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!!

Christmas concert

So, Today we went to a local orphanage and we were able to do a Christmas concert for them. It was a lot of fun and although it was all a little last minute and we actually practiced the skit about a hour before leaving everyone seemed to have fun. including Jonathan who got to be dress up as Santa to hand out manderines.:) The worship team have been working on Christmas songs in Russian and Kyrgyz and last night we had a carol service. It was a lot of fun. We met at Paul and Mel's and everyone brought some food. Although the electricity cut out no-one seemed to mind and it just meant we could have a candle light service. Ill try and put some pictures up soon.

It's around -20 right now. Brrrrr...but at least our first Christmas together was a white one:)

We hope you all had a great Christmas!!

In Kyrgystan!

Hi Everyone!

We just wanted to write and let you all know that we have arrived in Bishkek safely. It’s taken us a few days to get set up with the internet, but now we’re up and running.

The Trip
We had a lot of extra baggage on our trip. We were allowed only one piece each with the airline we flew and we had 2 guitars and 3 bags. Calvary Chapel York wrote us a letter to give to the airline explaining that we were coming out here to live and will be needing these things. We also had to pay an extra $180 for changing katie’s name on the ticket and for our date change. Well, praise the Lord the airline didn’t charge us for anything. We were so encouraged by the Lord and got to bring all our baggage for free too!

Our Visa’s
After having our visa denied in the UK we decided to go to the border and apply there for a 1 yr multi-entry visa. We had no inviting letter and so technically we should have been granted a 3 month long tourist visa. However, after a bit of questioning by the consul we were granted a 1 yr multi-entry visa!! PRAISE THE LORD!

Thank You for your prayers

Jonathan and Katie

GIVE THANKS!

I've never really celebrated this holiday before (except in Ukraine where I always felt like I was being made fun of..ha ha) ...but today I am. We have been invited by some friends here 'The Cambra's" To join them for a Thanksgiving meal. We're very excited. Note: Jake, Mike and Danny, this doesn't make me an American!But I do love Americans! Especially my husband, he's wonderful!



HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!

York

We are currently in York, England, awaiting our visa's. The Kyrgyz embassy called us yesterday and have asked for extra documentation before they will issue our visas. Please pray for the Lord's will and provision!

Jonathan shared in church on sunday morning and I've had a lot of opportunity to lead worship whilst being back, so we're having fun, but still are preaying that the Lord would get us back to Kyrgystan quickly!

Honeymoon pics

Here are some of our honeymoon pics. We did lots of fun things, encluding Kayaking, putt putt golf and tubing! WE went to Hilton Head Island SC. Click on the picture to see more!

Honeymoon

It was so beautiful and practically deserted!