Cccccold outside!

ICICLE HANGING OUTSIDE OUR BACK DOOR

We are still snowed in! Amazingly, it all melted away and then returned, just as fierce. Praise the Lord, during that two-day "warm spell" we were able to stock up on groceries. We live down a dirt road, about 1/4 of a mile from the asphalt road that runs through our village. Our car got stuck in the snow about halfway between our house and the asphalt road. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see how David and Igor (the young man who does construction work at our house), were trying to push/lift/carry (everything they could!) the car. I watched from the window as they walked back and forth with buckets of rocks, piled them in front of the tires, and tried to get the car a little further down the road. But, to no avail.
The next day, Pastor Bob and Bro. Tony Hess came to our rescue. David rounded up a couple of village men and they shoveled snow off of the road. Through a combined effort, they were able to get the car out to the asphalt road, where it sits now.

These days, our most reliable source of transportation is the rickety old bus (and you have never seen anything so old!) that makes its rounds past our village three times a day to pick up passengers. We can not understand how they keep the old thing running, but we are grateful. Because of the bus's weight, it is able to do what our newer car cannot do... get up and down the icy hills. So, we are not completely stranded. David took this bus into town today to take care of some work and get us some more groceries. He also bought rope to tie on our tires tomorrow, which will, Lord-willing, get us out to the highway (more than a mile from our house) so we can drive on to church! Our family of five will be treking the 1/4 of a mile through the snow to get to the car, then we will be praying for daddy as he drives us the rest of the way in.

Not long ago a new transformer was put into our village, which has helped stabilize the electricity for everyone out here. So, our electricity has been more dependent these days, which has been a major blessing! So, it is cold outside, but we are cozy warm on the inside!