Card Shower for a Dear Friend

 I wanted to share something special that I would like to ask you to do for a dear friend named, Sheila Campbell. Sheila has been a missionary alongside her hubby, Steve, in the Philippines since February 2000. They have three children. They returned to the States to check into some health problems Sheila had been experiencing. They soon found out that Sheila had Stage 4 Lymphoma. Most recently, Sheila has been told that she will need to have a  bone marrow transplant.
Her friends have sent messages on Facebook to begin a card shower for Sheila as a surprise. She really needs our encouragement right now. Even if you don't know Sheila personally, you can still understand the encouragement cards or notes would be from people all around the world letting you know that they are praying for YOU in a time of need. Please share this with your churches, youth groups, ladies' groups, or Sunday school classes so that they too can participate as mentioned below.

Following is the note from the friend who started this card shower.

With the bone marrow transplant that she's going to need (which is 60 days straight, including holidays and weekends), she will have lots of expenses such as gas, food, room and board, extra medical bills, etc. We are encouraging people to send a card and include a gas card, gift card, or check if possible. If not, at least a card of encouragement.

Her address: 

Sheila Campbell

c/o Baptist International Missions, Inc.
P.O. Box 9215
Chattanooga, TN 37412

Please also help me spread this news to other churches or friends that you know would participate.
For your convenience, I've made a flyer that is hosted privately online and can be printed out here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9500526/Church/card-shower.pdf

_______________________________________________________________

You can print this flyer and use it to show to people at your church.

Please take a little time to do this yourself and even share with someone. Sheila and Steve both are special friends to my husband and I and we want to be an encouragement to them in any way we can right now.

Fall = Harvest

Well, Fall has come to us here in Siberia. Actually, it is almost over...but I am still going to tell you about it. So, since I have a garden, Fall means HARVEST TIME! Yes, a.k.a. a whole lot of work! Seeing as Fall around here doesn't last very long, there is a lot to get done in a short period of time. The past two years, including this one, we have actually had just the right temperatures for the leaves to have time to change before they fall to the ground and the snow begins to blow. I love Autumn and have really enjoyed the beautifully colored landscapes. So much that I wanted to share them with you, before we get back to the work of bringing in the harvest. Enjoy the view!

Those white things to the left are potato bags left over from the day's work of harvesting.

Okay, so now that we have enjoyed the weather a bit on our walk through the village, let's get back to the subject at hand- harvest! It goes something like this...

First we get my husband to dig up all the potatoes, sorting them as we go between seed and larger potatoes to eat as we need them. We also pile up all the plants to burn later.

Ryan helping to pile up the old plants.

Then we take all the potatoes up to our house to dry out a bit before bagging them and storing for the winter.

Beka sorting the potatoes further after they have had a few days to dry.

Bags of potatoes ready for storage.

Inside most Russian homes there are sometimes several "podvalls" or underground storage areas in which people keep their potatoes and other vegetables for winter storage. Our house has two of these. This one pictured below is in a smaller room attached to our house; the other one is in our living room floor. So, before we put our potatoes down in this storage area, we must be sure it is clean, dry, and ready for this year's crop of potatoes.

Rebekah and Ryan down inside the "podvall".

We also bring up our other vegetables before the first freeze of the year.

Having a little fun while gathering corn. 

A beautiful harvest of sweet corn - even in Siberia!

Someone once said,"Plant zucchini only if you have lots of friends."

I agree! This is not even close to half of this year's squash and zucchini crop.

Whew! We are glad to have this year's gardening season over and the fruits of our labor stored away for the winter.  It always feels like such an accomplishment when the last bag of potatoes are safe and sound in the "podvall".  Next post I promise to give you a great recipe that we enjoy, using our fresh supply of potatoes.