Hiking Trip

     What fun it was to be a part of a hiking trip for teenage boys and preteen/teenage girls last week!  We started a little ways out of a village called Shabur and ended up in a village called Stari Bryn.  The hikers(with a lot of gear) crammed into the back of this flatbed truck to ride to the start of the hike.  Leif was in charge of three teenage boys.

     The director of the camp was also the dad of the youngest girls (who went were 9 and 11).  He saw how well Anneka had played with his daughters the day before and her brave and adventurous spirit, and he invited her along on the hike, too.  At first we weren't sure, but we decided to let her try it out for the first day.  And she did great!  She was tired,  of course, but didn't complain and really enjoyed the trip.  She continued to want to hike each day and the whole trip totaled about 10 miles.  There were two teenage girls in the group, too.  There were three groups total (two guys' group, one girls' group) Anneka's favorite part was when they'd find clues tied with ribbons along the way that told them where to go next.  Each day a different group took turns leading and finding the next campsite based on the clues and markers.

     I drove the van full of tents and food and was available if any of the hiking groups needed me.  Ike slept during this time, and Ella and I loved having this special time together!  We played little games on a pretend phone, chewed gum, took pictures, and talked.  She was so so happy.

As soon as we got to the first campsite, the groups set up the tents.     

     I got to work right away on lunch, peeling a bunch of potatoes.  I came into the trip thinking that I might be solely in charge of the food.  I knew this could be kind of crazy with three little ones, cooking over a fire, and preparing Russian food that I'm not accustomed to.  Thankfully Oleg, the camp director, also directed the food.  While I still did a lot, I was SO happy to just follow instructions instead of having to figure it all out!  Ella was helpful and brought me clean potatoes and then put the peeled ones in a pot of water.  Ike was not so helpful.  He pulled the clean potatoes out of the pot and threw them in the dirt.  Or ran away laughing. Or went and played in cow poop.  But all things considered, it went well.  The kids pitched in to help, too.  I was SO thankful that Inka had given me a cutting board at the last minute, that Leif brought a pocket knife, and that I had thrown in a peeler and can opener "just in case".  Without any one of these items, it would have taken me SO much longer to do any one task.  I can't tell you how thankful I was to have these things!

     Not long after the tents were up, the rain came down.  It rained hard for about an hour.  While the soup cooked, I drove into town to get some more sleeping bags, a ladle, and some goat's milk.

   
      After the rain and lunch, we all came outside again.  Ike crawled around in the grass, which I imagined was a tick haven.  But he was happy, and I sprayed him down with repellent (and prayed!), so we didn't worry about it.  Several people at the camp were bitten by ticks.  We've heard that as many as 25% of the ticks here carry encephalitis, and often the symptoms don't show up until several months later.  We pray that no one bit will be infected!

     We played fun games each day.  In this game, one team was blindfolded and couldn't move their feet, but they tried to tag the other team before they made it through.  When it was Leif's turn, he jumped over Tamara's head.  I thought this was a little crazy, as she could've at any moment lifted up her arm.  Thankfully they both came through unscathed!
   

     Here is Leif with his guys.  They had good conversations as they hiked, and they stayed up late into the night (until three in the morning!) talking in their tent.  One guy in particular was really interested in spiritual things and asked questions about God how a person can know that he's real.  Pray that the seeds planted during this camp will grow!

.Here were the girls, heading into camp on the second day.  It was really beautiful at each campsite, and there was no garbage!!  This was huge for me, as most places we've been have been cluttered with trash.

Dasha loved our girls.  She played so nicely with them.

     The second evening, Ella and I guarded the camp while everyone else went up a hill to explore a cave.  The Cossacks dug it  a few hundred years ago for storing supplies and hiding from Mongols.  

Each morning, Leif led the group in morning exercises.

     One day Ella, Ike and I waited for a group that got lost (they missed finding one of the markers).  It was fun with my little buddy.  And on the last day, we set out early with Sasha to put up the markers/clues to the final destination.

     And this was where we ended up on the last day of the hike!  A beautiful view of the village below.

 A lady, Nina, from the village came up the hill to see what we were all doing.  She stayed for several hours, and Tamara shared with her about God and His love.  She brought her little dog with her, and Ella fell in love.

     Most of the crew were high up on the hill, hiking around.  (Ike was sleeping in the backpack on Leif's back).  Nina warned us that there are a lot of snakes up there.  Tamara and I made lunch and then Ella helped me pump up a bunch of balls to give to the kids as gifts.  Tamara sat and played her guitar and sang praise songs and talked with Nina and one of the boys.  And I talked with Nina and Ella.  Ella petted her new friend.  A nice relaxed ending to a great trip!

   

Leif and his guys

     And at the very end, when we were cleaning up, Ike was finally allowed to play in the food pot.  He repeatedly scooped his little cup in there all weekend.  But this time we didn't stop him.  He was in heaven, and we were happy to have him in one place.  We were thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this trip and are trusting God for lasting fruit as a result!

Goat's Milk and a Night in a Village Hospital

     We enjoyed a great last week of village life and going a hiking trip with teenage  (and pre-teen) boys and girls.  I'll share about the hike on the next blog.  Out trip started in the village of Shabur.  Inka lives halfway between Ulan-Ude and Shabur, so it was wonderful to stop along the way and have lunch with her and the Ratinkovs.  When we got to Shabur, the Boskakovs welcomed us into their home.  You'll notice a huge jar of goats milk on the table in the picture.  Our girls loved it.  Ella drank 3 full mugs and wanted more.  The theme of many of our meals over the next days included goat's milk to some extent (sour cream, potatoes with goat's milk, hot cereal with goat's milk, etc.)

     While Leif and the other leaders mapped out the route of the hike (and set up special clues/markers along the way), the kids and I stayed and enjoyed farm life.  The two girls (9 and 11) who lived there befriended our kids instantly and showed them all around.  The only bad thing was that all of our stuff was in the van (including coats, phone, snacks) and they were gone until 10:15pm.   Here Ella is munching on something really sour- rhubarb, maybe?

     The kids loved the pigs (two of them were the biggest pigs I've ever seen!), chickens, and goats.  Anneka got to experience milking a goat and even drank milk straight from the utter!

     The girls also dug up lots of worms and fed them to the chickens.  I never knew that chickens liked to eat worms... oh, the joys!

     That night our family got to stay at the hospital!  It was a place that had space for our family.  And we were thankful to have beds.  We call them "taco beds", as they swallow you up like a taco when you get in.  Anneka was horrified at the idea of staying at the hospital and preferred to stay the night with her new friends.  This was very interesting to me- that she would choose to stay with a family that she'd barely met over being with her own family in a hospital.  There was no running water there, but there was an outhouse.  And thankfully we threw Ella's little potty in and took it everywhere we went.  It was a life saver!

     Little Ike slept next to me.  I had a migraine that night, but thankfully it went away with medicine and my head felt great for the entire hiking trip.

     We woke up the next morning to a 3-year old!!  We took our picture in front of the hospital as a reminder that three years ago, our sweet little Ella was born in a hospital in America.  Earlier in the week we took a family day to celebrate her life (I'll post a blog on it soon).  I have a feeling that Ella will have a lot of interesting birthdays in her life with where it falls on the calendar.  So far she's been in 3 different countries on her birthday with many fun and interesting experiences!

     The second floor of the hospital is a type of dormitory.  This lady, Tamara, lives there.  She's from Moldova and invited us for a breakfast feast! This included buckwheat cereal with goat's milk and homemade jam, sheep cheese from Moldova, scrambled eggs with green onions, and bread with the homemade jam.  We really enjoyed getting to know her and were blessed by her warm hospitality.  

Extras

     We have a lot of cool things going on this summer, so I decided I'd better post some older pictures that I'll surely forget once the adventures begin!  This was when Irene was here and Leif was in a faraway village.  We made a trip to the ethnographic museum, and there was this fun display.  We tried to do one with all of us, but Ella was absolutely certain that she did NOT want her head anywhere near that hole!

     This was also at the museum- there's a zoo part.  We bought some special granola-bar type things that we were allowed to feed to the animals.  The kids really enjoyed it.

     And then as we were leaving, this man was giving rides on his horse.  As this was the girls' dream, we couldn't pass up the opportunity!

     Our church had a picnic out in the woods a couple of weeks ago.  We invited people from the English Club as a way to make connections.  But sadly nobody from the club came.  It was a nice day all the same and we enjoyed being out in nature with our church family.  We bought a bunch of hotdogs to roast, but there was a fire ban, so we've been making strange foods out of hotdogs lately to use them up!

Ladies singing songs to God together

Wiggling a loose tooth, hanging out, having fun.  (Ike slept over three hours and when he woke up was very contented to be on Inka's lap).

     The kids and some of the adults played frisbee.  My parents sent us a great frisbee that is made out of string.  It flies really well and is perfect for kids to throw and catch!  It was fun to see our kids enjoying everyone.  In this picture, Kristina is swinging Ella.  A moment that brought me joy was to see Vera swinging Anneka and them both laughing and teasing each other.  Less than a year ago, Anneka had had an incident with Vera where she acted up and was very disrespectful.  I think a lot of it stemmed from the frustration in not being able communicate with her in Russian.  As I watched, I felt amazed by all that God has done this year in our hearts and in Anneka's.  And so grateful.

     Our oven broke!  Well, actually it's the Wicker's oven.  (Don't worry, Wickers, we're getting it fixed!)  Sasha came over to try and fix it.  It was a family affair.   It's changed how I cook and caused me to have to think a little bit more with food prep.

     We met some friends downtown on a really windy day, and due to a miscommunication, Ella ended up riding by herself in this princess carriage!!  She was so happy, and it made me smile so big to see her in there.  

     We look forward to sharing new adventures with you throughout this summer!

Playing Outside

     There are playgrounds popping up all over the place!  There is a great new one in the courtyard next to us and we just found out that they're going to put one in our courtyard, too!  (in fact we heard that EVERY courtyard is getting a new playground!)  This is so great, as the weather is nice, and these playgrounds bring everyone outside.  It makes it really easy to get to know neighbors and make connections.

     These boys LOVED it when Leif spun them super-fast.  Ella was loving riding with all of the boys for awhile, but finally reached her limit and preferred to be in Papa's arms.

     Anneka has been running into people from school and playing with them.  And I've been talking with the moms as I have opportunity.  In my Russian language classes I've started working on a plan of different questions to ask people that I meet as ways to open up the conversations to spiritual things.  I was encouraged recently by reading in 1 Corinthians 2 how Paul didn't use lofty words or impressive wisdom, how he came timid and trembling and his message was very plain.  This encouraged me, as I think sometimes I can believe the lie that my Russian isn't good enough to really share God with people.  But of course, this isn't true!  It's only God who can change hearts.  He likes to use weak things/people to show His greatness!  And I'm super excited to have a plan and to be more prepared.  I'm trusting God for good things.

     I met Katia and Yulia (from our church) at their neigbhorhood playground the other day.  It was encouraging to me for a few reasons.  One, I really like Yulia and Katia and am always happy to get time to hang out with them.  Two, it was in our old neighborhood, so it was fun to see our old apartment and where we used to live.  Three, the girl pictured in the middle is one that I had prayed God would take care of when we moved away.  And it turns out that Katia sees her and talks to her a lot and has shared with her about God.  It was nice to catch up with her and talk with her a bit.  And four, Katia's mom was with us, too, and she is a totally new person!  She went through some hard times and recently went through a three-month program of basically just hearing truth every day- times for personally reading the Bible, times of teaching, times of group Bible study... every day for 90 days.  And she is totally transformed.  Her eyes light up as she talks about God and about how she never really understood about Him before.  She had gone to church before but didn't really know what everyone was talking about.  Now it's all so real to her.  So fun to talk with her and hear her stories.

     And Ike is always amusing to watch.   He got in a fight with this other baby (maybe she stole his cracker?  I can't remember).  I love to watch him explore, and he's SO HAPPY outside!  If the kids start to get a little crabby, the cure-all is to all go outside.

Preschool Graduation

     We are praising God for a great year for Anneka at Russian preschool/kindergarten.  It was a big step for us and for her, and we can clearly see how God opened this door and how He's used it in Anneka's life in many positive ways.   Last Friday, we celebrated Anneka's class' graduation.  I love this picture, as it shows Anneka's smile the moment she spotted her Papa in the crowd.

     Anneka received a diploma, and her speech teacher said kind words about how well Anneka did, going from knowing very little Russian to speaking and interacting well with her teachers and classmates.

     I took Ike out in the hallway during a special part of the program with pirate clowns (where the kids sat and watched).  One of Anneka's classmates' Dad was in the hallway, too.  He handed this stuffed mouse to Ike, and Ike was SO serious. I couldn't get a smile out of him for anything.  He just kept staring at the man with this face.   He's rarely serious like this, so it was really funny to me.

     And Ella couldn't quite make it through the whole program with a little snooze on Papa.

     It was quite the event!  All of the kids got really dressed up.  Anneka was able to borrow a dress from her friend, Vera.  Each child was given a helium balloon with a bird tied to the end.  After the graduation, everyone went outside and sent their balloons up into the sky.

     The girls posed with the principal.  She was highly honored in the program with a big bouquet of flowers and many kind words.

                                      We just loved seeing all of the little girls together!

     After the program, the kids had a feast!  Ella was invited to join in, too.  She's sitting in the top right corner, and she loved being a part of it.   The kids were contented and happy.  Anneka came up to me at one point and said, "Mama, I feel like my tooth isn't there anymore".  Sure enough, she'd swallowed her tooth in the excitement of everything!

     We prayed that we'd be able to continue a relationship with at least one other kid in Anneka's class (and his/her family) after this year.  The day after we prayed that, we found out that one of the boys lives in the building next door to us.  He and Anneka have already played 3 or 4 times together.  Also, one of the little girls' moms and I exchanged phone numbers.  They also live quite close to us.  One bummer is that I tried to call her yesterday and somehow I'd saved a girl from our church's number under this lady's name on my phone.  So I'm not quite sure how this happened or how I can contact her.  But we trust that God is in control of these relationships and he opens and closes doors.  And if he wants us to connect with this little girl and her mom, it'll surely happen!

God's Not Dead, No, He's Alive!

     I called probably 11 different people last week, trying to find someone who could braid Anneka's hair for her end-of-the-year program for her school.  I finally found someone (the young roommate of Maria- the lady who Anneka is pictured with).  When we went over there, I was met with encouragement.  This other lady and man had come in from the village for a visit.  They were filled with joy, and this man was so EXCITED about his relationship with Jesus.  He has only been a Christian for a few weeks, but he shared about how transformed his life has been.  He said that he had been an alcoholic and had been obsessed with women, but now he his heart is free. He said he doesn't even think about those things in the same ways.

     While we were there, they asked me to sing a song.  Anneka came into the kitchen about that time with her beautiful hair, and we sang together, "Alleluia, God is holy".  We all prayed together, and they gave me some passages of scripture to pass out to others.  We were only there a short time, but it was encouraging to see people so alive and excited.  I feel like so many people here live defeated lives- even a lot of Christians.  And it's easy for us to feel defeated at times, too.  Lately, I've been really struck by how much defeat and discouragement come from believing lies- about who we are, about who God is.  When we focus on the amazing truths of who He says we are and who He is, we are FREE and ALIVE!  How we want to share this wonderful news with others!

     The other day when we were out shopping as a family, Ella sang over-and-over, loudly, in Russian: "God's not dead, no, He's alive!"  At first I was a little embarrassed, but then I thought about how cool it was what she was singing... and in a language that people could understand.  It's so true- God's not dead, He's alive.  And He wants to bring health and healing and water to this dry and weary land.