A Krgyz Moment - Visiting a Foster Home and Meeting Asimba

We turned off a main road today in Bishkek onto a back street full of huge potholes, trash strewn everywhere and crumpled buildings standing next to crumpling homes. Not the most likely place to go to visit what we planned. Then we turned again, down another side road and into a drive way. We had arrived at one of the very few family type foster homes in the entire country. With a population of 5 million, there are now, we believe, only 8 are in operation scattered throughout the country. Dayspring will be the newest one in early spring.

Greeting us, Vera, the single foster mom, ushered us into the living room to enjoy tea, Krygz style – sitting on the floor. It was then we learned of her God –given passion and love for children, rescuing some right from the street, others comes from a local orphanage, still others are brought by parents who can no longer care for them. She enjoys the respect of the government, and her local and regional community. When we hear stories like today, we are again humbled at the sacrificial lives of so many who, having very little themselves, give it all away. We learned much from her today. Probably, the most profound lesson for David and me is that we need to listen more and learn from the people God has put in front of us. We don’t have all the answers for them – but they have many for us.

Vera has much to teach us and our new foster family. We talked about working together in the spring as she helps us learn more about how to take care of the children of her country.

Christine, a humanitarian worker from Norway has been working with Vera since 1996.  We heard Vera's call to the work of saving children and left humbled by her loving sacrifice.

 Two of the beautiful children we met today.

More children....

The whole crew, minus a sick one....

While we were there, we, of course, met the children. One child, Asimba, came to our attention. Here is her story. Before we left, we prayed for Asimba and the other children who were sick.

Should you be interested in helping cover the medical costs for Asimba, you can donate on the Canada Helps button and designate funds for Asimba.

We will be back to get to know our newest friend, Vera in the spring. I look forward to learning from her.

Very early Saturday morning (2:30 am), we leave for the airport and onto Kiev, Ukraine and Poland. Our time here has been rich and meaningful and we look forward to our spring return.