Even when it hurts

I look at this picture and my heart aches .  This young man is in his early 20s and he is working hard to better himself.  I can remember so clearly pouring over my books with teers in my eyes such that I could hardly see.  Just the thought today makes my head hurt. Having a  severe learning disability is something I live with, and something this young man will have to live with for the rest of his life .. but that does not give him reason to give up.
   I am thankful that people did not give up on me and taught me how to work around my disability, and am thankful that Vlad is not giving up on him ..
   With your help we can continue to make a difference In his life and many others .
Just don't give up on us .. even when it hurts .

A little mix up

I want to start off by saying that lot of prayer and petition and thought goes into what we do.   Many times we feel called  in a direction with no idea what the kingdom consequences will be. We just know that we are to be obedient to the calling.  At the same time we are careful not to move too far in any direction until the finances are in place.  Do you see my conundrum ?   We have a few fundamental beliefs here ..

1. We MUST move in the direction we believe has been assigned to us ,
2. "Our assignment is NOT tied to our finances, our finances ARE tied to our assignment ".
3. We are to be fiscally responsible with funds received.

Its easy to say "take a leap of faith" , but when you operate close to the wire all the time, and many of the funds we have are designated, we need to continually walk the balance and not loose sight of where we are standing financially.  Like I shared in a Previous post , we are going into this next year about $4500 behind , you can go to the post to see the break down. And as I look ahead, there are some areas that we firmly believe we are being called to or should we say assigned to us .

Lets take for example Tanya , (Larisa's Daughter )  When Larisa passed away, we felt a call to replace Larisa's salery for Tanya and her Grandmother for the period of a year to give them time to figure out what the new norm would be .. We received the assignment , shared it and with in a day the funds were in.  Over the year, along with the monthly support, we have started to work Tanya into working with teams, as well as humanitarian aid projects including coal deliveries .. Well that year is almost up, and so is the support money.  We have decided that we are going to sit down with Tanya and discuss continuing her support for another year , and at the same time give her an additional $100 a month budget to continue the work. As well we will begin including her more in the Humanitarian Aid  work that we do . 

We have other areas that we are committing to as well because it has been assigned to us .  Many of you know Nick .  5 years ago he was trying to figure out what he should do .. He wanted to take some form of schooling that would "help the family business"  No he did not go to school for business , or for agricultural studies or even finance, he went to school for Psychology.  Not just any school, he went to American University of Central Asia , a campus of New York's Bards Collage. In a few months he will graduate with his BA.    We are going to bring him on in a bigger role as our social worker for not just the kids on the farm but with the families we support. Again, This assignment is not tied to finances, but the finances are tied to the assignment. 

Yesterday something was pointed out to me .. You see, since the finances are tied directly to the assignment, and they are already there .. its just that there seems to be a small mix up....... There seems to be about  $10 000 in the wrong bank accounts right now  .. Like I say just a small mix up.

Please help me to put the word out and see if maybe we can locate those funds and retrieve them in time .. because we are moving forward.

Thank you

Here is a short video from he farm.  Listen closely as each of the boys shares what they are thankful for, and what living on the farm has meant to them.  We all come with different needs and different situations in life, but some how God has a way of giving us those things that are most important to us .   

 

So from all of us to all of you THANK YOU.

I know the way out !

"This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. "A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. "Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on "Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"

When we first met Victor , he was a cute little kid with no front teeth.  He was in the same orphanage as Nick, and was like his little brother .. Over time the kids grew, but Victor never seemed to.  When the orphanage was closed and the kids were left in turmoil,  We started helping Victors grandmother so that she would be able to care for him on her pension.

We started covering three basic needs, Schooling and school supplies, health and medical needs and clothing .  With out these burdens Victor and his grandmother have been able to make ends meet.  

Well Victor has grown up a lot now , and we continue to support his family.  A few days ago he contacted me to say that he has again grown out of some of his clothes and he needs new pants and a  spring coat.  He went on to say that he has gathered up all his clothes that no longer fit and would like to donate them to one of the orphanages.  We had him give Tanya a call and together they were able to be a great blessing to many more kids ... 

Kids that Victor can relate to because he has been there , and he knows the way out !

Topping up the General Fund..

Right after Christmas and new years comes tax time .. Time to prepare the tax receipts, Time to prepare the books from the previous year, and time to pay property tax in Kyrgyzstan and vehicle taxes on the farm as well.   It is also the time of year when we book our return flights to Kyrgyzstan .    As we are preparing the financial statements, we are reminded of a few short falls this month. 

with our flights this spring we will be able to bring 100 lbs of Vitamins with us 

We are careful to make sure that 100% of every dollar donated goes to the intended designation. We do not take anything out for bank fees and currency exchanges, but they do exist.  We have received donations over the years for the purchase and projects on the farm , but taxes and licence fees still need to be paid .  We do not normally receive donations designated toward our flights back and forth from Kyrgyzstan, yet they are a necessary evil .   Its exciting to celebrate birthdays for our kids, but along with the minimal party cost seems to come an on-slot of experiences for documents, registry, passport and military documents ... they all add up and because of the cost, most kids do not have them when they come to the farm, so there are also penalties to be paid.  Then there are smaller needs $20 here and $40 there to meet immediate needs for medical and school expenses that we don't always have the time or opportunity to raise funds for.  All these things add up and all come out of our general fund . 

That is why every now and then we need to put out a plea to top up our general fund.  This is one of those times .. we will be preparing to head back in a month and it would be great to straiten this out before we go.. 

Here is an example of some of the extra expenses over the last six weeks .. 

Bank fees and paypal / Canada helps commissions from the Christmas wish list   $350
Short fall on currency donated in Canadian and paid out in US funds     $600
Taxes and licences paid this month in Kyrgyzstan for the year         $825 
Documents, passports and extra school fees paid for kids on the farm.    $400
extra Vitamins purchased and medications and emergency expenses paid  $125
flights for John and Julie   $ 2250
  ( Flights were booked quickly with out time to raise funds to take advantage of a three day sale that saved $1020 and included an extra 100 lbs of luggage )

This totals $4550 

As you can see, its time again to ask for help with some of these expenses to start the next journey on the right foot .  Please consider blessing  our general fund at this time so we can continue to be a blessing to others