New Year's Eve Service

The ladies preparing the food and the table inside

While the men cook the shashlik. Mmmmm.

Playing and watching a Christian movie that Great-Grampy and Grammy sent.

As you can see, Anna was completely distracted. 

She doesn't watch movies that often.

Couldn't get a good picture with Sammy...and that's not a kiss. 

He was eating my cheek!  Guess he was wanting his cereal.

Max did a very good job preaching.  His dad was there and heard him.

At first his dad gave him a hard time for using notes...he needed to do it from memory.

But when no one was looking, I saw him place his hand on Max's head and tell him good job.

Who knows, maybe Max will be the one God uses to lead Dema to salvation?

Eric closing the service with a message and prayer.

It was a fun night.  We arrived at around 2 and left around 9.

My Word for 2011

I originally had no plans of doing this.  It just came about as I looked at other blogs, prayed and read God's Word.  I started thinking, what area of my life would I like God to help me strengthen the most this year?  In years past, I've studied the tongue and the heart.  Even though I could probably still profit from doing that study again, I felt like there was something more I needed to learn this year. 

My first thought was: organization ("Let all things be done decently and in order." I Corinthians 14:40).  But no, I don't want to get so caught up in doing things that I forget people.

Prayerfulness...I definitely want to spend more time in prayer this year, but that still didn't seem to be the right word.

I almost settled on the word Priorities...putting God first, my husband, my family then other ministries and household duties.  The word almost fit...but not quite.

What one word contained all of those things and more?  Is there a single word that would describe how I'd like to grow this upcoming year?  What do I want my year to be about?

  Relationships

I don't want to just pray to God or read about Him, but I want to develop a deeper and closer relationship with Him.

I don't want to just serve my husband, taking care of his every physical need, making sure his house is clean and he has a good meal...I want to take time to listen to his dreams, heartaches and be his best friend.

I don't want to just make sure my kids are clean, behaving, eating good meals and getting some type of education...I want to spend time with them, hold them when they cry, paint some masterpieces, have a few tea parties - win their hearts.

I don't want to just live in Ukraine, cook meals for church, pass out some tracts, learn Russian...I want to show them that I care about them personally, that my doors are always open for a cup of tea and that I love them.

Relationship...you may be thinking "Well, that's not a very hard goal."  But for me, it is.  As I've mentioned before, I'm a Martha type.  I get so busy doing that I forget relationships.  And since I tend to be a quiet type as well, it's much easier for me to just stay busy serving, especially if I might have to try talking to someone new in my poor Russian.

So I ask that you will pray for me, that God will help me keep my eyes focused on what is truly important this year.

Anna

This is what our house sounds like first thing in the morning...

thought I'd give my sister a warning. ;) 

She said she was singing thank you to God. 

I think it had something to do with her heart being dirty and Jesus cleaning it.

In her defense, she can sing quite a few songs fully through. 

She just likes to make up her own songs too...

with her own made up words.

Her attitude seems to have changed a lot since she prayed.  She is no longer concerned about herself needing Jesus, but has started asking me whether or not I have prayed for Jesus to clean my sins or if Lina has.  She also asked Grampy if he knew about Jesus.  She has started asking to pray for Nikita and Alosha to be saved.  I pray that she continues to have a desire to see others come to know the Lord as their Saviour too.



New Office for Eric!

It's finished! 

Eric finished it today and as soon as the kids were in bed, he started moving all of his office stuff out of the entryway and up into the attic where Mom Curtis says we'll be storing him. hehe.

I am so excited for him! 

He's been waiting for this to be finished all year. 

What Has God Been Teaching You?

Brother Winstead never ends a conversation without asking you that question (or telling you that he's praying for you to have twins, hehe).  Well, this week I'd definitely have to say that God is teaching me the following...



Though that one wasn't my fault, I've had my share of accidents this week as well.  So much has broken this week that when I was cleaning the mirror today Anna said, 'Don't broke the mirror, Mama.'  And when I accidentally dropped the glass pepper grinder she came running out and asked, 'It break, Mama?'  And no, neither of those broke...in fact, I don't think I've broken anything today yet!  Better get to bed quick! 

Finally...A SNOW MAN!

As I write, our snowman is now only a little, muddy lump on the ground.  But the girls were SO excited to be able to finally make one!  The snow here is very dry and usually doesn't stick together very well, but before it all melted away, it was moist enough to stick together...parts of him kept falling off, but the girls had fun 'patting him back together'. 

Soon after coming inside, I put them to work emptying the washer.  They decided to make a snowman with the wet laundry.  My camera batteries were dying, but I managed a couple of pictures. 

Everything here has been so gray and dreary out, but one morning I woke up to this...

It was even more beautiful in person with so much color!  It might have come out even better if the window and screen weren't between us, but I wasn't about to venture out in the cold first thing in the morning!  With sunrises like this, I can't help but wonder how anyone could not believe in God!

34 Days Until...

My Sister Comes! 

She called us two days ago and said "I'll be there on January 26th." 

Anna cried every time it was time to go to bed because

she thought Auntie Bree was coming 'today'. 

So, we did this so we can be counting the days.

None of us can wait for her to get here!

God has really blessed me with lots of surprises this Christmas!