English Club, Supper with the Sudents and lots more
The real exciting news for us is that this morning we had an audio message from our son in Cape Town, South Africa. Last night, they were blessed by the birth of a baby girl, Julie Grace Crawford. We haven't seen any pictures yet, but we are so happy for them. This is their second daughter and a sister for Eve. The birth went well and Mom and baby are doing well!
Life continues to move along and it has been exciting as we have begun some new ministry opportunities this Fall. We have completed our second SEI English class that takes place on Sunday afternoons. We had some new people attending this past Sunday and had some good discussion and observations as we work our way through the Gospel of Mark. We look forward to our Sunday afternoons with this opportunity that God has given to us.
Last night we did something brand new with the Hope For Each students. We are going to be getting together every two weeks on a Monday evening for a devotional time and to share an amazing meal that Shannon has prepared.
Victor is with us to interpret or else the meeting won't work. There is only so much you can do with Google Translate. We had thirteen students come out and it worked our well for the first time. We shared about how life isn't always fair, but that when things go a direction we never wanted, we still need to trust God to walk with us and bring us out the other side.
We took a look at the life of Joseph from Genesis 37 and 39. Joseph was someone who was born in to a great family with parents who loved him. He lost his Mom giving birth to his younger brother and he also has to deal with 10 older brothers who hate him. They talk of killing him and eventually sell him to some traders going to Egypt. Joseph's life changed in a short period of time and he had no control and yet he honored God in serving his new master. Eventually Joseph would be thrown in jail because Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph attempting to attack her sexually. And yet even in jail, Joseph honors God in how he serves his jailer to the best of his abilities.
Joseph was 17 when he was sold as a slave and would not gain his freedom until he was 30. Life isn't fair, but do we allow our circumstances to define who we are or do we trust that God is with us and can use any situation we are in to bring Him glory? Joseph seemed to have an amazing awareness that whatever happened in His life did not take God off guard and therefore he was free within his circumstances to still honor God. Life isn't always fair, but what will be our response?
We had some discussion with the students about what they would like us to share about from the Bible. They want to talk about Jesus, Samson, Jonah, David and Goliath, what is the purpose of life and how can we control our emotions. Some interesting topics for our times together.
After we had our study time, we had a fantastic meal together and it was enjoyed by all. Shannon made a Ukrainian recipe called Plov. It is rice, meat, spices and vegetables that are all cooked together in one large pot. Shannon also made a coleslaw and then had lemon pudding for dessert. There were some very good appetites last night and no one left hungry. Our next meal together will be October 28 and your prayers will be greatly appreciated.
We continue our Russian classes twice a week with Ulzana. Sometimes it seems like there is a bit of daybreak and then other times, it is a thick soupy mess like the fog we have had the past two mornings. We just need to keep pressing on, but there is a long ways to go.
As you have seen over the past couple of blogs, we have continued our yard work and we planted some grass. We planted it right before we got a half inch of rain and we have lots of grass that is shooting up! It is exciting to think of the transformation that the grass will bring.
We also dug up a couple of areas today to plant tulips that we hope to get planted in the next week or so. Spring should be beautiful when these bulbs and others begin to shoot from the ground.
We have been picking some pears, but we seem to have to wait forever for them to be edible. Many of them get a bad spot and then they quickly go bad. Hopefully they will be ready soon as Shannon would love to can some of them as this is one of her favorite fruits.
We have also been picking walnuts. It is pretty neat watching them during the summer as there is lots of soft green balls on the trees and yet inside, a hard walnut is forming. When the green shell starts to break down, they open up and the walnuts fall to the ground. Now we only have to shell about four gallons of walnuts.
Today we put up a new clothesline as the old one was temporary (since Spring) and was over where we have seeded new grass. We hung up a line on our new gas line posts to the house and now Shannon has room for about four loads of wash if needed. The other one could only handle two effectively. She was hoping to wash yesterday, but the fog didn't leave until mid-afternoon and today it was foggy until close to 10 am, but then we tried it out and Shannon is very pleased.
Life continues to move along and it has been exciting as we have begun some new ministry opportunities this Fall. We have completed our second SEI English class that takes place on Sunday afternoons. We had some new people attending this past Sunday and had some good discussion and observations as we work our way through the Gospel of Mark. We look forward to our Sunday afternoons with this opportunity that God has given to us.
Last night we did something brand new with the Hope For Each students. We are going to be getting together every two weeks on a Monday evening for a devotional time and to share an amazing meal that Shannon has prepared.
Victor is with us to interpret or else the meeting won't work. There is only so much you can do with Google Translate. We had thirteen students come out and it worked our well for the first time. We shared about how life isn't always fair, but that when things go a direction we never wanted, we still need to trust God to walk with us and bring us out the other side.
We took a look at the life of Joseph from Genesis 37 and 39. Joseph was someone who was born in to a great family with parents who loved him. He lost his Mom giving birth to his younger brother and he also has to deal with 10 older brothers who hate him. They talk of killing him and eventually sell him to some traders going to Egypt. Joseph's life changed in a short period of time and he had no control and yet he honored God in serving his new master. Eventually Joseph would be thrown in jail because Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph attempting to attack her sexually. And yet even in jail, Joseph honors God in how he serves his jailer to the best of his abilities.
Joseph was 17 when he was sold as a slave and would not gain his freedom until he was 30. Life isn't fair, but do we allow our circumstances to define who we are or do we trust that God is with us and can use any situation we are in to bring Him glory? Joseph seemed to have an amazing awareness that whatever happened in His life did not take God off guard and therefore he was free within his circumstances to still honor God. Life isn't always fair, but what will be our response?
We had some discussion with the students about what they would like us to share about from the Bible. They want to talk about Jesus, Samson, Jonah, David and Goliath, what is the purpose of life and how can we control our emotions. Some interesting topics for our times together.
After we had our study time, we had a fantastic meal together and it was enjoyed by all. Shannon made a Ukrainian recipe called Plov. It is rice, meat, spices and vegetables that are all cooked together in one large pot. Shannon also made a coleslaw and then had lemon pudding for dessert. There were some very good appetites last night and no one left hungry. Our next meal together will be October 28 and your prayers will be greatly appreciated.
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| Waiting for supper |
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| Feasting on Plov and coleslaw |
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| Some of the guys |
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| Shannon with Matthew (Kolya and Oksana's son) |
We continue our Russian classes twice a week with Ulzana. Sometimes it seems like there is a bit of daybreak and then other times, it is a thick soupy mess like the fog we have had the past two mornings. We just need to keep pressing on, but there is a long ways to go.
As you have seen over the past couple of blogs, we have continued our yard work and we planted some grass. We planted it right before we got a half inch of rain and we have lots of grass that is shooting up! It is exciting to think of the transformation that the grass will bring.
We also dug up a couple of areas today to plant tulips that we hope to get planted in the next week or so. Spring should be beautiful when these bulbs and others begin to shoot from the ground.
We have been picking some pears, but we seem to have to wait forever for them to be edible. Many of them get a bad spot and then they quickly go bad. Hopefully they will be ready soon as Shannon would love to can some of them as this is one of her favorite fruits.
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| Lots of pears |
We have also been picking walnuts. It is pretty neat watching them during the summer as there is lots of soft green balls on the trees and yet inside, a hard walnut is forming. When the green shell starts to break down, they open up and the walnuts fall to the ground. Now we only have to shell about four gallons of walnuts.
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| Lots of walnuts |
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| A walnut coming out of its shell |
Today we put up a new clothesline as the old one was temporary (since Spring) and was over where we have seeded new grass. We hung up a line on our new gas line posts to the house and now Shannon has room for about four loads of wash if needed. The other one could only handle two effectively. She was hoping to wash yesterday, but the fog didn't leave until mid-afternoon and today it was foggy until close to 10 am, but then we tried it out and Shannon is very pleased.
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| Hanging clothes on her new line |
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| A photo opportunity |
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