SOMEONE NEEDS TO SHEAD A TEAR !

Every day we are in touch with many of the different groups that we work with . Some times Skype some times FB chat, or email. but team we talk to the most right now is our "Team Ukraine.".. This is more then just a missions team our bringing hope , they themselves are growing and stretching more then those they are helping.

I was on the skype chat with Aiperi, I asked how she was doing ...."PLOHA" ( BAD ) was her response. I knew right away what the problem was. This was their last day with the kids from the orphanage and the boys Rehab centre and they had to say good bye.
I don't know if anyone could ever fully describe this emotion...you have to live it to understand. The girls have seen us and many others come and go from the orphanage over their years there, and still could never have imagined seeing it from this side. I am not sure just what it is... maybe it is that you open yourself up fully to loving and caring for this time, it could be that although you talk about hope and show hope, as you are going , everything that is hopeless about the situation jumps right out at you, or maybe it is because you never know if you will ever see those you love so much again... what ever the reason , it is nasty. We have tried saying good buy in big groups , small groups, out in public or at our own apartment... nothing works.
As I spoke more with the girls, they shared that it was like there was this big hole in there hearts that was left when those kids were riped out... I share with them that I know the whole well... The thing is , that was not a part of the original you! that is a space that was never there before. it got there because you let that seed of love grow in your heart. and now we have to trust God to fill that hole with more seeds. Many people will never experience this kind of stretching . Some because they are scared of this very moment, and others because they do not know so much love can exist. They asked if it will get any easier... I told them NO it will get harder but this is a special calling... SOMEONE NEEDS TO SHEAD A TEAR FOR THESE KIDS!

Say it fast and it's not so bad !

Our kids are growing up, and with that comes the growing pains of going off to collage or University, and eventually leaving home.

We experienced this for the first time many years ago when Benjamin went off to Bible collage, and then got married. We should be a little more relaxed now, Benjamin has done so well, and we are so proud of him and his family.. it all turned out OK... I remember when He came to me worried about tuition, I told him that the decision for his future should not be only based on money, and that he should worry about what he wanted to do, and that I would worry about the money... He received a full scholarship, so I kind of dodged the bullet there... next up was Altynai, no sooner had we decided to tell her the same thing, that we would be the ones to do the worrying, and a two year scholarship was provided for her.. Then the next up is Emma.. she is a little different... she paid her own way through the ESL training at a local university, and she packed up and moved to Kyrgyzstan... who are we to argue with that...

This summer, many of our kids have completed high school in Kyrgyzstan and are trying to decide what to do next. We took a big gulp, and have told many of them the same thing... You worry about where you want to go to school and I will worry about the money...

That was easy to say last spring, but now that it is time to start sending out the deposits, things are starting to mount...

It would be easy to just step back and say that the money was just not there, but these kids have one chance at breaking the cycle of poverty, and that is a good education... We have toughed them to have hopes and dreams... now it is time to bight the bullet....

Aiperi will be returning to her second year of sewing and administration school... Luba has a storey that continues to make me ill today... Yet she has been able to trade her sorrows for joy... I don't know where she will decide to go, but I do know that this is one girl that is not going to be "sold off" to some school where they will own her for ten years.... She will never be "sold" again !

Of course you know our Altynai and her family... this year, her scholarship has run out, and if the timing was not bad enough so has the scholarship for her siblings ...

Larisa and Tanya continue to go to school again this year to work on their social work degrees as well as linguistics...

Ahh and our Torat... "He is such a good boy"... wise beyond his years, and forced to grow up way to fast, Torat has struggled with weather to return to school or get a job. The school that he was interested in has closed, and it looks like the closest one is in Kiev... we are looking into that. Sergey and Anya will have a good talk with him and make sure that this is what he would like to do... if it is , we will be looking at the mountains to GET OUT OF THE WAY ...

Our dear sweet Jildez, she is such a beautiful tender young girl.. I am sure she is being pressured to take a path that is not the direction she wants to go... She has great musical talent, but being an orphan growing up in a very poor orphanage, she never had an opportunity to develop that talent... she dreams of attending music school... I want that dream to come true

Then there is Shakir.. He his a fun kid, he is always quick to help out, and has a real heart to share. His mother is the assistant director of one of the orphanages, and any extra that their family has is always put back into the orphanage to help make ends meet... he has had to sacrifice a lot for the sake of the orphans around him, I would hate to see him have to sacrifice his future too. We talked to him, and he would like to become a customs agent. This is a good job in Kyrgyzstan, but the collage course is an expensive one.. I think it is because you do come out with a job. It got a whole lot more expensive when I got notice yesterday that today was the last day to register, and that 1/2 the years tuition had to be in with his application. Not only that but they are a half day ahead of us so it actually was tomorrow ... gulp... thank goodness for Western Union ...

Once the dust settles, I am sure that there are a few more kids that we will need to steer back onto the right track, and a few more who's funding has not come together for them, and that with stretch things a little further . All in all, my guess that this years scholarships total will come in around $3500. I guess we will know better as September approaches. really it is not a lot... if you say it fast...

I am always trying to teach these kids to put faith in their fathers provision... something that I have had to do a hole lot of recently, but have never been let down yet... I HOPE that this is a lesson that they will learn.

Fwd: picnic 3

-----Original Message-----
From: emabugs12@aol.com
To: sunmasterjohn@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Jul 15, 2010 4:27 pm
Subject: picnic 3

the picnic today was great. The kids were all Lenas girls that she has been visiting regularely for two years. They are such good girls and we had a really good time together. It was nice to have a smaller group this time. They really love to swim. A couple of them learned to swim today and they were so proud of themselves. 

Another pot of Ploff...

I wanted to share a bit about the great week we had in Quebec. It is always a time of refreshing for us when we are there with. Although they are not actually related, our hosts , the Wright's , truly are our family. We could not think of a better place to finish off the match week then with a Kyrgyz picnic on the beach for some of the many supporters from their community . If you noticed the comments on the last picnic, the girls said that we did a good job at setting up the picnic with out them, but that "where are the salads?"... so this time we made sure to do it right .

It was a beautiful setting and a beautiful day.

We even had some special visitors like our friend Brigitte who stopped by for the afternoon

When everything was over, Sobaka (the dog) got to lick out the pot.

and me ? I became best friends with a fan .....

When all was said and done, we had reached our target for budget for the next year... what a blessings that is to be able to not worry about that, and be able to focus on the needs at hand.

A new perspective

The picnic yesterday was really great. It was really great to have the team from america and holland there. They had a great program for the people from berry ugly and invited our kids to join them. they really did great things there. They really treated them with dinity and respect. Everyone there had good clothed that fit them right. they were clean and they did their best to make sure they had appropriate bathing suits. they were so well cared for and entertained. They acted out the story of punchanello and there was a young boy on the team there who acted as punchanello, he did a really great job and did as much as any adult on the team. He handled everything well. Of coarse it's hard for anyone to go to an invalid home, but he really coped well there. I hope people will see that children can make a great impact in a missions team in a different way than an adult could. I also hope that someone will do something like that at our invalid home. after helping with "kids" camp for them, i saw the men in a different way. i saw them as little orphaned boys trapped inside dirty old man bodys. Except that they are more alone than a young boy in an orphanage because their bodys are old and dirty and they a little bit scary looking so nobody wants to get close to them. I'm so thankful for the people like Laurissa(in KG) and Max(in Ukraine... www.truehopeukraine.com) who come and show them love. i hope that people will look past thier phsycal appearance and start to adopt these kids too.

There is another member of our team that you didn't write about yet, Lena. We are here to help her with whatever she does here, but it seems like she is the one who helps us. She was living in and going to school in Kyrgyzstan for 9 years, so she understands the girls and helps them whenever they need someone to talk to. She has a big heart for her kids here and they love her very much. She also works hard to have good relations with the directors, which makes it possible for us to do everything that we've done here. This picnic was actually her dream come true. She really had a burden to take the rest of the kids who hadnt gone on the picnic last time and she worked really hard to make her plans work.
even though we are more independant here, Lena still takes care of us like a mom. She makes us phone her every time we take the bus to make sure we got there and home safely. She's a good leader for our team. We are so blessed to be able to serve together.

"The Russian Emma is nothing like the English Emma"

This has been a real time of growing for Emma, and we could not be more proud of her. For the first couple of months in Kyrgyzstan , Emma was staying with friends, and although she was busy teaching, most things were looked after for her. We have an incredible network of friends in Kyrgyzstan, and they ALL worked very hard to make this a positive experience for Emma. Many of the day to day things like banking and transportation, food, and scheduling were all over seen by the many that were there to help.


Life in the Ukraine has been a little different. Don't get me wrong, the girls are safe and they have had lots of help... even as they walked down the stairs off the plane, they were met on the tarmac and escorted to Ed who had everything arranged for them... but since they have traveled to Krovy Rog, Emma has had a lot more responsibility. There are schedules to make, and that includes having the funds available to make a difference. For some reason TD bank does not have any banks in that region that will except their bank cards... so Emma has had to figure out where and how to get money, as well as setting up Internet and other tasks that could be difficult in our own community , but as a quiet shy country girl she has been forced to step out of her comfort zone... Today the girls were laughing as they told me that the Russian Emma is nothing like the English Emma... she is loud and forceful, she can navigate the buses, the banks and has no problem defending their needs when things are not going as they should .. she has purchased Internet and installed it on the lap top, and has even set up Skype so they could call home... all this from our girl that would hand the TV remote to her sister when she wanted the channel changed. ..On top of all this she had managed to set up many special days with the kids in the orphanages along with connecting with other groups that are working in the orphanages. It all takes a lot of organization to keep it all rolling along... Emma has risen to the challenge ... I remember when Julie asked her if she would come back to Canada on her own when the visa's were turned down for the second time... she replied... " Mom we came here as a team... and we will stay as a team." As a team , these three young ladies are bringing hope and encouragement to hundreds of children and adults alike . With such a limited budget they have had to be very resourceful so that they can continue to work with the kids. Today they were telling us of a contact that they have just made that will provide them with new clothes and toys for the kids at their homes and orphanages.


Emma told me another interesting contact... It was a man from Minnesota who sat with the girls and told them of a storey that encouraged him so much .. It was the storey he heard from Ed Dickson of a young Girl who's family lived in an orphanage as she struggled to attend university and look after her family, then someone bought her a home and the family was able to be reunited... it was one of the reasons that he was on this missions trip... he was blown away, when he found out that the girl in the storey was Altynai... A dream come true for him, not just knowing of the storey, but now having that very girl working with them as a translator on a missions trip... must be a God thing..

Through Altynai's Eyes

Now that the girls have Internet, we have started getting more emails and updates. As part of their "New" plan, we have them working with Ed's people down in southern Ukraine. We have not had the time needed to raise a budget for them, but wanted them to have a good experience, so We have been giving them a budget of $100 a week to work with the kids... not a lot of money , but for us it adds up, and for them, it is one heap of money, and a great opportunity to be a part of blessing others. Here is one of the letters we got from Altynai. hello! how are ya?
how is Quebec? I hope you're having fun there and I saw pictures at the blog: I like this kyrgyz party that you made at Canada day :)
we're doing good and, you know, I want to say thank you for this opportunity to be here because, I think, I found what God wants me to do all my life!! and also I see that many people that wants to serve God don't have enough money to do these things that we do and I feel so thankful and want to do more. People say about us that we are missionaries and it makes me happy :)
thank you papa and mama, I can't wait to see you and I want to tell you more!!!!
love Altynai
At the Boys rehab centre, Altynai planned a day of fun and games.. she wrote Bekah to get her to send her a reminder of how all the different games went that Bekah had played with them when they were living in the orphanage so long ago... They had such a great time, and had a birthday celebration as well....
Then over at the girls home they had a party as well.. for them they bought ice cream and fresh berries... what an exciting thing that would be.. I have been at parties like that before, for many of these kids this will not only be a first, but they will never expect such a treat again.. we just take so much for granted.. but our girls don't.... Every time they meet with the kids, they have a storey for them of how life can hold out great hope and opportunity for an orphan, and that they are living proof that good things can happen...

Next I will tell you a little about things from Emma's perspective.

That's our Aipery....

It was a rough blow to all of us when the Canadian Embassy in Kiev refused Visa's for our girls... but that's another story... The girls are doing a much better job then I am at dealing with the disappointment.. I think they are a lot more used to disappointments then we are.
We moved them to Krivoy Rog where Ed has a home for them to stay. They are living there and volunteering in the orphanages and the invalid homes .
One of the things they are doing is teaching a group of kids. Aiperi has a group of about a dozen kids in particular that she has grown fond of. She has been able to share with them her storey of grace and hope. She told them all that God takes delight in granting the desires of their hearts... it just takes time some times. She shared how she had lived in an orphanage just like them, but after several years, her dreams started to come to reality, and now her family has been restored, she has a home, and is in collage, and now she is with them for the summer to encourage them. So her first project was to get them all to start dreaming.. and draw pictures of the things that they are dreaming of.
After they had done this she started looking at all the dreams that these kids had, and has determined that she is going to meet these dreams . They did not have Internet yet, and was not able to get her dreams through to me fast enough, so our precocious and resourceful Girl took maters into her own hands. She had made pillows that she was bringing to Canada as gifts for all the people that she was going to be visiting .. so she took the pillows and began selling them to raise funds to meet the dreams.. the first few were easy they were simple things like a pen or a plain book for writing, but then they started to get a little bigger.. one of the boys dreams was to have a skate board... a couple days ago, she had raised enough to meet that dream
She went out and got the skateboard that the boy had wanted, and wrapped it specially for him... well I am not sure if the wrapping job was for him or for me..hhahahaha.. she wrote in English the message to him... either way, he was so happy to have his special dream met.

Aipery is going to continue working on the special dreams of her class over the next few weeks... she is now trying to sell enough of her stuff to buy one of the boys a bike...

Faced with the needs of others, she stops and asks herself... "what can I do, what do I have at my disposal to show love and bring hope to another..". I love when they start to reproduce what they have seen...

Tomorrow I will bring you an update from Ukraine from Altynai's perspective... more moving stuff...

We are PUMPED !

What A week

Well we are so close.. we have still Julies mail box at work and our mail box at home as well as one other group that has been raising funds for us that we have to touch base with and we will have our totals in, but it looks like if between them there is $2800 then we will have reached our one year budget ...in one week... We will know when we get home on Sunday night , and will let you know ....

Thank you to every one that participated in this challenge and a special thank you to an incredible supporter who "encourage others to give irrationally!"

One more day of the match week

Hi Everybody, we are having a wonderful time here melting in Quebec. It is 36 degrees celcius as I write. Right now we are creeping the side streets of Cheneville trying a find a unsuspecting donar of wireless internet.
We are very blessed to be here. This is a great place to finish off our match week. We will do it in style with another Kyrgyz picnic for all the supporters here at the lake. While we are here we have people at different drop-off locations collecting funds as well. We can't wait until Sunday night when we get home to find out the final tally.

We need you to act NOW !

We need your help ....In only four weeks, Julie finishes work, and we are officially 100% full time / no income Humanitarian aid workers on our way to Kyrgyzstan. For years we have made sacrifices to be able to continue helping our friends... Now we are putting it all on the line. .. This week is so important to our families and our opportunity to return. If you have followed this blog over the years you will see the many many different areas that we are involved... so many lives touched and so many hearts changed.. from the streets to the orphanages and rehab centres to the seniors homes, we have been able to bring hope and dignity to the hurting ... But this does not "just happen "... It happens because we are consistent.. the people know that we will be back ... they count on it... We have built up a trust and a repor with those that were are working with... I can assure you that not just anyone can pull up to an orphanage or an invalid home and walk in...if you think it is possible...just try it !... It is because of the relationships that we have built that this can happen... it is because of this relationship that we can bring other NGO's and they are welcomed right away, and do not need to go through the same exercise of building favor. It is because of these relationships that we have built that we have been able to help so many individuals, like many of you who are reading this, navigate through difficult times in Kyrgyzstan. Not just anyone can pick up a group of kids from an orphanage and take them on an outing... It is unheard of for Orphanage kids to go on sleep overs... Try walking into a hospital and picking up a baby and taking it to a specialist in another city..... We can do these things when others simply can't.... Seeking out the helpless ..or being proactive comes with a cost....

So much of our energy and time is spent concerning ourselves with where the finances come from... let me give you an example... When you hear of a need, and want to help, before the need ever reaches this , or any other site, we have to visit the person in need... this requires a VEHICLE & DRIVER... a TRANSLATOR, and usually about half a day with a WORKER Our first contact, we need to bring SOMETHING TANGIBLE to the table or they will never be able to focus on how we can help in the long run... Then we often have to do the leg work , including a trip to the HOSPITAL or INSTITUTION.. then we can come back with information in hand and report to you the need .. This does not even include the FLIGHTS..the VISAS, the INSURANCE, the UPKEEP ON THE APARTMENT, the INTERNET and PHONE. When you see $65 spent on a Banana party, I see everything else that goes on to make that happen...

Right NOW we have an opportunity to make sure that all of these other expenses are covered for the next year, but it can only be done if YOU take the time and make the sacrifice and donation right now...

It is important to us that a $65 banana party, or a $30 pair of glasses or even a $5 baby blanket delivered to the Baby orphanage or to the refugee camps on the Uzbec. border remains possible... It's important to us that in the months and years to come, the people the administrators and the Government in Kyrgyzstan continues to trust us and respect us, and continue to welcome us in with our friends when we come to help... something we must never take for granted...

When you see the Kyrgyzstan news right now, I am sure that your heart must break, and you have likely thought that someone needs to do something... That some one is YOU... You need to follow the big orange link on the top right side of this blog, and make a donation to send us back to a country in need...

Happy Canada Day

We had a great Canada Day Celebration today , Lots of family and good friends in attendance. Although this is Canada day, we decided to have a Kyrgyz theme to the picnic, and served in the traditional Kyrgyz fashion. Once we got the table set, it sure did look land smell like we were back in Kyrgyzstan. I even got out the kettle and made a big batch of Ploff...( this is just before the rice was added )Some were a little reluctant to sit on the ground, while others got right into it Julie's Dad gets the prize for the oldest one there, and our grandson Jonah gets the prize for the youngest.

All in all, it was a beautiful day. We raised just over $2200 today, plus several other donations on line.. this brings the totals for the first day of the challenge to $2830. Such a blessing...

I think one of the biggest blessings was when my girls called from Ukraine.. it was good to hear from them , and all the things that they are doing... I am very proud of them , and how they have taken a disappointing situation and turn it around to be a blessing to others... They shared how yesterday they had a hard day, it was upsetting for them some of the stories they heard... I think that they were just a little close to home for them, but I know that they were their for a reason, and were able to speak words of encouragement into the lives of these kids... something that you or I with the best intention would not be able to do.

If you are thinking that you would like to help us in this next year, please remember to do so before the 7th and your donation will be matched.... Thank you to every one that attended today , and to our special friend who has made this challenge possible...

Blessing The Wrights