Sagaalgan

     Sagaalgan started on February 16 this year and lasted one full month.  We arrived from the States on the 14th, one of the important days of preparation for this important Buryat holiday.  We felt fortunate to be here during this special time, especially now as we are living in a Buryat village.  A few years ago we started a tradition  of  having a "white party" for Sagaalgan, which is also called "White Month".  This was a way to get to know some of the people from our Englsh Club better.  This year we had two white parties.  One for our English Club friends, and one as a way to get to know our new neighbors.


     The first party was at the Brubachers'.  We ate white foods and played silly games with white ping pong balls, cotton, and marshmallows. 



     We had a competition for groups to work together and build something with mini marshmallows and toothpicks.

This group won with their yurt!

     Dima has come to our white party every year since we began the tradition.We gave gifts of white soap and Leif shared a bit and gave a blessing from the Bible to each person present.

     The next day we had a party in our neighborhood.  We didn't know who would come, and it worked out perfectly!  I think I counted 28 people total, but people came in waves, so it was really nice for connecting and conversations.  I was so thankful that one neighbor knew how to make buuzi (traditional Buryat dumplings) and helped us out!

Ella, helping to get the buuzi ready to steam

     I really enjoyed getting to know ladies from the neighborhood.  This party has been a catalyst for us running together in the mornings and getting our kids together to play.  Everyone is so friendly!

Some of the guys, eating buuzi and talking

     The second wave of guests stayed until midnight.  It was impossible to put our kids to bed with all of the other kids over, but they did great!  At the end of the evening some of us moms and kids played games while the guys talked.

I wanted to get a picture of all of the kids, but they were always spread out!

Here are some more pictures of us all hanging out...

CUTIE PIES!!!

     It was so fun to be reunited with this friend again!  Right now she's in the hospital after an appendectomy.  I visited her this week.  Poor girl!

     One of our friends pointed out that Nettie's shirt looks like a party hat on this boy!  =) 

     Since the party, there's a group of 4 of us who go running in the mornings.  On this morning it was -20C!!!  Toooooo cold!

     Ike had this friend over yesterday.  His friend is so quiet and Ike is naturally chatty.  It was very cool to overhear Ike explaining how to play a very difficult game in Russian to his pal.  I was amazed that they could play!  They are both six.  =)

     We're thankful for the parties and for the ways that we've been able to continue to build relationships in the days following!

Ten Minutes of Fear, and You Are Home

     We're in the process of looking for a car right now.  This is a bit tricky because cars don't lose much value (price-wise) over time, but Russian roads are bad and do a number on cars very quickly!  So, of course, we want something reliable that will withstand our village roads.  In the meantime, Nettie has been nice to give us rides, we walk, and we take buses.  And we take taxis.  The taxi system here is actually quite fantastic.  If I understand Uber, it's like that.  A bunch of people with their own cars are signed into the taxi company.  When we want a ride, we just type our starting and ending address into an app and within minutes someone comes and picks us up for a very reasonable price.  This has created many interesting experiences and great conversations. 

       I mentioned in the last blog our connection with a neighbor we'd never met when we ordered a taxi. Leif has since run into him outside and he invited our family over. Another time our driver drove across the river because he wanted to avoid traffic.  Going over the river itself was very smooth, but going over the banks before and after the river made for quite the exciting ride!  One morning, a mom from our village picked us up.  We'd never met her before, but she has a daughter Ella's age.  She gave me her name and number to connect later. 

     The sign above says "Ten Minutes of Fear, and You are Home".  This sign was in the car of one of our drivers.  When we first got in he was helping jump start someone else's car.  He asked us if we could wait a few minutes so that he could help them out.  Then he said, "Don't worry- it'll just take 5 minutes and then I'll drive really fast". 

     Probably the funniest story was from this week.  Ike started going to a local kindergarten and I called a taxi to get home.  The driver looked at us and then said, "Let me guess you're names... Hmmm.... you're Mike, no- Ike!  And you are..... Jami!"  It was a little disconcerting because I'd never met this guy in my life!  It turns out his son in in Ike's class and the teacher sends out text messages each day with class information and had introduced us to everyone in the group.  It also turns out that he is a believer!

     We hope to find a car soon, but in the meantime we are thankful for the many blessings God has given us through this car-less season.
   

Back In Siberia

     We've switched worlds once again.  We had a sweet time the past few months in the States and treasure the memories in our hearts always.  We were blown away by peoples' kindness toward us and are so encouraged by how many more people are praying for us and for the dear people here in Buryatia.  Already we are seeing the results of people's prayers as we reunite with people here.  It brings joy to our hearts!  Our travels were so smooth this time.  The timing of our flights was perfect and we basically read books and watched a bunch of movies on the overseas flight.  This was our kids' dream come true.  We arrived in Beijing around 9pm, a perfect time to go to sleep!  Leif found someone's apartment for us to stay in.  It was so ideal for an inexpensive place to stay, near the airport.  There was even a little store in our building.  I embarrassed Anneka at the store when I wanted to buy eggs.  Since I don't know Chinese, I had Ike act like a chicken while I pretended to collect eggs under him.  I was happy they knew just what we wanted and gave us eggs! (Anneka was mortified). 

     We had a whole day layover in Bejing.  We had learned that the Great Wall was just an hour away.  The owner of our apartment not only took us to and from the airport, but drove us to the Great Wall, too!  The day was so beautiful and the wall was amazing.  In homeschool, we had been doing a unit study on China the previous couple of weeks.  Because of our study, we knew about a place at the wall where you take a chair lift up and slide on a gigantic, winding slide all the way down (instead of a cable car both ways).  We found this part of the wall and enjoyed every second of it!

      The next day we arrived back in frigid Siberia.  Our teammates were all at our house to greet us, a tradition that we cherish.  We've also enjoyed other reunions with friends and neighbors.  I haven't taken a single picture at any of these occasions!



      Denis, our friend who has been living in our house, was here right when we arrived to teach Leif how to use our furnace.  We had expected it to be much colder inside than it is, a happy surprise.  It takes more than an hour each time to prepare the furnace, but then the fire lasts 1.5 days or so.

      We're back to getting our drinking water from the well.  Back to eating borscht for lunch.  Back to bundling a lot before we go outside and walking a lot more.  Back to wearing slippers all the time inside.  Back to not having eye contact with people on the street and not being greeted by strangers.  And thankfully, we are filled with peace and God's love for this place and the people here.

      Ike's been enjoying having snowball fights as we walk places.  Yesterday was Men's Day and he and Leif joined some other dads and sons for a game of ice hockey.  They had a great time and it was so good for Ike to be with a bunch of other active boys, just like him.



     A day before we left for the States, Ella lost her beloved wolf stuffed animal (her "son", Wolfy).  She was crushed and has missed him for months.  Imagine her delight when we found him together with the other stuffed animals, packed away in a bag!  Ella has taken Wolfy everywhere with her and even bundles him in a coat and scarf when she goes outside.  Here, he's tucked inside of her coat.

The kids have loved being together with friends again!  

... and drinking goat's milk again.

   One cool thing from this past week was a guy who got baptised.  It was at a hot springs, as the river is frozen solid.

     Another cool thing is all of the people who have been coming to our English Club the last two weeks!  We've been having good discussions and are enjoying getting to know people more.  After the club today, we ordered a taxi to get home (we don't have a car yet and our friends had returned our pet rat to us, so it was bulky with the cage and too cold to walk outside with him and ride the bus).  The driver that came for us"just happened" to live on our street!  He's a neighbor we hadn't met yet.  I just love how God does things like that.

Looking at America with Fresh Eyes

     Each time we return to the States, we are struck by differences here from our life in Russia.  We don't always notice the same things, and usually we are most aware of differences when we first arrive.  After that, we kind of stop noticing things.  I started making a running list this time of things that stuck out to me.  I came across it today, and I didn't add to it past the first month.  But I'll share my list with you for your entertainment....

Things That are Different in America Than in Russia

*  Strangers talk with us, even if we don't make eye contact first

*  Cashiers ask personal questions, such as "what are your plans today?"

*  Kids at school wear whatever they want (very casual).  Kids in Russia wear pressed uniforms.

*  Uniforms in restaurants/stores here are often different for each person; in Russia uniforms are uniform

*  The grocery carts here are SO HUGE

*  Medicine bottles are huge.

*  The medical co-pay in America is  more expensive than a visit to the doctor in Russia.

*  The co-pay on a prescription inhaler is more expensive than the inhaler itself in Russia

*  There are many more obese people here

*  People working at stores or restaurants are very casual and familiar, even if we've never met, with greetings like "Hi, guys!"

*  There's a weird cultural worship of coffee

*  A lot of t-shirts in the stores have really mean things written on them

*  There are dog clothes for sale everywhere

*  The news is an entertainment industry

*  Kids and adults go outside in the rain, no problem

*  Kids are not overly bundled

*  Some kids are not dressed warmly enough (little kids without coats in the winter)

*  We saw a car sitting out with a "Free" sign on it.  You would never see this in Siberia.

*  Cats are HUGE here.

*  It's easier to get ourselves and our kids to bed at a decent hour in America.

*  Bread doesn't mold for a long, long, long time.

*  I gained 13 pounds in the first 4 weeks.  There's something in the food!!

*  There is always a public restroom a short distance away.

*  public drinking fountains

*  you can drink out of the tap

*  In Anneka's words "In America, Ike is active in comparison with the other boys.  In Russia he's calm in comparison with the other boys".

*  The roads are nicer and it's faster and more convenient to travel places

*  There are more hours in a day to do things

Home Service Church Schedule

     These are the churches where we'll be sharing during our time in the States.  We'll update the list as we know more dates and details.  

Sunday, September 24- Coupeville UM Church 8:45 and 11:00

Sunday, October 1st- Darrington Glad Tidings at 9:30

Sunday October 1st- Darrington First Baptist at 10:30

Sunday, October 15th- Nine Mile Falls Community Church at 10:00

Sunday, October 22nd- The Vine in Deer Park at 8:45 and 10:30

Sunday, October 29th- Addy New Life Christian Center at 10:00

Sunday, November 5th- Cheney Community Church at 10:00

Sunday, November 5th- Olive Branch Community Church at 4:00pm

Sunday, November 12th- Harrison Baptist Church at 11:00

Sunday, November 26th- New Community (in Spokane) at 10:00

Sunday, January 7th- Trinity Bible Fellowship (Davenport, WA), 
Sunday School at 9:15, worship service at 10:30

Sunday, January 14th- Cheney Nazarene Church (Cheney, WA) at 10:30

If you haven't been able to make it to any of these churches or would like to hear more...

We want to invite all who can come to a special sharing time on Tuesday, January 16th at 6:30 pm at New Community Church (3rd and Howard in Spokane). There will be opportunities to ask questions, pray and hear stories of what God is doing among the Buryat people in Siberia.

We look forward to connecting with many of you!

Traveling Back To America

     In early September we set out for America!  Nettie kindly brought us to the airport.  There was an hour or so delay, so we waited in the middle of the airport.  Suddenly, there was an announcement that the flight was delayed 29 hours and to come back tomorrow.  And that's it!  There was nobody around to ask questions of.  Because of where we live, we can't purchase connecting tickets to reach America, so we were worried that we'd have to buy all new overseas tickets.  We even entertained the idea of immediately driving 7-8 hours to Irkutsk to catch their midnight flight to Seoul so that we'd make our other connecting flights (Marius even agreed to drive us!)... but it turns out those tickets would have been just as much as buying new overseas tickets.

     Thankfully, God took good care of us.  We had to make some calls to the airlines, but thankfully they graciously gave us new tickets with hardly any cost.  This just meant that we had a longer layover than planned.  This time was a gift!  Bruce made us a gigantic breakfast feast and we hung out at his place for most of the day.

     He has great kids games.  After such a busy summer, it was just what our family needed before "changing worlds".

We took a little city tour and hung out by the fountain downtown.

When given meal options, Ike will choose borscht almost every time! 

     When it was time to leave the second time, The Giuras met us with love, gifts, and hugs.

Marius drove us to the airport.  

Getting ready for round two!

     Our original flight plan was to arrive in Seoul in the evening.  But our new plan put us there in the middle of the night.

    Because of the flight schedules and prices, our new plan also put us in South Korea for a day and a half!  This was also a special gift for our family to have this surprise time together.  We took the metro into downtown Seoul, toured a beautiful park and ate street food.

     We also hung out at the river.  All three of our kids fell into the water!  At least the weather was nice!

     We stayed at a random guest house where nobody really spoke English.  The owner was very kind, though, and drove us to this place for an authentic Korean meal.  We cooked everything right on the grill at our table.

     Now we've arrived and are enjoying seeing family.  It was very quick settling in, as we are living in my parents' neighbors' house while they're in Florida.  After a summer of chaos, this was ideal for transitioning!

     We are already traveling and have already begun sharing at churches in western Washington.  We are homeschooling as we go.  We are looking for people who will faithfully pray for Buryatia.  We're hoping to find 1,000 prayer partners!

The Countdown Week

     We had a long list of things to do before leaving for the States.  Thankfully, we got everything that was absolutely essential done, just in time!  As with the whole summer, God was our help each moment, giving peace and joy amidst the craziness.  Leif and a friend bought firewood from these guys they found at the side of the road.  We think two truckloads will be enough to heat our house through most of the winter (if not all!)  Anneka was sad that they threw the logs right onto the raspberry starters we'd watered all summer long.  Leif said there is still hope for them, though, as we already had had our first frost.  

     On my way back from buying more antiseptic to finish protecting our walls, I had to snap this picture.  This is the main road from town, and there are often cows walking across.  Cows are on our dirt roads, too.  Unfortunately the antiseptic I bought was dark blue!  We didn't really want blue walls, so our friend Denis will use it on our floor boards.  The walls can wait a few more months.

     We packed up all of the kids toys and some of our other things and are storing them in Ike's room.  Because of this, the kids played almost exclusively outside the last few days (which, honestly, wasn't too different from the rest of the summer).

Sitting on the Fence

     We were happy to have new friends at our life group.

 
     Inka had wanted to visit us all summer, but was only able to make it the final week.  We were so glad she came!  The kids wanted rings to play on, so they brainstormed together and figured out a way to make rope and fix up rings to play on.  In the afternoon Inka super-duper cleaned our bathroom for us!!  This was such a huge blessing, as it was so dirty from our tearing apart the walls and ceiling and sawdust pouring down from when we put in the new insulation.  She thoroughly cleaned behind everything and in the cracks between the linoleum and wall, etc.  I was soooooo thankful!  We wanted our house to be in the best shape possible for our friends who are living there while we're gone.

 
     We had a gate and fence put in.  The people who did it are our neighbors and are so nice!  I asked them where their sons were, and they told me, "They're just home- go get them!"  So I went and got them.

     They played with Ike all morning.  I discovered as I was cleaning out or cupboards that we still had macaroni and cheese packets saved up from America!  I made a very American lunch for the kids- hotdogs and macaroni and cheese.  Ike wanted to sit right between the boys even though there was more room at the table.  It was really cute.  They liked it, too.

     Then after lunch the family left and came back with more neighborhood kids they wanted us to meet!  Two of the girls are Anneka's age.  It's really cool because a couple of weeks before we left, our family was talking at dinner about what we'd really like to do before we left.  We all shared several things- many of which I thought just weren't possible.  One for Anneka was meeting one of these girls that she'd heard about.  Later on, I realized that God had blessed us with allowing every single one of the things to happen-  most out of our control!  I love how He cares for us and gives good gifts.

   Another thing we were hoping was to connect with this family more.  They invited us to dinner for posie (Buryat traditional food).  What a nice surprise!  Anneka took the picture.

     My friend from Krasniarsk visited and came to our ladies' group.  She shared a song that she'd written.  It was so neat because there was another lady there that she knew years and years ago.  They'd lost contact and were thrilled to see one another!!

     Here's Anneka with her two new friends.  One of the girls is only a week apart from her in age!  They played together each day until we left.  The girls were sad they hadn't met Anneka sooner!  The car in the background is our friend's.  He is the one who cut the girls' bunk bed into two.  I had been hoping for him to come and put the drawers in for storage before we left, but I thought we'd just have to wait until we returned.  Imagine my surprise to see his car in the driveway!

     These dear friends came and visited us the evening before we left.  I was so happy, as our girls are very close friends and it's important for them to say goodbyes. 

       It's a bit of a bummer that Leif missed out on time with them because he was pouring cement in our garage to make a place for the furnace (it was so cold in our house before we left!).  He worked hard for hours and was very thankful when Sasha came and helped him finish up.  We didn't have a cement mixer and didn't know what we were going to do.  The couple who invited us to dinner had one and let us use theirs!  Another piece of the puzzle and reminder of God's care!

     Nettie's birthday is at the end of September, and we were sad to miss it.  We had wanted to throw her a little party before we left, and every minute of the last week got filled so quickly.  She invited us over for breakfast on our last morning in Russia (soooo nice not to cook or worry about food and cleanup!)... and we were able to have a little party for her then!  Happy Birthday Nettie!

And goodbye, Russia!  For now!