Party At The End of White Month

 
         Two weeks ago we had a party to celebrate the tail end of White Month, which is a big Buryat holiday here.  We ate white food and played games and invited an assortment of people.  We've had a ton of new people at English Club lately, and we want to help some of the college-aged church youth to reach out better to newcomers.  So we invited a wide spectrum of people, with the hopes of sharing more about Jesus as well as helping others to share their faith, too.  I didn't get any pictures when everyone was here, but I think including kids there were 25 people packed into our little apartment. 


     Dave and Martina joined with us in putting this party together.  We were all thankful for Zhenya's help in cooking the pozie (traditional meat dumplings) to perfection!  We also had white chocolote fondue and white pizzas to keep with the white theme.


     It was cute how at home Ike felt with our guests.  Since many of the people who came are contacts through our English Club, he was happy to talk to people in "our voice" (that's what Ike says instead of "language")  He also really likes "pretty people".  Once when Ike was sick, I asked him if I could get Papa to lay with him for a bit while I did something else. And he said "no, I just want you or pretty people".   Of course, he LOVES his Papa and will always choose him over me for things like wrestle time and playing with cars.  ;)

     We played the game "pass the gift" where each person unwrapped a layer of paper when the music stopped to reveal a small gift.

     It was a fun way to interact and laugh together.

     Then we broke into teams to wrap up eggs and see if we could drop them without breaking them.

 
     Larissa's team dropped the egg just as it was into a "nest that they built out of newspaper, toilet paper, and cotton.  It only had a tiny crack after falling from the ceiling.

     Then Leif took a little time to share from the book of Revelation about how one day people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship Jesus before his throne.  He also shared how God is the God of everyone- not just Russians or Americans, but Buryats, too (and everyone in the whole world!)  Then we gave this small gift of a children's Bible in the Buryat language with some white chocolate and Bible verses attached (English on one side and Russian on the other).  People seemed to like the gift of the Buryat children's Bible.  Our girls' piano teacher, Sveta, was on the same bus as 2 of our Buryat friends who came.   Sveta said they seemed really interested and were reading the Bibles on the bus.  When she asked them if they could read the Buryat language, they smiled and said, "oh, yes!"  It was really special for them to receive a printed book in their native language. 



     Some people had to leave to catch the bus before the routes ended for the evening, but several people hung out and played games afterward.  We're thankful for this oppurtunity to grow in relationship with these dear people!

Guests

 
      We were blessed by a visit from some of our favorite people this February!  Sharon and Heidi arrived on a Thursday.  We made a Valentine's mobile together one of the first evenings.

 
    Sharon is the education coordinator for all of the missionaries in Russia, and she has certification to do academic testing with the kids.  She did 2nd grade testing with Anneka (no picture) and some pre-school testing with Ella.  It's nice to know that our kids are on track and is so helpful to have Sharon as a resource to our family!


     John had some business in Kazakstan, but he and Carl joined us on Sunday.  They were very busy in their days here, meeting with other missionaries and church leaders.  But we got to snag them for one evening.  We went out for pozie (a national food here) and had ice cream back at home.



     Then Heidi stayed with us after her parents left to western Russia.  We felt honored that we got to have her with us!!  The kids loved having her around.  Heidi was born in Russia and lived here until right before 11th grade.  This was Heidi's first time back to Russia since then- almost 5 years ago!

 

 Ike enjoyed giving Heidi a massage...

...and wearing wigs together with her!

 

     Anneka's working on a big project for school right now based off of the book Robinson Crusoe.  She'll give a presentation to our team at our next team meeting.  On this day, she enlisted Heidi to help her paint a big "rock". 
 
      Heidi had a list of places to visit, people to see, and things she wanted to do while she was here.  One of those things was to climb a hill overlooking the city that her family often climbed together.  One afternoon Leif and I got a babysitter and climbed up with Heidi. There was a biting wind that day, but it was also sunny and beautiful.  What a gift to share this special hill with Heidi!  I always love looking down at the city and being reminded of how God created each person and deeply loves each one.  I believe He will do big things here.




     The night before Heidi left she gave us a special children's book as a gift.  We love it!

      Saying goodbye at the airport was sad.  We are thankful for these weeks with Heidi and treasure each moment in our hearts!

Gracie the Guinea Pig

   We recently had 1.5 weeks of love and excitement with our pet Gracie the guinea pig.  Anneka and I had been out shopping one day, and she asked if we could stop into the pet store for a few minutes and look at the animals (specifically, the fish).  Needless to say, we our eyes surpassed the fish and we both fell in love with a guinea pig.  She was so sweet and cuddly and let us hold and pet her.  How could we NOT bring her home?  In a moment of impulsiveness I texted Leif.  And he was very low key with it.  So, ta-da!  We had a new pet. 

     A lady who happened to be in the pet store offered to give us a ride home with our new pet if we'd pay her like a taxi.  So with our new guinea pig in Anneka's coat and the cage and supplies on my lap ,we were home within minutes.  We all came up with names we liked, voted them down to three options, and then let our new pet pick her own name (each name was written on a piece of paper with a little seed on top).  She first ran to Ike.  Then she chose the paper with the name Grace.

      Our kids were all very very excited about her!  Gracie never had a dull moment in our home.

      Had I known her life would be so short, I would have been more conscientious about taking more/better pictures!

      I loved coming out in the living room in the evening to see Leif holding and petting Gracie.

 

.... and I was caught cuddling with her a time or two myself.

 Ike was quite proud of Gracie
     


 

Here he is, showing her his new robot puzzle.

     But then, one sad day, Gracie was not doing well.  I called all around the city to find a vet who would come to our home (the things you do for kids and beloved pets!) and finally found a guy who would come.  But sadly, she died before he arrived.  Heidi was with us, and we all made a special box for Gracie together, each decorating one of the sides of the box.

 

     The next afternoon, we took her out by the river, where the ground is more sandy (everything is so hard and frozen right now!)  We had a nice little burial service for her.

 

 ... and talked about what a special pet our Gracie was, if even for a short time.

     Just a couple of days before Gracie died, we had a stairwell cat who started coming to our door.  The kids began feeding her and giving her water.  The timing was perfect, as this kitty friend (Savannah) brings joy and comfort during a sad time.  She comes now every day and has brought another cat friend (Rosietta).  Anneka said, "I don't think I can handle having another pet right now because I'm so busy with feeding the cats and the pigeons".  So for now, it looks like we'll wait before we think of getting a new pet.  =)

Hope

     When people start shoveling snow off of roofs, there is HOPE that it will reach above freezing at some point in the next few weeks.  A lady at the swimming pool reprimanded me the other day for not wearing 3 layers of pants.  I told her that I was tired of wearing all of the clothes and that I had hope that it would be spring soon.  Basically, her reply was, "Oh, no, no, honey.  It's going to be winter for a LONG time yet".  But I saw the snow/roof shoveling.  So I can remove a layer.  I have hope.

Four Years Old!

     Our Ike is 4!  For his birthday we went to an indoor play place at a mall in Ulan Ude.  He invited his family and his buddy, Bogdan (and Bogdan's sister and mom).  The kids had a great time running around and playing.

Ike LOVES his friend Bogdan!

     After the play place, each person could choose 4 things that they did at the arcade.  Here they were hitting groundhogs.

... and we all had a wild and wonderful ride on the bumper cars!

     After all of the fun playing we headed over the food court for lunch.

Ike's lunch of choice was chicken nuggets, fries, and berry juice.

     The day before the party, Ike told me he wanted a Spiderman cake.  I found food coloring here in Ulan Ude (the first time ever!) and Leif and I made the cake together after the kids went to bed.  

     ... And as an extra special surprise, there was this transformer guy who greeted Ike on our way out of the building.  He must have known it was Ike's birthday!  ;)  

     Ike, we love you so much!  You are so sweet and funny.  We love how much you talk and the wonderful way you describe things with your words.  We also love how busy you are.  It is so fun to watch you creating and playing and putting things together.  You are so affectionate with your hugs and kisses and "I love you"'s . What a gift you are to us!  We thank God for giving us you!

Meat For Sale, Day of Prayer, and Other Snippets...

      I love how people pull up to the side of the road with their trunks full of meat for sale.  Ike and I were out the other day and bought a beef roast.  It didn't look that big when I bought it because it was small in comparison to the other slabs of meat, but when I brought it home to put it in the freezer, I realized it was HUGE!  It's nice to buy meat in the winter because we can be pretty sure it's safe/fresh.  It's also so nice to buy from local people, and to know that there aren't hormones or chemicals added.

 

     This weekend we had our annual team day of prayer.  We had times of worship and praying both inside and outside for each other, Buryatia, and also other fields of ministry around the world.  Daniela prepared songs that the kids were familiar with from the Thailand Conference.  They were so excited to sing and to do the motions to these special praise songs!

      This picture is a little washed out from the light coming in the window, but we enjoyed meals together during this day.  We have a really great team and praise God for one another!

      The girls have recently begun piano lessons, complete with Music Theory classes.  Their teacher is excellent and comes right to our home!  We are having a trial run for a month, but I think we'll continue because the girls are really liking it.  This week, we had to feed the girls at the beginning of their lesson because Anneka had been traveling (walking far in the cold) to a local school to put on a skit.  She got home just in time to start her lesson.  Here, Sveta was teaching them to write music notes on a staff.

     Leif has had a lot of late night Skype meetings this week.  To combine our time zone with people in western Russia and in Canada/America, it often means meetings until after midnight.  He's had a good attitude about it.  I don't think I could sit that long in front of the screen!  I took this picture through the glass door, so as not to disturb him.  =)

     Two weeks ago, we had a women's retreat with some materials that Martina was recently given on "soul care" for women.  We had a lot of time to pray, reflect, read, and go through questions.  We also had good times of fellowship.  It was nice because we were able to to do it before Nettie headed back to the States and right when Renata came back (there was only about a 6 day window there).  Leif was leading the Buryat Partnership that day and took all three kids with him.  It was also really cold that day!  (It's always quite the process to bundle everyone to go outside). He's pretty amazing!

     There are certain people who bring out the sillies in our kids.  Pastor Sasha is one of them.


     ...and Art is another.  Art is very creative and artistic.  He often makes fun animals out of paper and gives them to the kids.  They are their treasures!

     We've had a new boy and his mom come to our English Club a couple of weeks.  I got to teach him an English lesson one week.  He's blind, and he is so smart!  It was very fascinating to me to watch him learn and memorize new words and exceptions to rules in the English language. It was also a good challenge for me to think of ways to teach with only using sounds and the sense of touch.   I told him that I think God has given him a gift of language.  I'm not sure if he comes from a believing family or not.  But he is special, and I can see the Lord using him in amazing ways!

     My new favorite thing I'm a part of is an English discussion group with Christian ladies from different churches.  This picture was taken from the first week, but more ladies are coming.  I really love these ladies and feel very connected with them.  Sveta has three young kids, so Ike comes with me and likes to play with them.  It's good for my Russian, too, because they'll ask me how to say things and I'll discover more conversational ways of saying things in Russian that I had previously said more awkwardly.  These ladies like to talk about things that I like to talk about and have very interesting lives.  They also all want to grow, and we shared what's on our hearts and prayed together.  We each said that we felt joy in our hearts after meeting together!  =)  It will be interesting to see what becomes of this group.  For now it's just a really encouraging time that fills me up to have energy for other things.