Family Day

I knew that our church children's choir would be singing at the park. Although, I really only learned the details of that the night before. And I really had no idea what kind of huge outreach to the whole community they were taking part in!

We sent Raia off with bus money to get to the park early, and then the rest of us went a little later. The whole big park was filled with stations run by different churches, each one offering something fun and interesting for families to do together. They were games, many different crafts, face painting, Ukrainian flag manicures (both our girls wanted that, but neither could sit still long enough with all the excitement), puppet shows, choirs singing, trampolines, and so much more. And everywhere people were smiling, laughing, and talking about Jesus.

At one point Jaan asked me if people who have died and not gone to heaven can see what is happening on earth. I said that I don't know, but I think not. "Well, it's a pity that Lenin can't see what all these Christians he hated so much are doing in his park now!" (The park is named after Lenin.)

Want to see some of the fun? Take a look:

I'll post a video of the children's choir tomorrow, if I can.

Photos from last weekend

Asya showed up in one of the first photos my friend shared, and then here's a whole album.

Also, I remembered something cute from the missionary day: at the Georgia station they showed the kids the Georgian alphabet. Take a look at it. To me it looks like lots of loops and squiggles. They asked the kids if it looked familiar, and one little boy raised his hand... to say that it looks just like the English alphabet to him.

Anyway, here's one photo I grabbed from the collections I linked to above. Click on the links for more.

This weekend Will is at a conference in Kyiv. We had a big fun day yesterday (with me at the orphanage, children playing with friends back at the same Christian institute). Soon we're headed out to a park where Raia will be singing with the church children's choir....

Weekend

Thank you to everyone who was praying especially for Ukraine during the May holidays. The country seems to have survived. The problems continue, but May 9, while strange and subdued, wasn't violent. (Except in Mariupol, and that wasn't really related to the holiday or in fulfillment of any of the predictions.) We stayed home and remembered some of the other times that we've been able to celebrate Victory Day in Ukraine and Russia, like the time Jaan got to ride on a BTR and last year. And more than anything we talked about the history of the day and our own (great) grandfather and prayed for peace.

Then, the next day we had a great time at a children's missionary day, put on by the local Christian institute. I don't have any photos yet, since we didn't take our camera, but we might get some from other people later. We went all over the campus from station to station, each one representing a different country, with food for the children to try and games and activities and info about that country. It was really well done. Funny: as we were leaving, our children said that they wished we could live there, at the institute. I told them that we do... on paper. That's actually where our residency is registered.

We went straight from there to the evening of English fellowship at our friends' home. That was wonderful as usual. Afterwards, I didn't feel great and all were exhausted (too much fun!), so today we stayed home from church for a nice quiet day. Tomorrow our landlady arrives from Italy; everyone is preparing for that a little, too.

Random photo:

Please still keep praying for Ukraine. There is another "referendum" going on today in two of the eastern regions, and no one really knows what that means, or what is coming next.

P.S.

This is something I want to remember later, but forgot to include yesterday:
We were pretty sick during Holy Week. It hit me the night before Easter, and it hit hard. Usually I would prepare food and decorate before a holiday, but I just crashed. Will had just gotten back from Uzhgorod, but he took over, set up the fancy table, and prepared a pot roast for after church. It was such a treat for me to get up the next morning and have everything ready. And we were all well enough to go to church, even if we weren't all the way back to normal yet.

Christ is Risen!

(Fun coincidence: I'm a bit behind on the Daily Audio Bible that I listen to, and so the Easter reading from that is playing while I upload these photos.)

Lots of photos from Easter Sunday:

Listening to the resurrection story

Breakfast cake

"Christ is Risen!"

"He is risen, indeed!"

Joy!

Yummy breakfast

The girls had to go to church early.

They were up front when we arrived.

Ready to sing

Whole family

Just the children

Painting eggs later

Working hard

The artist

The patriot

I haven't had much time to write lately, particularly because while the neighborhood craft class that Raia is in is taking a break for a month, her friends are congregating at our home almost every day after school. It's fun, but BUSY around here. We have 1-3 extra little girls around almost all the time. One went to church with us this morning, too. Please pray for us as we spend time with them, and pray that all would be well with our neighbors; some of rather upset because these girls have darker skin. (Racism is a big problem here. )

ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕС! CHRIST IS RISEN!

Following Jesus

I mentioned the children's Passion Week event we went to. It was called "In Jesus' Steps," and they took the children through reenactments of the last week of Christ's life on earth. It started off with a short puppet show, and then they divided out into groups and started walking. I went with the (cute!) preschool group, so that's what most of the photos are from:

During the puppet show

Waiting for...

The Triumphal Entry!

Last Supper

In the garden of Gethsemane

Golgotha

The empty tomb!

Craft time

Stringing beads

Each child was given a special treat.

So you can see our other children... and their friend

We all really enjoyed it. It made the events of the week really come alive for our children, and they're still talking about what they saw and did.

After the busyness

I think the busyness is slowing down now. Will is coming home today. We had thought that he wouldn't make it back until late tomorrow, but he was able to change his ticket, and so we'll have Easter together.

I thought I'd share some of our week in list format, and then (hopefully) I can post photos and videos later:

• Last Saturday: morning - children's Passion Week event at church, Will left for Uzhgorod; afternoon - our girls had choir practice; evening - fellowship time with another family (and we stayed out too late!).
• Sunday: morning - church; afternoon - "Inter-confessional Procession" through the center of the city. Apparently this is a yearly event, in honor of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. This year it was really a big deal and took on an extra meaning of unity and peace for the whole country of Ukraine, too. Here is a news article about it and a shorter video by someone we know; in this very long video, you can see us walk by around the 7 minute mark and then jump to 33 minutes. Since I didn't have our camera with me, I took one photo from someone's Facebook page:

• Monday: Before Will left there was a flurry of reports for sponsors that urgently needed to be translated. He got through most of them, but had to leave some for me. So, we skipped school while I worked hard on that. Jaan had a rehearsal for his upcoming concert that afternoon.
• Tuesday: Jaan had a dress rehearsal for the concert, which meant finding a new-to-us location, buying a new shirt and more, but he did well with all of it. That night Bogdan hardly slept at all. Ugh. I need my sleep.
• Wednesday: the concert! Jaan did wonderfully. (Video later.) Bogdan did not. It was a very long concert, and he behaved fine, but he felt awful. His staying up all night the night before must have been a sign that he was getting sick, because by the time the concert started he was feverish and miserable.
• Thursday: recovery from the concert. And in the evening we made unleavened bread and talked about the Last Supper.
• Friday: Jaan was sick now, too, but we had a nice day. In the evening we read the second to last part of Lenten Lights, and went to bed in the dark. Our light switches are still "sealed," just like Jesus' tomb. Bogdan is actually talking about Jesus this year; I love it.
• Saturday: choir practice for the girls, rest for the boys, and Papa is coming home!

Like I said, I'll add pictures and video from some of these events in separate posts later. Then I'll fill in links to those here.

After the rain

We're really busy here, but doing very well. I'll write once we get through the busyness.

Will is in Uzhgorod for another session of the Agape school.

General little update

I haven't had time or desire to write lately. But, we're doing well, and spring is here. We have tons of photos of ducklings and flowers, so I can choose a few of the best of those to share. And what else...?

We had a nice, plain, quiet spring break last week. I actually wasn't planning on it, but everyone was so convinced that it was spring break (because the schools were out) that I just couldn't go against them. And, as Raia said, I needed it, too.

I guess that I didn't write about our ducklings here? Almost two weeks ago I bought three little friends for the duck that we found earlier. We're really enjoying them! If I had known that ducks are so fun, I would have gotten some earlier. Although, that probably wouldn't have been a good idea in apartments.

We had a little duck adventure yesterday. Bogdan and Asya were outside yelling like crazy. I told Will that it sounded like the end of the world, but I didn't go to check, because I've been trying to teach them to come to me, instead of yelling. He went and started calling me, too. The big duck was out of her pen, and happily waddling around in the yard. An anonymous person had left left all the gates open, letting the duck out and the dog in, both at the same time. I just talked to the duck like I do when I feed her, and she turned around and followed me right back into her home. Yes, I am the Duck Whisperer. And we need to clip her wings.

Bogdan has been quite sick, but he's getting better now. I know a lot of you have been praying. Thank you. We actually took him to a doctor at the neighborhood clinic. That's the first time we've ever taken one of our children to the doctor for sickness. (Of course, we did way back when Raia broke her arm, and I suffered through all kinds of "well baby" stuff, but doctors for sickness? Not until now.) We were very impressed, too. We walked in, told them that we're not registered here, but that our little guy is sick, and they instantly took us to the head doctor. No waiting, no questions, no payments. The doctor was very kind and very thorough and willing to keep us out of the hospital. (Rare!) And now Bogdan is feeling better. Most of the rest of us have mild colds still, too.

Any other Terry Pratchett fans reading this?

Please excuse her spelling

And that reminds me: One of the political-military analysts that I read has lowered his prediction of the likelihood of further invasion from 80% to 50%. I don't know if he's right, but that sounds good to me. Everything seems calm right now.