More then one emotion at play !

I got an update from Tanya who is focusing on bringing a hole lot of joy to some seniors today. 

"John hello. Thank you so much from me and from all the elderly... I said you blessed them. They are very happy, they said hello to you, thank you for not forgetting. Grandpa was crying. He said that the first time he gets help.. said that the whole pension is spent on medicine and it is very difficult for old people to survive now"

Tears of Relief, tears of Joy , tears of Sorrow , tears of Pain, tears of Sadness. So many emotions can bring out the same response.  In the case of this grandfather , my guess there is more then one emotion in play here !   

Tanya also was able to get a bit more back to school shopping done today with her little helper at the bazar. 

I want to one more time thank everyone that responded to this back to school need.  

We have another few needs that we need to find some sponsors for . Update... These needs have been covered. Thank you. 

Ruslan from the farm had been having difficulty in school , mostly attitude I think , so he took an academic leave.  In that time he had several successes , like passing his drivers licence , and taking several cooking classes .. He has become active with our guests on the farm and has a hole new outlook . he has decided to go back to school and complete his tourism diploma .  for him we are looking for 26000 som for the next semester of his school and 8000 for school supplies ( $390 USD ) 

We also have another Ruslan some of you may know, but many know is father better .  This is Isars son.  He is in his third year at a really good university.  His tuition if 40 000 som for the year .  ( $460 USD ) 

this boy is a great kid and we would be so blessed if we could help him . 

Misha is a young man from the farm.  He had gotten really involved with the cooking and did a great job.  He has started working for other travel agencies cooking for their teams, a skill he learned on the farm .  A couple months ago his mother died , so he has been living with his grandmother to help her out.  Last week his grandmother past away.  Misha came to us for some help. He needed 10 000 som for the funeral expenses. ( $115 USD)  we were traveling at the time and this was time sensitive so we went ahead and paid it, but hoping that some one would like to help us with this .  Also please remember to Pray for Misha at this difficult time.  

Just a reminder,  If you are donating from the US, please remember to email me at actofkindness127@gmail.com ( or drop me a line on fb)  and let me know the amount and the purpose so that I can know how you would like the donation spent and so that I can update others so that we are not collecting more then requested for a specific need.  

Time with friends

It has been a busy weekend both here and in Kyrgyzstan .  Julie and I traveled to NY to spend some time with some great friends and huge supporters of the work in Kyrgyzstan . We got in on Saturday morning and that afternoon we had an Asian food fellowship.   Adam gave instruction as we made some awesome spring rolls .   It was so nice to see everyone after being away for so long. 

Sunday morning Julie and I shared at the church .  Again it was so great to see everyone again . They are always so welcoming and make us feel right at home . 

 

Tanya has been busy as well.  First she was able to get the funds for the operation for our young friend who needed help.  She will continue to follow up on his progress.   Tanya was also busy at the market where she brought the kids that we had shared the clothing need for.  They all were able to get the items that they needed as well as the back to school supplies .  This is such a big thing for them .  With out this help, they simply would not have been able to go to school this year . 

In the city , we continue to have regular weekly contact with our city kids at Breakfast club.  Those that receive a weekly living allowance from us must come to breakfast club .  If they can not make it that's ok, but they just won't get the support that week . This way we are able to continue to check in with them regularly, and not have to chase after them around the city . 

 

Here is another one !

 We got a message from one of our Girls who has been living away from Kyrgyzstan for a few years .. she contacted us to ask for $500 USD to help get her documents up to date so she can get a place to stay.. she is on the street now... I was able to send her $300 USD right away ( 472 cdn ) enough to get her off the street for now .. we hope to be able to send her another $200 shortly. 

Urgent need

So you start with a little bag of school supplies , and that leads us to full back to school shopping band that opens the door fo so much more .. when you are out in the community you face so many needs ... My first thought is to ask Tanya to go home and stop looking for work.. but that's not what she does and that's not what we do.   Instead run h as long into it ...  Here is what Tanya writes ...

"John hello. John will be possible help for Alinas son . They are live in East village. Alina's son's jaw was broken. When he stood at the stop, he was waiting for the car to work a boy came to him and beat him. He had surgery .Now he lies at home .He can't work. He need medicines, injections and for road to Bishkek ,.visit the doctor . They need 15000 thousand. If will be possible help for this family...."

That works out to about $200 USD .. ( 275 cdn ) if anyone would like to help with this that would be great ..  just a reminder that if donating from the US please email of fb me to let me know the amount so I can get it to him right away and so I cam update others who may be considering . thank you so much for the help with this . 

Update .. this need has been covered thank you 

 

If my heart is breaking , I am sure Tanya's is too .

We have watched them grow up .  Hot summers , cold winters wet springs .. no mater the season, I know where we can find them . 

These are our little dumplings .  

For fifteen years now we have watched these kids grow up living on the fringe.  Larisa and her mom used to take them in for meals and advocate for them at school or wherever help was needed  .  Tanya has now taken up that torch .

When we sent Tanya money to purchase back to school supplies, she contacted me right away and was very appreciative, but was quick to point something out. 

With the hard economic times in Kyrgyzstan, fewer and fewer items of any value are making it to the dump.  The dumpsters are being more and more picked over by the poor and the homeless before it ever makes it to the dump.  

Tanya said that the supplies will be great , but first they need clothes so that they can even attend school .   So I told her to go ahead and get the supplies as that was what the designated giving was , but to send me a report of the most urgent situations ..   Tanya learned well from her mom .  The first child on the top of her list is our little Vera shown above .   Here is what she sent me 

" John hello . John could you help please for the kids from the dump . They are need clothes for the school. Vera needs : shoes, jacket, tights, skirt. Tanya"

She has about thirty more  kids that could use help with clothes but the the seven most urgent needs are above .. 

To get these seven kids everything that they need will be $500 USD.  What ever comes in we will do what we can , but if extra comes in we will work our way through the rest of her list .  Could you imagine if   $1700  came in and she was able to help them all.....

Maybe this would be a great time for those donating from the US to try out our new donation platform .. Information is in the link below .. just click on the picture to get started . 

Please remember to email me the donation amount and purpose so that I will be able to get the funds in motion.  actofkindness127@gmail.com

If donating from Canada please continue to use the DONATE NOW button on the top right side of the blog . 

Back to school ..

A few days ago I shared about a local VBS raising funds for back to school supplies for kids in Kyrgyzstan . 

Today was a big day for many of those kids who were surprised with not just their back to school supplies but also with a new backpack to carry them .   

 Thank you to all those who gave to and added to  this project.  You brought a lot of JOY today .  ( and more to follow as our other friends are preparing to hand out supplies as well. ) 

Arriving in style

Today the new chickens arrived on the farm in style.  During the pandemic we gave away our chickens with food hampers . When things settled down and we went to replace them, there was an outbreak of the bird flue so we could not purchase new ones from the bazaar.  We were able to purchase egg layers from the teen challenge, but those chickens have a week constitution and are not strong enough for free range and also have a short life span .  We have been working to increase our flock so we  gathered up eggs from local chickens and had them incubated separate from other flocks . these chickens are about two months old now and got to ride in our new van out to the farm. 

I got a message today with a garden update from one of the families we have been helping for a few years now .  I am reminded of the scripture that says 

They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden"

 

Updating method of donating from the United States.

 You may have noticed the change on the donation bar on this blog.  Here is what is happening.

For those in the United States ,  We are moving away from the PayPal and going directly to the Makers Church giving platform . This will stream line the tax receipting and accounting,  and the good part is  it will reduce the cost of transferring funds as we will no longer have to pay the PayPal fees.  

The new button on the blog looks like this 

When you click on it you will be brought to this page at the Makers Church in Cincinnati .  They receive the funds and direct them on to the Canadian Charity LINK127 and issue a US tax receipt for us. 

Here you will put in the amount, and choose Acts of Kindness (Kyrgyzstan Missions ) from the drop down screen .

Next you have a choice of the frequency of your donation .. this is where you can set up for weekly , by weekly , or monthly giving . 

Then enter your name and email address and it will then prompt you through the payment method either direct from your bank account or with a debit or credit card.

The next step is an important one.  There may be a short time delay from when the donation is made until I receive the notification, as well It will not show me what the specific donation is intended for.  As you know many times we are requesting help for specific needs and I like to update others as soon as those needs are met so that we don't have several donations come in for the same need .  To be able to keep everyone updated , After making a donation, please email me at actofkindness127@gmail.com  and tell me amount donated and where you would like your donation directed. 

For those of you who are currently set up with a monthly PayPal donation, I will be contacting you directly with details about how to cancel the PayPal monthly giving and set up a new monthly giving through makers .  We will attempt to do this over the next billing cycle . 

We are so thankful for those at Makers Church who work hard to make it possible for us to be able to issue tax receipts in the US , and forward those on to our Canadian charity Link127 ... Keeping up with the ever changing banking rules and restrictions is not an easy thing , but we sure are blessed when we have so many working with us to make it possible .  

Blessing John & Julie and our hole Kyrgyzstan team. 

Urgent need for Vlad and Alina's Son

Happy to share that this need has been met . Thank you .

I try to start off the posts with a happy storey , then at the end share some current needs .. But today I am going to start with a huge need, but one that someone could very quickly turn into a happy storey .  

Many of you know our friends and coworkers Vlad and Alina.  Their youngest son Mark is having troubles with his teeth. They have been diligent about this right from the start, but no mater what they do he is having more difficulty . It has reached the point were he is now starting to get sick from this and not able to eat with out pain.    

They had him to the dentist this week, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and because of his age and the fact that they will have to put him under for the long procedure, this is going to be very expensive.  

It is going to cost $710 USD to fix ($975 CDN) to do the work.  Teeth pain is the worst and now that it is effecting his health,  we need to act right away.  We have told them to go ahead and start the work, and we are trusting on God to bring a sponsor for this quickly. 

 Here is some good news , at least a story that makes my heart happy. 

Tanya had a visit today from one of the seniors that the team brought grocery shopping and out for dinner .  She was also the recipient of seeds from us in the spring.   Here is the note I got from Tanya 

Hello John. Now grandmother came brought me vegetables from

her garden. These are the seeds that I gave her from you. She is very grateful. She say thank you very much ,& ,hello . She has been eating her vegetables from the garden all summer. She can't forget going to the cafe and shopping and people who were with her.  Blessings to all.