HOPE, what a powerful gift!

I have noticed several articles like this on the news .  How devastating the lock downs and loss our tourist business has been for so many businesses .  They have been calling for help from the government at this time.  There have been relief payments,  tax breaks and help paying staff, but it still falls short for so many and they are hoping for further help.   Those are the stories we are hearing here in the west.  Now lets stop for a minute and consider the difficulties in other countries where they do not have those support networks from their governments.  

A couple days ago I heard from Baltagul and her husband.  They have had a very difficult time during this pandemic , just months before everything started, they had just opened their own "snack bar" in a tourist resort area in Turkey.   They ended up loosing almost everything in the first waves of the pandemic.  That did not hold them down.  They both got new jobs and some times two or three so that they could pay off debt and rebuild.  Things were starting to pick up and they went back into business again , this time it was Gormogon variant  (the villain off of the TV show Bones ) who has come back and is shutting the world down again. 

Julie and I were devastated that we were shut down again just as we were about to head back to the farm, and the consequences for us is to stay home and continue to feed logs into the fire and wait it out. But for Baltagul and Yasin the consequences are so much harder.  Trying to rebuild from under a mountain of debt brought on by the world around them.   With the help of another sponsor and friend we have been able to send them half the  money they need , but we still need another $500 to get them back onto solid ground and restore HOPE .  I am sure that anything that any of you would like to give toward this would be so greatly appreciated at this time.  

  We were blessed to have a large donation of Christmas gifts donated through our friend Farm Sergey.  We will be able to add gifts for the kids to the food hampers that we will be giving out in a few days .   As you can see in the picture below, the truck was full to the brim .  What a blessing .. thank you 

 

Today they were  in town to do the shopping for the food hampers to go with the gifts.  We were blessed to have Ravil meet them and take them out for lunch . 

Sergey , Anya and Caroline had a few busy days shopping and packing gifts and then arranging a wonderful party for the kids at the Orlofka orphanage. 

Vera sent me an update .  She and Oleg have packed 100 childrens packages and are ready to give them out on Sunday.  

Thank you to all of you who have given so that others may receive.  What we are giving is not just a physical gift, but it is a gift of HOPE , and everything that comes with that.   What a powerful thing it is !