Dan and I have had a busy week! I'll work backwards, though - this weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate with our friend Sveta, a long-time associate of the student group here and member of Living Word church. She has been translating Dan for a long time and is the best! She married a Swedish pastor, Andreas. Andreas and Sveta met when his church began a partnership with Living Word church and he brought a group of youth here to Ekaterinburg. Russian (Protestant) weddings are always quite an affair - with lots of food and lots of music, skits, toasts, games, etc. We were at the ceremony on Saturday for a few hours and the reception yesterday (Sunday) for another 7 hours. Many of Andreas's family members had come from Sweden for the celebration so everything took place in two languages and had the flavor of both cultures in it. It was quite an experience! Here are some pictures from the celebration:
Sveta & Andreas at the front of the church during the ceremony:
The mini-reception downstairs immediately after the ceremony:
Kostya & Luda Taranov (good friends of ours), Anna (a former CCX student), me & Dan (very hot!!) at the reception on Sunday night:
More friends enjoying the reception, though not the heat, at the restaurant "Venice" last night:
Sveta & Andreas at the front of the church during the ceremony:
On Friday we had the opporunity to speak together at the young persons' meeting at Living Word church. "Young persons" or "youth" in Russian can mean anything from young teenagers to older singles in their 20's or 30's. This group is mostly college students and recent graduates. Dan and I both spoke on 2 Corinthians 5 (one of my favorite books and chapters of Scripture). We had asked for a translator because otherwise it takes us much, much longer to prepare for a talk since we're both out of practice in Russian. But the translator was late so Dan had to do the first 5-10 minutes in Russian. He did fine and in the end I think we both almost wished we'd simply done it in Russian. The translator is still learning his craft and it made it more stilted than I think it would have been if people had simply put up with our grammer mistakes. Oh well! It still went well and we were glad for the opporunity to do a joint speaking engagement.
Today we're off to spend some quality time with Kostya and Luda Taranov (in the photo above with us). Kostya is the owner of a Christian bookstore run out of Living Word church and one of the lay leaders of the congregation. He is also helping to get a potential church plant in the south of the city off the ground - working with the missionary that Dan mentioned planning to meet with. The leaders of Living Word church are looking at Kostya as a potential pastoral candidate down the road. We have a good connection with Kostya and Luda and enjoying the opportunities we have to invest in them and spend time with friends.
Enough for now! More pictures - of our apartment and the city - to come soon. Many blessings,
Lucy (& Dan)
Today we're off to spend some quality time with Kostya and Luda Taranov (in the photo above with us). Kostya is the owner of a Christian bookstore run out of Living Word church and one of the lay leaders of the congregation. He is also helping to get a potential church plant in the south of the city off the ground - working with the missionary that Dan mentioned planning to meet with. The leaders of Living Word church are looking at Kostya as a potential pastoral candidate down the road. We have a good connection with Kostya and Luda and enjoying the opportunities we have to invest in them and spend time with friends.
Enough for now! More pictures - of our apartment and the city - to come soon. Many blessings,
Lucy (& Dan)
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