Tuition update

We are so excited for Argin. For many years he has had a dream to study at a tourism collage in Bishkek. Life has thrown so many hurtles at him, but after all these years and detours it all came together yesterday when he was able to go in and pay his tuition and sign his contract.  

The last couple months we have been working at raising the funds needed for everyone to go back to school this fall.  There has been a bit of an awakening at the farm and everyone has started moving from the past and started thinking about their future .  We sit in the cafe and dream with the kids and talk about what their likes and dislikes and what they see for their futures .. It has been really cool seeing them begin to dream .  Next was getting past all the hurtles with getting their documents in order, police checks, military certificates, medical checks, and the list goes on , but we did it ! they are all ready now.    

I am still stressing a little bit about suddenly having all the tuition expenses , as you can see on the thermostat on the side that we are a ways to go with very little time left.  About half of the funds raised so far are monthly commitments  so that puts us in need of about  $3500 right away and another $400 a month . here is a breakdown of those expences and what the various studies will be.

Please if you are thinking you can help with this , NOW is the time.  I don't want to push too hard , but soon we will have to start dropping some of the support,  something I can not bear the thought of after all the work planing and excitement we have seen . 

Back in Kyrgyzstan

Well here we are in Kyrgyzstan for another few months.  We had Bekah send a car for us at the airport .  We got a chuckle out of the sign he had, but there was no doubt it was for us because how many John and Julia Rits can there be out there.  After we booked I found out that Air France had changed its baggage policy and had gone to one bag , fortunately I figured this out while I was still in the window to cancel the flight as it was no longer the cheapest flight if I had to pay extra for bags . Before canceling,  I decided to call the airlines to see if there was anything they could do .  They told me that there was nothing that they could do to let me bring a second bag with out charge and that was reserved right for premium class passengers.  With very little persuasion  they agreed that if they just bumped us to premium at no extra cost  then we could get the extra bag each. DONE, We stayed with Air France, and it was wonderful, especially on the long haul flight.  

 We spent the first day with Bekah then the next day picked up some friends and sponsors and brought vitamins and Banana's to the Baby orphanage before heading to the farm for lunch .  It was great to be back .  

Amazin Grace

The operations have been a success. Our young girl with the burned feet is healing well from the skin grafts.   It has been a long haul for them but they are so fortunate for the support of people like you who have helped with the many operations and days in the hospital.  

Our team was out visiting them today.  They were one of the stops that was from  a day of food deliveries. 

We have guests on the farm right now that are dutch family visiting from Europe. They  had heard about the farm and the  food deliveries that we were doing and wanted to be a part of that.  They told some friends that they were coming to the farm guest house and were able to collect money to do a huge shop and then a couple days of deliveries.  There are a couple hundred people that will be happy fed and clean because of it. 

They filled a truck with things like soap , diapers, pasta, rice, flour, sugar, oil and much more .  Then it was time to relax after a long day . 

Today was an early start to the day with bringing food drops to families in need Like Auxana bellow .  She is standing in-front of the new barn that she has been building  herself.

Along the way they have been finding many needs like a family who's son had broken the light on someones car and now the whole family is in trouble and had no money to fix the damage .. kids ! Our guest was able to help with this .. 

There are just so many needs that we can not fix them all  like this other family that is behind on their water bill and if they do not come up with $40 then they are going to have their water cut off.  We don't have money right now to cover this.  But its funny, Is it just me or do others have a harder time paying bills, and  If I was told that for only $40 I could bring water to this mother and 5 kids I would think that was a great deal ...   so I am open if anyone thinks this is a great deal let me know . 

 

Others you know that they have many needs but they are just so thankfull for what what we are bringing them that they don't share their other needs .. maybe they are just shy .. maybe when we have more teams this fall we will be able to go a little deeper with some of the quieter or shy families and see if their is some way to help them to improve the quality of their lives 



Along with families, there were three orphanages visited today as well .. more then just food, we brought a lot of cleaning and laundry supplies .. Laundry soap is something that most do not think about donating yet it is so important for the kids to have clean cloths and not spread infections through clothing and sheets. Of coarse no visit to an orphanage is complete with out breaking out the bananas .   

even the workers get a banana today at the treatment home 

 Next up was the Tokmok baby orphanage , 

then it was out to Orlofka to the orphanage there 

After a long day of deliveries it was back to the farm where Aiperi had prepared pizza  for them.  

Tomorrow there will be four more deliveries to some more families in need .  

What awesome guests to the farm .  We have been so blessed by them and their desire to help us off the farm with so many of these needs .. very encouraging.   

What about me ?

Summer is a time for camps and picnics .  This week we have been blessed at the farm to be able to host a summer camp / conference for families from Kyrgyzstan who have adopted from Kyrgyzstan . 

Along with a family holiday they will also have workshops and training with things like art and play therapy.  

 With between 20 and 40 extra guests on the farm at any one time,  it has been all hands on deck , all hands but Julie and I that is 😏

They have been doing an amazing job and everyone loves the food. 

 

One of the groups that came to the farm today went fishing first and then brought the fish to the farm for lunch.  what a treat . 

In the picture above I have high lighted one of our boys .  In so many of the pictures he appears there but not necessary engaged.  I wonder what might be going through his head.  As he looks around and sees families brought together by adoption, and people working to find homes for kids and get them out of the orphanages, is he thinking "What about me"  

  Mirlan  has missed out on so much in his life. He was born a few years before the understanding of permanent families for kids was a thing.  He would have done so well If he had of had a family that loved and cared for him.  He came to us beaten and abused, covered with scares and bruises and his feet covered with blisters. 

Mirlan has had child hood cerebral palsy along with great difficulty processing things,  I some times wonder if it was from birth, but how can a person process and make seance of the kind of child hood he had... maybe he just gave up trying to process. 

We are thankful for groups like we hosted this week that are working to make a difference in the lives of orphans.

We are thankful for people that sponsor the farm that make it possible for us to do things like this for them.

We are thankful for people that sponsor the farm so that we can start over with kids like Mirlan and be that family that he would have done so well in. 

Mirlan is not the only one of our kids that would have thrived if he had been adopted to a loving family when he was young.  I hate to have every blog post turn into a request for support, but the needs are just so great with education tuition,  medical needs , dental needs, and events and outings, and that does not even include basic living expenses like food and clothing.   Maybe you are not able to adopt kids into your home, but you can help a kid like Mirlan find a home at the farm .   

Olga is in the US

We were able to pull together the funds at the last minute for Olga to attend the conference in |Orlando.  She will be presenting to an international group of over 2000 delegates today .  We are proud of her and blessed to have her as part of the team . 

We have begun the harvest of the spaghetti squash on the farm.  

Now to try out a few different recipes like this chicken dish Vlad prepared tonight  

Next up will be zucchini   In the picture below Nick is weeding the zucchini patch . 

It is a bit of a balancing act .  we need the weeds out so they do not smother the crops but with extreme heat, it is best to leave some in to help shade the plants and keep them cool .

time to water !

Faith and Vision.  These are two difficult concepts to grasp.  We are told that FAITH comes from that which we hope for but can not see, and VISION is the ability to see before it is a reality.  When you come from a hopeless place in a country that many have little or no hope, where do you even begin .  

Last fall we moved one of the chicken runs, and what was left was a large patch of dry dirt that had not had a single weed or plant grow on it for a couple years .. it was arid, dry and basically a clean slate .     As the boys were helping us to prepare the ground, I tried to explain to them what our "Vision" was for this spot.   It was difficult for them to grasp, but they willingly worked along side me.  I don't think they could grasp the plan, but they did have a bit of faith in me and that faith in me was the seed for them to begin to have some faith in the project .   

We laid out the way we would like the garden to be when finished, but still the ground was bare.  We went out and got a dozen fruit trees .  At that time of year they were nothing more then a bunch of sticks, no leaves and hardly any route, but buy faith we planted them, envisioning an orchard in the future.  This spring those trees started to produce leaves, and were soon covered in blossoms.  But we were not done yet.  Next we brought out a bunch of flower seeds that we had collected from flowers we saw and liked last summer.  We worked the soil under the trees and planted them.  those seeds are  so so so small, and it seems hard to put such a tiny seed into the ground then walk away.. 

There is still much to do as this garden area starts to mature, but already we are seeing this vision start to become a reality.

That blank slate we had with the garden is in many ways like the blank slate that we have had with our kids.  Many have come from place where they had no hope for the future.  They were focusing on surviving that day, the future was not something that they could envision.  

Julie, Vlad and \I have spent a lot of time on the balcony with the kids ... planting seeds ..  exploring what a vision for their futures might look like.   Up until now the work we have been doing has been preparing the soil .. they may not have had a lot of idea what the future would hold, but they have developed a faith in u,s that we are there for them and that their basic needs are being met. 

Now its time to start to dream, time see a vision, time to plant the seeds and begin to water them.  

If you have looked on the top right side of the blog you will see the meter for the scholarship fund.  A "dream meter" might be a better name for it.  We have watched in amazement as the kids have begun to function and develop, and just over the last couple months have started to dream. 

Teacher,  psychologist, car electronics, tourism, I.T, medical collage, art collage and music programming not to mention things like English lessons, German lessons, and getting drivers licences.

Just as we are seeing the gardens start to bloom, the day will come when we are going to see great blossoms from these kids.  It is just for us to have the faith to water. 

For someone to attend school, there is much more then tuition, room and board and transportation.  Remembering the past and where these kids have started, just imagine coming up with.. Birth certificate,  in country passport, registry of residence, military certificate, medical and previous school transcripts.  All this can in some cases be more time consuming and costly then the school itself.  We have several of our friends working on these, many times for days strait, fighting with road block after road block as we fight to rebuild what these kids have lost, or have never had in the first place.  

We are almost done.  we have a couple documents we are now just waiting on to arrive, and then every one is caught up, registered, and ready to start school.     

Although the meter on the side shows about $8500 to go, some of those expenses we can defer a little .. with registration fees and deposits and the first installments, we have about a month left to come up with approx $4500 more.   

This kind of trust is not by any means new to us.  We have to trust for everything that we have, and everything that we do.  If the money does not come in we don't do it.    You would think that I would be used to that by now, but it is something I still struggle with.  I know that some how this need will be met, but at 3:00 in the morning it can be hard to convince myself of that . 

As we are heading down to the wire now, please consider how you can help with this great and worthwhile need.  Help us water the seeds that have been planted.  Help us make it possible for these kids to see their visions come to reality.. and lets watch them blossom.    ITS TIME 

Hot Hot Hot !

The weather has been stupid hot at the farm, but the kids are surviving. 

we have the pool, so that is making things more bearable for them. 

A  few of the team went to the lake with the farm camp kids for a few days .  they all had a great time .  Next week we have 7 more kids going to camp. 

They have been picking cherries out in the flower garden to put into jars 

Now they are starting on the raspberries.  They have made 15 liters of jam in the last couple days.   

The zinnias have started to bloom in flower garden .

 With the extreme heat it has been hard on the plants, but they are holding on.   We have been flooding the fields , but it soon evaporates. 

looks like they will be eating spaghetti squash soon.  

 Our young girl we have been helping in the hospital with the skin grafts is doing well and is out of the hospital and back home now.  When the timing is right, Vlad will go see them and get some pictures. 

Julie and I have our flights booked and will be returning in a few weeks .  Lots to do this fall.  We have 5 groups coming to the farm, so it is going to be a busy fall.