Putting down roots

This morning after Julie and Bekah returned from teaching, we went over to Aigoola's and picked them up to go to Dayspring and the Bazaar. Beksolten spent the day turning over the garden and getting it ready to plant... then we even got the fruit trees in... apple, cherry, pear, peach, and apricot... or at least that is what we were told they were.hahaha.. I guess we will know for sure in a few years, but surprisingly enough when we got back to the house, Beksultan could tell us which was which from the scrawny little trunk on them... I was impressed how he seemed to know what he was doing... he is really starting to take responsibility now that Turat is away.. I think this is good for him in many ways, and hard in others .. he spent yesterday out fertilizing the fields.. that is good, but a couple days ago he was sitting at our door when we got home.. it was late, and he seemed distressed.. finally he came out and shared that they needed to pay back a winter loan that they had, and did not have the money... His mom had made him come to ask if we could extend the loan for her... so hard for a young boy... The amount was $100... Fortunately I had a big order for them of the mattresses and blankets , as well as a bunch of souvenir stuff to send with Olga, so we were able to provide he enough work to earn the $100. Today Aigoola started on the curtains for the kids rooms at Dayspring... that is always an adventure picking out material, as well we had to buy 8 pillows and enough material for sheets for the beds, covers for the blankets, and pillow cases, I tried my best to help, but Aigoola ended up shaking her fist at me more then once...hahaha.. the Rush is on to get everything done before the grand opening in just over a week... Tomorrow we will start putting down the patio stones... I was told they would take 10 days to make.. when I said I would have to go elsewhere because I needed them by Friday, I was told OK they would have them by then... my guess is that they are just telling me what I want to here , but will deliver them in 10 days... we will see... Picked up ALL the school supplies for the orphanage today .. I went to get the cart guy I always use, he was not doing well at all.. he has lost a lot of weight , and looks awful.. he said he has just had an operation, but could not afford to take any time off work.. I called Acel and she asked him what he needed , he said that he needed meds, but was trying to get the courage to ask me... I gave him a bit to get him started ... or drunk, one or the other .hahaha but I will have to go back with a translator to see what we can do... I first met them a few years ago, his boys were not in school, and where working in the bazaar to help with money.. I made a deal with him that I would always use he or his kids and pay VERY well IF he made sure his kids stayed in school and only worked after school and weekends... There is a saying " Where your treasure is so your heart will be also" ... I have chosen to invest in a small way in this family... now my heart goes out to them...

Ramblings from the top of my head to the bottom of my heart.

I have in my pocket a special coin... mounted in the centre of it is a mustard seed... and the inscription around it reads "with faith all things are possible." on the back it says "If you have faith as a mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible for you..."

At times it seems pretty far fetched in light of the circumstances that we see... There is so much that is being accomplished here, major major accomplishments appearing on all fronts... yet I am stumbling over the things that are out of my control...things that are seemingly being left behind... I know that with the faith of the mustard seed I can speak t the mountain and it will be moved, yet tonight we sit in a valley surrounded by mountains... and I wonder how people have survived here for so long without faith.. It is easy to carry others burdens... Some times we can be cool or seemingly callas as a way of protecting ourselves so as not to crumble under the weight .. As you drive along in the streets here, people come running over to the car as it slows down asking for help... As I see them coming, it is simply to easy to push the electric window closed and turn my head the other way as if I was in a conversation ,and never noticed them there.. If I can do it here, how much easier is it to ignore them when I am 7000 miles away.. I try to have the faith to step out and help, but really there is only so much you can do... I know that every one and their uncle has a philosophy of ministry about who and how we should help our fellow man... yet it all seems so lame when you see a mother struggling her way out of nothingness , trying to get her kids back when no one is there to help.... What are we to do ? do we try to fit her into some sort of a slot and then try to justify why we are trying to help.. I don't know why, but the burden is there, and once again we have to pull out that tinny little mustard seed of faith we carry, and trust and believe that once again the mountains will move...

It does not take a lot of faith to change the world around you.. just about the size of a grain of mustard... tonight that mustard seed seems sooooo small, and the mountains seem sooooo big... please take a moment and pray for our friends ...

Peeling of the layers ...

Yesterday as Julie was preparing for English class , we were discussing giving an assignment.. "If I was a flower, what flower would I be?" .. Today I was thinking the question should be ..if Kyrgyzstan was a vegetable.. what vegetable would I be?"

The answer would have to be an Onion... because like an onion, every storey has many layers.. and as you peal back the layers to understand more, it is harder to see because your eye's fill with tears.

Let me tell you more ...

Today we were at the bazaar to order school supplies for the orphanage.. they will be ready for tomorrow so I will have them for Friday when we hope to go out to the orphanage to pick up a young friend there . We will bring him in to the hospital to see about an eye operation. We got a very good price for the supplies... $250 for everything...Still not sure how we will pay for it.. I guess I will figure that out tomorrow ... .. So after shopping we went over to the home of the lady looking for the loan... and that's when the next layer of skin came off....

After looking at the plans for the addition, we meet her children again... That's when we understood her desperation.. this poor mother has been working so hard in an attempt to get her children home. The three kids have been in an orphanage because the house is not in good enough shape. She is desperate to have her kids home.. They have only been with her the last week because the kids are on their March break, but must return at the end of the week.

Suddenly it all makes sense why she is so desperate to get help... It just tears your heart out. this is the current store that will be the living room when the project is finished .. the ceiling is lath and mud, and continually the dirt falls into the store meaning that she must clean the whole store every day .

This is the door into the living area in the back.

inside the living area, Julie tried to get a photo, but we do not have a wide enough angle lens.. so she stood in one spot and looked around.. the floor area is about 3 feet by 1 foot...

this is the kitchen area with a small TV

I am sure that as time goes on , more of this storey will be revealed to us, but for now we will try to wrap our heads around what we have seen today. You know we see so many children that are in the orphanages because they are abandoned or because their parents just simply don't care, but it is soo hard for us when we find cases like this where for nothing more then poverty, children are separated from their parents...

I can not imagine the pain that this family is living with .. this is just such a hard world?

Olga is coming to America....

Olga is the in country director for Society of Cornelius. She runs a centre that provides schooling for special needs kids, and children who have not had full advantage of regular schools due to economic or other conditions. Her centre provides one on one training for children with learning disabilities, with speech issues and just about any other special need, as well, she over sees many scholarships for Children who would otherwise never reach their full potential.. Olga is an activist looking out for the betterment of the people of Tokmok. She is the most politically and socially active person I know here . With her spare time, she is the go to person when some one is in need... Apart from her regular responsibilities, Olga has been a tremendous help to us, and works hard to help monitor many of our projects for us. We first met Olga in 2005 when she worked for us as a translator... She has become a very good friend ... Today she is preparing for an exciting trip to the US. She will be attending the G.I. Legislation Fellowship program focusing on Democracy and Government. This will take place in Washington starting on the 4th, she will then be traveling to Dallas Texas April 9 to May 1, from there she will be in Clinton Illinois May 7 to the 12th . After that she will be in Templeton Ca May 12 to the 31st. finishing up her trip with June 1 to the 3rd back in Washington. The reason I tell you this is that she is one of the busiest people I know.. I even have a hard time keeping up with her.. There is no way that she will cope with being away so long with out a full schedule. She told me that she would love to meet with and share with any of our sponsors on her way. She is an incredible young Lady, and is a wealth of knowledge , not only about what we do here, but about Kyrgyzstan in General... If you or an organization you belong to would be interested in spending some time with Olga, please let me know and I will help get you connected.. Today she was packing , and had me model a Kyrgyz mens outfit that she was packing to bring ..

Off to the city ...

Today we had to go into Bishkek to do some banking , While in there, I was trying to get to a few orphanages, we had three that want to see us, One is because they are in a desperate state to find some sponsors to stay open past the summer, another I did not have time to make it to, but I am sure that there is something big brewing, and the third we did manage to make it to on our way home, despite having to stop to pick up materials for a project Emma is working on at Dayspring, and stopping to negotiate 23 new beds, mattresses and end tables for the hospital. All this after Julie taught for half the day at the University. When we got to the orphanage , The director was very happy to see us, I was there on a bit of a mission, there is one young man there that we would like to get help with an operation.. he was happy to see us, and had a big grin when I knew his name.. once again, I recognised the power of a name... The first thing on the directors mind is a desperate need that she has for school supplies right now.. Just about everything....note books, pens, pencils, paper.. enough for about 140 kids. I have not had time to get the entire list translated, but My guess is that it will come in around the $400 mark. Not sure where this money will come from yet, but it is one of those emergency needs that keeps the relationship open... so some how we will have to tackle this one right away. We also discussed the next outing with the kids there.. The circus went so well that we are now thinking about bringing them to the mountains to the hot springs , then for a picnic... should be a good time. I don't have money for that either, but everyone else gets to dream, so I will too. hahaha...

Is there room in your boat for one more ?

I think one of the best messages that I have heard, or at least one that has stuck with me the most was one from Sam a couple years back.. it was about our need to make room in our lives to help those around us... he used the example of the Titanic.

With a capacity of 65, No. 6 was launched with only 23 on board. Put in charge of No. 6 was Quartermaster Robert Hichens, who was at the wheel of the Titanic itself at the moment of impact. Also on board this lifeboat was lookout Frederick Fleet, the man who first sighted the iceberg, and made the infamous call screaming, "Iceberg, right ahead!" The lifeboat was loaded and launched from the port side of the ship at 12:55 a.m.

Once the Titanic sank, it became apparent that Quartermaster Robert Hichens felt he had full control of the boat. While manning the tiller, he constantly beat back attempts by those on the boat who suggested they return to pick up survivors, saying they would only find "stiffs". He also yelled at the rowers, saying they would be drifting for days. After rudely refusing to let women row, Molly Brown famously threatened to toss him overboard after this argument. As a result of this threat, Hichens sat gloomily at the tiller and allowed the women to row around and look for survivors. In a photo of Lifeboat No. 6, Quartermaster Hichens can be seen at the rear of the ship manning the tiller and Frederick Fleet is seen at the very front of the ship preparing to catch a tow-line from the Carpathia.

I hear of this story and can just imagine what was going through the minds of the different people involved..

Quartermaster Hichens... likely felt that he had a responsibility to protect those in his boat. They had just come through some pretty awful stuff, and they barely escaped with their lives.. now he wanted to make as much distance as he could from the threat. Row was his command.. it did not matter where , it was night time and all he had to guide them was the sounds of the those screaming for help.. the harder they rowed, the screams continued.. my bet is that he heard those screams for the rest of his life....

Then there are those that for all intensive purposes where along for the ride... they think they have deniability .. after all, they are not in charge, they do not set the course, they simply do as they are told, and trust that they will be OK.. they hear the cries for help, but buy into the notion that there is nothing that they can do...

Then there is Molly Brown... she was not in control, she was not at the oars.. she was another simply along for the ride.. yet she listened to the cries, and realized that she may not be able to help them all, but there was certainly room in her boat for ONE more... When she tried to convince the powers that be that they needed to return, she was simply put down or ignored, but some how she managed to pull together the strength and the courage to make herself heard.. She challenged the notion that nothing could be done, and as long as there was room in her boat for ONE, she was not going to allow them to row away....

Today , we find ourselves looking for survivors in the midst of a storm .. The needs here are so great.. there are so many that we could easily be swamped .. yet we need to take the lead from "Unsinkable Molly Brown" and put our shoulder to the oar and and continue to reach out to the ones in front of us...

Maybe you have room in your boat for ONE more...there are many ways that you can help .. if you look back at the blog over the last few weeks , here, at the LAMb blog or over at David and Jayne's , you will see so many needs ..from training material to repair a broken system.. to documents to restore dignity , to operations and micro loans.. it is all so overwhelming, but don't let that stop you .. just ask your self.. do you have room in your boat for ONE more... with your help, like Molly brown.. we will be unsinkable....

Today we hear the cries for help coming from a small orphanage in Bishkek.. we don't know what we will find when we get there, but we hear the cry and we will respond, ...

Micro Financing

Today we had the opportunity to go and visit a lady that Vlady has been working with for a couple years. She has come a long way... When we were first introduced to her, she was looking for a grant of $1000... she has a small house beside the Bazaar, and wants to have a store there to support her three kids.. She thought that if she had $1000 she would be all set . I asked how big will the store be... as big as she can get for $1000 was the answer... what will she sell ? ....It depends on how big the store is.... Not a great business plan... I told them that there would need to be a lot more to the plan before we could help her.. Today we met with her, and I was very impressed with the work that has been done.. She has turned her living room into a small store ( they all now live in a room that is 6 feet by 8 feet..including cooking area) The store is well stocked and is producing enough income that she knows she can afford to pay $40 a month on a business loan... She has plans and a price for the store to be built on the front of her home, and has even submitted them and received government approval.. all the documents are in order ..

The cost for this project will be $2000.. a much more realistic figure . Vlady can over see the construction, and she would also be willing to have us help her with some business training.

Our hope is to find a sponsor that would like to provide the $2000. It would be paid back at a rate of $40 a month with Zero interest.. and just to sweeten the deal for any one that might be interested, we would like the $40 a month paid to Dayspring to help sponsor a bed...

We will stop back out there again in the next couple days and get some photo's .. you would not believe the waay they are living now.

Light at the end of the tunnel

I have looked through my photo's but I don't have an original of the project wing of the home.. it was the darkest place, un like the photo below, it did not even have vinyl on the floors... I remember is looking down the long dark hallways and noticing the light coming in the window, and thinking no mater how bad this is, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel . Now that is more then just the physical light that we can see, but we actually see the changes that are taking place and know that it is the Light in this dark place that is making the greatest difference

I know that it's not my bright shinning face , or the thoughts of class that is drawing these men, but it is the hopes and promises that draw them to the light

Tomorrow morning we have Bekah and Julie teaching at the University most of the day, Lyn and I will go to Dayspring to meet with the new concrete guy to look at pouring a patio there, as well as discuss the new floor for the men's home.. he is quoting 1/3 of the last guy.. then we will meet with Larisa, and make sure things are rolling for the burned out apartment.. then hopefully I can go in to the bank in Bishkek to pick up some money to pay for all this..hahaa.

Crayola.. your the best !

There is a name that is synonymous with quality around the world. That is CRAYOLA... It does not mater what country you are in, their products are recognised and sought after. So when it comes to bringing art supplies to the orphanages , seniors homes and invalid homes, It is such a blessing for us to bring the very best.

Today we were over to one of the orphanages to do finger painting with the kids.. once again, the paper, the paint, the paint brushes, and the paint smocks the kids were wearing.. all donated by our friends at Crayola... in fact if you remember bake to last week when we did crafts with the kids, they were mostly from Crayola as well.... Even this morning at the invalid home, the chalk we used on the board, and the markers the men were writing with were Crayola as well.

We did a couple forms of finger painting .. the first was simply experiencing getting their hands dirty, and feeling the paint between their fingers

Then the second project was mixing colours, and making contact prints...

This was a first for these kids.

Over the next few weeks and months we will continue to go through our bags of Crayola and bring excitement to the kids..

While we were there , we found out that this orphanage has not had any water for three months. Jayne had some money with her that was designated to help here, so she asked what it would take to get the water back on again... $100 ... needless to say, Monday morning, they will begin installing the water...

DIGNITY

This was a momentous day for the men at the invalid home. I never dreamed of a day that we would have a class room there and begin teaching . When I walked into the room for the fist time my heart was in my chest, and I could hardly swallow.. the significance of this is incredible. Until now, these men were not considered worthy of teaching... As we unlock the deep recesses of their minds we are finding kind, funny and caring individuals, who are so eager to begin a new life... We got out the chalk and began with the basics

The men then wrote their names and drew a picture of something that they like,
In the middle of the next photo is a young man named Kuba... he had dreams of being a translator , and was well on his way when he was in a car accident.. This left him with slight paralysis, and he has lost parts of his memory. As we began to work with him, he suddenly began accelerating far beyond what we were teaching .. My guess is that if we spend a little extra time with him, he will become our next English teacher at the home...

Then when we were all finished, the men took turns standing up in front of the class and introducing themselves in English.. the looks on their faces as they succeeded ... I just don't have the words...

Now the greatest part of the morning, Larisa has managed to work her masterful skills of negotiations... the usual cost to register a person here is about $200 .. then they will be fully recognised people and will also get a small pension... Larisa has identified 37 men that she would start by registering... now the best part.. she has convinced all the powers to be , and we can do this for just over $8 each. actually that works out to just $292 for all 37 men ... I don't know how you could ever put a price on Dignity, but today if we had to, I would have to say about 8 bucks.... There are just so many needs here, but at LAMb we have come up with the first $100 to get things started on Monday morning... as funds come in for this, we will continue to get them all registered.. I am imagining a day when all 270 men are full fledged citizens of Kyrgyzstan! Oh My....

New floor in the works for the Invalid home.

While Lynn was off in Bishkek looking for the tiles for the front entrance of Dayspring, Julie and I brought a contractor out to the invalid home to have a look at the flooring in the dinning room
For reasons unknown to any one, the previous director pulled up the tiles leaving an awful mess... My guess is that he had found a buyer for them.. maybe he had other plans and contacts to put a new tile down, but he is now gone, and we are left with what remains.
The floors are un even and have large chunks of concrete sticking up. It is porus and very hard to keep clean.


The rest of the room has a lot to be desired as well... The walls are dirty and crumbling, and the ceiling is flaking after previous water damage.

We met with Larisa , the new director, and our contractor friend to discuss what to do next... and to get a price... We came up with what will be the cheapest fix up , and that will be to pour a new floor over the old one. If the price is right we could do a mosaic effect , then stencil around the boarder and maybe paint on rugs and runners. then in one side we could build a stage for when we have special events there, and even put up a screen for movies. It has such potential..
It's amazing that we would consider such a project at this time, but we have bit off so much in the past, that I am pretty sure we can pull this off now. We need to first convince our contractor that we are not his personal cash cow...hahah.. We figured there would be a problem when after quoting a price that seems to be double what is the going rate , he then asked "what about driving us and providing meals for my workers each day " ya right ! then with in 15 minutes, every time he quoted a price it went up by 10%... I was once told ... if you are going to lye, you better have a good memory...... Olga is looking for some better prices for us...
Tomorrow morning we will be heading back out there with the whole teem from LAMb. It will be the first day of classes in the new class room... We will be teaching English there every Saturday morning... I remember after teaching English to the kids in the orphanage, we started to hear their stories first hand... I wonder what we are going to learn next...

Blankets arrive

Today is a holiday here, but not for Aigoola , she has been busy working on the blankets and mattresses for Dayspring.

The blankets are beautiful,
Aigoola was not the only one working today , This morning we met with Vlady. He will be heading up the renovation projects. Along with the husband of the Family that LAMb has been helping , Vlady has another young man we will hire. The boy has 2 siblings, his father died last month, and his mother has only one leg. Vlady wants to teach him some basic construction so that he can earn some money.. I will get more info about him and a few photo's next time I get out to the house.
Larisa brought her to the Bazaar to pick out wallpaper and paint. We are so blessed, we had another $500 come in for this project today. That leaves us with only about $600 to go, but certainly enough to get a good start at it. This is such a blessing to me.. I really want to do a good job for this lady. Many of you will remember that my own mother had a recent disaster with her home that was destroyed by a broken water main, neither the village or Federation insurance came through in the end, and Mom was left homeless... we were blessed that we were able to be there for her, and get her relocated.. so I understand what this Babushka might be going through right now. Like my own Mom, this Babushka will know that she is loved...

Team report...home safe

Traveling is half the adventure.. and for the Stirling group, it certainly was an adventure..The began the trip 2 weeks ago being told they could not fly because of they did not have visa's ( that they did not need) then the flight was delayed 1 1/2 hours, almost missing a connecting flight , then on the way home they were almost extra billed for their luggage.. all of this developed a strong back bone in my friend Darren.. he learned that the airlines are anything but perfect, and time to time need a little "Training" it sounds like he learned well, because the adventure continued on the rest of the trip... Here is the letter I just got from them...

Hi guys,


We're home! We got home at 5 p.m. our time yesterday.

The Aeroflot flight was 10.5 hours as scheduled, except it didn't leave on time.
Therefore, when we arrived in New York at about 6:50 p.m. our baggage wasn't
able to make the next plane to Toronto.

Aeroflot put us up in 3 separate rooms at JFK International Hotel and we each
got a voucher for supper for $38 each, per person! The waiter gave us coffee to
go and 5 bottles of water and we all ate until we were full to capacity.

Delta booked our flight, no charge, for 9:35 Tuesday morning. They were going
to charge us $195 for our baggage, but when we got to the hotel, after supper,
Darren called Delta and they put in a waiver, so we didn't have to pay for our
luggage.

This all worked out better actually, because Darren called The Hampton in
Toronto and they did not charge us for the night because of extenuating
circumstances.

Praise God. We prayed for our luggage and it all arrived in Toronto!

Hope all is well with you guys. It was such a blessing to be there. Say hi to
everyone, the entire team.

God bless you all.

It was such a blessing to us to have our good friends here with us, and to have the opportunity to share our burden for this incredible country with them.. I am sure that we will see awesome far reaching impacts as a result of this trip, not only in the lives of people here in Kyrgyzstan , but in the lives of this family.. We got to meat Logan.. and have come to love him, He is such a kind and caring young man.. He saw a lot while he was here, and I am sure the it will have changed his outlook on life.. I look forward to hearing how he has been changed... we will miss you all...

Guff...Guff...Guff... ( one day I will explain ..hahah)

Mold

I don't know what it was about this last winter, but we have been finding incredible amounts of mold everywhere. Many of the homes and institutions we go to have this problem.
The LAMb team has began to address this issue, starting with the home of one of the families they have been helping . Here is what their kitchen looks like
This is just a recent problem, in fact this room was just refinished a year ago...

We found a special paint for mold, and that along with a good coat of bleach, and things look a little better ...

The cool think about this is that the work was not done by us this time, but it was the home owner that did all the work himself.. what is better is that now that he is able to work, and we know he can do a good job, we can put him to work fixing many of the other problems we have found.

Our first job for him will be to help Vlady out at the Babushka's house that was burned out.
Larisa will take her shopping this weekend to pick out paint and wall paper, and the men will start work on Monday morning .. We are so blessed that money has started to come in for this so we can start right away, so far $600 has been donated.. this will get us a good start ...

On another note , our Internet is down again... I had been using a satellite Internet as a back up, but last night it went down as well.. It was an easy fix... just pay the bill... so over I went to pay the bill.. then I am not exactly sure, but I had to pay 3 more phone numbers as well, then they would come over and fix my Internet... I have learned that some arguments are not worth it so I paid the bill and the technician followed me home to fix the Internet... he came in , sat in front of the computer and stared at it for about 5 minutes, then unplugged the modem, and left with it...
I am assuming that at some point someone will return with a new one, but then.. I have paid the bill already so it is entirely possible that we never see them again... time will tell...

Stop for the one in front of you.

I do my best not to get "religious" here on the blog, but every now and then I think I need to share my belief in more then just deeds, but make it clear with words... Words are often difficult to find for us here.. But what comes to mind on days like today. are these words....

" Pure religion that is pleasing to God our father is this ... To visit the widows and orphans in their distress and to keep yourself unspoiled by the world" Sometimes that is a tall order, but I believe that it has to be at the core of what we are doing here.

Today we went to visit a Widow in her distress... She invited us into the burned out shell of her home. Here is her storey.

She has been working at the Invalid home for over 40 years. It is a very poor paying job, about $80 a month, but she continues to do it because they are so short staffed, and can not find a new generation of workers willing to work for so little , and she is concerned about the men. A couple months ago, her husband died, leaving her a widow. At the 40 day mark after a death it is customary to have a funeral. For her it was a more significant day then she ever could have imagined.

She pulled together what money she had, got dressed up and went off to the gathering place for the service.. leaving her home, she had no idea that fire would destroy everything that she had left.. The cause was a cheep faulty DVD player.. After spending what resources she had on the funeral, she returned home to an apartment engulfed in flames.

We walked around in her home today .. you could still smell the smoke despite the repairs that have been started.. The neighbours have rounded up a small loan for her that has helped to get most of the cleanup started, and some plastering and primer painting done. Someone has lent her a front door until she can get one. They have done what they can to help her, and in fact we were surprised that so much has been done, but the simple fact is that she is at the end...
I have found myself wondering how many times our heart can be broken here, and if we will ever become desensitised to what we see.. I have watched the affect situations have had on teams like the Snarrs that were just here.. and thought that maybe I am becoming a little hard.. then today I stand in the centre of dispar, and realize that once again my heart is broken...
There are situations that have been caused by our own foolishness, there are situations that are a result of cruelty from others, and then there are situations like this that have no fault... I can remember one time, actually it was in the invalid home the first time I was their that I came away questioning God.. I asked my friend Ron "Where is God in this?" his response was simple

" The fact that you are there to ask such a question is proof that He is their"

That actually made sense to me.. because I know that God works through people , and that is why he desires that we visit the widow in her distress, so that He will be seen in the situation... but what kind of obligation does that leave me, and in turn, what kind of obligation does that leave those of you who have had a part of sending us...

A friend of ours wrote a song that speaks about " We are His hands extended " so realizing this, this is what these hands need to do ...

We began today by bringing her new cloths and shoes..

1. We need to help her to replace her passport, documents and confirm ownership of the apartment $200

2. Get the Gas hocked back up so she can cook $100

3. Paint the walls again and put down new floors $300

4. Replace all the windows and doors $400

5. New electrical outlets and fixtures $200

6. Replace bed and other furniture $500

That comes in at about $1700 a lot of money to put her life back together .. Then I get this thought .. That is a lot of money, and there are so many other needs here.. should we be helping her?

I think of something that was told to me a few weeks ago by one of our sponsors... "We are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others " and I realize the we have all been blessed sooooo much, and this is a lady that lives her life to be a blessing to others..
so yes I will make the calls today and aim to start the work on Monday, Please join me on this one...as we stop for the one in front of us..

A few final stops

The team had a few final stops before heading to the airport.

One of their sponsoring groups made some beautiful quilts.. every one a masterpiece, and every one as individual as the kids that will sleep under them. The quilts were given to the Dayspring house for the children coming there. This will be such a blessing for them. There is a belief here that hand made quilts carry the love of the person that made them, and as such are able to bring warmth and love to the person who sleepså under them. I know of one quilt that we brought several years ago that continues to make the rounds when people are sick or feeling sad.

Talant was in Kazakhstan, but made a quick trip home so he could say good bye to the team, and bring them some Kyrgyz gifts.

Sunday was the overlap day, David and Jayne arrived in the morning .

It was great to get together with them on the teams last night.

Then it was home to pack and get ready for the 1:30 am airport run... Tokmok will never be the same, and neither will the team... It was an honour for us to be part of it.