watching HOPE grow .

Lots of pictures this afternoon.  Its hard to believe, but I did cut them back a lot.. but when you impact so many lives in such profound ways , its hard to not share .. 

When we first started helping , the people were very closed , both with us and with each other . They were under a tremendous amount of stress, and it was hard to imagine that life could ever be normal for them again.  Even for Larisa and for us , it was so hard to see such pain..  

Today , in spite of the circumstances, they had a celebration.. they celebrated not that they have had a fire , but they celebrated that there is HOPE for the future .  

We loaded up the cars with supplies for them , and headed out to the village where Vlady was working on supper. 

Mattresses , and craft supplies 

making shashleek scewers 

When supper was just about ready we went over to the dorms and set up a craft station.  We had some craft packs left for us by go team from Halifax, and some candy packs from our friends in Minnesota , and all the left overs from crafts from years gone buy.. we will have to re stock in the fall.  

Even Larisa's mom was hard at work today 

it may have been a lot of work, but everyone had a great day 

Vladys helper was there again today .  She is such a hard worker , and has been a great help to us all spring .

helping with the crafts 

I was so pleased to see the men join in and do the crafts with the kids .  it was so therapeutic for everyone .. as my mom would say " They were building community "

the ploff and shashleek was incredible .. everyone was full , and they all had a little extra to put under their pillow .. OK so maybe its a Kyrgyz thing .

it was 36 C today .. 96 f and we gave out winter coats and mittens .. I was thinking to myself.. there is a missions fail for you, but actualy it was great .. already they had been worrying about winter, and this was enough to let them know that God hears them and will look after them . It set their minds to rest . 

 Just look at the contentment in their faces  

This man had not been out of his room on the third floor since the fire .. his wife said he lost his cane in the fire and it was too difficult for him to come out, and he was depressed .  So we brought him a new cane and intised him out with the shashleek... By the end of the day, he was a new man .. 

Cody serving the kids table 

Happy to get new mattresses 

we handed out the last of the supplies then said good buy .  I shared that we are on our way back to Canada tomorrow night , but that we would continue to be in contact with Larisa, and would continue to look for help for them .   It was hard to say good buy.. some of the Babushka's started to cry a little .. I think it was just that someone was being nice to them .. They still have a lot of healing to go .. but I feel a lot better leaving them today ...