Becks in Siberia: Христос воскрес! Воистину воскрес!

Yes, this past Sunday was Easter Sunday in Russia. The reason that it is on a different date is because in some countries where the predominant religion is Orthodox Christian they base their Easter date on the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar, so the dates for Easter are different most of the time.

We had a very nice Easter with our group here in Berdsk. After our meetings, which we are still holding in our apartment, we had Easter treats. Many of our members brought some type of goodie to eat after, plus boiled eggs. A Russian tradition is for two people to each take a boiled egg and say the Easter greeting three times trading their eggs and then hit them together to see which one breaks. The one whose egg doesn't break is the winner. Everyone had an enjoyable time and it was fun to experience that Russian tradition.

The Easter greeting in all of Russia is for one person to say:
"Христос воскрес!" Pronounced: khris-tOs vas-krYEs
Meaning: (Christ has risen!)

Followed by a reply from another person with:
"Воистину воскрес!" Pronounced: va-Ist-in-oo vas-krYEs
Meaning: (Truly he has risen!)

We loved it when we first heard about this traditional saying and it was even better to experience it!

We had another week full of meetings with investigators and friends in our apartment. The special family that we have met came over again; and we had several friends that we have met while here come and visit us. Our neighbor, in the apartment next to ours, even took us for a drive around Berdsk in his car and gave us a tour.

People here are so nice to us. It seems that when anyone comes to visit, they bring food. It appears to be a Russian custom to do so. We are definitely enjoying the hospitality of our dear Russian friends.

We had an opportunity to go to the home of one of the church members here in Berdsk and begin a service project. We hope to help her build a fence and do a few other fix-ups over the next few weeks. She is so sweet to us and is always bringing food or making a meal for us.

We are still working on getting a place to hold our meetings. There seems to be a lot of red tape and we have had several highs and lows regarding this issue. We are sure it will all work out soon. In the meantime, we are enjoying holding the meetings in the living room of our apartment.

On a happy/sad note, one of our dear friends here in Berdsk is leaving us in a couple of weeks. The happy part is, she is going to America for the summer to work. The sad part is, she will be gone until after we return home. She has been very, very helpful to us while we have been here. She is the young lady that we met on one of our first train rides after we arrived. She has been our contact to arrange our English class experiences, which we have enjoyed very much.