Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Grace and Peace to you all. May we rejoice in the birthday of our Lord and the new year He has given us.

Some of you may remember that there was strife among the adults here in Kyrgzstan. As I sought God about this situation, what I got was He leads me in the path of righteousness and He sent me here for the children and I should stay on that path and not look to the right or the left and not get distracted. I let everyone here know that I was here for the children and even though I loved all of the adults, too I was not going to be involved in their strife, nor take sides. If they could accept me on that basis I would love to be here. Everybody seems to be OK with it and it is working out OK. Sometimes, it feels a little uncomfortable, but I try to just keep looking straight ahead.

I also, realized they are not the only ministry that has some strife and probably not even the only one I partner with. Philippians 1:6 says Jesus is going to work on all of us until the day of his return.Well, I intended to have sent this much sooner but shortly after I sent the last one my computer quit working and I just got it back on Christmas day. Good present for me.

As I told you in my last letter my heat came on here November 15 but even after it came on it took a few days for my apartment to heat up so I spent almost all of my time in my room with the room heater. About the same time I had a really severe cough and was very weak. I needed to go to the doctor to be weighted for insurance anyway and while I was there the doctor got upset and put me on 7 days home bound. They told me I had pneumonia. It is certainly different here from the places I have lived recently. The doctors came to my place, at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM every day for a week. Hard to believe people still make house calls. Got to love this country!

It seems that all of my doctors, at least, are female but they are very nice ladies and very kind and we could communicate, some. My landlady is my next door neighbor and I guess she knows me from church and she is amazed at my weight loss. She wants to start doing exercises with me 3 days a week. I think it is great fun that I may be starting an international Granny sportsman club. By the way, she does not speak any English but we communicate pretty well. I guess my Russian is getting better.

Three other ladies from church came over to visit and bring gifts of food. They brought many apples and jams. Apples, good. Jams, good but not a good idea for weight loss. Kyrgyz people eat a lot of jam. They have it with the tea, which is as much a part of the culture here as it is in England. They don't put their jam on bread they just eat it by the spoonful while they drink their tea. I am a freak because I don't drink tea, only water. So, besides my landlady and the ladies from church bringing me food, my friend Natalya was by every few days to bring groceries, take me to the doctors, etc. I think I have had more company in that two weeks than I have had in years.

The worse part of the health issue is I wasn't able to see the kids for two weeks. I am surely glad that is over. I am spending Monday through Thursday morning there and Thursday after lunch to Monday morning at my place. If it works for them and it is great for me. It gives me lots of time with the kids but I still have a place of my own. I have a little problem with insomnia and they don't have electricity from midnight to 6:00 AM. When I wake up that was a little problem until I bought myself an emergency light, that I can use during those times.

Right now I am teaching them Jesus Loves in English, as well as other things. There are 5 in my class that are 10 and 11 and there are other older kids that want to have classes, too. When I get back from Russia I am going to see if that can be worked out. They are really hungry to learn.

Of course, I spend time with the kids individually when I am there. There is one little boy, Kola, who is 6 and is learning English pretty fast. Not a giant vocabulary but what he knows, he knows well!

You should have seen my Thanksgiving. Being a good American I brought canned pumpkin and cranberry jelly. Of course, there was no turkey, (I didn't have an oven in my stove, anyway) so I had boiled chicken (with cranberry jelly!) and mashed potatoes. Since there is no oven I couldn't make pumpkin pie or bread so I made pumpkin pancakes. Put a little ice cream on them and they are really yummy and I at least had a touch of home. I actually bought myself a stove since then. Maybe I shouldn't have, it kind of put a kink in my budget but they are less than $300 here and it will work out.

Well, got to go. I love you all and thanks for your prayers and support. You are a real blessing to me and the kids.

In Him,

Judy