Russian Tongue Twisters

Kara's Russian...in tongue twister form!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Cultural Encounters Update

I have been trying to "do" my cultural encounters that I mentioned a few weeks ago. These are goals that Philip and I have made with the help of our field directors to intentionally make connections with people. One of my goals was to go to the market each week and buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the same vender. Last week I went and spoke in Russian while I bought my produce. This week I went back again. The lady recognized me and greeted me happily. She asked me how I was doing and I did the same. I told her that the tomatoes I bought from her were really good. I did pretty good asking for which foods I wanted to buy... (They bag all the fruit and I just tell her how much I want of each)...until the end when I decided to add that I wanted some bananas. She said something to me really fast and I thought she asked if I wanted just one banana. I said, no two. What she really asked me if I wanted 1 bundle of bananas. I said no, I want two...bundles. oops. I guess I will be making banana bread, banana muffins, and banana pancakes (which I just found a great recipe!) for the next few weeks!

Another one of my goals was to go to the local coffee shop and talk with a girl that I had met earlier this winter when we were here before. The girl's name is Allsue (well, that is how you pronounce it, I have no clue at the moment how it is spelled in Russian) and she works at the coffee shop. I was talking with her last year about me working at a coffee shop, Starbucks. Of course she knew what Startbucks was (who wouldn't!) and was interested. I decided to try to build a bridge with that by continuing to go in and talk with her, the best I can, while she is working. Last Friday, we all went in and I introduced her to Gwen, my new daughter I said. I said this all in Russian...then she said something to me in Russian. I got nervous, you know like you are all the sudden hot and sweat starts to gather at the back of your neck kind of nervous. There were a lot of people at the counter and I couldn't translate what she said fast enough in my mind. So, I stumbled over a few words and then said goodbye. Wheww...how is that for making a good impression!

(Here is Gwen enjoying her first time at the Coffee Shop)

At the moment Philip is working out at a local gym. This is one of his cultural encounter goals...to make contacts and build relationships with people at the gym!

Thanks for your prayers as we push forward in our ministries here!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Hot Pipes

We have this odd shaped pipe in our bathroom. You may look at it and think it is a piece of art, a number 9, or that is just looks funny. It actually comes in quite handy! Hot water runs through these pipes causing them to be hot. We hang our towels on them and when you get out of the shower, you have a warm towel! They also serve as a place to hang laundry if you want something to dry a little faster!

We usually keep our towels on them. Lately though it has been colder outside making it colder inside. Therefore our laundry takes a little longer to dry, so I have been using the pipe more for hanging laundry. Sometimes our hot water is shut off for some random reason. (We are on city water unlike in our other apartment where we had a hot water heater in our bathroom.) We can always tell the hot water is out when you touch these pipes and they are cold instead of hot. Just thought this was something interesting that you might enjoy knowing!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Behind Closed Doors

You'll never guess what was going on behind this door the other night during bath time. I had just finished giving Gwen a bath, and it was Adalynn's turn in the big red tub. (We are like the pioneer people, the poor girls use the same water...though I splurge and add more warm water to Adalynn's bath since she is second!) It was a warm"er" day, so our windows had been open and you will never guess what got in...a big, fat fly. Yuck. It happened to fly into the bathroom (tub room) while I was in the midst of washing Adalynn. Somehow we managed to all get in the bathroom with the fly, not on purpose. I was holding Gwen, Adalynn was in the bathtub, and Philip was jumping around trying to swat the fly with a newspaper. Now, this bathroom is a small bathroom...I mean pretty small for all 4 of us, a shower, sink, closet, washing machine, and a big, fat fly. It wasn't working well with all of us in there while Philip was trying to kill the fly. Gwen and I quickly escaped, leaving Adalynn wondering what Philip was doing jumping around. Only a few minutes passed before I heard the victory cry from the bathroom. Obviously the fly had lost.

See, it is not boring around the Gormong apartment! On a side note, Philip was asked to teach a class at the Bible School this fall! He will be teaching a week intensive on Paul's Epistles. He has some preparing to do, but I think he is pretty excited. What a great opportunity! Please be praying for him as he begins to prepare. He will have a translator, but it will still be different teaching in this setting.

Thanks again for always checking up on us! We appreciate your interest, prayers, love, and encouragement!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Furniture!

Saturday we finally got our couch, which means we can actually start playing/sitting in the living room instead of hanging out in the kitchen all the time! The truck was suppose to come on Friday afternoon, but they called (a friend of ours who helped me buy the couch) and said the truck was too full and would not make it to Vladimir that day. So, we waited until Saturday afternoon. The rain stopped just long enough for them to bring the couch to the apartment. We had to pay for delivery. You also have to pay (well, included in the delivery) per floor...we live on the 4th floor so we had to pay X amount of rubles times 4! I kind of thought that was funny. Good thing we don't live on the 10th floor!

Just wanted to show you a few pictures of our new couch, decorated living room, and sweet little girls!

Thanks for your prayers last week as we had a busy week! Philip led the Bible study time at church last night and it went well. There were only 4 kids last night at church for my lesson (2 which were mine!), but it was still fun! We are looking forward to a less busy week!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Lessons

Today we had our first real Russian lesson. It actually went really well! We have a new teacher. She speaks English and is actually an English teacher for children! We are her first students she is teaching Russian instead of English! Philip and I both meet with her for an hour. We did various things today in our lesson. We did some reading, speaking, exercises with grammar, and some dictations. We both feel like it was a good review, and we like how things are structured. Thank you for praying for us! Keep at it because it is going to get harder!

This afternoon the sun peaked out for the first time in a few days. We decided to take the girls out and go to the Central Outdoor Market. I have decided to make it one of my cultural encounter goals to go to the market each week and buy produce from a certain person each time...hopefully building a relationship. We packed up both girls in the strollers and headed out. Of course it looked like rain once we stepped out the door, but it held off for us! The market is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. On the way there are also people selling produce along the sidewalks. Once inside the market area, we walked around to check things out and then I decided to go the first vendor.
I am assuming they were husband and wife selling their produce. They were really nice. I told them (in Russian) that I only spoke a little Russian and that I wanted to buy good produce. I asked what was good produce. She said the pears were good, so I bought some. I also bought some apples, a tomato, and some peaches. The husband asked if Philip was my husband and where we used to live. I told him we lived in America. He also like the two girls...but of course who wouldn't!? It was good trip and I plan to go back next week to the same people. Keep praying for me as I think of more ways to have conversation with them as I buy their produce.

On a random side note, our water got turned off today...well our area of the city I suppose. They must have been working on something. It was random and when it came on it looked like this:
Lovely, right? We had to run our water to get all the dirty water out...of course it was right at dinner time, but luckily I had just enough clean water in the fridge to make our dinner!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

p.s. Gwen has been sleeping better! She still has trouble in the early evenings, but has been only waking up once in the night...HUGE blessing and answer to prayers, so THANK YOU for how you have been praying for us!

And So It Begins...

We have had a busy week here...and another yet to come! Last week our Area Director and his wife (Gwen!) and our General Director from Global Partners came and spent 2 days in Vladimir. They mostly attended meetings, more meetings, and more meetings! It was a whirlwind of a trip for them, but it was good that they came. It was our first time meeting our Area Director, Dennis and his wife, Gwen! We made sure Gwen and baby Gwen had their picture taken together!

We had a good team meeting with the directors! Philip attended the big General Conference held here in Vladimir while our General Director was here. It was a good experience for him.

Saturday was City Day here in Vladimir. They have a parade, folk dancing, fireworks, great food, and lots of other great stuff...that we didn't get to enjoy because of the rain! Instead we had pizza with our field directors and a family from the church planting team. It was a fun night!

On Sunday evening we had our church planting leadership meeting to pray, discuss upcoming events, and talk more about developing our small groups.

Today, I went to Globus with Kerry and did some grocery shopping.

Tomorrow...WE BEGIN LANGUAGE CLASSES! We are meeting with a private tutor who will be coming to our house. She will be doing a tutoring session with each of us twice a week for an hour each. We will also be having a conversational language lesson separately some other time during the week. Not going to lie, I am a bit nervous, but excited to get back into learning. Say a pray for us if you think about it tomorrow!

As we learn more about the culture, Philip and I have both written out intentional culture engagement goals with the help of our field directors. This is a way for us to be accountable to be making intentional steps toward developing relationships. For example, one of my goals is this:

1. I will go outside on the playground with the girl(s) 3 times a week during times when others are outside.
   

• I will pray before I go out each time and ask the Lord to open doors of conversation and give me opportunities to talk with the same person or specific children
• I will ask questions about her/his family and tell about myself in Russian

• I will invite her to tea after 4 times of interaction to talk about Russian culture, family, and children

Other examples would be going to the central outdoor market and buying from the same person every week, (Philip) going to the gym and working out while making intentional steps toward building relationships with others, meeting our neighbors...These are just beginning steps we are taking toward relationship building. Say a pray for us as we prayerfully go out each week. This is hard stuff. It is uncomfortable, out of our comfort zones, but this is how relationships are built. Years (yes years) ago when we first started this process of getting to Russia, someone started praying for the people we would come in contact with while we were here. The person prayed that even then, years ago, that those Russians' hearts would start to be softened toward the Lord. It is exciting to think who those people could be. I know that the Lord has a purpose for us at this time to be here in Russia!

Gwen in a car seat on the way home from our friends' house on Sunday night!

Nina, Sophia, and Adalynn sharing hats!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen