Saturday the 20th

Had kind of a crazy day. I got up and did all my chores. Went down to church at about nine thirty and finished setting up for kids club. We had a good time with the kids who stayed till about twelve thirty. I did the games and a very long review game, as usual, and Dad taught a lesson about the Tower of Babel. We rushed home afterward, and got changed to go to the city. Our family walked down to the center of the village and caught a bus to the county seat then took a taxi to Cherenots. Dad got to get in a good witness to the taxi driver, who was an Orthodox, more or less, like most Orthodox in this country they almost never go to their "church." Ya, I do not remember if I said but our van has been down since last Sunday. It has a problem with the radiator for the transmission. Not a big problem, but no one in this country is going to work until after Chirstmas [January seventh] so we can not get it fixed at the moment. Anyway, we went to the city today to go to a big Amway meeting, which a new guy in our church invited us to. It was all in Russian but Dad got to speak about the Lord for about 12 minutes to over one hundred and fifty people. Praise the Lord!! We did some Christmas shopping after and took a taxi home. Dad got to witness to the driver again and he really recieved it. Praise the Lord for a good day.

Tuesday Through Friday

Nothing much, did school every day. I got a little sick this week but it is nothing. Idid not run much after Tuesday but had a nice ride on Wednesday. Other than the fact that it was raining and the wind was blowing really strong. I did some wraping and planning for Christmas too. Also we spent the nights of Monday, Tuesday, and a little Wednesday decorating the tree. It has over one thousand lights on it!!! Sweet!!!

Monday the 15th

We did some sceintific experiments today and we found out what most of you all ready know, that I am a Vegetable!!! Ya, who would have thought. It is amazing what happens to even the best of us!!! We also put tree in the living room. After we shaved it to a ''very small'' twelve feet across and ten feet tall!!!! We trimmed it after we got it in the house and it looks really nice now. Not like the usual Charlie Browns that we get.

Sunday the 14th

We had good services today. I brought Samuel to church for the first time today. He is a really good friend of mine. Actually he is a puppet, but do not tell him that I told you that; he would be very upset!! The kids in my mom's Sunday school class could not figure out how he talked!!! Well he was a big hit. I am going to bring him next week. Believe

Saturday the 13th

We went to the woods to pick out our Christmas tree today after we did kids club. Kids club went well, a good amount of kids came out and there was a good spirit. We braved the cold and looked for a Christmas tree for about two hours finally finding one that we really liked. It was about thirty five feet tall though!! No problem, we sent Dad up to cut the top off and I pulled it to the ground. We [with much difficulty] pulled it through the forest to our car and with much effort got it on to the roof. After we got home we measured it, a meer fourteen feet four inches!! Small right?? Well it looked great so I guess that is what counts. Rock on!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!!!! Have a great day, have fun, serve God, and remember who we are celebrating!!!! The King is born. I will "go back in time" and fill you in on the 13th through the 24th later. This pic is from last year; I do not have any from this year yet.

Friday the 12th

Tonight Mom was not feeling good so I made the pizza. Well, sort of, we got the crusts already made I just did the rest. I can make the crust, but I did not tonight. And guess what??? No one died after eating it!!!! No really, I am not a bad cook. I had a good tome doing intervals in the afternoon before pizza. The wind was super strong!! To give you a gross statistic, I spit at a right angle to the wind and my spit went eleven feet before it hit the ground!! At least the wind was at a right angle to me while I ran so it did not affect me that much. While I was running my reps an older man came by "trying' to ride a bike, but the wind was so strong that he kept losing his balance and almost falling!!! Well, he started to just walk and when I ran past him [while he was still riding] he started yelling at me and calling me a stupid idiot because I did not have enough clothes on!!! I had on my running tights, shorts, long sleeved T, short sleeved T, and earmuffs, but I guess that was not enough for him. He then went on to say how dumb it was to be running anyway, this is a guy that I have never met before!!! Anyway, I am used to it as it happens all of the time from all different people. Oh yeah, this picture is from last year. We do not have snow yet.

Week in UA

OK, well I had a good Monday through Friday. Monday I did school and finally got to run. I have been off my usual schedule for training and it feels great to be back on it!!!! Tuesday was just a normal day with school and running. Thursday my Dad, brother and I went to the city to visit with a new convert named Arkady. We had a great time and were able to talk about the Lord for a while. We also met his wife for the first time. She is really nice and needs prayer to be saved. Oh, did I mention that she is from Turkmenistan(spelling)???? Ya, pretty cool huh?? Her brother [Kaka, not the famous footbal player] is staying with them at the moment and he made us his "famous" recipe of plove. It's rice with vegetables, mushrooms, meat and a lot of spices. Sometimes it has beans too, but not normaly. Anyway, it tasted really good and we had a good time. By the way, this man came to church last Sunday, but he only knows Russian so he did not get a lot out of it. Please pray for him. Got to go.

Praise Him

Praise the Lord for being so good!!!!!!!! We had a great Sunday serving the Lord. I can't write a lot right now, but will fill you all in later.