The School Year Has Begun!

     Fall is here, and so is school!  Our sweet Ella is now a kindergartner.  She goes 5 days a week and comes home tired, but she is doing so well!  Already she has homework and has to memorize riddles.  She seems to understand much of what is going on, as she'll tell us what the days' lessons are about.  She has friends, and the other little girls are always sweet to greet her each day.  We're so proud of how well she's transitioning, as it's not easy to do everything in a second language!

Ike likes riding his bike to school

     Ike has a new school, too.  His preschool class from last year was simply too crazy to put him in again (32 screaming two and three year olds and one exasperated teacher).  There's a private preschool less than a block from our home, and they agreed to take him two mornings a week.  He goes for 4.5 hours each time (this includes breakfast and lunch), and it is a long time for a little guy.  One day last week he said he didn't want to go, that he didn't like school.  We all prayed together, and when I went to pick him up, his teacher said he was so happy all day.  He told me, "I got used to it!  I like school now!"  They have little classes like music, drawing, math, and even English.  We are thankful for this opportunity, and it's helping him to better understand Russian. 

     Until Anneka's teachers return from the States, I get to have time homeschooling her.  We had a little back-to-school lunch out together.  She's a hard worker, and a good sport about having Mom as her teacher.  She's also going to a Learning Center for Russian lessons once a week.  This way she can grow in her reading and writing in Russian.

     We try to integrate fun activities into our days.  She loves to paint.  Right now she's working on a past/present/future storyboard with paintings to tell the story.  This picture is one that she made especially for Heidi. 

     We have a book of science experiments you can do with kids.  This one was more science and art combined- structures made from beans and toothpicks.  We had fun as a whole family making them.

     Three days a week, Anneka is in a theatre class.  We originally thought we'd enroll her in an art class, and then she found out about the theatre program, and she REALLY wanted to join!  I was a bit hesitant about it because to me, that seems hard to learn lines in a second language!  But we prayed that God would lead us to just the right thing, and so far this has been wonderful!  There is one other girl who is new to the theatre program who is Anneka's age.  They became fast friends.  There is also another boy their age, as well as 20 or so other kids their age and older who have already been in the program at least a year.  They do all sorts of exercises from playing charades to doing cartwheels, to memorizing poems and practicing reciting them with motions, to impromptu acting out what the teacher whispers into their ears, to acting like animals (and studying more about the animals) to finger exercises to stretching, to mime work, etc, etc.  We're really impressed.  We are thankful for this door that the Lord opened that we didn't even know was an option!

     Ella and Ike love to go and drop Anneka off at her theatre class because there are usually other kids to play with outside.  There's this monument that the kids slide on, as well as a skateboarding ramp that they run around on.  This day we ran into a girl who's Grandma goes to our church (and she sometimes comes, too). 

     One weekend Anneka went with Leif to the village, and Ike and Ella and I had fun with playdough.

     Ike is our buddy while Anneka and I have school.  He likes to join in with as much as possible.
He often prefers to color the water with paint than to put the paint on the paper!

     We go on little field trips as exhibits come to town.  This was at the Tropical Animal Exhibit.  Anneka must have held 4 or 5 huge and scary snakes among other crazy animals and huge lizards that day!

     A butterfly exhibit came to town.   The kids all loved having the butterflies resting on them!  It was so interesting watching them hatching out of their cocoons and the drying their wings before flying and eating for the first time!

Feeding a monkey a cucumber!

     May we always love learning and use what we learn for God's glory!

A Summer Smattering

     Before I write about things that are happening this fall, I realized I have pictures from this summer that I never posted.  And since this blog is largely for our family to look back on, I couldn't not include them.  Of course, I realized that there are many things from this summer that we simply didn't take pictures of.  We'll just have to trust our memories for those things.  =)

       At the beginning of the summer we prayed for our kids to have friends to play with on the playground.  It wasn't really happening, and Anneka often seemed reluctant to go outside.  But in one moment everything changed!  It started with our kids trying to sit on the opposite side of the teeter totter from Leif.  Soon more kids came, and then it a grand boy/girl competition.  We're a bit mystified by how this happened, but after this teeter totter moment, our kids all of a sudden began playing with all of the neighborhood kids and would beg to go outside every day.  What an answer to prayer!


   
     This little girl is Ella's favorite playmate from our courtyard.  She and her little sister (who is Ike's age) were outside basically all day every day.  One day the kids found this puppy behind a cement wall.  They loved and doted on this puppy almost  every day,  and this little girl's family took it in as their own pet.


 
     I love how the neighborhood kids all play together.  Often they would play organized games like tag or little sing-song games or games where you had to have your feet off of the ground or where you could only move if you were wearing a certain color.

     This little girl taught Anneka how to make bracelets from little rubber bands.  It's all the rage here.  They would sit outside for long periods of time, sharing rubber bands and learning new techniques.  Ella also picked up the hobby, and now both girls make bracelets.


     These are friends from our building that we have a relationship with.  The boy is so friendly and loves our family.  He always tells me how beautiful I am, which is very sweet.  This lady is a believer and we've enjoyed times of encouraging one another and helping each other over the past few years.


     When Leif's mom was here we had Chingis's family over for dinner one evening.  They have 4 kids, so it was very bustling in our little apartment.  =)


     Irene and the kids wanted to surprise me with decorations and special homemade bread on my birthday, so Leif took me out on a lunch date to a great restaurant that overlooks the city.  The weather was delightful, and it was so nice to have this time together.


     The family bought me a blender, which we've been using a lot for smoothies and pureed soups.  ;)

We met up with Masha, Aryuna, and their boys at the playground one day. 

We read the Bible as a family each night before bed.

     Just days before Anya was in the hospital with encephalitis, we met the family at a playground and then stopped at this store afterward for pigs in a blanket.  The kids all enjoyed riding around in the car carts.  Anneka was very sweet to push Ella around.

     For the 4th of July, we had a picnic with some other American friends before heading to the horse races for the Buryat sports festival.  While we were there, someone had thrown a cigarette out of their car, and it lit the field of grass on fire.  Picnickers from all over came racing with anything they could use as a shovel to put it out.  Thankfully, they were successful!

     Anneka learned how to swim this summer.  Bruce used to be a swimming instructor and was very kind and patient with Anneka, staying in the water a long time.  Her sandals kept coming off of her feet, and the current was pretty strong.  But they stuck with it!  I used his tips for how to float and was amazed at how easy it is!

     Another day I met two moms with their kids in the woods for a little hike and picnic.  It was nice to have the time to talk with them.  From one of the conversations with Sveta, I learned that they are interested in being a part of a home group... and they live very near to us.  We've been praying about another couple to start a home group up with.  Leif has also talked with her husband, and we all plan to meet together soon to pray about this together and share what God has layed on our hearts.

      Our friend, Ira, invited us to her dacha (family cabin/garden plot) for the day.  We enjoyed a nice lunch together, complete with watermelon.

 We took a group picture with the camera's timer.

     Our pastor, Sasha, and his wife, Lena, had us over for lunch while Irene was visiting.  The kids played in their yard, and we had a nice time talking.  They are building onto their house and are praying about adopting kids.

     We met up with Leif after he had a preaching/training conference on Lake Baikal.  He's such a good papa to our kids!

     Inka was in a driving competition for women along with a team of a few other women and one man from her village.  They competed against quite a few other teams from other villages (13 I think).  We've all been praying for ways for Inka and another Russian family there to connect with people in her village.  This turned out to be the perfect thing!  Many of the competitors were Inka's neighbors, and they practiced for this competition several evenings, going late into the night.  The man who was there recently became a believer.  So exciting!

     After cheering Inka on, our family went to the river to swim and have some nice sunshine and family time.  It was one of my favorite days of the summer.  At one point, I said, "This day is practically perfect.  All we need now are cookies".  Within minutes, Inka showed up (after a contestant lunch and award ceremony... they got 3rd place!) and she had cookies!!!  The others from her village came, too, and Leif interacted a bit with the new believer and his son.  His son sees the change in his dad and seems open to Christianity.

 Here's a picture from our "perfect day".  =)

Air, Water, and Food

     This summer, thousands of acres of forest and land have burned in Buryatia.  I took this picture from our balcony one morning.  The air was so smokey that it was hard to see the next building.

     Then we had a couple of good rains!  One week later, at the same time of morning (give or take a few minutes), I took this picture.  What a difference!  How wonderful to breathe in fresh air.

Leif and Ike, waiting in line for water from this blessed truck.

     There was some sort of accident at a local factory recently, and all of the water in our region was shut off.   It had been off all day, and we didn't know how long it would be off.  Leif took some buckets to a local well/pump, and it was out of water.  We went to stores, and I was able to buy 2 small bottles (like 12 oz. size), but that's it!  Later that evening Anneka looked outside and saw this water truck.  She was SO excited because she'd just been reading about the Great San Fransisco Earthquake and how the people had had trucks just like this one to get water at that time.  We gladly went outside with our buckets.  Water is another wonderful thing!

      ... And now it is potato season.  I still haven't gotten totally used to how BIG of a deal potatoes are here!  People's lives revolve a lot around potatoes.  This big truck was delivering huge bags of potatoes to people in our building.  Most people have access to home grown potatoes from their own private garden plot or from family.  Potatoes get them through the winter.  I prepare potatoes a lot more often here than when we're in the States, but even still, it's only like once a week.   I would guess that most Russian people have potatoes in some form at least once a day.

Cultural Experiences

     There are over 185 different ethnic groups in Russia, and many of these groups are considered "unreached" with the good news of Jesus.  We were blessed to be in the city center this summer during a holiday for the Evenki people (traditionally reindeer herders).

They are such beautiful people!

We watched them perform different rituals and prayed for the Lord to show Himself to them in mighty ways.  Here, they were walking through this archway in hopes of gaining good luck. 

Leif took my picture with these guys.  =)

     We also got to go to the horse race portion of an annual Buryat sports competition called Suharban this summer.


     This holiday is a very big deal.  We enjoyed not only watching the races, but  watching the spectators, too.

     Here were some Buddhist monks, standing on these cement blocks for a better view.

     It was a hot day, but we were really glad we went.

     There were cash prizes for the winners, and some of the winners were kids.  We want to be continual learners of the culture we live in and to celebrate the beauty in these people God has created.  We long for them to know that God is their God, too.

Jesus is our Healer!

We love this dear family and thank God for healing Anya!

     We are celebrating the life of little Anya and how the Lord healed her this summer!  In July, my friend Asya called me, frantic, and told me that her 6 year old daughter was in an ambulance from the village to the city.  She had a high fever and a terrible headache and hurt all over.  We soon found out that she had tick-borne encephilitis and her prognosis was grim.  Her condition grew worse and worse, and Asya asked us to pray.  We wrote to many people all around the world, and the response was incredible!  Many people were praying and lifting up this dear family to Jesus.  One night when Anya was in critical condition I was in such distress that I couldn't sleep.  I prayed and prayed all night and really sensed that this battle was not just a physical one, but a spiritual one.  I cried out for little Anya's life and for the salvation of her family.... and I took great comfort in knowing that so many people were praying.  The next morning we learned that Anya had turned a corner and the most dangerous point had passed.  Asya wrote me a text message that translates into: " I don't know what to say! God is helping us! And all who are praying for us! I am so thankful for all of these people. These prayers are saving us".  Anya came out of her comatose state and regained feeling in her limbs.  She began to recover at a rate that was surprising for the doctors.  When she met with the neurologist a couple of weeks later, he was amazed to see that there was no visible long-term damage.

What joy for our girls to play with Anya after she was released from the hospital!

     The road to recovery is still a long one.  Anya just spent a couple of weeks at a special physical therapy center for kids.  She'll delay going to first grade for another year.  And she needs to rest more.  But there is no denying the miracle that God has done, and we thank Him for it!  It has been so neat for our kids to be a part of praying for Anya and loving her.  It was such joy to see her after she was in the hospital.  I got teary just looking at her!  Please continue to pray for this family and for God to take hold of their hearts completely.

Trip to Ust Barguzin

         One of Leif's team leader roles here is to keep in touch with pastors throughout our region of Buryatia.  Some of these pastors live in villages far away.  After our few days of family vacation, we drove to Ust Barguzin (about 5 hours from Ulan Ude) to visit the Buikov family and the small church there. 


     Pastor Buikov owns an auto mechanic shop (in his own garage) and works hard throughout the week.  As you can imagine, being the pastor of this small congregation is a huge responsibility.  It's encouraging whenever people come and visit and when other brothers in Christ can give the message on Sunday.  Leif was happy to help in this way while we were there.


     We got to stay at the Grandma's house.  She had such a beautiful garden and beds for us all!  Before we went, we didn't know where we were going to stay.  This lovely home was like a dream come true for all of us!

Highlights for the kids were holding the cat and using the banya (bath house).  

     It was SO smokey!  There were fires surrounding the village from 3 sides, and one evening there was ash in the air.  We went to the beach, and it was hard to see very far.  A big boat came in at one point, and we didn't see it until it was almost up to the shore! If you look closely, you can see ash in the sand in this picture.  It's been smokey now for several weeks, even in the city.  Usually August is the rainy month here, and this year I think it rained one day.


     We made the most of the smoke and played with the Buikov family and another family on the beach.  In the day we took one of the girls with us, and the rest of her family joined us later.

      By evening we all were together.  Irene was so grossed out that we just used lake water for soup and tea.  I found it funny because I didn't give it a second thought.  There was something else that was gross to her, but I already forgot what it was!  It just goes to show that over time you get used to whatever is normal where you are!

It's wonderful to be a part of God's family and to connect with people wherever we go!