Update from around the farm

Lots of new arrivals on the farm.  We have been working at getting our poultry numbers up .  Because of the bird flue , we have not been able to by poultry from the bazar so we have been hatching out on our own .  Sergey even went around to neighbours who had chickens and ducks we liked and got the local eggs from them to incubate .  

We now have about 15 ducks and 75 ducklings .  Thy are Mascovy ducks .  they are friendly, great for keeping down bugs in the orchard , and they do not quack and make a lot of noise.  

We now also have another 40 chickens big enough to bring our flock up to about 80 chickens .  They will be great for eggs, and eating the roosters.  They are also great for caring for the apple orchard. 

A couple days ago the grain arrived .   

We have also been working on the walkways aound the farm to make them more wheel chair excessable .  I had a small walk way along the back side of the cafe and Laundry room, but had to build over it when we put on the storage room and the water tanks.  So now we have poured a new walk way to clean that area up a bit.  

We have had an early start on the coal .  Prices down being the middle of the summer , so we have taken advantage of that .  It takes the boys about 4 of 5 days to bag up a truck load of coal, so that gives me about a week between loads to be able to raise funds .  It has been about $750 to $800 for a load rather then $1000.  Our donations after the last load leveled off at $500 so we could not order the next load until we had another $300, but just when we were ready for it we were offered a load for $500 that the driver needed to get off his truck, so the boys are back to work. 

Tanya has been busy as well.  She has so many seniors that she has been workng with. They are always so happy to see her when she    arrives with help for them.  It is also an opertunity for her to do a wellness check.  

We are moving along with the fundraising for the back to school supplies . It has been just over a week since we set out to raise a massive $7000 for knapsacks with school supplies for 700 kids @ $10 each.  With just short of a week to go we have just $3000 to go. They will not be given out until Sept 1st , but several of our donation platforms transfer funds on the first of the month so they will not clear the banks until around the 14th .  This gives us a couple weeks to purchase and pack the bags .. all 700 of them. 

Its been a busy time at the guest house an the yurts.  This morning our friends were up at the kashar and yurts to make beds and fill up the water tanks .  I cant wit to be there myself  in another month.







 

"A gift opens the way "

For years now we have been working with many of the little villages in our region , but we have avoided the village that the farm is in.  While we were establishing the farm it was best that we kept a lower profile.  

We have now reached a point where we are ready to have a more visable presence in the comunity we live.  We have started bringing closer to home things like the coal and seed deliverie and wellness checks.  We have seen in the past couple months a number of people reach out when they need help in emergencies. We have seen our bus used more and more as a hospital transport as people are in crisis . 

We had done some repairs on the playground and planed for a party to celebrate .. we planed for about 40 kids , and that turned into 400.

  

We were able to scramble and pull that off.   We had a fifth event planed .. that was going to be to have another party and give out Samaritains Purse boxes.  For that we need to know the names ages and sex of each child that would be receiving the boxes .. with in hours of starting to gather this information, we were flooded with kids wanting to come .  700 kids signed up in just 10 hours. 

There are not 700 Samaritains Purse boxes in Kyrgyzstan.  I must say 700 is so far out of my comfort zone. I thought 100 kids would be a lot.  700 makes my head spin.  We have been praying about what to do , should we just cancle .. amagin canceling because you have too much interest.  It happened so fast, we could just limit it to 100, but how do we tell 600 that they did not make the cut?  So we have decided that since our return lines up with Back to school, and we often help with back to school supplies so that kids can go to school, we will pack napsacks with suplies for them.  

We have a sponsor for the party and now are working on funds to purchase supplies. The cost will be just $10 a child. Alredy we have almost 200 kids sponsored .  that leaves us with $5000 to go to pull off this event.  The hard part is that for donations to make their way through the different giving platforms and the banks, we need to have funds in place by July 31.   

We are excited about this event. and more excited about the comunity interest and the open doors that we are experiencing . 

Proverbs 18:16 says   "A man's gift makes room for him, and bringeth him before great men."

Thank you everyone who has helped bring a great  impact over the last year .. lets finish this strong . 

 

167 down and 533 to go

Schooling is free, but if you do not have your own school suplies you are not able to go to school .  For years now we have been helping with basic school supplies for kids . 

We have even found kids in the local dump trying to find anything they can sell to be able to get suplies they need to go to school 

This  year we have 700 kids that we are going to be giving school suplies to.  This is more then just the suplies for the kids , it is part of our on going efforts to build relationships with the comunity. Over the last year we have delivered seads , coal , food , and even helped repair the playground and  to restore the town water supply .   People are beginning to develope a trust and an appreciation for what we are doing .   

The cost of the school supplies , including  back packs  for them to go in is just $10 a child .  we will have a great celebration in the park when we give them out .  The celebration will be sponsored by one of the teams we have coming in the end of August . 

At this point we have 167 kids sponsored and 533 to go.  Because of the time it takes to get funds through the banks and transfered to Kyrgyzstan , as well as the work it will take to prepare all the bags, we are hoping to have the funds donated by July 31st 

We have seen some creative ways of meeting this target.  We have someone who has started an on line auction , another has contacted all her friends and asked to join her in a group donation.  Close to my home in Canada we have a VBS program that will be collecting funds for this as well , and makig it fun for the kids .  What ever you can come up with would be a blessing .. or you can be like some others and just see the need and send suport.  However it happens, we would really appreciate your help. 

 

700 kids .. going to need some help with this one for sure .

Some times I sit at the computer with a storey to tell, but don't know were to start.  

So lets start like this .  

Close your eyes and remember as a kid the smell of opening a brand new box of crayons.  I can even remember the soft texture touching the tip of each one.   I have had the privilage of witnssing this houndreds of times with kids over the last 20 years.   When the kids go back to school in september we often do some back to school shopping for them .. some years as many as 100 kids are blessed in this way. 

The cost of the supplies usualy is in the $10 range per child .  This makes it a substantial financial need for us that is often suported from our scholarship fund. 

OK now hold that thought if you will !

So I want to share a little bit of the story of the little playground in the vilage .  This playground was sponsored by a small farming church camunity in Upstate NY.  they came on a team about 7 years ago and built a playround for the kids.  This spring it was time to do some repairs and also add a couple more items to the playground, then have a party for the kids, giving out popcorn and icecream.    As soon as we started work, their was a little difficulty and we almost lost the playground all together.. Crissis was averted and the work continued , but after comitting to treats for 40 kids , there was a renewed excitement about the playground and nearly 400 showed up for the party.   That all had such a wonderful time, so some of the mothers came to us and ask if when we come back in the fall we could have another party like this.   

Of course we agreed .  In my mind I was thinking a little more controlled party and be able to give out the Samaritains purse boxes.  For this we would have to have actual names and ages of the kids registered , then we give that information in and recieve the boxes.  In just one afternoon word of the party spread, and when I woke up in the morning, we already had 700 kids registered.  Right away we contacted Samaritains purse and found out that we were too late and they did not have boxes for us this year .. I even called around to our other contacts and many of them did not recieve boxes this year either .  ( side note *** Please pack your boxes .  they are a real blessing where ever they end up ***)  

a picnic in the park to celebrate the revitilization of the playground 

A new mural at the playground 

 So are you still holding that thought ?

Julie and I will be arriving back to the farm on Aug 27 and we have our first team arriving on Aug 29  This would give us a couple days where we could get 700 napsacks packed with school supplies for the kids by Sept 1.  

I priced out the nap sacks in KG and they are almost $3 each for the cloth drawstring napsacks , but I have been able to purchase them in Canada for just .79 cents each when I buy 700.  So they will be here in a couple weeks.  

I shared about this idea with some friends , and right away with out hesitation they said that they wanted in on that and that they would comit to raising $1000 during a VBS they are having in a couple weeks. Isn't that great ... Kids helping Kids .  

We would like to raise $10 per child total for this event.  

Shown here we have $5 worth of supplies that each pack would have . Then the bags would be topped up with grade spacific items that the kids are required to bring .   

So here is your chance to be part of such an incredible day .  Maybe considering sponsoring a couple kids or even involve your friends and sponser a hundred !.. 

Almost ready to order the next load of coal .

The gardens are looking lovely , not just in the field but also at the cafe. 

This week they will be working on some ement work.  the walk behind the middle house is being poured as well as a platform in the orchard for the yurt to go on. 

The bees have been doing well, both up on the mountain and down on the farm.  Already we have gotten twice as much honey this year as we did last yea and we have only had one draw of honey. 

We are between hay season and coal season right now so its a good time for some maintainance on the truck .  We have put new brakes on the truck and have replaced one of the struts.  and as always I am sure they will find more to fix while they are under there.  This truck works so hard and the roads are so bad.  We are so blessed that we have such a good reliable truck so we want to keep it that way.



We just recieved another load of coal yesterday so that is what the boys wil be doing in their spare time.  We are rady to order the next load of coal as soon as the donations come in .. this next load we just need $300 to be able to go ahead and order . 

 

Blessed to be a blessing !

Julie and I had an incredible time in Santa Rosa Beach .   We arrived on Friday night in time to go out for supper and spend some time with our friends and catch up with Logan .  We are all so excited that he will be bringing friends with him in a couple months.    On saturday morning we were up early preparing a Kygyz meal for some of those that will be coming on the team.  Once everything was started  , we had two hours scedualed in for some beach time.  It called for pouring  rain for the weekend but we know the one that even the waves obay, and asked for a break in the rain .  We had a beautiful time at the beach ... NO RAIN.   

Then back to the house where we cooked Bish-bal-mak, Borsolk, Laposhka , and Chuck-chuk for deseart with honey from the farm. 

I think the first time we spoke at this church was about 5 years ago and they had just moved from the pastors house to a small wharehouse with about 100 people .  This weekend my guess is that there were about 3000 people spread over 3 services.   They had a missions service, and celebrated over 50 nationalities represented in their own church .   

We were so blessed to be hosted by them , encouraged by everyone we spoke with.  There was a special "taste of the nations" lunch after the third service where you could sample food from all the nations . 

As a special blessing to us , they have covered our expences to return to Kyrgyzstan this fall... so yes ,  our tickets are booked .   Aug 23 until Oct 4 we will be there, and hosting three teams at that time.  We have been blessed so that we can now return to be a blessing to others. 

At the farm there is a patch of garden that we just planted in hay since we are still working on water isues .  It is to small to bring in a bailer , but it sure seems big when you have to cut and bring it in to the barn by hand. 

After a hard days work a nice little dip in the river is always fun .

across one of the mountain rivers , our mountain bees are doing great .  some of the hives have split and we have been able to replenish the hives lost over the winter .. we got 100 lt  from the first draw , and will likely get another 100 lt from the next . 

Down on the farm we have about 35 new hives.  We had lost them all in the spring.  After serviving the winter and beginning their spring activities , we had a sudden cold snap of about -20 and a foot of snow.  this completly wiped them out .. our mountain bees survived because they did not get the warm spell before the cold so they had stayed in winter mode.  We were able to re start  35 of the 45  hives and they are doing really well and soon we will be drawing honey here as well. 

Some people have been asking how they can help, so I will share  a few of the projects that we are still working on .   

- Its that time of year when we need to pay some tuitions .. for this we still need another $6000

- The boys are ready to bag and stack the next truck load of coal $800. lets keep them busy 

- we have a group of couples we have been working with that are going for a 4 day time together in       IsyKool .. just need another $200 towards this . 

- we have salvaged the wooden frame from the 4 m yurt that was at the kashar and are puting it up in the garden down at the guest house.  We need a new felt cover for it.  We can get one made for $350 

- here is a big one we have been praying about .  Vera and olegs van was rolled, and can not be repaired.  They have not asked us but we know  they have about $1000 towards a new car but will need at least  another $5000 to be able to get something half decient .  I have given them my car to use while I am away , so it would be great if we could help them out before Aug 25 when we land.  

I am back at my Canada home now , caring for my mother and looking after the gardens . 

 Julie is back in Newfoundland looking after our grand daughter,.. still praying for a day care spot to open up.