Faith and Vision. These are two difficult concepts to grasp. We are told that FAITH comes from that which we hope for but can not see, and VISION is the ability to see before it is a reality. When you come from a hopeless place in a country that many have little or no hope, where do you even begin .
Last fall we moved one of the chicken runs, and what was left was a large patch of dry dirt that had not had a single weed or plant grow on it for a couple years .. it was arid, dry and basically a clean slate . As the boys were helping us to prepare the ground, I tried to explain to them what our "Vision" was for this spot. It was difficult for them to grasp, but they willingly worked along side me. I don't think they could grasp the plan, but they did have a bit of faith in me and that faith in me was the seed for them to begin to have some faith in the project .
We laid out the way we would like the garden to be when finished, but still the ground was bare. We went out and got a dozen fruit trees . At that time of year they were nothing more then a bunch of sticks, no leaves and hardly any route, but buy faith we planted them, envisioning an orchard in the future. This spring those trees started to produce leaves, and were soon covered in blossoms. But we were not done yet. Next we brought out a bunch of flower seeds that we had collected from flowers we saw and liked last summer. We worked the soil under the trees and planted them. those seeds are so so so small, and it seems hard to put such a tiny seed into the ground then walk away.. 
There is still much to do as this garden area starts to mature, but already we are seeing this vision start to become a reality.
That blank slate we had with the garden is in many ways like the blank slate that we have had with our kids. Many have come from place where they had no hope for the future. They were focusing on surviving that day, the future was not something that they could envision.
Julie, Vlad and \I have spent a lot of time on the balcony with the kids ... planting seeds .. exploring what a vision for their futures might look like. Up until now the work we have been doing has been preparing the soil .. they may not have had a lot of idea what the future would hold, but they have developed a faith in u,s that we are there for them and that their basic needs are being met.
Now its time to start to dream, time see a vision, time to plant the seeds and begin to water them.
If you have looked on the top right side of the blog you will see the meter for the scholarship fund. A "dream meter" might be a better name for it. We have watched in amazement as the kids have begun to function and develop, and just over the last couple months have started to dream.
Teacher, psychologist, car electronics, tourism, I.T, medical collage, art collage and music programming not to mention things like English lessons, German lessons, and getting drivers licences.
Just as we are seeing the gardens start to bloom, the day will come when we are going to see great blossoms from these kids. It is just for us to have the faith to water.
For someone to attend school, there is much more then tuition, room and board and transportation. Remembering the past and where these kids have started, just imagine coming up with.. Birth certificate, in country passport, registry of residence, military certificate, medical and previous school transcripts. All this can in some cases be more time consuming and costly then the school itself. We have several of our friends working on these, many times for days strait, fighting with road block after road block as we fight to rebuild what these kids have lost, or have never had in the first place.
We are almost done. we have a couple documents we are now just waiting on to arrive, and then every one is caught up, registered, and ready to start school.
Although the meter on the side shows about $8500 to go, some of those expenses we can defer a little .. with registration fees and deposits and the first installments, we have about a month left to come up with approx $4500 more.
This kind of trust is not by any means new to us. We have to trust for everything that we have, and everything that we do. If the money does not come in we don't do it. You would think that I would be used to that by now, but it is something I still struggle with. I know that some how this need will be met, but at 3:00 in the morning it can be hard to convince myself of that .
As we are heading down to the wire now, please consider how you can help with this great and worthwhile need. Help us water the seeds that have been planted. Help us make it possible for these kids to see their visions come to reality.. and lets watch them blossom. ITS TIME
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