Advent Season

A dear family in Germany sent the kids chocolate advent calendars.  I think this was their favorite part!!

     As the super cold winter sets in, we enjoy celebrating advent as a family each year.  It's a special way of looking ahead to Christmas, and in that, remembering that Jesus is coming back.  

     We had monkey bread to kick off the first morning.  Each day we had special Christmas devotionals and lit candles and sang songs together.



     Christmas isn't a primary holiday here, and many people in our village don't know much about it.  We had this nativity set out and Ella's friend asked about it.  She wanted to know if it was a farm.  Ella explained who was who and the Christmas story, and her friend said, "oh, I think I've heard that fairytale somewhere before."  Ella was able to share that it's not a fairytale but a true story!  They played with it together.  It warmed my heart.

     Besides the chocolate calendar, we have a calendar on our wall with envelopes for some special activity each day.  On this day we made ornaments.




     As the weather got colder, our house got colder inside, too!!  Leif and a few guys worked hard to get a full layer of insulation all over the house.  On a couple of days it was -37 degrees while they worked!!  They came inside often for hot tea, soup, and snacks.




     Leif and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary this year.  There's a new Indian restaurant in the city (we LOVE Indian food!), and we went there for dinner.  We enjoyed a full 24 hours, just us, as Nettie and the Giuras took our kids for us.  It was really nice to have this time out from the bustle of life.

Anneka and Matthew sang and played "Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing" at church.

We had a special Christmas tea time at church.

     We had a fun English lesson where we divided into different groups that acted out stories from the Bible.  It was fun to see how everyone figured out roles and performed the parts.

We had a special tea time afterwards. 

     If these little friends aren't making slime (which they seriously do ALL the time!), they are baking something.  They like to use recipes where they can alter something to make it uniquely theirs.  =)

 

Making Hedgehog Cookies (Hedgehogs are very popular in children's stories in Russia).

They turned out pretty cute =)

The kids made a fort and slept in it one night.

     It was super-special to have Heather Ann and Adam come and stay with us during the holidays.  Heather Ann grew up in Russia and lived in Ulan-Ude with her family years ago.

Making chocolates in fun molds

     Our neighbors all pitched in and made a skating rink together.  It's a fun way to be active in the winter and to connect with one another (especially because winter is a time when everyone kind of holes up for months at a time!)

     Natasha invited Nettie and me over to make buuzi with her.  Then the family joined us afterwards to eat them all.  Mmmmm!

     My aunt and uncle gave the kids this great sled as a gift.  They got to open it before Christmas to maximize it's usage!  It's great because two can ride on it at a time, and it goes really fast!

     It's a little hard to see, but they love to start on top of this ice slide (also made by neighbors pitching in together) and go down the hill.  They really get zipping!  All of my pictures were blurry, they were so fast!

meeting with others, talking about spiritual things

 

A candlelight dinner to celebrate Winter Solstice

Nastia and me, in front of some fun decorations at English Club

Making Christmas cards (that got to people almost 2 months later!!)

 

Anneka thought up this design herself and sent it to her Auntie Cory and Uncle Anthony

     Leif and I have a tradition to buy a new game as an anniversary gift to each other each year (we go to the store and pick it out together).  This year it was a game about mushroom picking (a very Russian theme!)  We played it with Nettie and Renata the night before Nettie left for her home service in America.

One last picture together with Nettie before we reunite in May!

Always Give Thanks

      We celebrated Thanksgiving a couple of weeks late this year, but better late than never!  Even though different schedules and obligations got in the way of celebrating according to the American calendar, we decided that Thanksgiving was just too important to miss entirely.  There is always reason to give thanks!  We had our American teammates (plus Renata- a Canadian) over to celebrate.  It was a sweet day of enjoying food and friends and remembering all that God has given us.

The day was filled with laughter.

Anneka with Renata

     Before dinner, we each hung leaves on our Thanksgiving tree (not pictured) and shared blessings in our lives with one another.  After dinner, we played a game similar to charades.

 

      Sara just picked Ike up when it was her turn and acted like it was nothing.  He loved this attention of course!

     Here she is, drawing a picture for us to guess, with Ike draped over her back.  So funny!!

Everyone got into the game.

After the game, Ike gave us a lazer show.  He was in his element!  

 We have so much to be thankful for!

The Last of the Fall Blogs

     Once again, it's hard to keep up on everything, and we don't take pictures of everything, but I'll try to fill in a few holes from our fall.  =)  Together with some neighbors, I've been walking at 6:00 in the morning a couple of days a week. It's a nice way to get to know one another better and get exercise at the same time.  When we first start walking it is pitch dark.  It is getting very cold in the mornings and we will stop soon for winter.  

     We took a course on how to do an ethnographic study about a year and a half ago.  It's taken us awhile to begin one of our own, but now we're in full swing!  We've been interviewing various Buryat Christians to hear their stories.  After we collect them, we will  study and compare them to find similarities and differences and to better learn how we can be sharing the good news.

     We've made a lot of progress with expansion of our church building, now having a whole upstairs for children's classrooms.  This picture was taken on a church work day.  Anneka painted a primer on the walls.

     We have a friend who lives in the coldest inhabited place in the world- Yakutia.  He was in Ulan-Ude for a few weeks for some university coursework and while he was here, he helped Leif to calculate how much insulation we need for our house to be warm enough.  He also took a day to come out and show Leif how to put up the layers.  What a gift this was to our family!

     

     Even after we found a family that would take Nettie-the-dog, we needed to keep her for several more weeks so that they could prepare a place for her.  We needed to take her to the vet to have an extra nub clipped off of her paw.  While she was there, they offered to sterlize her, too.  We decided this was a good idea, as Siberia has a problem with too many puppies!  The family that took her was thankful, too.  When we finally took her to her new home, it was a happy day for everyone.  We could tell that Nettie-the-dog was going to a place where she would be showered with lots of kid-love.  =)

 

     Leif and Anneka made a dog house together.  I took this picture while they were still working on it, before it was finished.  Leif looked online to calculated what size of doghouse to make for Cinnamon and how much insulation her house would need for a -40 degree winter.

     Leif made a trip to a region where the Soyots live.  This is one of the unreached Siberian people groups.  Before he left, he was asked if he wanted to buy yak meat while he was there.  We decided we wanted to, until we found out we'd have to buy the whole yak!  That was a little more meat than we thought we could handle!

      One of the exciting things about this trip to the Soyots is that it was Sasha's idea, as his heart is really growing in wanting to figure out how the message of Jesus can spread to everyone, starting in the regions nearby.  Leif was thrilled to be invited on this vision trip and to join with these guys in scouting and praying for the future of this area.

 

While Leif was gone, I had to step it up and be the emcee at English Club.  =)

... and Ike was my helper in cleaning out ashes from the furnace.

     We had this family for hamburgers and to play games one Friday night.  We all had a lot of fun!

     We had our area Russia Conference, and the kids really loved being with other Third Culture Kids and growing in their faith with one another.  They sang us some songs they learned on the last night.

     My homeschooling the kids alone has ended for a few months, as Art and Lisa Blaker are back from helping another Russia team!  We made it work, but were sometimes met with challenges.   On this day I took the girls with me to wait for Ike while he had karate.  At first we were the only ones in the room, and they were enjoying reading their books (This picture isn't staged.  They both had these sweet smiles while they were reading.)

     ... But within 30 minutes, the girls were surrounded by other girls who wanted to meet them.

     Throughout the fall, Natasha helped me with canning various things.  On this day, she came over and made a vegetable mix called leche out of peppers, tomatoes, and onions with Nettie and me.  I so enjoy these times with her!

Conference Tour

 

     This fall was a special time of helping to facilitate conferences in three different Buddhist regions of Russia  (Buryatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia).  These conferences were very powerful in helping to understand how Tibetan Buddhism and Shamanism affect the way people view things such as the world, people, sin and the good news of Jesus.  They also proved to be a powerful catalyst for stirring up motivation and love for getting this good news out!

     Before the three conferences, Leif was involved with a special time for leaders from these different regions.  It was a wonderful time to share stories of what God is doing in each region and what work is left to do.  Everyone was encouraged by the chance to talk with others who are living in a similar cultural context. We hosted a couple of these leaders at our house before they flew back home.  

     The kids were very flexible during the week we hosted the Ulan-Ude conference.  We did homeschooling a couple of days at the church so that I could help in the kitchen.  Also, we did things like pick up lost luggage from the speakers when it finally showed up at the airport a week after they first arrived.  =)

I thought this was a fun selfie that Leif took at one point.  =)

   
     One of the seminars offered at the conference was on music.  People divided into several groups and wrote new songs with Buryat words and tunes.  At the Ulan-Ude conference, one group wrote a song for Psalm 91.  This was incredibly powerful, especially as this portion of the Bible hasn't yet been translated into Buryat.  After the conference, a group has been meeting weekly to continue writing new songs.  These songs are already a great encouragement to Buryat believers and a bright light to others.  It is neat to think of what God will continue to do!!

     I liked helping Lena and Adriana in the kitchen.  Lena had very ambitious and delicious meals on the menu each day, and they always turned out amazing!

Everyone enjoyed the meals

     Leif was the emcee for the conference.  He's a great choice for this, as people have fun interacting with him.  =)

     Each day, we needed to make quick trips to the store for things like more tea, potatoes, and bread.  On this day, the kids and I got some chips to share with others.  =)

     On the last day of the conference, there was a special time of serving each other, writing and drawing vision that God has given and praying for people in our lives and for the unreached peoples of Tibetan Buddhist background throughout the world.  

     Right after dinner on the last day of the Ulan-Ude conference, we whisked Leif off to the train station as he continued on with the group of people putting on the conferences.  We felt sad to see him go and at the same time, super-supportive of why he was going.  That made it a little easier for the next couple of weeks needing to stoke the furnace and get water at the well while he was gone.  =)

Here are a couple of pictures from the other conferences.

 

     Dave and Leif also used this travel time to talk with pastors and church leaders in these regions to see what work is left to do to reach these unreached people groups, what opportunities there are for serving and to see if there are ways we can help in this work.

There are so many beautiful places and people in Russia!

    One night some people from one of the churches treated the trainers to dinner in a yurt restaurant.  They encouraged the guys to put on Tuvan national attire and take a picture in it.  Leif's turned out pretty great.  =)

     The fruit from these conferences is already visible and far reaching.  It's so encouraging!