Update from Tanya

Here is a little update from Tanya :

"John hello. I want to say thank you very much for the seeds from Grandfather and grandmother They are planted your seeds and this are the harvest.. They also planted potatoes and got 12 bags of winter squat for themselves and their four grandchildren they're live together and I gave me little bit of everything too."

Acel sent us pictures of some of the expecting  and nursing mothers with their prenatal vitamins . they too are very thankful.  Also thankful is the rehabilitation centre that received a cruck load of coal tonight  .

 

I mentioned the other day that Julie and I have our tickets for our return to Kyrgyzstan.  This trip will be longer and convoluted to get there and save almost $2000 in flight costs, but is still $4000.  We put it on our visa, but with our departure date Oct 8, I am getting concerned about paying that off before we go so that we have emergency room on our visa in case something goes wrong along the way.  I have $1000 covered, but still need $3000 to be travel ready . 

An update about Tanya , the boys are bagging and getting ready to load up 250 bags of coal to deliver to her next week for the families she helps.   We have a short pause in the deliveries while we put a new water pump in our little white truck, but should be back on the road over the weekend. A couple hundred now is better then a couple thousand in a few weeks from now.  The pause gives the boys a chance to get ahead on the bagging , we have 4 more truck loads coming in the next few days . 

 

Writing a new ending !

Stop for just a moment and consider what this man is thinking. There are very little services for the disabled , and many people are focusing on their own needs at this time of year. Winter is just around the corner and he had nothing to heat his house with.  Fortunately because of many of you,  the story did not end here .  

Maybe you sponsored coal, or food hampers.  Maybe you helped us buy the little white truck. Maybe you support the living expenses of the boys on the farm or help us pay salaries of some of our key workers. What ever part you played, today they all came together to write a new ending for this storey 

The storey is not going to end  here, but will continue for the weeks and months ahead as hundreds of families receive coal and food hampers.  We deliver so much coal that after it is bagged up, we load it onto a huge truck to deliver. The truck is so big that it does not fit down the smaller streets and into the driveways , so it is driven to a central location, then the little white truck shuttles the coal into the homes .   

Julie and I are preparing to head back to Kyrgyzstan , but first we have taken a side trip.  We have cashed in our air miles so that we can join Bekah this month in Newfoundland .  Her baby is due any day now so the plan was for Julie to go for the month and I would stay back and get the house ready to leave and then pass my mom off to my brother while we are away, then fly out to join them for the last week of September , then come back in time to repack and be in Kyrgyzstan by Oct 11th. 

We had to leave here at 2 am to get Julie to the airport. I noticed that there is a flight from the same terminal and the same airlines just 1/2 hour apart that headed to British Columbia where moms sister lives. They talk on the phone every week, but had not seen each other for eight years .  When you are in your eighties, its best not to put things off , so I got to play driving miss daisy .

With some short connections, we knew that mom would never make it, so we arranged for wheel chair assist .  This got all three of us fast tracked through security, and onto a 6 passenger golf cart and whisked off to our gates .. It all went so smooth .    

By Noon , we were almost 7000km apart on opposite sides of the country . 

Bekah is doing great , but will be happy to have the baby any day now .

A  heads up .. If you are in the Norwood area,  This Sunday I will have have sample bottles of honey available for free with every donation to help Julie and I get back to Kyrgyzstan .  We need to figure out how to cover the flights.  Out of Toronto, our regular route would have been almost $6000.. the prices have gone up so much , they say due to limited flights and expensive fuel and increased YYZ airport tax.   We were able to find a flight out of Montreal that we can connect with by train. On the way home we can not get a clean connection so we will have to spend one night in Montreal.  But all together we still will save $2000 on this route .  We will leave our home at 11:00 am on the 9th and will arrive on the 11th at 6:30 am .   

 A little update about Vera and Oleg's need.  We are only $180 away from covering this need, and have giving them our van to use while theirs is in the shop.  They are so thankful to all of you. 

Vera and Oleg need your help

It was just a few weeks ago I shared a post about our general fund and the need to have ready cash for an emergency .  

Well I got a message from Vera and Oleg, two of the busiest people I know.    The engine has died in their van and will be down until they can raise about $1000 USD to get it repaired.  This is a disaster for them.  they run a rehab centre, a community centre as well as are the director of a boarding school for children with disabilities.  On top of that they work tirelessly to provide food, clothing and coal to people in their village in need .  

below is their car being loaded up with groceries to make deliveries .

We just repaired the steering in my car , so we will be able to lend it to them until we get there next month. but we will not be able to start the repairs on their van until we have the funds in place. 

so far I have a donation of $50 in to help them out .. Maybe you would like to be one of 20 people to match that so we can get them back on the road again. 

 

Is this going to be another hard winter ?

As the winter season approaches  , we can usually predict the severity of the winter by looking at the number and size of apples on the trees or the grapes on the vines . This is because "God provides" and on the bad years there is more fruit to carry us through.  Like wise , when we get a large donation in for food or coal, it is generally just before a huge need arises.  MY FREINDS ,, with that in mind, this is going to be a hard winter   

The arrival of the coal can be life saving for so many families and individuals.  the hardest hit are the elderly and the disabled , along with mothers with young children. 

That's why every year we work hard to be ready to respond to the needs . 

Coal arrives to the farm in large trucks and is broken up into smaller pieces and bagged before delivery so that they are more manageable for the people we are helping 

We are just starting into the season, and we have already surpassed our target for coal, and will also be including food hampers with deliveries now.  along with a few other smaller donations,   We have received two large donations to make sure that the needs are met . LSI  (Luke Services International) and New Life Church  have answered the call to make this season possible for us . 

As we have seen in the past, a large harvest and great provision generally proceeds a long hard winter.  For this reason, we will continue to receive donations for the coal so that you can be a part of this blessing, and so that we are prepared for the needs as they arise.    

Here is a video we put together last year that talks about the coal project. Please take a couple minutes and watch this and be open to how God may be calling you to join us this year .

A busy week

Canning is still in full swing.  tomatoes and peppers , tomato sauce, tomato juice and every combination there of. 

But first let me share about some of our outreach projects this week .  We have a friend visiting with us and we are taking advantage of this time to get aid out to some of the more reaching areas .. from Narin to Jalalabad and so many places in between .  Both men's and women's rehab centres, 3 orphanages a school for the disabled and food hampers delivered to over 100 families. 

Next week Dave will start delivering coal with us. 

Back to the canning at the farm . Ravils Mother came out for the day to help us get caught up. 

while with us we had some other guests stop buy the farm, so it was a good time to make lugman.  its always fun to try flipping lugman for the first time .  

The boys have been doing a lot of cooking on the farm this summer . Today it was Dustan's turn.  

Dustan is ready to go back to school next week .  We have $250 in towards his tuition and books , just need $500 to make it possible for him . 

Help Needed.

 For some time now we have been wracking our brains to come up with some kind of fundraiser for our operating fund.  We are still thinking about it, but maybe the best and most efficient plan is to just come out and ask. 

The operating fund does not only cover our basic operating expenses like salaries and the operation of the farm, but it also covers so much more. Like when we are alerted to a problem somewhere and we send our people to see and assess the situation. $$$. When we get a call that there is a youth on the street needing help .$$$    When the car needs maintenance or repairs $$$.  when a family needs food and we are not doing a full food drive at the time $$$.   When we have to do un expected medical follow up after helping with an operation $$$.  It seems like every day we have small items of need, but not big enough to do a fundraiser for, but they do add up.   These things are covered from our general fund. 

This spring and summer has been particularly difficult for us.  You guys have been fantastic to help us meet the needs that we have posted, but since the attack on Ukraine, many peoples  finances have been stretched, and there has been a dramatic decrease in the un designated giving to the general fund. 

We have managed to meet the budget until now, but the end of the month is coming and I no longer have the luxury of time to figure out a grand fundraiser.  So for now all I can do is ask for help.  Please consider making a donation to our general fund so that we can continue to meet the needs as they arrise . 

 We are blessed that we can share this Burdon with you.   It is coming up 15 years that we have had our shoulder to the plow, and look forward to many more years of  blessing others as the needs arise.