Another Mish-Mash Blog

          Leif had a great time on the mountain climbing trip this year.  God really blessed his conversations with the guys, and deepened these relationships.  It was also a beautiful time of enjoying God's creation!

     I'm so thankful for these friends!  There are not any Goodwills or yard sales here where you can get rid of things.  As we prepare to move, we have things to give away.  We also had a bunch of things to give away from friends who had moved back to Canada and had been storing their things here....



These friends came for tea and then helped me to distribute things.  We did it all in a day!

     Our friends, the Giuras, came and surprised us at our home group in the village one night.  It was so great!  It looks like Ike is pushing Lyova away here, but really he's just sort of bringing him in.  =)

     The girls' teachers had to suddenly go back to America for a family emergency, so I was their teacher for a few weeks.  I brought them along with me wherever I went.  Anneka is the same height as this lady!



     This dear lady is an English teacher.  Here she was looking over a grammar textbook with Anneka.  Leif and I are preparing for a course on how to do an ethnographic survey.  For part of the preparation, we needed to interview someone local (in English).  She was so sweet to give of her time and so good at thoroughly answering our questions.  She is a Buryat believer and has many valuable insights and is a prayer warrior.

     Leif's been working several days a week on our house.  This friend, Roma, has been helping. I make soup for them each day.  God has provided other people to help with the house, too, and He's blessed a lot of those conversations and connections.

Biking to pick up Ike from preschool

     Ella likes to go to the store for me.  This day we were at a friends', and she took a scooter out with her to get tea and milk.

     We've been wanting to say goodbyes well to people in our current neighborhood.  I was so proud of Anneka on this night.  She's had a bad interaction with this friend the last time they were together.  She wanted to make it right and apologize to him.  We went to his house and she waited patiently for over an hour for him to finish playing a computer game and then pushed through in making amends.  The evening ended with them playing a couple of games together and a renewed relationship.  I love when I see evidence of God at work in my kids' hearts and when he brings beauty and healing.

     These friends took Ike after church one Sunday to go and feed horses.  They squeezed eight people into this tiny car!

  May 9 is a big holiday here- Victory Day!  The kids and I braved the crowds and met up with another family downtown for the parade.  There were so many people it was hard to see.  But it was so nice to soak in the beautiful sunshine!   Another day the girls went to a ballet for children with some friends while I stayed home and packed up some boxes.

 

One morning the girls helped me babysit a friend's kids while she taught a class.

Ella and Nina had a great time playing rock-paper-scissors!

     Ella (very quickly!) learned to ride a bike this past month.  There's a great place for learning to ride at the school of arts.  On a couple of our rest days we've gone there with the kids to let them ride.  Ella and Anneka like to race, and Ella sometimes beats Anneka!

     Ike also learned to ride!  He needs help getting started still, but once he's moving, he's got it down!




     Leif and Denis have been working closely together on the house.  They're working on plumbing now.  They bought all of these pipes and piled them on top of Denis' little car!

    This is my dream car.  Leif says we can't get one because it'll break down too often.  But I say that parts are cheap!  ;)

     Roma's family joined us for dinner one evening.  Our kids hit it off.  We really like this family!

    After the Buryat Partnership last week we enjoyed having tea with a local pastor and his wife.  It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in other parts of Buryatia!



     The Wickers came for one last time to say goodbye before they fully transition to another job.  It was both sweet and sad to see them.  Us ladies got together for coffee date before Sharon left.

Ike learned to tie his shoes!

It's Kvas season again!  (our beloved summer beverage- fermented bread water)

     I bought raspberry starters for our garden!  I bought manure from these nice guys who just sit with their trucks at the side of the road.  Their first language is Buryat.

     In the middle of everything going on, our sweet Ike got sick.  It was a really bad case of the flu, and he was out of school for a full week!  Here's his sister, taking good care of him.

... and then our sweet girls got sick!  This virus is a nasty one.  They were too sick to even watch t.v.  They just layed there, side by side.  Today they've turned a corner, and we hope to see them fully back to their happy, active selves soon!  One blessing from this time is that I've sat and read  and talked with the kids (when I normally would have been packing).  We've had quality time together in the midst of a whirlwind time, and I'm trusting God will make up for all of the lost time with the other things that need to get done.  

          The kids had their annual end-of-the-year picnic with people from church.  Ella got sick on that day and couldn't go.  =(  Anneka got sick the evening of, so she enjoyed a special day with friends.

I posted this on our Facebook page today, and thought I'd share it here, too...

We're in the middle of a big transition right now- preparing to move to the village (and finishing up the building of our house). We move a week from today! As I've been praying about all of the details, I've been tempted to pray for things like the floors and walls to be done. But each time I try to pray for these things, I've sensed that God has kindly told me, "no, pray for far better- Pray for joy. Pray for peace." And so, these have been my prayers instead. This verse in Colossians keeps popping up these past couple of weeks, too. I recently learned that the word "patience" pertains more to going through difficult circumstances and the word "endurance", in dealing with people. I see that God wants to give us His power to have both patience and endurance. We can trust Him for it! I definitely feel like each day has been filled with random, crazy things that have thrown a wrench in our plans. For example, just this morning, we had no electricity when I needed to prepare soup for Leif to take to the worksite. And when I went to the store, the bank machine was broken (and I didn't have cash on me), so I couldn't buy my basket of items. Then Leif called, needing a number on a receipt to make sure he was buying the right wallpaper, and the store had stamped right over that number so I couldn't read it! And each day there are things like this (it feels like every hour!). Our kids have been really sick (thankfully getting better!), we have a lot of coursework for a class we'll be taking, we need to pack, etc! But God is so good to show me that He was preparing us for this season ahead of time. When things come up, I'm not surprised. I know it's a chance for Him to show up. He is strong when we are weak. He is with us and will give His joy and power (and is giving it now). We are so thankful. And we're thankful for YOU and for your prayers!

Thankful for Helping Hands

     What a gift when friends come alongside to work with us!  We felt this way a couple of weeks ago when most of our teammates declared it a "work day" on our house.  It's amazing what many hands can do!

     We had tons of wood scraps all over the yard.  The kids worked hard to stack them in a back corner for future firewood.

     A team of people worked all day, hauling sawdust up in bags to be distributed all over the attic as a natural and inexpensive insulation.

This plasic layer over the ceiling is supposed to serve as a moisture barrier.

    It's such a gift to see people working hard and yet having fun at the same time!

We stopped for a lunch break of shashleek.  It was a COLD day!

     It was more-than-wonderful to have John with us.  He was the mastermind behind getting the frames for our interior walls up!

Everything feels much more real when we can see where the rooms will go!

Anneka fell in love with the neighbor's new puppy.

     I was very proud of myself for figuring out the chop saw all by myself when Leif needed boards cut for the interior walls.

     I really didn't get a ton of pictures of people working, because we were all- well, working!



     This last week Nettie and I stained and lacquered the floors on her side.  It's a big learning curve for me, as much of these things I've never done before!  Leif and a friend put up sheet rock last week and bought needed plumbing materials today.

     Leif especially continues to meet neighbors and have good conversations with others as they come and help work on our house.  Thank you for your prayers during this exciting and stressful time!

Easter

     

     This Easter season was full of many blessings!  Our friends in "Spring Village" had a party that was a sort of Passover Seder dinner.  We felt blessed that they invited us.  Each person shared ways they had seen God's mercy that week.  It was encouraging to hear stories- including Buryats who are desiring to grow closer to Jesus!

     At our church, we had a special Easter service.  A long time ago, Liza had asked me if I would sing a song for Easter with a group of them.  What I didn't realize was that it was a sort of "band" and that they had planned for me to be the only singer!  They wanted me to learn the words by heart, which is always a bit more difficult in a second language.  Thankfully, Zhenya (the guy in black in front) sang, too.  He and Liza ended up needing the music, so I was able to peek at the words from time to time.  =)  

  

     Something really special this year is that every family in our church did something unique (song, skit, video presentation, poem) to contribute to the morning church service.  Our family sang the song "I am the Resurrection and the Life" in English.  When we practiced at home Ike was break dancing on the floor to the song.  But once we were up front at church, he was very shy and hid behind me part of the time.  =)  We ended up singing this song later at English Club as a time filler, and it was really special to sing these words as a prayer for those who where there and listening.

Some of the kids sang a song, too.

We enjoyed our traditional Easter feast with our church family.

     Sunday evening we had a talent show for our English Club.  The coolest part about this was that some of the youth from our church planned this event and took ownership of it.  While we had less than normal of our student crowd, we had more than normal friends of youth in the church.  It was neat to see them reaching out to their social groups.  Through the different talents displayed, people were able to see and learn about Jesus, too.

     Each of our kids opened up the show with their talents.  Ike told a joke, Ella played the piano, and Anneka showed a painting of mountains that she made.  This was a nice way to break the ice for other contestants, and it was fun for our our kids to take part.  Each of our kids also got to be volunteers in other "acts".  In this one, Anneka breathed in helium and spoke in the lowest voice she could as a part of a show on electricity.  It was very funny!

Ike also got to be a part of the electric show.

And Ella, too, with this long lightbulb!

     There were many amazing talents displayed by students.  Leif was one of the judges, and it was hard to choose the winner!  Contestants got points based on talent and how much English they used.  To end the show, Bruce did this chalk drawing to a song that was perfect to describe Easter.  Several students didn't know what Easter was about and were interested to hear it's meaning.

     Leif and Dave, two of the judges, with the second place winner.  Something VERY cool that we just learned is that he lives in the village where we are moving to!  AND he has a daughter Anneka's age!  =)

     My sister sent us a special egg-dyeing kit this year.  The eggs are decorated by wrapping them in pieces of silk.  It was really special for us to do this (she did her own eggs across the world at the same time), and so beautiful to see the results!

the pieces of silk all layed out

Here's how some of them turned out.  I forgot to take a picture before we ate a few!  =)

     At preschool, Ike's class made Easter egg drawings during art time.  The kids' private art teacher has said before that our kids always do things "outside of the box" and never quite do the lesson exactly as she plans.  She is a wonderful teacher and both embraces and celebrates this part of them.  When I saw these eggs hanging on the wall in Ike's classroom, I was able to see what she means.  All of the eggs from the class were more or less like the top two on the left and bottom three. And then there is Ike's egg (top right) - an "egg robot".  I love it!  =)

     Ike was also asked to bring in an Easter craft to display in the hallway at school.  I was told the day before, and that day was so busy that we only remembered 20 minutes before he had to be at school.  He quickly made this chick coming out of his shell.  Ike used tons of glitter glue, and it was so windy outside that I dropped it (still very wet) on the ground on the way to the car.  Ike was very cheerful about the results, however, and said it turned out better than the original.  =)

   Our lives have felt very busy this spring.  We had wanted to take a little family getaway during the kids' spring break, but then three different things came up (including guests from Canada) that we couldn't miss.  So for a couple of nights before Easter, we went and stayed at Inka's in the village.  She's gone now, so we had her place to ourselves.  We hiked around and played together.  It was delightful for us all!

The kids racing after a staggered start

Ike driving with Mama

   

     We dyed eggs together to take to church 

... and had an egg hunt for the kids

     We enjoyed our tradition of opening Resurrection Eggs that tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

     And then the next week, John and Sharon brought and hid chocolate eggs for the kids to find!

Easter shouts to all the world the best news we could ever hear!

Our Little School Boy

Ike, standing in front of his new school

         It's been on my heart to give Ike a boost of Russian before we move to the village this summer.  We have several little boys who live in our new neighborhood, and we want for Ike to be able to play freely with them, having confidence and understanding in the language.  We prayed about it, and a spot opened up in a local preschool here for Ike!  We could see God's hand in leading Ike here, as the school is very close, the director knew us because she used to work at the girls' old preschool, and it was very easy to enroll him for two months.  He's there for almost 5 hours each day, and already we can tell a difference in his Russian. 



     I peeked in one day when I was at his school, helping a friend with an English class.  I was amazed at how quiet it was with so many 4 and 5 year olds!



     Ike really likes the school playground.  I love how many Russian playgrounds make things out of old tires or bottles.  It's very creative and fun.

     A couple of days Ike has had special programs at school.  On this day he got to hold a dove.  This was very exciting for him!!


     Sometimes Ike attends my friend's English class in the preschool.   It's a great program for the Russian kids and is exclusively in English!  While some parts are too easy for Ike, he is also learning letters, sounds, and parts of reading.  It's this class that first piqued Ike's interest in going to Russian preschool, so even though we're phasing him out of the English class, it has been a blessing to us.