What HOPE looks like.

The last few days we had unusually nice weather  here, so we were able to take advantage and spend a little more time at the yurt.  The kids came up and helped clean u and cut some weeds.  One night we had Dustan stay over with us and he next night , Aigoola, Aiperi and Sammy stayed over with Julie.  

We have been busy with coal deliveries the past couple weeks.  It has been harder and harder to get coal due to problems at the border.  

This year we have been blessed with some incredible sponsors who have all chipped in to provide coal for us to give over the winter as needed.  We have a greater buying power now and have been able to get coal at a good price and in large quantities.  Since we purchased our coal,  there have been major shut downs and delays at the border. It has been taking as much as 10 days to get across.  This has meant a severe shortage of coal i the area.  

Yesterday we had a neighbor come to the farm.  She  was so discouraged.  They had worked so hard to raise the money for their coal and when they went to purchase it, there was no coal to be had, and they were told that when it does come it will be almost twice the price.   They have no idea what they are going to do .  We sat having lunch together with her and all the farm family.  I was overwhelmed with the situation.  I look around at all God has done and His provision.  We purchased more then twice the amount of coal we normally give out,  not knowing about the shortage at the time, and here we are in a position to be able to help.   I am sure that God knew, and that is why he put this need on to the hearts of so many people to send donations for this coal. 

After a nice lunch, we loaded up a few bags of coal and brought them over to their house.  We will be able to help take the edge off things for them until things work out.   This next picture is what HOPE looks like today 

  I spoke with one of our supporters  about the possibility of purchasing some extra flour for the winter so that we could give it out over the winter.    It was agreed that this would be a good idea.  
That afternoon I went down to our supplier and negotiated a good price and placed an order for a couple tons of flour packed in several different size packs 5 kg 10 kg 25 kg and 50 kg packs. 

That night I got word that flour was added to the list of items that will be delayed at the border.  This means that the same crisis that people are facing now with coal will be the issue with flour in a few weeks.... Once again we are one step ahead.   

We left the last 50 kg bag on the truck when we unloaded, then made one more stop at the home of the Babushka we brought coal too a little earlier .. "Exceedingly and Abundantly more then you could ask or Imagine"  

 We moved the fence back on the chicken run so that we have a place to plant some more fruit trees and strawberries. We will set this up as a park setting with some benches along the fence to view the poultry run. 

In this photo if you look at the back of the garden you will see a big white  building.  This building is the local hospital.   We went over there to introduce ourselves and to see if there are any needs.  

The hospital is very clean and well kept.  Everything that can be done to make things better with out spending money had been done.   What we did find is that the windows in all  the rooms are in very bad shape . Even when closed you can see huge gaps in the frames.  The windows are only single pane and many of them are broken and missing pieces.   There are a total of 30 big windows that need to be replaced.  

We have some money designated for medical needs so we have decided to take a step and begin this project.   Of the 30 windows we chose the 10 worst windows and will start replacing them in the next couple weeks . We are basically looking at $100 a window installed .  with the next 20 windows we will replace them two or three at a time as designated funds for this project come in.  

This is our window man and the hospital director at the cafe as we place the order and put a deposit on the windows 

At the kitchen we had this large step that was difficult to go up and down with your arms full.  We poured a couple new steps to make the steps smaller and easier to go up and down. 

this next photo goes into the category of  " HOW IN THE WORLD ?"