The first two days of the month (Thursday and Friday) a Pastor's conference was held at the main church here. It was good to reconnect with Ukrainian friends that we had not seen for quite some time. Meanwhile, the orphanage part of the team enjoyed the time with kids. Hope especially enjoyed spending time with them (partially because she could postpone school that way). One place they were at, Hope played the role of interpreter to help Tracy understand what one child was trying to tell her. She also was trying to teach Mandy some Russian. We were proud of her! On Saturday, we all enjoyed going to visit our kids at #9 orphanage. It was so good to see our friends there after being gone for more than a month. And they were glad to see us, too!
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Playing a game at #9 |
We enjoyed being in church with our friends on Sunday morning and had a great time at the Christmas party later that day. We lost electricity at our host's home while we were there. Why does this seem to happen everywhere we go?
We enjoyed a quiet day on Monday, then Phil picked up his visa for Belarus on Tuesday. That evening we headed back to Krivoy Rog on the train. It was so good to be home again. We had Bible study with our young friends that evening. We were all glad to be together again!
Because we missed Slavik's birthday (before Thanksgiving), we celebrated on Wednesday evening. We were glad to be with our extended family again. Yura's birthday was on Christmas Eve, so we ended up celebrating his birthday and Christmas at the same time.
Our Christmas tree (here they are New Year's trees) |
Our Christmas Eve gathering was fun. We had turkey and all the trimmings, plenty of cookies, and a large apple pie! We tried to make it as American as possible.
We were joined by our extended family - Slavik, Tanya, Maxim, and Yura - as well as a Canadian friend, James.
After dinner, Phil read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in both English and Russian. |
Then the "kids" opened their presents and we just enjoyed being together. Even though Maxim told us just being with us was present enough, we still got all four of them some gifts, too.
Hope is excited about one of her gifts |
Intense Mario Kart competition between Laura and Slavik |
Hope and Tanya playing something on the computer |
Maxim with his mischievous smile |
Yura with a big smile |
For several reasons, we decided that we could not help our friends over Christmas. Instead we wanted to stay close to home over the holidays.
After arriving in Kiev early the next morning, Phil bought tickets for the return trip that night (there did not seem to be any the day before). We spent the day with the VanMeter family and, as always, enjoyed the fellowship. Denise and Phil signed the documents in the afternoon. After supper and a movie, we got back on the train to head home to Krivoy Rog.
We could not get four places together in the same coupe (room in a train wagon with four beds - two upper and two lower), but we did have two upper berths in two coupes next to each other. The couple in Denise's coupe spoke English and offered to help accommodate us. They had the two ladies in Phil's coupe join them so that our family could be together. We were not going to ask, but so glad they offered. What a blessing that was!
On Friday, good friends Vova and Juliya were married in Dnepropetrovsk. Phil was sick, so he and Laura stayed home. Denise and Hope waited at the bus station to ride with friends there for the wedding. After the wedding, they planned to ride the bus home, but a Canadian friend with room in his van brought them back. It is always fun to see how God provides!
Wedding picture Alex (Juliya's brother), Juliya, Vova,, and Yana (Alex's wife) |
In January, Phil has plans for a trip to Belarus if our registration is done in time. Other than that, we expect it to be a fairly normal month of living, learning, and sharing - at least as far as we know.
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