous about it, and the meat thermometer was broken... and the oven temperature was about 200 degress off for the first hour!! But amazingly, by God's grace, it turned out just great.

At two o'clock, our teammates, a lady here with a radio ministry, and a Romanian family came over. Before everything started, Leif led us all in a time of communion and remembering Jesus and how He's worked in our lives. It is good to reflect upon our loving saviour. Then we feasted, sang Christmas carols, played games, and opened gifts. My gift is from Heidi, the 11-year-old on our team. As you see in the picture, it was wrapped like a pig, in honor of the upcoming "year of the pig". Isn't he darling? Inside was a wonderful basket and some homemade soap. Also pictured are the cute Romanian girls. They really liked Leif and climbed all over his lap (even though they didn't speak any English or Russian). They also like me and liked to fix my hair and have me hold their little doll. So sweet.

We feel blessed by how God takes care of us, even as we're far away from our families. We feel very loved. Oh, and our families did a great job of sending us gifts that we LOVE! Thank you! They were so fun to open.

Love to you all!

Leif's Sermon in Russian

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for Leif's sermon today! He was able to write a rough draft earlier this week for His teacher to go through with him. Then last night we invited a couple of Russian friends over to hear Leif do a run-through and give input. I think it went really well and he had some positive feedback today from people after the service. Hooray!

Speaking of today's service, we met a family from Romania who moved here only a week ago. They celebrate Christmas on the 25th just like us and have nowhere to go to celebrate tomorrow. So we invited them to join us. They know Russian less than we do (but they know a little English) so we can definitely relate to their feelings of being "aliens and strangers" here. They have two REALLY cute little girls. They are so so cute. I will try to get a picture so you can see just how cute they are!

Santa Claus vs. Father Frost

Last night at "Compass" we had a little Christmas party and explained about the holiday, traditions, and meaning behind it. At one point, our teammate, Shannon, asked if the students knew who Santa Claus was. One student answered, "Yes, he's just like Father Frost but he doesn't drink". Here in Russia, they celebrate Father Frost who comes at New Years.

Leif shared the Christmas story and had one of the students read from the books of Luke and Matthew. Afterwards, we played some games and ate Christmas cookies.

A funny side note is that when I went to sit on a chair, it broke from underneath me. This is the fourth time this has happened to me in 4 months! I'm beginning to get a complex.

Rabbit Pancakes

There's this great new place just a few steps from our apartment building that serves all kinds of different pancakes! It's called a bleenaya and the pancakes are called bleeni. At many Russian restaurants, you will find pancakes, but usually they'll have the traditional pancakes with liver, pancakes with sour cream, and pancakes with a sticky sauce. But the place by our house has pancakes with ham and cheese, pancakes with chicken and onions, and pancakes with rabbit! We love this little place and have been there a few times since it's opening. For dessert, we usually get a pancake with jam or honey. Mmmm! This picture shows Leif eating a rabbit pancake. They are filling and cost the equivalent of $1. What a steal!

Today we went to the bleenaya after church to debrief a little bit. Today was a 3 1/2 sermon Sunday. I say 3 1/2 because the 4th was more like a testamony. At the end of the service, the pastor stood up and announced that next week would be "old people" week at church. We're not really sure what this means except that this week was "young people" week, and the youth sang various songs between sermons and a couple of young men spoke. Anyways, right after he announced that next week was "old people" week, he told everyone that Leif would be giving one of the sermons! And then he said that Leif counts as an old person. Ha! We thought that this was a very funny way for Leif to find out that he's speaking in a week. Please be praying that God will give him words to share and will help him to communicate these truths clearly into Russian.

4th Anniversary

We've been married for four wonderful years now! It has been so much fun, and so wonderful to have this relationship and to grow together. God has been so faithful to build our love for one another and has given us opportunities to get away and just have time together. This is what we got to do this last week for a couple of days. We headed out to Lake Baikal and stayed in a nice little hotel/lodge. The food was good (we were a little worried before going) and we had a great time walking around, skiing, playing games, enjoying the sauna, and just getting time to be together.

As is true everywhere, we feel that our marriage can be a great witness to the greatness of God. The family structure is in shambles here in Russia, and we trust that God will use our love for each other to show His love to people that we may have difficulty communicating with through words. Thank you all so much for praying for our marriage.

Church and a Crash!

It is Sunday night here, so we thought it would be appropriate to send out a little blog about church. The picture shows us in front of the church we go to in the mornings. The church is called "Vozrozhdyeniye" which means "Rebirth". We continue to pray for the church here to live up to that name. That there would continually be new life in the church. This is the most established of the churches here in Ulan-Ude and is a place where we feel like we are able to learn about the culture, particularly about the church sub-culture, here in Ulan-Ude. We also attend a small church in the evenings that is just over a year old and is meeting in a home. The second church is less traditional, but still is fully connected to the "Rebirth" church. Here are a few interesting things that exist in the church here that you don't normally see in churches in the states. Some of these are less strict in the newer church, and some of them we aren't quite sure what we think about yet.

-There are usually 2-3 sermons by different members of the church.

-People buy and bring their own hymn books.

-The service is usually 2 hours or more.

-The bathroom is an outhouse (but it does have wallpaper).

-The heat comes from a wood stove that doesn't get stoked until just before the service.( it's freezing cold!)

-There is always a time in the service where people stand up and share which churches or family members who aren't there say "hello".

-Communion is taken from a communal cup that's passed around

-There's a lot of poetry

-Old ladies love to kiss Jami

After church today, we took a marshrutka home, as usual. A marshrutka is van that travels along a bus route. (Keep your eyes peeled for a future blog about the joys and perils of marshrutka riding!) Anyways, we were riding along happily, and then the marshrutka stopped to let a person off... and BAM! A car slammed into the back of us! Leif was in the far back seat with another adult and a small child. We weren't really sure what to do, so we waited. A minute later, our driver asked us all to get off and he returned our money to us. There was a huge section of the back of the van that was smashed in. Thankfully, we're safe. God is taking good care of us! We feel a little sore afterwards, but we're not sure if it's real or if we're just making it up in our heads.

We're surprised accidents don't happen more with the crazy driving here and the constant layer of ice on the roads. There's so much to be thankful for.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

... Well, at least it's looking like Christmas in our apartment. Thanks to family and friends, we have Christmas decorations, and thanks to the family whose apartment we're living in, we have a tree!

It's interesting being away from commercialism and the hurriedness that this season typically brings. It helps us to slow down and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. What a miracle that God came to earth as a baby!

Compass

We're on our way to "Compass", the college student group that we work with every Thursday night. The purpose of "Compass" is to help students to grow in 4 aspects: physically, socially, intellectually, and spiritually. Every other week, we have a game night- both active games and board games. On the off weeks, we share about topics of interest such as HIV, relationships, or quiz students in the format of "Who Wants to Be a Millionare?". Here's a picture of Leif teaching the students basketball the week before last. Tonight is a sports' night as well. We're off the catch the marshrutka! (little van for public transportation)

It's Amazing What People Will Drive Around Here

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving, and we have so much to be thankful for. Tomorrow we will celebrate "officially" with a real turkey dinner at our teammate Shannon's apartment. Yesterday we made pumpkin pies and rolls with Shannon and will head over there early tomorrow to help prepare the rest of the meal.

Tonight was our "Compass" (student group) meeting, and we took the opportunity to share about Thanksgiving, give everyone a slice of pumpkin pie, and play "pin the feather on the turkey". It was a good time of talking with students and reflecting on God's goodness in guiding our lives. Leif made the turkey (pictured above). Isn't it cute?

We miss our families during this time, but are also filled with a peace that only God can give.

Little Siberian Tots

On my way home this week, I saw a Buryat grandpa toting his little grandtot on a sled. A lot of kids ride around on sleds throughout the winter. It is sooo cute. I love how they're so bundled up. I always want to squeeze them! (this is Leif writing, of course. Hahaha... just kidding)

Buddhism and Shamanism

This week we attended a conference on how to share Christ with people of Buddhist and Shamanist backgrounds. It was a very interesting conference that gave us a better understanding of both the history and the every-day mindset of people here. One of the most encouraging aspects was to see Buryats and Russians at the conference excited about reaching their republic for Christ! Local representatives from different churches here in Ulan Ude and other cities/villages were at this seminar. Today (the last day) Buryats and Russians proposed a plan of meeting regularly together to unite in prayer and in reaching Buryats for Christ. Among other things we went to a local Datsan (Buddhist monestary) to see some of the aspects of the religion. We were able to see things that we learned such as some of the symbols in the artwork as well as see first hand how religious practices are carried out. There is such an emptiness in the religious rituals. The first picture is of prayer wheels that are supposed to build your karma as they turn. An interesting thing we heard is that Dali Lama has actually endorsed prayers that you can download onto your harddrive (which spins much faster than the prayer wheels in the picture) to build good karma. You can also see in the middle picture coins that people have left as an offering in front of the idol. Lamas (Buddhist monks) actually invite spirits to live in different idols. The lamas will also often ask the spirits from these idols to posess their body (kind of a reverse exorcism). It really leaves you with a terrible feeling to see that people are asking evil spirits into their body, especially when you know that God loves them and wants to put His own wonderful Spirit into them to give guidance and strength in freedom. There is so much more that we could say, but I will just end by saying it has given us a lot to think about and pray about. We definitely need our Lord with us every moment.

God Is At Work All Over The World

We've had the privilege of having a Dutch couple, Yan and Nellie, stay with us for the past few days (center of picture). They are a part of a marriage ministry that travels to different countries. It is exciting to have them come to Siberia because many marriages here are in a terrible state. Also, many men who would never step into a church are willing to go to a marriage conference. At this conference, Yan and Nellie (along with a Russian couple), share about true love- including God's love and how He alone provides what people need to have strong relationships with one another. Often people give their lives over to Christ at these conferences... and the results carry through as husbands and wives love each other in ways that show to the rest of the world.

It occurred to us this week what a blessing it is to be in full-time ministry and to think of all of the amazing people we get to meet and all of the stories we get to hear of how God is at work all around the world. Last night we had a family who works in China over for dinner, and this week Vanya and Larissa (left of picture)are staying with us (Russian missionaries in the city of Irkutsk). We feel that our lives are very rich. It is so amazing how God gives different people different visions... and how He carries out His plans in many different ways.

Invasion

We'll I guess we have to blame Jami for cleaning. That at least is what brought us the discovery of our fruit fly invasion. A little over a week ago Jami decided to do some deep cleaning and moved some benches in the kitchen. What she discovered was a colony of fruit flies feeding off of old tomato chunks (explanation later). For the next few days they tried to take over the kitchen. We weren't sure exactly what to do when we go the idea of sucking them into the vacuum cleaner. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit and felt a little bit like one of the ghost-busters carrying around the vacuum with the hose and all. It seemed though, that no matter how may we sucked up there were always more. Then I made a discovery this morning. I was doing my rounds with the vacuum cleaner when I thought I should look in some of the cupbords and in the storage under the benches to make sure there weren't any hidden flies. To my horror, as I opened up one of the benches there was a bag full of rotten tomatoes. Actually, I could barely see the tomatoes beneath the black blanket of fruit flies. Needless to say, that bag of tomatoes made it quickly to the trash bin outside and I went to work again with the vacuum cleaner. The Buryat lady who stayed here before we came had stored hoards of tomatoes in the kitchen. When she moved out, we thought we'd pointed them all out to her and she took them away in boxes. Apparently, we'd missed a stash. I think that we have the upper hand now, and it's just in time as we have guests staying with us tonight and will have different guests here every day for almost two weeks. I must say too, that fruit flies are much better than coackroaches, fleas, beadbugs or some of the other various insects that could have invaded our house.

"Have you been smoking in the bathroom again?"

Jami had just left the kitchen after a relaxed breakfast on our day off when she asked me this in jest. I thought there was maybe a hint of smoke from one of the neighbors as you sometimes get here through the apartment building ventilation systems. The overpowering smell that hit me in the face as I stepped out of the kitchen made me think it was something more. At first we were worried that maybe something had burned in our apartment so we scrambled around to make sure everything was in order. As I was looking I decided to check outside, and as I parted the curtains, this is the scene that met me. Through thick smoke I could see the smoldering flames of a fire on the "grassy" knoll behind our apartment building. Of course I say "grassy" because there are some sprouts of grass mixed in the dirt and sand and weeds and dead leaves. I could make out some figures in the background and quickly realized what was going on. Just like people in the states will sometimes burn slash or fields or different things, here they burn the leaves that have fallen to the ground. They do a little bit of piling, but it reminds me more of burning fields. It definitly puts a lot of smoke into the air, especially if it is right by your apartment. After a few moments of relief and laughing, I thought I should get a picture. I wish I had thought of it right away when the smoke was thicker, but I think this picture gives the idea. Burning is very common here... pray for our lungs! This picture also shows the bars that protect our window. Everyone has bars on their windows and balconies for safety. This is where we live!

A Small Party

Earlier this week we got a call from our friend Sasha. He said that he had two questions for us. First, he wanted to know if we were interested in going to a small reunion party for another old friend of ours, Dianna, who was visiting from Moscow where she is making Christian music CDs. Of course we said yes to this as we wanted to see Dianna and to visit with other friends as well. The second question he had for us was, could we host the party? It was funny to be asked this, but we of course wanted to do that so we said of course. Sasha told us that it would be just a small party and that we wouldn't have to prepare any of the food or anything so that made it easy for us. Of course as you can probably judge by the picture a small party aparently means anything less than 40 people. That's really not that bad, but it does fill up the livingroom pretty quickly, especially because Russian apartments tend to be smaller than your typical American house. The part that was really funny to us was that Sasha, who had called us in the first place, never came to the party!?! It was a great time though, and we all got to hear about how God has been working in and through Dianna as she creates music to praise our Lord. It was beautiful to see God's family and to pray for our sister as she prepared to go back to Moscow to continue the work God has called her to.

On top of Holy Nose

Holy Nose is not a religious relic or what happens after someone says, "bless you" when you sneeze. No, Holy Nose is the mountain that I (Leif) hiked on this last weekend with the small group pictured above (left to right: Igr, Bairma, Leif, Ayuna, Dima and Shannon). It was crazy at times, but great to connect with people. When we were at the top (see the second picture) I thought, "this is exactly what everyone pictures Siberia being like all year." It was cold, snowy, icy, windy, and barren. If you look carefully you will see that the straps on my gloves are blowing horizontal and that everyone is barely opening one eye if any because of the wind. You can also see the snow blowing across the picture with a slight upward movement. Well, all the misery of the cold was worth it and not only because we conquered our goal of making it to the top of the mountain. During the trip everyone shared at least a bit of their life story. It was really neat to hear from Shannon today that she talked with Bairma and Ayuna (both non-Christians) afterwards and they were particularly struck by what Dima and Igr (both Christians) shared. They were also struck by how these guys served them in making food, carrying extra weight (even their entire pack at points) and generally showing patience and kindness. It is so great to see young men like Irg and Dima here because Russia is in great lack of men who will truly serve and show responsibility and kindness. Please pray for Bairma and Ayuna as they continue to search for what it is they are living for. And thank you for all of you who prayed for safe journeys. God really did protect us and showed us that He was with us the whole way.