Victory Day!

Anneka, on her way to the Victory Day Performance

     May 9th is Victory Day here in Russia, marking the end of WWII.  It's a huge holiday here.  Our neighbor even called it "the greatest holiday", and as I observe the culture here, I would say that it probably truly is (right after New Years).  Anneka's drama class got to be part of the big celebration downtown.  There was a parade, and then right were the parade ended, the kids from Anneka's school of arts danced to a song on the steps of a big square.

     It was a bit chilly, so she wore earmuffs so that it wouldn't mess up her hair.  I thought she looked cute with the white bows and white earmuffs.  =)

The School of Arts

 

     Anneka needed her hair fixed a specific way.  I called our neighbor and asked if she could help.  And she came at 6:45 in the morning so that Anneka could get there on time.  What a blessing to us!!!

     The rest of us headed downtown a couple of hours later to watch the festivities.  We knew it would be crowded and that the bus routes would be changed, so we parked at the end of the tram line and rode the tram into town.  We rarely ride the tram because only buses come to our neighborhood... so Ella and Ike were super excited for this little adventure!

     Anneka called and said she needed a black and orange striped ribbon to wear.  Thankfully we found a lady selling them and met her at the bottom of the steps.  It was roped off from our side, but she was allowed to come down to meet us.

     Both Ike and Ella spent some of their earned money on cotton candy.  It grosses Leif and me out, but it was a special treat for them!  A huge gust of wind blew off over half of Ike's cotton candy and it flew right into a man's face. 

     There are several new fountains in this square.  Both kids loved playing in and around them while we waited for the performance.

     Ike spent all the rest of his money from the past weeks on this Sponge Bob balloon.  Even though it's nothing Leif or I would have ever bought, it was actually really helpful, as there were huge crowds.  We always could spot him right away.  =)  Ella and Ike both had a grand time with the balloon until later, when a gust of wind blew it into a bush and it popped.  But it was a memory, anyways!

     This shows some of the crowd.  Many people carried pictures of their grandfathers who served in the war as a memorial to them.

     In the middle of this picture there are a bunch of dots on the steps.  Anneka is one of those black and white dots!  We were standing on the edge of the fountain, but it was still hard to see.  All the same, it was still fun to hear the music and see the kids dancing.

   There were big trucks around for kid to climb on.

     After the parade and performance all of the trams and buses were totally packed (shoving room only!).  Since it was the day after Mother's day, we stayed downtown for a bit had lunch at a pizza place to celebrate.  On our way home, the electricity went out, which made our tram stop working.  The kids and I shielded ourselves from the huge blasts of sand-filled wind outside while Leif ran to get the car and pick us up.  

     I like how people here remember the sacrifices that were made to overcome such evil in the world.  We, too, are so grateful for the  many men who fought in WWII!

Broadcasting the Good News

There's a phone number written for anyone who wants a copy of the Bible

      This year marks the 140th anniversary of the first whole translation of the Bible into Russian. As a way to celebrate this, a few of the churches in Ulan Ude had banners made and have been broadcasting the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John from the Bible over speakers (very loudly!!) during rush hour.  The weather has been nice enough that there are more people outside and people with their windows down as they wait in traffic.


     On Saturday, it was Leif's turn to be at the church to turn everything on.  The kids and I had spent the day with our friend Asya and her kids and then joined up with Leif to make it into a bit of a picnic party.   A lady in the store across the street had questions about what in the world we were doing, and  I got into a conversation  with her about it.  I'm holding on to the promise in Isaiah 55:10-11, that God's Word will accomplish the purpose he has for it...

As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 

 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

     We hung out in the back yard where it wasn't quite as loud.  The kids had all sorts of projects.

Ike got their "store" ready.

All of our kids are dirt magnets. I think it must mean they have a lot of fun.

     Well, most of the time they have fun.  Unless we ruin their fun by saying they can't madly whip sticks through the air at one another.  Such mean parents.

    But it's nothing a little ice cream couldn't fix!

     May the words of life that people heard this past week sink deeply into their hearts and draw them to God!

Easter Blessings

We dye eggs as a family tradition each year.

     This year Easter in Russia fell much later than Easter in America. It wasn't until May!  I really enjoyed that it was late enough that it actually felt like spring here (whereas some years it still is very

much winter) .  One of my favorite things is that you can say "Jesus is Risen!" to people on the street because of the Orthodox influence here.  It's a wonderful reminder that Jesus IS risen and that's why we can have eternal life with Him!

Ell was especially proud of her eggs.  She probably ended up dyeing over half of them!

     We like to take advantage of this season for special Easter traditions and talking about how truly AMAZING it is that the God who made the entire universe came to this world as a tiny, helpless baby, lived a perfect life, and died so that we can live forever with Him. 



     And, of course, we had an egg hunt.  A special family from Germany sent us Easter chocolates that we could hide around the living room for the kids.



     Another of our traditions is to open "resurrection eggs" together with little symbols and verses inside that tell the Easter story.  This year we mixed it up a bit with some new symbols.  The kids really get into telling the story.

All three of our kids were part of the group that sang a song for everyone.

      For a few weeks, Ella had been praying every night that our friend, Asya, and her kids would come to church.  I really didn't expect her to, as she lives far away and hasn't been to our church in well over a year.  But I sent her a little message on Saturday to invite her.  You can imagine my surprise when she called that morning from the bus, saying they would come to church in a few minutes! They all really enjoyed the service. 

 
     And Anneka was part of this special skit that showed Jesus as a healer.  They did a great job!

         We had our annual Easter feast after the service and enjoyed talking with everyone.

Ella was so welcoming to Asya's kids and helped show them were to sit and go during the service and how to get food during meal time.  They're family stayed for a couple of hours afterward.

Family Picture

The girls with their friend, Matthew

 
     We had an Easter theme for English Club that afternoon.  One Buryat guy leaned over to me and said, "I totally don't know anything about Easter."  By the end of the day, he did.  ;)

     Leif typed out a couple of texts from the Bible both in English and in Russian along with some questions for us to discuss.  It was encouraging to my heart to see all of these dear people hearing the best news ever.



     The weather was so nice, I couldn't not let the kids play outside.  They were all delightfully dirty.   When I pulled this yellow dress out of the clothes hamper a couple of days later to wash, there was a downpour of sandy dirt that made a big pile of dirt all over the floor.  I knew the dress was dirty, but I was quite surprised at the amount of dirt that came out of it!!

New Life!

 A week and a half ago my friend Sveta had a baby!  I felt blessed when she asked if I could pick her and her tiny new son up at the hospital.  Ike and Ella were with me, and we picked up Sveta's other three kids, her mother in law, and her husband!

     Pasha, Sveta's husband, was so excited!  It's a tradition to buy flowers for the mama, so we stopped at a flower shop on the way.  Pasha was hoping to be with Sveta for the birth.  This isn't normal here, but if you pay extra and sign up ahead of time, husbands can be there.  Well, the very day they had planned on going and paying/registering Sveta went into labor!  She had her baby more than 2 weeks before the due date, so they thought they'd have time.  But what I loved was that they were all praising God about His timing and provision and weren't at all bitter about Pasha not being there.

     The kids were so happy to see their mama, and this is Pasha looking at little David for the first time!  Such a special moment to witness. 

     Pasha has taken 3 weeks off from work to take care of the family and home and to let Sveta rest. I love this!  This is SO atypical here, and yet he is gladly serving his family and shining Jesus' light as he does it! 

On the steps of the birthing center.

    Unlike in America where you're discharged from the hospital whenever the doctor deems you "ready to go", here all of the ladies leave between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon, and there is a line of who goes first.  Someone told me that the people who give the nurses the best presents get to go first.  

Ready to drive back home!

     I love how the babies who leave the hospital are all bundled so that you can barely see an inch of their little faces.  =)  In the winter time it's a much bigger bundle!

     Not only do we get to celebrate the new life of little David, but this family has recently been a part of leading a Shaman to Christ!  We are so excited to see God at work and to hear how this man's life is changed!  Such freedom we have in Jesus.  Life forever.

Overnight Trip to Baikal

We usually get a good April snowman each year.  This year I forgot my hat, so I look like a good babushka.  =)

     When my new friend Larisa invited me and Sveta (plus our kids) to Baikal for a couple of days, the first thing I thought (besides that it sounded like a nice time with friends) was "Ella can have her snowman!"  April on Lake Baikal usually means good snowman snow, and she's been wanting to make one all winter long.  Sadly, it was too cold and dry this winter for snowman snow.  Through this trip, her dream became a reality.


     In the middle of the night before we left, Sveta's son got sick and so she wasn't able to come.  Since she was both pregnant and has small kids, I'd originally thought that Sveta would kind of be my buffer from doing anything too adventurous or tiring with little ones.  The trip didn't turn out how I expected, but it was good all the same.  Larisa's friend, Artyom, is a guard of this resort in the off season (which is basically everything except for July and August).  He took us out on the ice and showed us how ice fishing is done.

     First you drill a hole in the ice and then have a special plastic "plug" that keeps the ice from closing over.

      Then you use a little live fish as bait and let it wiggle under the water to attract bigger fish.

    
 


 And if you don't catch a big fish, you can still have fun holding and watching the little one!

We all found this very interesting.  Well, the kids just plain loved being outside, no matter what we were doing!

     There were some places on the lake that had big chunks of ice on top.

And the kids adored Larisa's weiner dog.

     Larisa commented that Ike always had something in his hands, wherever we went.  I realized that it's true- a stick or a rock or a fish or a chunk of ice.  He's a busy guy!

     In some places the snow was really deep!

     I took this picture right as he threw this snowball.  I thought I might have caught it midair.

     Back at the cabin we had long spiritual discussions with Artyom.  He grew up on the streets and everyone close to him from childhood has since died from lives of crime or drugs.  A kind Christian man adopted him when he was 15 and introduced him to Jesus.  Since then, his life has been changed (I think he's about 30 now).  For the past 3 years, he's lived in isolation from other believers.  He studies his Bible hungrily and talks with other Christians on the phone, but it was evident he was really thankful for the conversation and fellowship with us.  I found it both really good and stretching as well as exhausting to have all of these deep spiritual discussions in Russian.  And then the owner's son came that night and entered into our conversation.  He's not a believer, and Artyom has been sharing with him over the past months.  He kept pulling vodka out of the freezer (did you know it doesn't freeze?!).  It all felt very Russian.  =)

     The next day Artyom took Larisa ice fishing, but Ella and Ike just wanted to play on shore in the snow.  So we hung out and had a great time exploring and playing.  They asked if we could stay there forever!

chunks of ice in the puddle

a dock warped from winter weather

Ike with an icicle.

 A quote from our friend Heidi:  "If a bike is a bicycle, is an Ike an icicle?"

Larisa with the kids (and dog, Toby)

     Toby was so sweet and patient with the kids.  It turns out that Ike is allergic to dachshunds!  He got red welts all over his face and arms from the dog.  We found that it was much safer to hold the dog when they were both bundled up.

The joys of plates of ice!

     We missed Leif and Anneka on our little excursion.  At the same time, it was nice to be out of the city and for the kids to run and play.  Our friend, Sveta (who was supposed to come) ended up having her baby 2.5 weeks before her due date, so it's probably for the best she was home!  And I pray for lasting fruit from our conversations with both Artyom and the owner's son.  Wherever we go, God is always at work!