Advent fun

In Russia the communists largely replaced Christmas as a celebration with New Year.

So Christmas is not the commercialized affair it has become in many countries.

Advent is something few outside of the church have any understanding of.

We decided to organize some Advent events aimed at helping kids (and their parents) understand the Christmas story whilst having fun.  

There were lots of activities

Face painting was particularly popular

Then it was story time...

Time to make an angel to take home

After all that work - snack time!

Wedding

It is hard to generalise about weddings. I can't say that this wedding is a "typical Russian wedding", most weddings here, take place in a registery office and followed by a boozy reception.
I can only claim to show you the wedding I went to recently, and point out a few things that are characteristic for most christian weddings I have been to here.

The bride and groom. Dressed like pretty much anywhere!

Everything starts with prayer.

The pastor preaches - he went long.

The couple make their vows and pray for each other.

Then the pastor gives the blessing and declares them man and wife.

This wedding was unusual in my experience, because everything took place in the same room.

After the wedding ceremony came the feast.

As well as congratulatory songs, usually there are some fun competitions 

often at the expense of the newly weds.

Because every woman wants to marry a knight in shining armour!

Maths Games

Luda has collected and created a host of games that teach and train mathematics, we test them on our own kids.

On Saturday we were invited by our friends in nearby Divnogorsk, to run a session of Maths games. 

It was a way to help parentss both inside and outside of the church.

The Church building in Divnogorsk

inside 

You can just about see the view of the surrounding mountains

First the kids played

Then we drank tea!

Our team of helpers!