IT'S A NEW YEAR! Welcome 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  2012   To all of our family and dear friends around the world!!!!!!!!!
OK...so it's the middle of January already, however, we've been busy not only putting this site together but writing updates, newsletters, making phone calls and sending countless pictures to our many supporters across the U.S.  THANK YOU to each of you who take the time to read our updates then pass them on to so many others, sharing what the Lord is doing in a village in Siberia!

Since the 24th of December, we've been busy doing what the folks here in Russia...celebrating! Well, maybe not like all of the folks here, but we have been celebrating with wonderful friends and looking ahead to how we can better serve others in our community in 2012.

Celebrating Christmas in December???!! Obviously, to us westerners this makes perfect sense. However, for Russia and about 12 other countries in the world, they celebrate the Orthodox date on the 7^th of January. This year, we heard of many fellowships/churches across Russia deciding to celebrate on the 25^th of Dec. one of which was a small fellowship that meets in a village about 30 min. from us. Several of us joined in their celebration of the birth of our Savior! Although it’s a very small group, we were encouraged by their faith in Him. We shared testimonies, exchanged gifts, and eventually we shared a wonderful meal. (The service was several hours long.)

Reciting a beautiful poem she wrote about the 'gift' of Christmas.

Sharing her testimony..of God's grace!

                                                 

                         

                            Exchanging gifts with the fellowship in the next village.

This is only half of the food that was prepared...
sorry, didn't get a picture of us eating together
we were famished after a four hour service!

News Year's Eve 2012!  This year we celebrated the coming of a new year together with prayer, food, games and fireworks! We even had a piñata for the kids filled with candy. Not everyone in the fellowship wanted to come out in the cold and leave their homes for a long period of time. (Someone has to keep the fires going at home!) However, we had a good turnout and a great time of sharing and just being together; not surrounded by drunks! Many shared of looking forward to a new year filled with opportunities to share with friends and neighbors as well as growth in their spiritual understanding of the Word.
     

Tanya getting the food out for our meal!

The kids are ready to eat!!!!

   

Kevin getting the pinata ready......

Round two....almost broke it open!

Finally.....candy for everyone!!!

More games.....Kevin is the biggest kid.

 

A family playing twister,,,,sisterly love :)

They actually fell asleep after watching fireworks!!!

A time of sharing the past and future.

The Pastor and his family.

Christmas in January…. Our fellowship decided to remain with the January date of celebrating Christmas since it is recognized by everyone and wouldn’t give another reason for the community to think of us as a sect. Our time was shared with folks from the city and another village. The pastor shared the importance of remembering what the “Good News” truly is and what a precious gift we were given over 2000 years ago in a smelly stable filled with animals; a gift that changed the world forever!!

Our youngest member all dressed up for Christmas!

Laura's helper on Sundays.

Singing Christmas carols in Russian!

Guests from another village..

Guests sharing during our service.

Finally...gifts for all the kids!!

After reading this update, you may think all we did in December and January was to celebrate! For the majority of people in Russia, this is true! We see non-stop drinking; most government offices and many businesses actually close from the 31^st of Dec. until the 10^th of Jan.! The real ‘reason for the season’ is totally lost in the ‘celebrating’. As for our fellowship, this time was spent in much prayer and a renewed desire to serve the community. Please remember us in prayer as there is such a burden of urgency to share the Good News with others. We see and feel the darkness of ‘the enemy’ and know a battle rages in the heavens! We also know the victor of that battle and stand firm in that knowledge.

Blessings from Siberia,
  Kevin & Laura

[Today was -30F....Friday is supposed to  be  -52F!! PLEASE send warmer weather :) ]

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed 

to sell your parrot to the town gossip....

                                                              Will Rogers

Merry Christmas 2011

Greetings from Siberia!

This is the best time of year...cookies in the oven, pies going in next.  You have to love this time of year! Christmas songs ALL day long streaming online (I guess you have to love Christmas songs like we do).  The problem with this time of year is that we too often forget the reason for the season...we heard it said best today as we listened to a candlelight service from the states...Please listen to this message from Peanuts...




As you go about your day today remember THE REASON for the season!

In the center of town in front of the 

"New Years tree"

Have a Blessed Christmas day!

Kevin and Laura

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'."

~ Bing Crosby (1904-1977)

WOW update November 2011

WOW, what a name for a project in Siberia, Windows of Warmth.  This project was not your typical one, but  one that was rather large for us.  We partnered with the local Music/Art school to remodel the front of their school.  The work consisted of replacing the old style windows, many of which were broken, with new three-pane European windows, insulating the front of the building and installing new metal siding (WOW donations were not used for the purchase of siding/insulation with this project, those funds came from another source). This particular school has over 150 students enrolled in its various programs ranging from piano, art and dance lessons to traditional classes on making Buryat clothing.  This was a VERY visible project for our team in the village.  The school is located in the center of town directly across from the library and next door to one of the local clinics.  Please enjoy the pictures and thank you for making this project possible with the many donations that have come in for WOW.  

Kevin with the load of building materials needed

A glimpse of the old windows and front of the building

The window replacement beginning, and the insulation going up.

Notice our OSHA approved ladders...

beginning the siding work...

Making precision cuts on the siding... 

coming to the end of the building...

Everyone busy with the work...

The front of the building, looks modern now....

The street in front of the Music School

Library in front of the music school

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures of our latest project.  Have a GREAT day and thanks for thinking of us...oh by the way it was a little cold today, it was -17 degrees this morning...what can we expect we do live in Siberia.  

Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.  ~Author Unknown

Fall happenings...

There's no way this is the END of October already....OK.. it is the end of the month and we have lots of pictures and some great stories to share!

The beginning of the month took us to the city with our youth group for some rock climbing and time with other youth groups! We left the village early to a beautiful sunny morning and arrived in the city to a cold and rainy day! That didn't stop the trek to the rocks where we met up with another youth group and some students that belong to the local 'extreme club.' Eventually the weather cleared up enough for some of us to climb while the rest of us played games or prepared lunch! In the end, we all agreed it was a great day and we're eager to give it another try...when the weather is warmer and there's no rain!  The following day we went to church then it was off to the local mall to 'hang out'. (A brief pause here, we didn't realize that some of our gals had never seen an escalator...we didn't want to embarrass them so there aren't any pictures. Let's just say we spent a lot of time riding the escalators and the elevator!!Inexpensive fun is easy if you look for it! ) Next stop was a park that still had the rides going..the weather has been awesome! Then it was time to head back home and rest.. :)  All in all, it was a great weekend and the girls are looking forward to our next trip to the city!

 Some of our girls "helping" with lunch.

Kevin helping with the salad!

Throwing the ropes for our climbers.

The only girl from our group to climb...this time that is!

   

     September and October are also the last months to bring in hay for the winter. Cow, pigs, chicken, geese, and horses are kept in small barns or areas closer to home. The hay helps feed these animals during those very cold winter months! We thought you'd enjoy a picture of folks 'bringing in the hay'. (By the way, there are many folks who still do all of this by hand - a sickle and wooden rakes...amazing to watch!)

                                           Hay being trucked in from the fields...



           Each year seems to bring us 'city folks' a new challenge to living in a village. This year was no exception! We had built the 'barn' for our cows last year.....this year we added a chicken coop to the barn and made room for pigs. (Since the cows were lost last fall and we haven't replaced them yet.) Instead of milk, we'll now have eggs and some nice sides of pork for the winter!!

 Our chickens in their new 'home'.

Getting ready for the pig and her piglets.

      October also brings for us a time of thanksgiving for ALL we've harvested from our gardens. Early on in this work, it was decided not to be 'westernized' if at all possible. That means not celebrating holidays that aren't familiar to the folks here as well as 'our' ideas as to how to celebrate when there are similar holidays. Hence, we have our 'Harvest Sunday' each year to celebrate and give thanks for our gardens and the food that will keep many families from starving throughout the coming winter. As you can, there was 'much' to be thankful for this year. (Some of you may remember our enormous cabbages...this was not a good year for us and many others.) We even had a contest for the biggest of every vegetable brought in....our pumpkin was a winner, weighing in at 22 pounds! Now that will make a fair amount of pies and cookies!!
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Mat 9:38  итак молите Господина жатвы, чтобы выслал делателей на жатву Свою.

First snow!!  Hahahaha ...why are we laughing??? Just spoke with my folks and our youngest son...they both have snow and we didn't get any until three days later.....YA Siberia!!!  OK, so it's the small things that make us smile :)  This could mean only five months of winter instead of the six or seven we usually get!!

Kevin and some friends are finishing up on a community project. They were able to have windows installed and put up siding on the front of our local music/art school. Completion is expected this week so some great pictures will follow. 

    Blessings to ALL

     Kevin & Laura

"If you want a thing done, go-if not, send"...Benjamin Franklin

4000 miles...nine days...Trains, buses and automobiles

There was no way we could have ever guessed it would take this amount of time; believe it or not, this was our adventure for the summer AND how we traveled to get our new mini-van! Why so far away, you may ask? We searched the internet and newspapers in this area for months!! The prices were just way out of our range. We have a friend/fellow worker that lived in a region west of here who was selling her van...hence the title to our 'road trip'.


 It began with a two hour drive to the city then a 40 hour train ride. After spending a night at the train station in the city of Novosibirsk, (They have great hotels there with hot showers and comfortable beds!) we embarked on an eight hour bus trip to the city of Gorno-Altaisk. This region is incredibly beautiful, surrounded by mountains with great rivers in it's valleys! (Some of the best white-water rafting/kayaking in the world.)  The roads are good in this area so this part of the trip was smooth and restful. (You'll understand later why this comment is important!)    Days one and two of our trip....

Train station in Ulan Ude  (40 hrs. our next stop)

Train station in Novosibirsk (has a great hotel)

Bus to Gorno-Altaisk... eight hours to go, 
almost where the van is located.

 I (Laura) am not sure how long it takes in the US to transfer a title, get temp. tags and get car insurance. It took an entire day...9am to 5pm of waiting in lines, running to other offices, coming back to the original line, and being told around 4pm that you would have to return the next day! This is where a huge answer to many prayers took place...Kevin was standing in the hallway talking with others who were 'waiting' when the Asst. Director of the department walked by and heard his comment about the amount of time it was taking. (There was one person doing all the work and at least 50 people waiting) The next thing we knew the A.D. took our paper work and handed it to another women...told us to standby and everything would be ready by 5pm that day! (not the next) We were amazed and very grateful...this was just day one in our journey back home.  End of day three....

Our new van!!  2000 Honda Odyssey 4WD

  We were told by our friend who sold us the van that we would need to replace the springs and tires on the van before heading out on our return trip. (These parts are quite often in need of replacing because the roads are so bad here.) Thus, we began the 'hunt' for Honda parts in a not so large city. After hours of searching, another friend of ours suggested the next city over.....it was larger and would most likely have what we needed. We drove an hour + to the next city, found the parts, found a place to do the repairs....wrong parts! After hours of running and waiting, we returned to our friend's home and decided to try again the following day...this is now day four.
  Day five....returned to the garage with another set of parts...they couldn't begin work until after lunch, so we drove around a little and found a great coffee shop with free WiFi so we checked our emails and let our families know we were OK and alive. Returned to the garage and they began working on the van around 1pm...finishing around 8pm! (They did a great job, just had slow workers with lots of breaks.) We found a hotel down the street, spent the night and started out the next morning for home - finally!!
 Day six....we were finally on the road...the van is amazing and it was awesome to be heading home. The day started out sunny and warm, great for driving...our first stop would be back to Novosibirsk where they have an Ikea store. The prices and choices are great so we 'had' to  stop and find a few things for us and others as well. Although is was now raining and we weren't exactly sure where we were going, we found the store....shopped, had lunch, shopped, had coffee and headed out for what we thought would be a few more hours on the road. We quickly realized there weren't a lot of roadside motels and drove until almost 11pm in the rain..on two lane highways. Kevin decided it was time to stop when he saw four lanes of traffic on a two-lane road and cars passing each other when there was no sane reason to do so! We found a great place to sleep for the night and began the long drive early the next morning.
   Days seven, eight, and nine are all the same....the roads we thought would be some of the best were some of the worst we had ever seen! We would come upon a section of new highway that was awesome, four lanes with lines ...no potholes where you could lose your car...we felt like we were driving in the US...then just as quickly as they began...it would end. Back to two lanes and often they were too bad to drive any faster than 40mph!  There was even a stretch of road where we traveled an amazing 12 miles and it took us 2 hours, we are just glad it was not all that bad. We had been told that we should expect trouble with the police and maybe even bandits on this trip. Our Father is soooooo wonderful...we were only stopped once (it was 1am and they were checking everyone's documents) and NEVER had a problem with folks along the way. In fact, we met great people and were helped whenever we thought we were lost or looking for something specific. It's definitely a trip we'll long remember and one we're not likely to take again.

Road side stop...food and clean toilets..Yay!

Wheat fields for miles.........

Some of the better paved highways!

                                           This became a familiar sign for us to see, it means bumpy road ahead.

The 'not -so-great' part of the roads we traveled.
This was the second worst section, we couldn't take
pictures while driving on the worst road!

This ran through a small town and turned out to be the
main federal highway ...we had thought we were lost!

Typical gas station.

Getting close to home...first site of Lake Baikal,
only 6 hours to go!

Kevin eating shisk-kebob or shashlik (as it's called
in Russian) no matter the language...it's DELICIOUS!

We're back home and busy with getting study groups started and finishing projects before the real cold weather sets in. Kevin celebrated his 49th on August 26th so we decided to take the day, head to the river and eat his favorite food. (Well, almost everything is his favorite, but this is fun to do as well.) We have many more stories to share and will be updating the blog again in a week or so. I must get back to preparing lessons and canning the vegies from the garden!
  Joyfully Serving in Siberia,
         Kevin & Laura