Enjoying Life!

Hello to you all! It's been awhile... we've been busy! But, it's time for us to update you on what's been happening around here. Life has been good here in Kharkov-- God is so good to us!
It's hard to believe the holidays are already upon us. We went out a couple weekends ago and shopped for a Christmas tree and decorations... it turned out great! I'll have to post a final picture of the tree later, but here's a few pictures of the process. As you can see, our nephew Canaan helped us out. My parents sent us a few decorations from the states as well with the Jarboes, so that helped make things more festive around our place.
Last Saturday we had a bunch of people into our home for Borsch soup. It's a very common Russian soup that's delicious (main ingredients are cabbage and beets -- see picture below). A good friend of ours, Valeri, came over and cooked everything for us! Valeri is a chef (see picture to the left), so it was the best borsh we've had yet! Here are a few pictures of that day. That same weekend, our team was blessed to have a visit from Eileen Ench, a missionary in Rostov, Russia. We were able to visit with her about her work and just encourage one another. She even taught us a few children's songs in Russian, so we look forward to implementing those into our Bible Classes on Sunday morning! Further down are a few more pictures of our guest that day. We had the whole team over, plus Andre (in the picture with Eileen and Dougle) and Luba (in the picture with Eileen). Our house was packed, but we had a wonderful time together. :)
We are also excited to announce that we've found a permanent apartment! It's a very nice place, nicer than we were anticipating, in fact. We signed the agreement and will move in on December 29th. We're so thankful for many of you and the prayers you offered up for all of our apartment searches. Our whole team has now found apartments and are within about 10 min walking distance of one another, plus we're in the center of the city. God truly blessed us with exactly what we were hoping for! Please be praying for us and for our new landlords.
We're leaving today, Thursday, and going on holiday to South Africa! We were gifted this trip back at our graduation and are finally able to go on it. We'll be visiting a friend, Lindsay White, who is working down there with the Adventures in Missions program. While we're there, we'll be doing many touristy/holiday stuff, but we'll also be spending time with the local congregations in Port Elizabeth. David will be speaking at 3 different congregations while we're there. We're excited about going and spending Christmas there. We will return to Kharkov on December 27th.
We hope all of you are doing well. We appreciate all the comments, encouragement, love, and support you send our way. God bless!