July 21 Music Night

what a great opportunity to help kids, both at home and in Kyrgyzstan 

Sunday July 21 at the Havelock Centre, there will be an amazing concert featuring THE KEEP as well as our son BENJAMIN WRIGHT 

along with great music, I understand there will be really good COFFEE. 

here is the best part .. all proceeds will be split "50 -50-50 "to support kids summer programs in Havelock, Stirling and in Kyrgyzstan . 

If you would like a few tickets , let me know 

Scholarship fund

Julie got this message today from Victor. She had sent him a picture from over ten years ago.   Victor is one of the kids that benefit from the scholarship fund.   Won't you consider how you can help? 

Don't touch my coffee !

"So Just leave the coffee out of this."   How many times have you heard or been told , for the price of just a cup of coffee a day, or Give up your Starbucks or Timmies on the way to work !.. Why is it that to experience the reward of doing a small act of kindness for someone we should then give something up?   I say Please help us with a small act of kindness, and then celebrate .. go get yourself a Late !

At the farm, we are in a village were there is not a single restaurant.  Wanting the kids to experience life, especially after being institutionalized their hole lives, we built a cafe.  The Cafe is a place to go when you are down, it is a place to go when you are celebrating, it is a place to go when you have questions or just need to talk , and it is a place to go for a reward for a job well done ... Over a good cup of coffee we have watched as lives have been touched and hearts have been changed ... So I am not going to ask anyone ever again to just give up their morning coffee, but will ask that you join us with a small "act of kindness" then go treat yourself to a cup-a.   We will celebrate with you !

So where am I going with this you might ask ?  

Well we have a few needs that are starting to get ahead of us .  There is a young boy we know that has problems with bad knock-knees .  This can be corrected with massage and corrective shoes .. $120 CDN.... No need to give up coffee for this one right ?

Here is another $120 need One of the families we work with , Mr butcher helps when we have kids in the prisons, as well he looks after our fields .  Mrs Butcher receives some help from us to go to a pharmacist collage.  Well Mrs butcher has some eye problems and the treatment is $120

This next need is a fun one , It is a bit more, and doing it alone might require a cut back on the coffee, so instead maybe if a few of you got together , no coffee would be harmed..

Our Kyrgyz girl Baktagul  got married a couple weeks ago in Turkey.  the wedding celebration will be Sept 1.  Julie and I had tried to plan a stop in Turkey on our way back for this , but the Turkish air fares were over $2000 more expensive for us to fly through Turkey.  Then we came up with an idea .. Aigoola was first connected with Baktagul in the orphanage almost 15 years ago and has been an important roll in her life all this time , right up to and including Baktugul living on the farm and spending time with Aigoola before going back to Turkey in the spring.  For $500 we can fly Aigoola to Turkey for the wedding celebration.  Both Baktagul and Aigoola are thrilled with this .. It will be so important for Baktagul to have someone there representing her Kyrgyz family, and will be a true adventure and a great holiday for Aigoola at the same time .. 

The next one up I have mentioned in passing, but the time is coming where we need to act.  Many of you will have known Melody if you have been to Kyrgyzstan.  She has helped translate for us since she was eight years old .   She is smart, gifted, and has a soft gentle spirit , an absolute gem.  For the last few years she has been having a terrible time at school and there does not seem to be anything that can be done about it.  She is being treated awful and picked on and bullied buy a mean spirited spiteful old teacher simply because of her faith.  We have prayed for strength, for Melody, a softening of the teachers heart, and baring all else a distance between Melody and the teacher , how ever that might be .   

Prayers were answered when Melody was excepted and received a visa and a scholarship to a fantastic like minded private school in Cincinnati Ohio.  I can not begin to express how thrilled we are for her .. this is normally over $20 000 a year tuition plus living expenses, plus flights , plus visa .. The total that we will need to pay for this is just $4000 .  Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy has seen something special in Melody and is willing to make a great investment into her future .. would you consider being a part of that ..   In fact , if you are lead to cover this one , I will buy YOU a coffee. 

Melody is just one of over a dozen kids we would like to sponsor for tuition next fall .. with a little over

 $15 000 needed to meet these needs, we could sure use your help. 

Summer line up

We are three days from our original departure from Kyrgyzstan.  I had been looking forward to being there a little longer, the crops are just starting to come in now.  lettuce , peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, snow peas, spinach, swiss chard, kale, zucchini and cabbages are all ready now.  

Our main reason to stay later was to help get the first weeding done on the gardens. When we were preparing to leave early I offerted to hire in more field workers to help get ahead of the weeds, but the guys said that it was alright , that they could do it... and they did .  I am so impressed with all the hard work that they did..

They have been starting at 7:00 am every day, and getting out of the garden before the heat of the day.  they can spend the hot afternoons here..

After the funeral, we have been getting things cleaned  up around the house.  Julie is sorting boxes trying to clear out the storage room, and I am putting a new top on the deck as the old boards had rotted out.  In a couple weeks we will start our  summer schedule.    If we are going to be in your area, let us know and we would love to meet up. Here is our summer ..

July 7      on call backup for a friend whose wife is expecting 
July 14    Peterborough 
July 21    Thunder bay 
July 24    Winnipeg
July 28    Saint cloud Minnesota  
Aug 3      anniversary party at our Norwood home 
Aug 4      Stirling 
Aug 10    Norwood 
Aug 21    Sudbury   
Aug 25    Espanola 
Aug 28    Kyrgyzstan

They did it !

Congratulations to our stars ...

Sergey and Anya's boys Vladic and Artur, & Acel and T's daughter Melody 

It has been a long spring for these three as they have been filling out applications, taking tests and applying for scholarships, and visa's , but as of today , they have the visa's in hand and have all been excepted into an international program at an incredible school in Cincinnati Ohio.  This is such a fantastic opportunity for them.  The scholarships that they received will cover most of their tuition and living expenses.  Their out of pocket expenses   flights and visa's included will be around $4000 each . 

We did not start looking for sponsorship for them earlier because we were not sure if they would be excepted, and the big IF... if they would be given Visa's ..

Well everything is in place and Visa's are in hand now, and they fly out in about eight weeks ..

If you would like to  help with their tuition or any of our other kids we sponsor for school from the farm or families in need, please use one of the donate links on the top right side of the blog . 

Here is a little update from Kyrgyzstan this spring. There was so much more, but I tried to keep it short.

Congratulations Baktygul and and Yasin

Many of you may remember Baktygul. We first met her in the orphanage when she was about 10 years old.  When she was 15 she ca me to live with us while she was going to school then to nursing collage.  Last year she worked in Turkey for a work and travel program .  It was then that she met Yasin.  Yasin is a very kind and caring man and we are sure that they will be happy together.   This is a picture of her today,  and below is a picture of Baktaygul and Emma about eight years ago when she came to live with us. 

Here is more exciting news .  Many of you will also know another young lady ,  She has worked with us as a translator and helper with families we help as well as translating and helping with teams.  So here is the news .  She has been excepted to an awesome school in Cincinnati and as of today she has received her student visa .  She has also received a great scholarship  that includes her school, activity fees and housing and living expenses .  Total that we need to raise for her is $4000 to cover the flight, visa fees and tuition.  We have a few weeks to raise this , We have known for a bit but had to wait until we had confermation of a visa before we started raising funds . 

I will post some more in a couple days about the school.  Sergey and Anya's boys have also been excepted to the school as well..  And so begins the education fundraising .. we also have at least eight other students from the farm that will be needing tuition.  So here we go again with our summer fundraising for tuition needs.. Again this year we will need to raise $15 000 for everyone, so if you would like to help, please just write TUITION in the memo line when you use the donation button on the top right of the blog.   This is a figure that has scared me every year for the past 10 years, and some how every year the need is met, so we know it is possible , but then ALL things are possible with God. 

the wonders of world travel

So much has gone on in the last couple weeks . 

I guess the big news is the marriage of Bekah to Azamat.   There was not a hole lot of fanfare as Azamat is a quiet guy so we have respected his desire to keep things quiet.  With our son Benjamin and his family here it was a great time for the wedding. 

we were excited to have Benjamin and his family here with us for the week .. Lots of excitement with all the attractions around the farm 

Morning at the Kashar is totally stunning 

this was a fun day at the kashar with friends and co workers along with kids from the farm

the cows are up at the kashar now,  The ropes are warped around the horns for the night then unwrapped in the morning when we tie them out 

night time bonfire with Aunt Bekah

Did I mention how beautiful the mornings are 

Our grandsons class mate gathered up many craft supplies for the the kids at the Children's treatment center  

Friends visiting the kashar take a few minutes to visit with Daisy 

the flower gardens are taking shape.  This wild flower garden was planted a few weeks ago with seeds we saved from last year 

The farm cafe is still a great place for morning coffee   break with the boys 

We have received news of the passing of Julies father.  He is one of those people that you knew was always there for you.  Kind, generous and always a great support.

There were so many times that Bruce was there for us, but let me give you an example of the kind of person he was.  Shortly after my own father died,  my sister was traveling along the 401 (a large city highway through Toronto) late at night and her car broke down and she called me for help.  I contacted Bruce .. 1/2 an hour later, Bruce picked her up and brought her to his house for the night .  When she woke up, not only was breakfast ready, but her car was retrieved from the highway, a new alternator was installed and the car was in the driveway ready for her to continue on her way ...  when I asked how much was the repair was , Bruce just gave me a little grin and shook his head no.   

Bruce will be missed by many.  

 Julie and I have warped things up early here in Kyrgyzstan and will be heading for the airport in a couple hours.  This has to be one of the hardest things about living the life we lead, but we are blessed to have a strong team on the ground here and due to the wonders of modern travel we will be back in Canada by supper tomorrow night .