Meeting New People

Last Friday turned out to be an amazing day of meeting new people in Bishkek, spending time with them and seeing how their lives touch and change others.

Before we even left Tokmok for the day's trip to the capital, David had already spoken at the Professional Institute,visited with the orphanage director at the Tokmok home and counseled one youngster there. While he was with them, Nastya, a young adult from the Foundation helped me with English classes. Then off to Bishkek...

After a meeting with the assistant to the Minister of Religion, which is a story for another day, we wanted to take our friend and Foundation attorney to lunch at a place called "Fat Boys."

Natalia, Jengish, Altynai and Ylan, far right, the Foundation attorney, enjoy ice cream after a great lunch. More about Jengish and Altynai below.

Jengish

Before they left, Bekah Wright, one of John's daughter had prepared a gift for a young man by the name of Jengish, and we delivered it. What we knew about the ministry of this incredible 25 year old expanded as we talked with him. He is currently with Teen Challenge and moving next week to work with Youth for a Mission. God has called him to one of the most difficult ministries there could be - ministering to the homeless. Jengish is the oldest of three boys and is responsible for the family. He is extremely proficient in English and a gifted photographer. He was asked by his mission organization to take a position as photographer for them, which would mean he could travel all over the world. He turned it down for two reasons - his ministry to the homeless here and his responsibility to his family.

We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with this phenomenal young man. To learn more about his ministry, visit his blog - jengish.blogspot.com. You will be extremely touched by his pictures and ministry. He is responsible for raising his own support for his new ministry work with Youth for a Mission. Raising funds in this country is nearly impossible. If you are interested in how you could support this energetic young man with a bright future, let us know. We will send you to the right place to do so.

Altynai and Meeting the Brothertons

Altynai is a beautiful nineteen year old with a bright future. However, just months ago, her future looked grim. The Wright family met her and her brothers and sisters at the Orlovka orpahange, where they had moved after a very difficult family time.

Her story and her desire to go to college was posted on John's blog a few weeks ago and Jeff and Lisa Brotherton, adoptive parents coming here for their new daughter, felt called by God to help support her. Altynai registered last week as the first student to enroll at the new Professional Institute in Tokmok. She hopes to become a translator. In spite of her poor school attendance over the last few years, this remarkable young lady scored in the top 4% on standardized testing of graduating students for the entire country. Her entire school bill will cost about $1,400 a year...what a small price to pay for changing the course of a beautiful life. She is still in need of funds to complete the $1,400 bill for the 2008-09 school year.

Lisa Brotherton shares the story behind her gift to Altynai. The Brothertons are on their referral visit to meet their new 3 month old daughter at the Bishkek baby orphanage.

Jeff, Altynai and Lisa

Not only did we get to meet the Brothertons, but also Kimberly, (in the green) another excited adoptive mom on her first visit to meet her two -year-old daughter.

Meeting all of these wonderful people was a reminder to us that God has called out people from all over the world to meet the needs of the homeless and orphaned. The people we met on Friday are doing just that at great financial and emotional sacrifice to themselves. They would never call it that, but we know and we saw. What an encouragement to us to continue to see God at work through the lives of His people.

Thank you for taking the time to follow our journey...

David's Weekly Perspective - A Visit to Mountain Villages

Greetings and thank you for following our journey. Each day is new, different and exciting. This past Thursday, August 7, I had the opportunity to go with John Norquay and Hynmanuk, his translator to visit some mountain villages.

John and his wife, Shirin, have a ministry to the poor, C.P.F. International, and they coordinate their effort with the local social services administration.. They have been delivering food to the very poor in very difficult places for over five years.. They take not only needed nutritional items, but personal items, toys for the kids and winter clothes.

Winters are brutal here and very frankly, many do not survive. The homes are not well built, they are in gross disrepair and impossible to heat. To buy coal is prohibitive in cost. John told me of one man who went to find firewood with his wife and daughter. The husband came back, the other two did not- they froze to death. When you hear stories such as these, your heart breaks. As I mentioned, winters are harsh here and unfortunately, this story is often repeated.

Here are some sights from the mountain villages...

There was no one home here, so we left their food package in plain sight for them to see when they came home. There is little work here, so they were probably out trying find something to either eat or sell.

The kids saw us coming and ran out to us. John is on the left, Hynmanuk, on the right has been a great help to John's ministry.

I took this picture while I was sitting on the floor in their one room house where eight people live. I was on the floor eating bread that had been prepared for us as these two cuties looked down and smiled.

This is the home of the two little girls in the picture above. You will notice to the right there is construction using mud bricks with straw. The house which they presently live was damaged by an earthquake and they are trying to build another one.

A bachelor lives here and is always so apprecitive to receive the bag of food which includes floor, rice, pasta, cooking oil and other grains.

This lady and another family live in a home that by all accounts should be condemned. It is unsafe, however, as bad as it was, it was very clean.

This is a beautiful family with very little, but have a lot of love. They are afflicated with mental and physical disorders for which there is little or no help. When we came the father was fishing. Fishing here is not recreational, it is an attempt to survive.

As we were driving to a village to deliver another sack of food, we passed this cart. John recognized them as the ones to whom we were taking the food. We stopped, visited a while and gave them the supplies. As a passing thought, I jumped on the cart and sat with these beautiful people just before they continued their journey to go to work in the field.

Time has gone quickly

It doesn't seem possible, but we have just 50 days left. Time has gone quickly and God has, indeed, given us opportunities beyond what we could have imagined.

When we return, Jayne will begin her speaking and teaching schedule-pretty much filled up to March, 2009. Her newest book, the updated version of The Whole Life Adoption Book, was released while we were here and it is getting good reviews. She, along with 5 other authors, have been working long distance - a very long distance - on a new book dealing with parenting traumatized children and the impact on the family. It will be released next spring.

I'm not sure as to what I will be doing - that is not yet revealed - except to say that I will be resuming my teaching responsibilties with Masters International School of Divinity with a seminar in Virginia Beach. Some other additional trips are planned.

In a very few short days, Bekah Gibson arrives. We have many things planned while she is here. She will have many opportunities to be a part of and involved in the ministry here. She will have such a positive presence and impact here. Watch our blog as her story unfolds!

Again, thank you for following as our journey continues....

Отдыхать

Я хочу отдыхать. We hear that a lot now that it is August. It means I want to rest. We say that same thing...I need a vacation! A group of friends from the Chinese Church all decided they needed a rest. They planned a one day trip to Lake Issykul and we went along on Saturday. It was a great day of time with our new friends and a way to see more of the country. The lake is about a three hour drive one way from where we live and it was an enjoyable drive there. It was a time also to escape the 100+ temperatures that are a part of most every day now.

Here are some pictures of our "mini vacation."

Lilly, center in yellow and her sons have become great friends. James, her husband, is the acting director for the Professional Institute. We have also come to love Daniel, Edna, Xenia and little David, from Malaysia, who are ministering to children and families at the Foundation. Richard and YaLing, in the back center, from Singapore are also new great friends and are serving at the Foundation and where ever asked.

Natalia, our translator, her mom and little cousin, joined us for the day. I really tried to give her the day off...not asking her to translate for us so she could just have fun. I know they all did!

Carmel rides are not usually something you see on our beaches, but you do in Kyrgyzstan. No, we didn't do it.

David looking out at the lake, just before we boarded the boat for an hour excursion.

David and I took an hour boat trip around a portion of the lake. We understand that this lake is the second largest salt water lake in the world. It is surrounded by beautiful, snow-capped mountains. This is a shot of those mountains from our boat.

This is another long distance picture of the lake and the beautiful mountains. They had all types of water rides, including this wind surfer and jet skis. For a few hours, we forgot that we were in a land of such tremendous poverty and need.