Hong Kong

Our time in Hong Kong has been amazing! But not for the expected reasons. Not because of high rises, harbors or historical landmarks. On the contrary actually. You see those things are quite material, but our joy lies in the unseen.

Most of what is done by the organization that we work with is unseen by many, including ourselves. We see such a miniscule portion of what Dad is doing on this earth through the goods that are given to people in countries all over the world by this amazing organization that we have been placed with.

I chose that word carefully, “placed.” We very much chose to join this work. But yet, when we came overseas, we had no idea that this great work was happening here and that we were actually being set up to join it shortly. I am being reminded of that so much now as people here ask us how we came to be a part of this movement.

It is exciting to think that our ‘Managing Director’ knew long before we did exactly where He wanted to place us. He prepared work for us. Work that suits us both well. Work that we love and are passionate about. A purpose to serve the poor, the orphaned, the widow, the abandoned, the forgotten of this world while doing EXACTLY what we LOVE!

It is beautiful really. We are being reminded that we are right in the middle of His plan for our lives and that is precisely where we want to be. We can’t wait to get back and share more about this work with you all!

Here are some photos of our time in the city, which was just an extra bonus to our time here.

Coming into the city

Fair Trade Cafe run by our Organization

The other side of the Pacific

Big Buddah

Beautiful Cable cars overlooking the city

The fishing Village of Lan Tau

Harbor Light Show

Stories

Stories make us who we are. They impact us in a way that we can’t avoid. They reveal something about us, the writer, the people in them. Stories are the framework of our lives. But yet I don’t feel as though I share enough of them. It is not that they are lacking. Living in a foreign country leaves you with stories to tell everyday.

I think sometimes it is a little overwhelming thinking about which stories to tell and then I just end up not telling any stories and just writing big long updates of some of the events that have happened in our lives over the past couple of weeks or months. There is a place for that, I know…

but stories… There is just something about them that impacts people. That is why I am passionate about sharing my stories with you now. I am committing to share more stories than information in this blog in the next year. To convey information through stories, rather than just leaving the stories out completely.

So many times  I am touched and inspired, moved to action through stories about people. PEOPLE! PEOPLE ARE AMAZING and terrible and messy and unfortunate and victorious and HIS wonderful creation!

Information will come, but the stories, that is what brings life to people, hope, excitement, joy, partnership. I hope that you will partner with us as we share our life with you, our stories.

Prosto Tak

Prosto Tak means “Just Because” in Russian. Prosto Tak is the name of our site’s monthly community service day. The name is based on a soviet cartoon with just that name “Просто Так.” (Prosto Tak) The Cartoon story is simple, a donkey receives a bouquet of flowers from a little boy and decides to pass them on. Yet it beautiful portrays the transforming power of kindness. You can watch it on youtube: Просто Так.

Our first Prosto Tak took place in October. This event was started to get us all involved in the community and we allow the students to be a part of it as well. We believe that this is just the beginning of our involvement in the community. We hope to have many more activities like this connected with our center in the future.

In October Prosto Tak took place in a local orphanage for kids with special needs, literally down the street from where our center is located. We have supported this orphanage in the past with goods- toys, clothing, furniture etc. But this time we were able to serve them by giving them quality time. We provided the kids with a morning of fun with some love and cuddles thrown in.

This is Maria, she is 15 years old, but plays with kids all day. She is so smart, but has little hope for her future because of her condition

A few other Prosto Tak events have included: Visiting men at a local rehabilitation center, feeding the homeless a warm meal on a cold winter day, visiting single moms, widows and women with disabilities for Women’s Day, a very important holiday for the women of this country, and our most recent Prosto Tak was playing with a group of under-advantaged children for Children’s Day.

For Children’s Day we had a lot of fun with the kids. Many of our volunteers and students dressed up in costumes and played games with the kids. We sang songs and danced, we played different games, fed them ice cream and hot dogs and just tried our best to make these kids feel important and loved!

Prosto Tak is also a great opportunity for our students to see how they can give to others without having much money or resources. Many of them come away from these experiences with more understanding of what people actually need and want. Many times our volunteers come away with more than the people who we “gave” to.

Most of the time for Prosto Tak, we simply give our time to people who are lonely or don’t get a lot of attention in their lives. Many people think that they need to be rich to give something to someone else or they think that all people need or want is money, when the truth is that what many people need is love and what they want is someone who will spend time with them and give them some attention. This is a gift that we are happy to give once a month and hope to do more of in the coming days, weeks, months and years of our time overseas.

Life Happens

There is nothing to blame but life for my lack of involvement in the blog world lately. You could say I have been using my creative energy elsewhere lately and I am sure most of you know where that place is… 

Nevertheless I am ready to put it into the blog again for a minute… Hope you like the new design. I have been playing around with it for a while and I really think that this one will stick because it is simple 

Here is what we have been up to lately in a nutshell! Hold on tight, cause you’re about to see a lot of photos!

First of all, since my last post, Spring has come in a fierce way and has currently brought summer, which it seems is here to stay. But lets just look at some nice photos of the spring instead of thinking about that…

In Cafe News! We have been trying lots of new things since I started working there including some of the cupcakes photographed above, which to my dismay are not very popular in here ;( I guess they just haven’t quite caught onto the cupcake craze that has swept through the states. We also made Pizza about a month and a half ago for the first time and it took off! We are now very much into iced beverages, including iced coffee in these awesome blue cups that we got from Hong Kong, but we are also experimenting a little with warm drinks such as the Caramel Latte with the lattice on top and our new DARK chocolate Mocha 

We have been doing some big events lately at the cafe as well, which definitely help our revenue, which all goes to Charity btw. We have done several things that call for extra volunteers in the kitchen, which explains the guys in pink shower caps below  One of those was a birthday party, but the greatest blessing we have had lately is a very talented young man that is volunteering with us has done some concerts at the cafe and we have gotten up to almost 200 people in there enjoying and ordering coffees while the music plays.

To kick off the spring we celebrated Easter with a Passover Seder and a lot of baking. I made Charoset and peach pie from www.eatliverun.com for the passover seder and I made banoffee pie from eatliverun and The Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake for our work Easter Party. It was very interesting, educational and delicious!

 A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go on a crazy hike! It was six hours long! It was by far the longest hike I have ever done, but also the most rewarding! The views were beautiful and the people we went with were amazing as well. None other than our teammates who we spend every day with. I am not sick of these people yet! In fact it seems that I grow to love them more as time goes on. Just look at them! How could you not LOVE those face!

Later that week, we had the opportunity to go to the city of Kentau with a friend to stay with his family.

An authentic cultural experience complete with Kumis (fermented mare’s milk) and Besh Bar Mak (the national dish which includes Horse Meat) It wasn’t our first time enjoying these fine delicacies, but it was a special time nonetheless. 

While we were there we were able to revisit the beautiful city of Turkistan and see the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi for the second time since we have lived here, the first time was in October of 2009.

It has been a great spring! Can’t wait to see what the summer brings! Most of you will see what it brings for us since we will be home for another summer in the states! Hope to see you sometime in July or August!

Istanbul

“Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople
Been a long time gone
Old Constantinople’s still has Turkish delight
On a moonlight night”

Those are the words to my niece Sofia’s favorite song, at least it was her favorite song this summer when I visited home. I kept thinking of that song the whole time I was in Istanbul looking at beautiful buildings like the Ayasofya (aka-hagia sophia).

I also couldn’t get enough Turkish delight while I was there. In fact I am wishing that I had brought more home with me.  Now I understand why Edmund just HAD to get more.

I won’t bore you too much with details, I just want to show you pictures and say that I was truly blessed to be able to spend some time in the gorgeous city of Istanbul. To wake up to the grand site of the Blue Mosque. This was the view from our hotel balcony our first morning in Istanbul.

We spent the first day walking around and just taking in the beauty of this historical city.

There were Roasted Chestnuts everywhere.

We also did a little shopping 

The lamps were my favorite.

I just couldn’t stop taking photos of them.

The afternoon of our first day we were whisked away on a bus to another hotel for the conference, far away from the old city, but right on the water. We had a great view the whole time and were blessed to walk along the shore and collect seashells during our free time.

There were many special things about this conference. But I will share about those things for my newsletter for security purposes. If you don’t get our newsletters email me and I can put you on our list 

We had a free day on Saturday and were able to return to the old city again. The girls mostly wanted to go shopping. But we also made a stop at one of my favorite places in the world.

Here are a few more pictures from that day.

After the conference concluded we went back to the city one last time and this time we got to experience the night life in Istanbul.

The sites were even more breathtaking at night time.

And the city just seemed that much more enchanting

After walking around for a little while we went to dinner.

The last day we just walked around a little bit more and went on a little cruise.

Before I knew it I was back home with Curtis. Just thinking back on all of the special memories and solid relationships that were built during my time in Istanbul.