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!

English Club on Baikal

Our evening program was right on the beach!

     We had a wonderful "English Club on Baikal" this year!  A few days before the camping trip was to begin, we were told that we had to move our whole setup off of the land because they were going to give it to someone else.  We didn't know WHERE we would set up our kitchen, outhouses, tents, etc in such short notice during peak Baikal season!  We prayed and gave it to God... and He provided a perfect place.  It was cleaner, warmer, sandier, quieter, and more beautiful than the original place!  I love how God stretches our faith and blesses.

     We had a team of 5 people from Canada come to help put on the weekly activities and lessons.  When we all arrived to set things up the day before, it was rainy.  Our tarps were dripping, and we were remembering last year's torrential downpour for days!  But it was just that first evening and then we had the best weather we've ever seen at Baikal!

     Each day we broke into various discussion groups with the theme of the week being "Faith"

We also had morning exercises.

Arts and Crafts time

A drama group that planned evening skits

Sports like frisbee, volleyball and dodgeball

Whole camp games.  Water games were the favorites!

Songs

Free time for table games

and hanging out.  We had some good conversations during these times.

There was a tire swing that the kids loved playing on.

Each evening Leif asked Pastor Sasha some interview questions.

Our kids LOVED being in the skits in the evening program!

     The girls' friend, Anya, celebrated her 8th birthday at camp.  She was shy about everyone knowing, so she told her mom she wanted to celebrate just with Ella and Anneka.  They had their own little party at a table in the woods.  I only popped in to light the candles and snap a picture.  =)

     There were clothes lines around the camp for us to use.  I found it funny that my kids' clothes were always dirty and wet, but no one else seemed to need the lines.  =)  Our kids are very tactile and love the feel of sand and dirt rubbed all over their bodies.  I thought this was a kid thing, but maybe it's just a Gustafson kid thing?

My friend, Regina, was camping nearby.  She came to visit.  It was fun to see her!

     Here are a bunch more pictures from our special week.  This boy is blind, but he was able to see a bit of the light from a fire show that we had the last night.  It was really special for him and for his mom.

     At the very end the stomach flu began going around.  But it still didn't put a damper on a wonderful week.  We are so encouraged by conversations and by changes we've seen in people during and since the camp!

sooo tired after a full week!