Blessed to be a blessing !

Julie and I had an incredible time in Santa Rosa Beach .   We arrived on Friday night in time to go out for supper and spend some time with our friends and catch up with Logan .  We are all so excited that he will be bringing friends with him in a couple months.    On saturday morning we were up early preparing a Kygyz meal for some of those that will be coming on the team.  Once everything was started  , we had two hours scedualed in for some beach time.  It called for pouring  rain for the weekend but we know the one that even the waves obay, and asked for a break in the rain .  We had a beautiful time at the beach ... NO RAIN.   

Then back to the house where we cooked Bish-bal-mak, Borsolk, Laposhka , and Chuck-chuk for deseart with honey from the farm. 

I think the first time we spoke at this church was about 5 years ago and they had just moved from the pastors house to a small wharehouse with about 100 people .  This weekend my guess is that there were about 3000 people spread over 3 services.   They had a missions service, and celebrated over 50 nationalities represented in their own church .   

We were so blessed to be hosted by them , encouraged by everyone we spoke with.  There was a special "taste of the nations" lunch after the third service where you could sample food from all the nations . 

As a special blessing to us , they have covered our expences to return to Kyrgyzstan this fall... so yes ,  our tickets are booked .   Aug 23 until Oct 4 we will be there, and hosting three teams at that time.  We have been blessed so that we can now return to be a blessing to others. 

At the farm there is a patch of garden that we just planted in hay since we are still working on water isues .  It is to small to bring in a bailer , but it sure seems big when you have to cut and bring it in to the barn by hand. 

After a hard days work a nice little dip in the river is always fun .

across one of the mountain rivers , our mountain bees are doing great .  some of the hives have split and we have been able to replenish the hives lost over the winter .. we got 100 lt  from the first draw , and will likely get another 100 lt from the next . 

Down on the farm we have about 35 new hives.  We had lost them all in the spring.  After serviving the winter and beginning their spring activities , we had a sudden cold snap of about -20 and a foot of snow.  this completly wiped them out .. our mountain bees survived because they did not get the warm spell before the cold so they had stayed in winter mode.  We were able to re start  35 of the 45  hives and they are doing really well and soon we will be drawing honey here as well. 

Some people have been asking how they can help, so I will share  a few of the projects that we are still working on .   

- Its that time of year when we need to pay some tuitions .. for this we still need another $6000

- The boys are ready to bag and stack the next truck load of coal $800. lets keep them busy 

- we have a group of couples we have been working with that are going for a 4 day time together in       IsyKool .. just need another $200 towards this . 

- we have salvaged the wooden frame from the 4 m yurt that was at the kashar and are puting it up in the garden down at the guest house.  We need a new felt cover for it.  We can get one made for $350 

- here is a big one we have been praying about .  Vera and olegs van was rolled, and can not be repaired.  They have not asked us but we know  they have about $1000 towards a new car but will need at least  another $5000 to be able to get something half decient .  I have given them my car to use while I am away , so it would be great if we could help them out before Aug 25 when we land.  

I am back at my Canada home now , caring for my mother and looking after the gardens . 

 Julie is back in Newfoundland looking after our grand daughter,.. still praying for a day care spot to open up.