One step at a time

Less then a week ago I was in the hospital pocked full of hoses, high fever, full of pain and barely able to walk with out help.  Tonight I was able to go for a short walk at the park down the road.  I am a long way from being strong enough to make the 23 hour journey to the other side of the world that we had been scedual to make tomorrow, but we are confident that taking it one step at a time we will be back in the air in another month.  Thank you everyone who has lifted us up with prayer and support .

"I get by with a little help from my friends."

Well it has been quite a week.  We celebrated our God daughters wedding on Saturday.  I was the caterer for the dinner .. it was a little difficult with a cathator in but if I just took my time and was super organized it all went with out a hitch . 

I did enlist the help of a good friend who came and did the bending and lifting for me ... I am blessed to have guys like him ready to help out . 

I have had some help around the house as well. I had planed to do so much work this last couple weeks  but have been blesses with some help around the house too ... in fact just this morning Aiden helped Jengish cut the grass 

There has been lots of work going on in Kyrgyzstan as well .. Sergey just sent the latest photos of the rebuild of the house that burned.  , if you look at the last post you will see some of the before pictures . 

We have a team coming in a few weeks , and would like to help with back to school stuff as well as getting ready for winter .. blankets etc. as well they will need some furniture ..  Its hard to put a price on what all that will cost, but I am sure what ever comes in will be the perfect amount . 

The farm is doing well .. a couple years ago we planted some apple trees .. They were just sticks that were about 2 feet long .. today they are about 8 feet and covered with apples . 

Tomorrow I will be going into the hospital for a scope and am praying that they are able to fix what ever it is I have going on at that time ..

one last update ..  Our students have arrived safely in Cincinnati.  There was a delay with the last flight and they had to spend 14 hours in the Chicago airport.  Oh the wonders of world travel .. But they finally made it to Cincinnati, and are excited about what the next year will bring .. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting our tuition and scholarship fund . The difference in the lives of these kids will be seen for a life time .

forced to slow down .

The last couple weeks Julie and I have been back on the road bringing updates to friends and supporters.

It was great to see everyone.  We had a little glitch right at the end of the trip and John ended up into emergency with a badder blockage.   Tomorrow he will get the catheter removed and we are praying that between the medicine and the time for the bladder to heal that all will be well.   It has forced us to slow down a little bit. . 

Fortunately things have not slowed down at all back in Kyrgyzstan.   

A few weeks ago I shared about a single mom who had lost her home in a fire .  Many people in the village as well as some of you stepped up to help her get the home repaired before winter.   

before 

after 

 now they are starting on the inside .  It is amazing how well things are coming. 

Sergey was to visit them today to see how they are doing .  The mother is starting to worry about school starting soon.  The kids had lost their clothes 
and school supplies.  As well with summer coming to an end she is worried that they do not have bedding and blankets.   We have a bit of money to get the kids enough to start school, and Julie and I will be back at the end of August and we have a team coming a few days later.  If you would like to help with this, we would love to have the funds to be able to bring the team to help her get the house finished and to look after stuff like back to school and maybe some furniture.    


Another project we have been working on is the hospital behind the farm.  With the help of a Rotary grant, we have been putting in new windows. so far we have replaced about 20 windows as well as a new front door that will actually close. 

On the farm we have been very busy with a lot of guests ,  The AirBandB has been keeping everyone very busy.  People from all over the world have visited .. great life skills for the kids and at the same time have been a great help as we try to meet the financial needs on the farm. 

Not all the guests to the farm are paid gigs, in Fact this week we hosted almost 30 people for 5 days for a conference for local families who have adopted kids from within Kyrgyzstan.  We are so blessed that we can offer this help to them . The farm also  provided all the meals for the conference.  Thank you to those who have supported this .

We are also preparing for another team of social workers from Bishkek . they have helped with our kids on several occasions , and we would love to host them at the kashar for a few days.  We have started a fund and we already have one group that has started a monthly support that allows us to do this type of thing. As this fund support grows we hope to be able to provide the farm and kashar to a lot more worthy groups and orphanages. 

On the farm we are now into full swing in the garden .  This week it is plumbs, tomatoes, peppers, and several different kinds of squash that we have been picking and delivering to orphanages and hospitals, as well as other private children's homes.  When the team comes in a few weeks we will have a chance to catch up a but with the canning. 

This time every year is always a little stressful.  School will start up in a few weeks and we have a lot of expenses between the tuition and the school supplies.  But we are certain that education is a real KEY TO SUCCESS. 

We are 1/4 of the way to meeting our goal and we have three weeks left before we need to start paying tuition's... Gulp.  Things are getting a little urgent with this need .  Please consider helping us with this.  It will make such a difference in the future of those we are helping.