Chocolate...Good Chocolate

There is a chocolate here that is good for you...good for kids. Do you think chocolate can really be "good" for you? This chocolate is often bought for kids because it is made from whole milk. The brand is called Kinder. Our friend, Gelya, brought one of these eggs over for Adalynn when Adalynn was sick a few weeks ago. Adalynn LOVED it! This particular kind is in the shape of an egg...

Then you open it, and there are two halves...

One is a toy...

and the other half is chocolate...yummy, delicious chocolate! There are two little balls of milk chocolate in the middle with a flaky, crunchy outside. The two balls of chocolate are surrounded by white chocolate and milk chocolate.

Here is the toy that came with one of the eggs. It is a top!

If you look closely you can see Adalynn really enjoyed her Kinder Joy egg. Notice the chocolate smeared on her upper lip...(please excuse the flat hair, static is terrible here during the winter, so poor Adalynn walks around with a bad hair day most days!)

Philip is obviously enjoying the toy...

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Sunday School

On Sunday evening we had our large group gathering for Grace of Christ Church. We had a good turn out! We had over 25 people there including children. Philip led the Bible study portion and I taught the little people of the group!

In Sunday school, we had a new little girl who was 9. Her name was Susha. We enjoyed having another child attend! The kids learned about Jesus' miracle of the disciples catching all the fish after a night of no success! During the story, the kids got in "boat" (chairs all gathered together!) with fishing poles. Of course I know they used nets in the real story, but homemade fishing poles is what we ended up with! The kids had a blast! We did a craft, played a fishing game, had snack, and played a hide and seek fishing game. Tanya interpreted for me, but let me tell you, the flow of a story is sure different when you speak another language! I usually find that the flow of things isn't ideal, and I often leave wondering if I made the right points to the kids, if they heard the story, and what could I do different next time to make it better!

Our field director's daughter told her mom that night, "Mom, I really like when Kara tells me stories!" And then to her grandparents the next day, "We learned about fish and trash!" ---Well, I am not sure where the trash came from, but at least the 3 year old learned something! The hearts of little children are precious! I so enjoy being able to share with these kids (girls) all about Jesus!

Thanks for continuing to pray for this church! Please pray for our leadership team (9 of us) as we meet every other week as well. Pray for unity as a team as we meeting, pray, and discuss the growth of this new church!

Blessings,

Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Craft time!

"Gone Fishing!"

Brrrr!!!

It is 10 degrees F today. We woke up a bit chilly even though our heat is up to its highest and no wool blankets are covering the radiators! Our windows are old, so there is a pretty cold draft that you can feel. Philip tried taping them up before we left in November, but it isn't doing the trick. We'll survive. I am pretty sure my parents' house in Ohio is colder than our apartment...and it is not because they don't have heat!

The other day Adalynn and I went across the way and picked up some milk. We saw a cat sitting by the door. Of course Adalynn wanted to say hello. She just stood there and said hi, and immediately the cat came over and started rubbing her leg. She thought this was pretty funny! It was really windy that day. As you can see, Adalynn is shielding her face from the wind. She kept saying, "It's so windy!"

We have been super blessed by you as supporters! We have had many new faith promises made over the past year, as well as, most if not all, expired faith promises, get renewed! Thank you for your giving! If your faith promise is looking to expire in the next month please pray about continuing this partnership. We want you to continue to partner with us. Your investment in our lives is life changing. If you are wondering when your faith promise expires/ed please don't hesitate to drop us an email! pkgormong@gmail.com

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Life this Week

Did you think for a minute that you had a hard time brushing the snow off of your car this morning?! There was a sign up the other day saying they would be removing the snow from the parking areas (the road) around our gated apartments. I suppose people are suppose to move their cars for the day or the time. We do not have a car, thank goodness, so we did not have to worry about it. As you can see, I suppose they just shovel around your car if it is not moved! They actually bring in a big truck and remove the snow and then there are often a few men or women who are shoveling snow after the truck here and there along the road.

It has been snowing every day this past week. Not blizzard like snowfall, but enough to have mounds of snow piled up here and there!

Gwen started off sitting straight up in the sled...

...then she started to slide...

...and slouch...

Philip is gone this evening at the English club that he has helped out with in the past. Anja, the girl who actually teaches the class, asked if I wanted to have coffee this weekend! I am so excited about this opportunity! I have been praying about meaningful relationships for 2012 here in Russia...with Russians. I met Anja right before we left to go back to the States before Thanksgiving. She is extremely nice, knows English, and even has a little girl between the age of Adalynn and Gwen! Please pray with me this weekend as we meet. Pray that she can see that I have been with Jesus. Pray that she is drawn to the Lord and that the Holy Spirit would begin to work in her own heart and life. Pray for courage for me as I speak in Russian, talk about life, and just be myself in a country that is not yet my own.

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen
(who by the way is sleeping THROUGH the night...7pm-7am!!!)

God is Good

I wanted to take a minute and share with you all how the Lord answered one of our prayers since being here. We arrived in Russia 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday. Before we left the States, Adalynn starting running a low grade fever. The morning we left for the airport, she had a temperature. We decided to go ahead and go and pray for the best. Of course she did fine on the flight and we thought we were in the clear. The next couple of days were pretty rough. Adalynn threw up (probably mainly from exhaustion and not eating good food for a day), and still ran this low grade fever.
I think it was Sunday morning when Adalynn starting saying that her bottom hurt. After about 2 times of going to the bathroom (#1), she started to cry whenever she went. She kept saying, "It hurts! My bottom hurts!" Of course we tried to coach her through going, but she still cried and cried. We got slightly concerned and started talking to people via facebook (friends and family who are in the medical profession). I thought maybe it could be a urinary track infection from her symptoms. All of the people I talked to via facebook also thought this was true. Concern did set in then. We had only been in country for 3 days and now we were having a medical need for our child. Now, before we even came to Russia for the first time, I remember someone asking me what would be the hardest thing about living in Russia. I remember saying it would be anything with the girls. Medical problems or something along those lines because I would have no idea what to do and how to go about it. Of course we have our field directions and other missionaries here to help, but it is not like in the States. That was my big concern.
Well, here that concern was at our doorstep, our field directors had not returned from vacation yet, we were all jet lagged, missing home, and tired. The enemy was trying to defeat us. We started to pray. We asked some close friends and family to pray for Adalynn. Our missionary friends here called a doctor to come to our house on Monday to look at Adalynn. We knew there was possibilities of blood tests, urine tests, and other things that might happen to Adalynn. Adalynn does NOT like any of these things including doctors. As a parent your heart just aches for your child when they have to go through something they are scared of or dislike. I was dreading the doctor's appointment and the tests that were going to have to take place.
Sunday night we pumped Adalynn with cranberry juice, prayed, tried to get her to go to the bathroom (which she refused and just cried), and prayed some more. Philip and I went to bed discouraged, concerned, and a little overwhelmed. I went to feed Gwen late that night and I remember tears streaming down my face as I cried out to the Lord, asking Him to be with us and to give us a sense of His peace and presence.
Monday morning Adalynn still didn't want to go to the bathroom. She knew it was going to hurt, so she just held it. It was sometime around 11am when Adalynn all of the sudden decided she had enough and had to go to the bathroom. She sat down and went...without crying! She even looked surprised that it didn't hurt! We were surprised too! Every time after that time when she has gone she hasn't cried!
The doctor came later that morning and looked Adalynn over and said she thought Adalynn looked fine. The doctor put her on some herbal supplements just in case and then left. (We had our missionary friend there to help interpret)

(There are drops that Adalynn takes 3 times a day and then she has to soak in a tea bath for 4 days)

We also decided to go ahead and take a urine sample the next morning just to check for bacteria. It came back from the family medical clinic's lab with little concern. We are pretty sure Adalynn had some sort of UTI, and we believe with all our hearts that the Lord heard our cries and healed our little girl.
We told Adalynn that we need to thank the Lord for healing her bottom because He is the one that made it all better.
Now before every meal when Adalynn prayers she says, "Dear Jesus thank you for my bottom!"
...and we say, "Praise be to God!"


Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Snow

The other night we were headed to the Ministry Center and then to the Whitney's for dinner. We took the girls in the sled and set out around 5:00pm...did you know it is already getting dark? (side note: In the morning the sun doesn't come up until 9:30-10am!) There is a school next to the bus stop close to our house. As we were heading to the bus stop, we encountered a group of students from the school...on cross country skies! They were having lessons for school. Talk about a fun physical education class, right?! Sorry the picture is blurry, but I was trying to discreetly take the picture, while holding Adalynn, while having the camera in night vision setting (if I had the other camera it would have been better, but I don't think I could have taken a picture very discreetly!)
We got off at the second bus stop and found that the Christmas/New Year lights were still up! (picture above) Adalynn loved the lights and kept saying, "It's like at Grandpa and Grandma's house!"

Below is a picture of Gwen in the stroller our field directors let us borrow. This is a little more of a winter stroller than ours. The wheels are a little better at plowing through the snow, though it is still hard if the snow is too deep.

She looks warm and cozy, right?

Adalynn's friend Sophia has returned!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Snow

Looks like someone is actually enjoying the snow!

This morning we took a walk to the place where we can put money on our phones. Phones here are like the pay and go phones in America. We just put 100rubles ($3) on our phone and we are set to go for about a week, sometimes more if one of us gets chatty talking on the phone. Anyway, my phone had no money, so I could not send or receive any calls or messages. We bundled the girls up, retrieved the sled out of the closet, and away we went!

On our way home, we stopped by the playground and Adalynn actually got out of the sled and walked in the snow! I think she liked that the snow was just fluffy and crunchy as apposed to slippery and wet like the other day. Adalynn played on the swing, went down the slide, and threw snow up in the air...and in her face...accidentally of course!

Our family is feeling back to normal. Everyone is better and nights are getting better...Gwen is still not quite adjusted, but Adalynn is going to bed at 7:30pm and sleeping until 8:30am without waking up!

Thanks for you prayers! We hope to begin language lessons again in a week! We better get reviewing!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen