Thank you Tanya

 Tanya has been hard at work , this week she is hard at work delivering FOOD , HOPE and LOVE .

come on out

Sunday morning at 10:00 am at the church 

( 8290 BATAVIA PIKE CINCINNATI, OH 45244)

 love to see you there .

 

Micro loan opportunity

Here is one way to enjoy fresh honey .  With the last team, they went out with Sergei and raided the hive and brought one of the frames to the kitchen where they could scoop their own honey out onto fresh tea biscuits 

But to do it properly and with 60 hives , there is a special honey extractor that spins the frame to collect the honey.    The guys ( Vlad and Sergei ) have asked for a micro loan to be able to purchase the spinner and the collection table .  

The total cost for the extractor and table is $1200 USD.  The way we will do a micro loan is this ,  The funds would come in as a donation, (with tax receipt given ) the loan would be one year interest free, and when paid back, the funds would be used for other micro loans .  
 

Sunday morning message

.This Sunday morning Julie and I will be sharing at an outdoor service at Pine Grove Community Church.  Any of you who have heard me speak will know that I show a lot of pictures and tell stories, so I have posted some of those pictures here so that people can follow along. We will be on the road tomorrow so I will post them now.   So Welcome Pine Grove Community Church .  

 

Day 14 by Zac .. final day

9pm local time. Loaded up to leave the farm. Hour and a half on the road to the airport in Bishkek. Slight delay getting through security but got our bags checked and boarding passes. Final goodbyes, giant hugs, and some parting words to John, Julie, Kamala, and Nikolai. Through passport control and more security, then a couple hours to wait before our 6 hour flight to Istanbul.

. Landed in Türkiye, a STUNNING airport, and got through a busy security fairly smoothly. 9 and a half hour layover, and we all pretty much went separate ways or in small groups to spend our time.

Kat, Jenaia, and I searched for fooooood. Ended up at the nicest breakfast joint in the airport 👌🏼👌🏼 I spent the rest of my time exploring, eating, napping, exploring, shopping, eating, and exploring.

Igor was flying to Dallas while the rest of us flew to Toronto, but our departure times were extremely similar and at neighbouring gates. Got to spend some final intentional time with him, and then we ended up on our 11 hour flight back to North America.  

Landing in Toronto, things seemed to go fairly smoothly getting through customs. Jenish & Emma were there waiting for his mom, who travelled with us from Kyrgyzstan to Canada for her first time, here to meet her grandkids. I had the closest commute of anyone on the team, 

so I made it to Brantford by 11pm local time. 36 hour trip.

Thank you Zac for your account of your two week trip to the farm. It was such a pleasure to have you and your whole teem working along with us . 

If anyone is interested in coming on a team to Kyrgyzstan, Go over to Possibilities International , they have a trip on the board for 2014, and there are still a few spots left on it . or if you would like to come on your own  or with your own team, contact us directly and we can help you make it happen.  

 

Day 13 by Zac

This one is hard to write. Not because there isn’t anything to say (on the contrary) but because if I’m putting words to our last day in Kyrgyzstan then it really means that I’m not there anymore. It was a Sunday morning and we headed to the Bazaar in Tokmak for a few hours before church.

 We had the incredible honour of being invited to the home of Ellis, the village chief, for our final meal in Kyrgyzstan. John had me sit in a pretty specific spot and let me know that my mission was to eat non-stop from the time food was served until we got up to leave. Y’all, I was so happy. John and I literally ate 1/4 of a lamb between the two of us

and the feast was insanely…Spoiled again.

We were able to exchange gifts and words, and you could genuinely tell Ellis was happy to have had us blessing Rot-Front with our work.

             We headed back to the guest house to pack our bags. 

Back on the farm 

It has been a hard year for water .. the irrigation canals are mostly dry , and even the town tap water is rationed so we often have no water a couple days at a time .  Because of this we have set up  water tanks that we can store water in and  bring water ourselves down from the mountain in the truck to refill.

  We have these tanks connected to the Kitchen and guest house with a pump so that with the turning of a tap we can have water.   One of the projects I will be doing when we get back in the fall is to set up a tank like that at the house Julie and I stay at .. it has the laundry facilities, the cafe and the water for the chickens and rabbits, so that makes water a little more then a luxury there .  We have found a couple of tanks that had been used for vinegar rather then chemicals.. they are $100 each so as soon as we find a sponsor for that we will purchase them if they are still available . 

Day 12 by Zac

The Kashar was put to good use as we hosted another party. A group home from Tokmak of men and women with various disabilities came and we got to treat them to the full experience. Fishing, the hot springs,

walk through the foothills, painting, horseback riding, and lunch.

 Sam was looking forward the entire time to a proper fish fry, and he showed Dastan & I all his tricks as we helped prepare the meal.  

 The entire morning we could see dark clouds making their way through the mountains, and that afternoon we had a proper Himalayan storm. Wind. Lots of wind. So much wind. Then something sounded like thunder, but close by. Turned out to be the steel roof from a neighbour’s barn blowing down the road. We were just getting water back in the village after a few days, but then it was time for the power and internet lines to cut out. It poured rain for about ten minutes, but then that same heavy wind had things dried up in about half an hour. After dinner some of the team headed back up to the Kashar to spend the night where there was still power and a working shower. Things were dry in the yurt, which was impressive, as we heard some stories from John & Julie about their experiences sleeping up on the mountain during those storms.

 Back on the farm 

I got a message from Vera that they received the funds for the food hampers.  So they have started shopping and packing bags .  Next week when the kids camp is over they will change gears and head out on wellness checks and bring food .  She is so thankful for all the help with these important events.