PTL - Apartment update!

For those who receive our mailing updates - our first PRAISE from your pr@yers. Thanks so much for pr@ying about our landlords. We already have the first 1/2 of our need answered. Our landlord remembered that we had paid through March - so we've not been kicked out as of THIS Saturday! Thank you all for your thoughts and pr@yers.

We're waiting to hear back about their desire to raise the rent 25%. We don't want to play hard ball, but rent is dropping in the city (PTL) not increasing. So we feel that we need to be good stewards of what the L0rd has provided and move if necessary.

We DON'T want to move. We are finally feeling at home in our apartment and we really hope to continue living in this excellent location with a fair rent price.

Keep pr@ying!!!

A Little Encouragement Goes A Long Way

So . . . today is a BEAUTIFUL day. It's sunny, and only around -3 degrees Celsius (26 degrees Farenheit). With the encouragement of my great husband, I decided to run outside. Running is something I love and have missed here because of all of the cold and snow. We've spent most of the winter working out in the living room with jars of spaghetti sauce (our version of 2 lb. weights! :).

I got ready and headed out the door and had a GREAT run-it was just so nice to be out running and enjoying the sunshine and G0d's creation. I got done with my run and was strolling a little bit and basking in the sunlight. Now, one thing that is true here in Tyumen is that there are NOT many people out running-in the winter or any other time of the year. So to see a young woman dressed in running clothes in the dead of winter is a strange sight for people here. As I was walking along with a huge grin on my face, an older woman approached, wearing her fur hat and warm winter coat. She had quite a solemn expression on her face, and I was prepared to hear how crazy I was for being out in the winter weather dressed as I was. As she approached, she said, "Mолодец!" I was blown away. "Mолодец" is the Russian phrase for "good job". I barely got out a quick thank you ("Спасибо") before she had walked away. I'm so thankful for those times that G0d shows us His grace and encouragement (albeit in some crazy ways). Let's never forget how a few words can be just exactly what another person needs.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great time preparing an evening for our interpreter friends for Valentine's day.

With the big love and a bit of help from our American friends and a couple of packages, we were able to treat our friends to a royal holiday - peppermint patties, homemade heart-shaped brownies, and heart-shaped cookies! It was a lot of fun to bake together and to celebrate the love holiday!

homemade peppermint patties (what a desperate man and woman will do for sweets!)

The Bain Wedding

What a cool opportunity! Today is valentine's day, but that is inconsequential. Today is Jeff & Natasha Bain's wedding day. From the photo above you can see that we've set up in the new ch^rch building! Jim, Sally, Amy & I showed up about 45 minutes early to clean things up a little and set up some decorations. You can see the altar, the cr0ss and a few other items. The wall directly to the left of Jeff & Natasha is actually OPEN still... so the wind was blowing. It kept blowing out the candles - grrrr.

Jeff & Natasha were very happy -- see her beautiful white coat? Her parents, an aunt & uncle and the rest of us had a great time at the small ceremony.

Join us in congratulating them!

Hanging with the coworkers...

Tonight Tammy invited the entire teaching staff of CET over to her place to have dinner and hang out. It was a great time, she made some kind of Hawaiian chicken (pineapple and kiwi included!) and then we played spoons and Uno. It was really a good time and I think something that has really been missing for the staff. Tammy has lived here in Russia for nearly 6 years - she has a life here. Amy and I have each other and the CEC staff, interpreters, and friends here as well. But the staff at CET are all here as singles and really work every evening but Sundays and even during the day on Saturday. So, there's not much time to build a life.

It was really fun and now we even have some inside jokes!

My work schedule has continued to improve and I have 1 morning off each week, two entire days, and one evening. (this in addition to Sundays). Pretty much I'm guaranteed to go part-time starting in March. This is a huge answer to pr@yer and we appreciate everyone's thoughts and encouragement.

Some more language mistakes

I was teaching today (Saturday) and my students were asking questions of me. It happens quite often as a teacher and it's nice because there are frequent opportunities to share with them about important things.

Well, this is Basic 2 (almost all my classes are basic level) and they were interested in learning some food words. So... they were asking me if I like fish. There is a lot of fish eating here in Russia, and I'm not fond of all of it. I like Salmon though.

But with a slip of the tongue, I said I like hickies, not salmon. (Zasos instead of lasos') Amazing isn't it? In the same class, a student asked me if I like horr movies. (Say it out loud- the student, of course meant horr-or films) Lots of laughs for language mistakes

SNOW SNOW SNOW

Well, we just got dumped on. It snowed all night! It's really beautiful. I'll try to get some pictures.