Saturday, May 09, 2026

Gardening day

The planting is coming along well. Under this tarp. There is drip irrigation hose that will be attached to the big water barrel. 


The barrel can be filled from our truck when it's not busy out in the village delivering water to those without water. 


Nick, Ruslan and I were able to get enough of the driveway filled in at the guest house so that we have been able to re open . 


Sergey stopped at the baby orphanage and paid the contractor for putting in the new well...  He said it was so deep that he could hear the guy working down the well but could not see him. 




We have started to get the planters ready.   We are going up to the Kashar for supper, then will plant them all tonight when it's cooler out 



Julie and I will be arriving back to Canada on June 3, and on June 6th we are heading  to Jamaica with a team from our church.  We will be working at a summer camp and rebuilding a community chicken coop.  As well we will be building a relationship with a family there that has a conection to other missionaries from our church.  

If you are in the Norwood area we have 500 ml bottles of our gogi berry honey from Kyrgyzstan for sale.  The cost is $40 a bottle with 100% of the proceeds going to support the projects we will be doing.
 


Thursday, May 07, 2026

Yesterday was a special day .

 Yesterday was an exciting trip out to the end of the valley. we were blessed to have lunch with Farm Alina .  She is doing great , and has been married for 7 years now .  It was so good to catch up.   


We stopped along the way to hand out Samaritan's purse boxes.  This was such a big part of our history.  Every year we  would pack them with our kids and then our kids school and our church have been depots to collect and organize them for shipping .


Now seeig the joy on the kids faces when they receive them.


Every child is registered first before they receive their gift.


definitely a special day 


This morning Nick and I started filling in the trench in front of the guest house .  We have managed to get enough for a small entrance so we can reopen the guest house now.


Julie is working on some gift bags for the Ladies.  She is going to have a High tea, and give them each a china tea cup along with honey, tea, a package of seeds, and a gift card.  how fun is that. 




Sunday, May 03, 2026

Water, planting, vitamins and food for the seniors.



Lots of work going on but I love that we can always fit in a coffee break in the cafe.

Tanya has been busy back serving her seniors. 


She has had her hands full with the new baby but it's great that she can get back out with her people 


They were all happy to see her as well 


Acel has been making the rounds giving out the prenatal vitamins.


Today we got the landscaping cloth down and have started planting the seeds .



Tomorrow we will start planting Tomatoes , peppers and egg plants in The cloth. 



 The boys are still working on the water .. so much work. There are trenches everywhere . 


We are still delivering water regularly to those without.



We stopped at Red river orphanage and picked up some new crafts for the gift shop .




Well coffee is almost done and time to get back to work.

Friday, May 01, 2026

The cracked pot.


When sorting out our home in Canada we had many tea cups that have been in the china cabinet for probably 80 years .  We decided to bring some with us and have a tea party for some ladies here and give them each a cup.  There are so many life lessons that include tea cups .. I will share more another day after the party so that I don't let the cat out of the bag if anyone of them read the blog.


I will share one story.  On the way one of the cups was broken .. we would be tempted to throw it out , but we remembered the gold guilded art ...

In the Japanese art of Kintsugi, broken pottery is repaired with gold lacquer. The cracks aren't hidden; they are highlighted, making the piece more valuable than it was before it broke.

The Lesson: Our "cracks"—our past mistakes, heartbreaks, and trials—are where God pours in His "golden" grace. We are 2 Corinthians 4:7 "jars of clay" holding an eternal treasure. 

So today I went to work and repaired the tea cup.  



 Our scars are not marks of shame; they are evidence of God’s restorative power.