Catching Up

We've been so busy around here- so please forgive me for not updating :) ! Exciting stuff has been happening, and we're so glad to be a part of it! In my last post I wrote about our last English Cafe...what I didn't mention is that 2 people, that are part of EC have recently come to know the Lord! Through EC they were able to develop a relationship w/ a believer who attends- she's been sharing her faith with them- and now the rest is eternal history :) Yeah~!!!! Is that exciting or what?! It's so neat to see God using this ministry to establish relationships and draw others to Himself!

Outside of EC- we've been busy... The 12th I invited 6 girls- most of them I know from EC- to our home to make decorate Valentine's Day cookies and make cards. It was a crazy hectic day b/c JB was gone most all day and evening teaching, so I had both boys and was trying to clean, bake cookies and get everything ready. Wow... I was exhausted before they ever got here :) But we had a great time and we all got to know each other better. We never got around to making cards b/c there were so many cookies, but it was fun anyway.

Wednesday Carolina and I packed up some card making/scrapbooking stuff and went to the Pedagogical College and showed their students how to make valentines- then we let them loose! They had a great time. None of them have ever done anything like that, so it was very interesting for them. I took along dozens of cookies that we had decorated and we talked about the sayings that were written on them (Be Mine, XOXO, Tru Luv, 4 Ever, etc...).

Thursday was the first meeting of our Action Group- basically it's a small group of believers committed to sharing their faith and reaching out to others. We meet weekly and have a very short bible study, spend extended time praying for our friends together, then we plan monthly outreaches/events that we can bring our friends to where the Gospel will be clearly presented. It was such a great meeting- everyone is excited to see God already moving through relationships we have- and everyone is excited about the upcoming events we are planning- the next one is for Women's Day (March 8th). Carolina hosted a very successful event for this holiday last year- there was tea and special music, etc- so we're planning something similar for this year. It's so great to spend time with our Russian friends and hear how God is really using them to reach their friends- all I can say is that it is exciting! Really exciting.

Saturday morning we had a team meeting, then that evening we had dinner at Jason and Carolina's place w/ the director of the foreign languages dept (her name is Marina) from the Ped College and her husband and daughter. It was a great evening to get to know her better and to meet her family. It still blows my mind to know how very little teachers get paid here- she teaches in a college (which here, is more the eqivilent education of a technical school- ) and though her husband also works- they can barely afford to rent a room in a shared apartment! She, with her husband and 5 yr old daughter have one room of their own. The bathroom and kitchen are shared among the people that live in the 4 other rooms. Can you even imagine?!

Yesterday afternoon Carolina and I headed to the mall (while the men stayed home with the sleeping kids :) ) and I picked up JB's birthday gift- and a matching hat/scarf for me! I've been looking at it forever and never bought it b/c they were 44$ each! They aren't anything facncy... something you could find at Target for 10/15$ each! But...the store was having a 70% off sale...so I got them both for a total of 25$! Fun for me! I love finding sales and you rarely see a good sale here! So, just imagine my excitement!

(Sorry... I've been trying to upload all the pics that go along w/ this post...but blogger is not cooperating- so look for them coming very soon!)