Tuesday, February 3, 2009

An Evening Dedicated to HOPE: An Evening to Remember

The weekend of Jan 30 and 31, we experienced something like never before. It was a gathering of people from literally all over the country, Canada and beyond - propelled together by one thing - HOPE. Hope for the children and needy of Central Asia. There are few words to describe our thoughts and feelings about the potential in the work ahead.

On Saturday . January 31, we hosted the "Launching HOPE luncheon." Over 40 people from literally all over the world came to Lebanon to join together in HOPE. There were seven adoptive families with their children, team members of Possibilities International and LAMb, a professor and his wife from Cedarville University who worked in Kyrgyzstan and an awesome missionary couple serving in Africa. WHAT A DAY!
Our pastor, Lester Jones, of the Countryside Community
Church of the Nazarene in Lebanon, Ohio
Ruby Johnston, co-founder of LAMb, in the center, sharing with the group.
Our daughter is to her right, my husband to her left.

Dr. Andrew Wiseman, from Cedarville University, his daughter, Jasmine and wife, Sevara.
She is from Uzbekastan ( and one of my Russian tutors.)

Rick and Jane Taylor, pictured right and center....are dear missionary friends who have given their lives to Africa. Jane prepared all the food for the luncheon of 40 and it was a hit!
Some of the families who joined us at our Launching HOPE luncheon.
All the children were from Kyrgyzstan!
All the kids sit down for a photo op

Randy Gebele and Rick Taylor are engaged in quite a conversation.
John Wright and Lynn Johnston relax after a great lunch.
Matthew and Andrew - they are the most huggie kids.
I look forward to watching them grow up via their parents' blog.
David and I are listening to Rick's stories of amazing miracles in Africa.

One of my favorite pictures of the whole weekend - David and Anara.

AN EVENING DEDICATED TO HOPE

We held two special events - one in Cincinnati on Friday, January 30 and one in Centerville, Ohio on Saturday. Many, many friends shared these awesome evenings with us.

From Saturday night

David is sharing with the group.

All the moms with children from Kyrgyzstan.

Nicole wins a hat!
Pastor Ken and Jackie open the evening.

Ann Bates, the Wrights and Nicole. We were so honored that Ann and Nicole joined us.

2 comments:

Hilary Marquis said...

Thank you again for hosting such a spectacular and meaningful event! We will never forget it. Anara loved looking at the pictures you posted :) She points at David and calls him "G-pop" since he has white hair just like Tim's dad. Considering he is one of her favorite people that is a big compliment!

Stahnke said...

What a wonderful day my family and I had getting to know you and all of the others who have a heart for my son's birth country. I am very inspired by the sacrifice you are both willing to make to give hope to someone else on the other side of the world. I want to thank you again for your hospitality. I hope our paths will cross again some day soon. My older daughter Alisha was also very inspired by the day and would be interested in doing a missions trip to Kyrgyzstan some time in the near future. It's great to know some people already there doing what God has called them to do. May God bless you in your journey, and we will be following along through your blog.

Kim