A little update .

Time again for an update.  

Julie and I had a wonderful blessed trip around southern Ontario and the eastern states, We had the opportunity to share 7 different occasions, 12 different states, and dozens of visits with friends and supporters.  We were so blessed and encouraged along the way.  We have 3 more speaking engagements then we are on our way back to KG in just three short weeks.   

One of our bigger needs right now is a family that we have been asked to help with.  Mother and father, three kids and one more on the way are in hospital right now after the burning of their home.  We have provided some finances right away for food and diapers, but we know that they will need so much more.  We are hoping that others will come on board as well to help.  It is too soon to tell what is going to bee the best approach here. We will start by getting them out of the hospital. 

Here is a happy girl! she was one of the kids that had her eyes checked by one of our teams in the fall .  now she has new glasses .  Misha is back to the farm for the winter, and that's when we found that he had a mouth full of cavities, so we have started getting his pain taken care of as well. 

This is a nice photo of Aigoola with some of the girls on the farm .

When Bekah was home for Christmas, Julie and Emma did a little shopping for this little cutey. 

We had a donation for the Children's treatment center.  They got new knives for the kitchen,  some photo albums for the kids and some medical supplies.   

If you look up at the top right of the blog you will see that we are coming along with the truck fund.  We have just $500 to go here on our goal, and our Hunter truck is almost finished and ready to go up for sale.  The old truck we have decided to bless someone with .. it would be worth more to him then what we could sell it for, so we are happy that it will go to good use ..

New shower at the mens home

 They have been working hard at the mens home. The first of 5 showers have been completed.   The shower has not functional at all, but now has new water pipes, new electrical,new heating , along with a new hot water. and the walls have been tiled.  This will be the shower for aprox. 50 men .  The total cost of the shower room was $500.  If you would like to help us do more of these shower rooms, we still have 4 more sections that could use your help. 

First week on the road

We have been having an incredible trip through the US.  we broke free of the snow by the third day of travel.   Great turn out at AP church in Cincinnati.   

It was great to see Vladic there . He is attending school in Cincinnati this year, 

We have been traveling only a short ways between stops, I think the average is

 2 1/2 hours , then we stop and meet up with friends and sponsors 

 We feel so blessed and are reminded how big a roll all of you play in what is going on in Kyrgyzstan.  It has been extra special for us to meat up with so many of the kids from Kyrgyzstan like Charlie above .. we had the honor of being his first baby sitter more then 10 years ago.

In Alabama we got to meet up with more friends.  I think the last time we saw them was about 6 years ago at a Cracker Barrel as well. the picture below is the last visit. 

We are settled at Destin Florida.  We have spoken Saturday night and Sunday morning , and will be concluding the message on Tuesday night at New life Church in Miramar beach .  

 Along the way we have been blessed to see that the fundraising thermometer for the truck is climbing .  We are up to $6000 and just a thousand to go.   As soon as we get the old truck and hunter sold we will be ready to buy the new truck. 

Vlad is renting a truck again this week , it may be his last time 😁. He will be doing a delivery of food to three orphanages as well and some more wood deliveries, and some supplies to the farm.   I will have some pictures soon . 

On the road again

 This morning we were in Patrolia to bring some updates about the work in Kyrgyzstan as well as share the video Lisa Rodgers made about Short term missions .  

 We shared about the need for a new truck, and we were blessed by a special offering taken up to help with this .. As soon as we know the totals, I will up date the blog and let you know where we are with the progress. 


Pictures came in today from the party at the mens home .  What a great time was had 

 As well they have started the renovations on the new shower rooms. There are 5 total , but we will start with one.  it will have all new plumbing heating water heater and electrical , then new tiles 

 

We are on our way south now,  We will be visiting friends and sponsors  along the way. Here are a few locations were we will be sharing,  we would love to see you if you are in the area  

Wed 23... 7:00  Ambassadors Point Cincinnati 
                                      8290 Batavia Rd. Cincinnati,
Sat 26....7:00     New life Church 
                                      178 N. Geronimo St., Miramar Beach, FL

We will be holding up in Florida for 5 days and looking forward to attending New life on Sun morning at 10:30, then back again Tuesday night at 7:00  

Wed Feb 6... 6:00    New Bethesda Baptist Church                                              (supper and service)
                                  9019 NEW BETHESDA RD. MECHANICSVILLE, VA 23116

Sun Feb 10....11:00    Scipio Community Church 
                      3434 State Route 34 Scipio Center, NY, 13147

Despite the cold !

Despite the cold, work on the farm continues. the green house has rotating crops so that something is always being harvested, something is always being weeded and watered, and something is always being planted.   It is so awesome that we are able to produce such high quality crops year round.  

This section is being prepared for a new planting of lettuce and spinach 

The plants above are what we are harvesting right now, and the ones bellow will be ready to harvest in another few weeks. 

We were blessed today when Sergey sent some clothes and baby supplies out to the farm for Alina and Nurperi.   The calf is doing well, and now its time for him to start sharing his milk with the farm.  By milking her at the same time, we will be able to increase her milk production. 

We have had more people contacting us for coal.  I could probably give another 100 tones if we had it.  Some very serious, almost dangerous situations have come up when coal is needed right away.  We have started to dip into the farm supply now,  so soon we will have to address this and buy some more coal. 

 A few things that we have in the works,  I shared a couple days ago about our plan to sell some vehicles  and get a new truck.  This will allow us to keep the yurts and mountain ranch  busy in the summer as well as produce deliveries and coal deliveries in the fall and winter. 

Currently Vlad and one of our friends is looking into bio digesters.  this would help to break down the cow and chicken poop into better soil, as well we may be able to heat the green house with out coal.   

Time for a change .

As we are looking forward to the spring and summer and what they have in store for us.  We have been discussing what we will be doing, how we will be expanding and what we we can do better. 

We also look back to where we started .. 

Maybe it is time for an upgrade 

 In the beginning we started with a donkey and cart that we purchased for $100.  This did not work not as we had anticipated .  long trips to the orphanages and market were not possible and even around the farm the donkey was unruly at times.. and I still have the scars to prove it  .  

Next up was the uaz truck .  This has been a great help around the farm.  has taken more trips to the mountain then we could count, and is a great workhorse. 
the problem with it is that it is not very safe, steering is loose, and the brakes at their best are bad.   It is not a vehicle we can travel into the city with on deliveries, and not safe to carry passengers in  

with all the produce we carry we need something that can haul a load and carry passengers to help on deliveries 

We thought we had this problem solved when we added the hunter to the fleet .  It could carry both passengers and some baggage , and was great up and down the mountain.  The problem came when we traveled at road speeds on drives of more then 1/2 hour.  We ended up with many breakdowns when we pushed it in that way, so it was used more for transportation to the Kashar (mountain ranch ) and back .. then we hit a snag last year when the engine packed it in.  We have been over a year with several different mechanics trying to get it back on the road. This has meant that we are hiring other trucks a lot, as well we do not have suitable transportation to get guests to the yurts and back so we are loosing a lot of bookings. 

During the coal season we had one of the other NGO's help us, along with the truck we had hired.  They have a great size truck that carries a good size load, and is good on the rough roads as well as safe and comfortable on the highways for the longer deliveries ... but it still had a problem with not enough room for passengers .

Then we came across this.  It is made by Hyundai or KIA, both have a similar truck.  It has a double cab design the call it.  It has a tone of room inside as well as a good cargo deck on the back.     All the reviews show it to be an excellent option for what we have intended for it. 

 










We feel a bit like when people talk about the realization they need to move from there sports car or suv to a family mini van haha.. Not as fun as a Hunter and not as much of a conversation piece as the Uaz, but it really is the practical alternative for us. 

We have decided that we will work toward this.   We have the Uaz truck repaired and ready to sell and the Hunter will be fixed in a couple weeks, and before either of them break down again we will sell them and use that money toward the purchase price of the new truck.  

How new a truck we get will depend on how much we are able raise .. In an ideal world I would like to add between 6 or 7 thousand dollars so that we get a newer one with less mileage, and a newer model with the better safety standards... something that will meet our needs for years to come.

As you think about this, if you would like to consider helping with this purchase please let me know.   I will start a fund for it , and if you just put the word "Truck" "in the memo line in the donation box we will make sure it goes to that, as well I will start a thermometer on the side of the blog that we can see the progress.