Kids

Today we went to visit some children in a village near Bishkek. We go to the orphanage every week. Today I remebered to take my camera with me. These kids are amazing, they grow thier own food and help around the home. We have fun talking with them and singing and sharing stories with them.

Janabek and his Family

Here is a family from our church. Thay are actually from a city called Narin, but they moved here to find work. Janabek knew no Russian when he moved here and only spoke Kyrgyz. Now he is understanding a lot more. If he needs help, his wife, Lola will translate for him. They have 2 children and just this sunday Janabeks father came to get some medical help here in Bishkek. He was so shocked by life here in Bishkek as he is from a small village and when we drove past the white house he ranted about how many vegatables could be grown on the land they used for thier fountains and trees. His next adventure will be this week when Lola will take him to a local mall and introduce him to an elevator. Please pray for the Lord to raise up more Kyrgyz believers to lead the church here. And also that jonathan and I would be able to learn the Kyrgyz language quickly as many people in the villages don't know Russian.

SUMMER..well at least for a british girl!

I am delighted to announce that Summer has come to Kyrgzstan..."No, no Katie!" you say, "you're mistaken , surely you mean spring!" Well for the Kyrgyz, maybe this +17 weather and constant sunshine is known as spring. But to a homegrown British girl who spent most of her adult life in Ukraine, where the snow doesn't melt until late March, who also walked to school in pouring rain almost everyday in her childhood, to whom summer meant a rainstorm almost everyday with erratic bursts of sunshine and phenominal rainbows...THIS IS SUMMER. Infact, today I was hot. My feet were hot when we were walking outside. Oh the joys of living in Kyrgyzstan.

Today we went with our youth group to help clean a place where believers feed homeless people. It was a great time and we are so encouraged to see the believers in our church grow in serving. We have a big soviet holiday today also. "Women's day" Is far bigger than Christmas (not suprising in a muslim country) but even as I speak people are all over the city, in restaurants and in parks celebrating women. The flower sellers use this day to monopolise on the love sricken boys, whilst women all over the post soviet union are enjoying this day of recognition.

Our Car

Well, a couple of weeks ago we were blessed with the finances to buy a car. Because of the pot holes everywhere here and the mountainour terrain, we thought it best to get a suv. Here is our car, we are so blessed to have it. We pray that the Lord would use ot for his glory!







Also, for 7 days now both Jonathan and I have had this devil flu...Paul, titus, timothy, Natasha and Michelle have both had it too....It's rediculous, so we've passed our time with lisenening to bible studies and playing rummy!

Cold Nights = Great fellowship

IT's been pretty cold here and so most of our evenings are spent inside. We have had a lot of opportunites to share the word with young believers and have a lot of people over for dinner. Some of our more permanant guests are two brothers, Lonya and yarik. Lonya came over tonight and asked Jonathan a lot questions about Abraham. I personally was really encouraged. I love those spontaneous moments when believers just gather and fellowship. I was so blessed I even took a picture...ha ha..not quite sure why...

SNOWBOARDING IN KYRYGZSTAN

Paul and his siter Wendy, who is visiting for a while, invited Jonathan and I to go snowboarding with them at a local resort here near Bishkek. We've both skied before, but this was our first time trying this sport. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, but the next day neither of us could walk all that well and it took a long time getting the feeling back into our fingers and toes. Brrrr..
Obviously being in a central asian country there are a lot of different dynamics that go into snowboarding that would maybe seem, let say absurd in any other country. Take for instance, the army training unit who hapened to also be training thier new troops out on the the very same slopes we were using, or perhaps the local villagers who bring thier horses up and charge people who are too tired to use the drag lifts to take them and thier skis or snowboard up to the top of the mountain. This is a thriving business as the lifts are very dificult for snowboarders to use and once of twice going up the mountain almost leaves you with no energy to come back down.

All in all we had a great day!! I look forward to going again soon!

WOOHOO!!!

One of my closest friends friends from Ukraine came for a suprise visit this last week. we had a lot of fun catching up, laughing eating al kinds of good food and drinking hot chocolate..Oh and seeking the Lord for what he might have for her in the future...we'll keep you posted!!!

I was overjoyed to see her!!