A Sunday Afternoon

Here are some pics we took today. We had some friends from church over for dinner. We have been trying to have them over since April, but due to their different work schedules it was difficult. We finally opted for a Sunday dinner, since no one works then and the afternoon is free.Natasha and her friend Kolya.
Alyona (Natasha's sister) and Anna.
Mama Lena with Polly. Mama Lena is a mama to many young people in our church. She is hospitable and serving. She lives in a house with her two daughters. She has a full-time job as a forensic doctor and also takes care of her elderly mother-in-law and her father, both of whom are living with them. Lena's husband died a few of years ago. They also had a son who died of leukemia.
Jamie asked THE question, "So, when are you going to get married?" Mama Lena said, "We all would like to know that." No definite answer was given. :-) Natasha and Kolya have been seeing each other for 4 months.
Girls getting ready for bed.

January Days

It's been an eventful week. Last Thursday a couple of ladies from church and I went to visit some shut-ins from church. Our first trip was to a dear friend who, we believe, is dying of cancer. The doctors would not tell her what exactly is happening, but she had had a surgery on her stomach in September 2006, and last month she had chemotherapy. Since then she has been deteriorating fast. There is a lady that is tending to her now, which is a huge blessing, since Lena is not able to do much anymore. When we called on her, she was in an arm chair, propped up with pillows. She struggles to talk and only gets up to go to the bathroom. She is eating, but something is not working there -- she is just skin and bones. She did not make it to church last Sunday, and Jamie and a pastor from our church here went to visit her today. She was in her bed. Please pray for our Lord to heal her.

After visiting Lena we went to visit another Lena, who had a baby just a few weeks ago. What a contrast -- to go from someone who is at the end of her earthly life to someone who is just starting out! Baby Roman is just adorable. I had to brush up on my baby holding techniques. Lena, Roman's mother, who also happens to be our ex-landlady from the apartment we first lived in, is a beautiful happy mother. This is their 4th child, and their older children love Roman to pieces and are great helpers. Lena told us quite a story about her labor and delivery. When she got to the hospital, no one checked her, and when she was ready to push, the doctor discovered that the baby was coming out face first. Lena said he got really scared and had Lena sign a form to get a c-section. As they were wheeling her to the surgery room, Lena felt an urge to push, and though the doctors were telling her to hold it, she couldn't. They checked her again, right there in the hallway, quickly turned around and ran/wheeled her back into the delivery room. The baby had turned, and she delivered a healthy 9 lb boy. What is most exciting is that during this ordeal Lena was witnessing about God, and the doctor said that the baby turning was "a miracle". The nurse asked Lena afterwards what church she goes to. Our dear praying friends and supporters, we are so thankful to you for giving us a privilege to serve here and to witness God moving among His people.

After visiting Lena we stopped to see another new mother from our church. Her boy, Ilya (Elija in English), is 7 months old. Anya and Sasha also have a daughter who is 11. Sasha came from work as we were visiting, and it was wonderful to see him play and interact with his baby boy.

Yesterday we worshiped in Tsurupinsk, a church plant across the river, where Jamie served communion. It is a smaller congregation, but every time we go there we see new faces.

Today I went to visit a friend from church who is going through some rough times. It was very humbling, because I did not really know what to say, but I prayed and asked God to help. I think the best encouragement we can give is one that comes not from us, but from Scripture. So, I realized I could not give her any advice except to submit to her husband and to trust God during this hard time. Please pray for her, too. I did hear from her tonight, and was very encouraged to hear that she had communicated to her husband that she supports him and his decisions. Praise the Lord!

As today drew to a close, I took Tim and Polly to the river while Nadia and Anna were at their gymnastics class. We had a great time.The river had frozen near the banks, and we were able to walk on ice. I don't think I had ever done that. They taught us in schools in Russia never to walk on frozen rivers (they also taught us what to do if someone does fall in). The kids played close to the bank, where it was safe, and it was a blast! At the end Polly slipped and fell into a puddle, and we had to go home.
Beautiful sunset! Those black dots across the picture are birds settling down for the night.

Tim asked me to take this picture. He said it was Iwo Jima (we have been listening to Jonathan Park series and watched a documentary on Iwo Jima).This is what the white ice by the river bank looked like upclose.This building has been under construction since spring. We are not quite sure what it is, but it looks too big to be a house. Night club? Casino?
Another news -- we were above freezing today! It was sunny and warm (40F). What a difference!

Pictures from the Holidays

We had a New Year's Party with 10 adults and 7 kids. It was a fun time. We stayed up till 5 in the morning. The kids woke up at 8:30 a.m., we cooked breakfast and ate some more. Our friends left around noon.
Children opening presents at the party.
Yesterday, on Orthodox Christmas, we went to a children's play. This is Grandfather Frost in the picture. Traditionally, he wears blue, burgundy, white or silver color coat, but lately he has been seen sporting Santa Claus colors.
After the show the actors interact with the kids, play a few games and hand out prizes. This is when Ukrainian/Russian children wear costumes. One of the games was "hot potato," with the child caught with the mouse (hot potato) was asked to recite a season's poem, sing a song or dance. If they were able to, they received the prize. Some of the poems were pretty long, and it was impressive.
Polly refused to be in the picture (we did take one with her crying). The mouse stands for the Year of the Rat according to the Chinese calendar. (We have been seeing a lot of statuettes and trinkets of rats and mice. Ukrainians try to cover all the bases, sort of like the Greeks in Acts 17, with regards to superstitions and gods.)

Hodge-Podge

Right about the time when we were going to update our blog, our telephone (and internet) went out. 10 days later, we are up and running again! Life is never boring here.

We had a great Christmas and New Years, and we will dedicate a posting to that. Today, however, was an eventful day. First, we reached -9 C (16 F) at night and -3 C (26 F) for the high during the day. It wouldn't be too bad, except our house is an extra drafty place. The windows are old, there is no insulation, and on top of that, they put bathroom vents right into the outside wall with nothing in between. It literally feels like going to the outhouse when one has to use the bathroom. The heating system in the house cannot keep up. We have been using electric heaters for the kids' bedrooms and braving it in our bedroom without them. Last night our bedroom was at a refreshing 13 C (56 F). We noticed that we snuggle more now. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer, and we will finally be above freezing next Tuesday. We can't wait.

Something else happened today: there were wild fires across the river. We have never seen wild fires before, and it was amazing (and scary) to see them move fast, consuming dry reeds and brush. We don't think any houses were damaged in the fire.

We took this picture about 2:45 pm.
This one above was taken 2:48 pm.
View from our balcony.
Kids were fascinated.
The color of the sky is just amazing.