Wednesday, May 22, 2013

another beautiful day in Tokmok serving the people we love


We have had a lot of rain the last few nights here , and as a result, the air is so clean and the sky is clear.  Today we could see clear down to the end of the valley .


and the roads just seem to run strait into the mountains 



 Today we had a few more student packs that we were handing out .  the packs today were mostly to students we heard were in need , ones that do not know anything about us.  They were so full of emotions when we gave them the food .. they did not know what to say or do, some just stood there and latterly shook they were so thankful and overwhelmed .  What we gave them today was not just some little bonus to them, but to them , God had just performed a miracle .. it is always so cool to be part of something like this .. There are a lot of heart aches here , but opportunity to be used like this is indescribable , and makes the tries all seem so small ..if only for the moment.   

A few days ago we are out for supper at the home of a young couple we had helped in the past.  The mother and father we have known for many years from the village where we brought water to.  The had both gotten TB and their kids were in an orphanage .   After they got out of the hospital, they were not able to get their kids back because they had lost the summers work, and could not afford to get there home ready for winter with the kids.   With the help of Andy from Give First Ministries,  we were able to get there little one room home ready for winter , and cloths for the kids so that they could come home , and be a family again.  Its bad enough when there are orphanages full of kids, but when those kids have good loving parents that want to care for them,, but have just had the stuffing knocked out of them by life... It breaks your heart.  It was so great to be able to help to put this family back together again, and it was more then obvious to us that it was the right decision when we were at there home for supper.  

While there last week , the mother of the young man said something that I have not been able to shake.  She said that her son had been building there home when he got sick, and now he does not have the strength to do the heavy lifting to continue the home .  As I looked around, I saw that we were sitting on the foundation of the new home, and that there were many of the building materials needed to build the home around the yard.  




When we stoped today I spoke with Fatima about this , she said that yes he is not strong enough now to lift, so he has been working longer hours, and they have been buying sheep as a way of saving up so that they can hire someone to finish the home .. I shared with her that this has been bugging me for the last week , and I told her that we have another family that we try to help out, ( many of you know them as Jessica's family ) and that he is a very good block layer, and can do lots of other construction work as well.    I asked her if I was able to find a sponsor, could we hire our friend to work with her husband to get the home built. 

   I was not sure how she would feel , it is a cultural thing here in some families that the husband is build there first home himself.. but she was very open to this idea.. in fact she was thinking about asking if we could help them, but was afraid to ask , especially since they were having us for supper , they did not want us to think that is why they had invited us ...




We told her that we can not promise anything at this time , but just wanted her permission before we started looking for others to help.  For me the first and biggest step is to acknowledge when God is speaking to me ... now I just need to pray and to step back and wait for God to speak to some of you.. and when it all comes together , it will be something special... being able to be a blessing to two families at the same time , and doing our part to keep them together and 7 kids out of the orphanages 

After the revolution , we helped a few other families that were in a desperate situation.  In helping them, We came to experience the greatest peace, and love that I have ever experienced.  Such terrible situation was thrust on them , yet they had so much love to share .  Over the years we have become good friends .  Our family is by far the benefactor of this friendship..   Today we had supper with them to see and to celebrate the new home that they have ,. it has been a long battle for them, but God has restored to them what the devil had taken .. and once again we came away feeling honored ,and  blessed .. 



this is one of those days where as we travel around in the midst of what could be seen as sorrow and tragedy ,  we experienced examples of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, 

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  .

. today we experienced them all

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