It Is Not All Work....

It is not all work…there’s time for fun


Our work here is often busy with difficult, desperate situations with broken people, needy families and children. However, to keep everything emotionally balanced, we delight in our relationships with our friends. On Friday evening, we planned a TGIF party with two sisters – Sophia and Zenia….before we left to go to the shaslick place, we had invited 7 more and our party grew to 11, which required two stuffed taxis. It was great.

As David and I were sitting with this beautiful group of people, we were amazed at the different nationalities sitting at our dinner table – Kyrgyz, Chinese, Ethiopian, Russian….simply amazing. We all had something in common…we are of like mind and heart. We also marveled at these young people who have very little, who work very hard for very little, yet have such the spirit of gratefulness. Truly amazing.

Here are some pictures from Friday….

Our server brings "shaslick," like kabobs into the yurt.

Inside, everyone is waiting for all the picture taking to stop so they can eat.

Zina, (l) our friend from the Foundation and a great help to us,with Natalia, our LAMb team member.

Altynia, is a university student. She is a young lady with a remarkable story of redemption. Peter, a friend from the Foundation is sitting next to her.

Sophia, a friend from the Foundation and a great help to us as well.

Seasi, our friend and also faithful driver with Altynai's brother.  He was standing with her when we picked her up and is Kyryz custom, we had to ask him three times if he wanted to come...and he finally said yes!

It was heartwarming to hear the laughter and see the fun of the evening, knowing that this time was a brief respite from difficult days. The young people stayed behind to dance and visit...Natalia's mom, David and I went home sooner than they did. :)