"Friends, Countrymen, Russians" (what movie?)

We have been in Southern Russia now for over a week, and have yet to get a blog up, so here we go! Our time here has been a whirlwind so far, from the landing in Moscow to our adventure getting here, to our fun times in and around the town working with our friends here. Here is a quick look back at the last week and a half:

We spent the whole day flying to Moscow from Kathmandu and then lugged all of our bags on the Moscow Metro that same night, by ourselves! It was crazy and I actually fell getting off the escalator once with one of the big bags. I was not a happy camper. We stayed overnight in Moscow with some American friends and then, by the grace of God, we decided to stay at their apartment the next morning and relax instead of going out to sightsee before catching our afternoon flight down to Southern Russia. This was the same morning that the Metro was bombed and there is a good possibility we would have been close to the site of the bombing had we gone sightseeing to Red Square. (This is me on the Metro right after falling on the escalator, but I actually don't look that bad....still not a fan of that bag!)

We made it to the Northern Caucus region, safely and immediately got to hang out with the locals and our friends that are living here. From the airport we drove to a House Youth Group that meets weekly. It was great to meet some teenagers and college age students who are seeking the Lord, many the first ones in their family. We quickly learned that the Caucasus is a predominantly Muslim region, and since we have had several conversations with Muslims who are investigating the claims of Jesus.

Throughout the rest of the week we enjoyed getting to know the town and seeing the life our friends James and Jane Hutchy live here. We joined their English Club . . .

. . . played lots of games with 300 Chechen children . . .

.... spent Easter at a small Russian House Church, and then Easter dinner at an American family’s house complete with ham, mashed potatoes, and green beans! Justin and some guys got to take on some of the Chechen children in a game of soccer (Can you find him? He looks like a local wherever we go!)......

......while I hung out with some of the local girls that Jane has formed relationships with. Last weekend, Justin spent a day in the mountains with some of the American guys here while I got to play with our friends two adorable children......

....and then had a girls’ night once they went to bed.

I must say though that one of my favorite things so far about being here instead of Kathmandu is that we can go running! There is a huge park and the air is clean! This morning we even went with a local, Russian girl that we met at English Club, Vilka. She showed us around the city, running here and there, attempting to teach us what was what in her limited English and our non-existent Russian. It was so fun!

We are currently spending the afternoon and evening babysitting. What? Yep, babysitting! We are mustering up some courage and watching our friends James and Jane’s two children so they can have a day off. Even though they are both under the age of 2, it’s not too hard, because they are the cutest things on the planet.

We’ll see, however, if this pushes us closer to or further away from having babies ourselvesJ.