Sunday we got everyone loaded into the van and were off to church. It was a day that they did communion. It is done very differently here than at Grace Place. They do a prayer over the bread, which is three round, flat loaves. Three men break up the bread onto plates, then they bring them into the audience and pass it around. Then they do a prayer over three cups of wine and the men bring the cups into the audience and we all share sipping out of the cups.
Pastor Richard was talking to us while we were in Israel and mentioned the significance of numbers; 3 being one of them. I was wondering during the communion if they had three plates and cups for a specific reason.
Since we do not understand anything that is being said during the service Bill and I are starting with Matthew and SOAPing during service. We decided that is a good way for us to get a lesson for the day.
After Church we went to the grocery store (Oskars). While we were shopping all the lights in the building went out so we just left our cart in the middle of an isle (that is what they do and someone will come by later and put it all away). We went to another grocery store which is a little bit more expensive but Bill and I were in heaven. There were items that we recognized and items that we were not able to get at Oskars. It is a very good experience for the boys to go shopping so they see where to buy certain items and see how much money it takes to buy the them.
We came home and had dinner, then we were off to a surprise birthday party at Alex and Vera's home. The party was for a man that was one of the first boys to live at the Joshua House when the house was not completely built. We forget how many boys were here at the time, but while the house was being finished they lived in a tiny mother-in-law quarters behind the house. There were three men at the party that were among the first boys here, and it was so nice to see how well adjusted they were. They're married, and one couple now has a baby.
Yesterday (Monday) schools were back in session. That means that Bill has to get up early and get the boys to the bus stop. By the time I woke up he had been up for three hours. With the boys being gone the house is much quieter. Bill and I went to Oskars and had breakfast and then ran some errands. We like to investigate and figure out where stores are that we might need to go to.
At three we held our first English lesson. Only the boys were here. It went slow and all we got through was the alphabet. After one hour everyones brain was full. I did take a picture, but now we realize that the card from my camera does not fit Bill's computer, so from now on we need to take pictures with the iPhone or iPad. So for today we are going to put some pictures of the boys playing with the photo booth app on the iPad.
Wednesday (Today)
While the boys were at school we had American Andrey take us to the bazaar to try and find some ingredient for Bill's birthday dinner tomorrow. It was so, so, so cold we all started wondering why we were out walking around. But we did find many things. We even found some regular lettuce. Yipee! We get to have a lettuce salad instead of cabbage.
Today we held two English classes; one for the beginners (the girls and Dima) and one for intermediate (Alona and Alosha). Everyone did very well. Alona is good at reading the words but she does not always understand what the word is. Alosha has the same problem but he is more inhibited to say the English words. I think this might work out.
Tonight we take the boys to a youth prayer meeting. They will be there for two hours learning about the Bible and God. Actually there is only one night during the week that they are not doing some sort of Christian learning.
It is 5:00 p.m. and we finally got all the electronics working (iPad, iPhone and Computer) this is going to make it much easier for communicating because now we can use our translators. It helps with English also.
We hope everyone back home is doing well. We're praying for all of you every day!
God Bless,
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