TOMORROW IS SENIOR DAY IN KYRGYZSTAN

THE SENIORS OF ISKRA LIVE HERE - WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TOGETHER AND HONOR THEM WITH A CHANGE! THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE OF THEIR DINING ROOM.


The heating system is failing and WILL NOT HEAT THE DINING ROOM as it is.


Most of the disabled men have difficulty walking - and some are in wheel chairs - imagine their difficulty walking on these floors.



The men are waiting for the day when they can say they have a home - instead of an institution!

HEADING TO KEMIN AND ISKRA TOMORROW.

DATELINE: September 30, 2011
What a day - we spent the entire day at Dayspring pulling together forms, file systems and plans for the future. It was a very busy day for the staff. We would like to report that Dasha our little darling has settled in and is showing smiles and giggles too. She has had a visit with her mommy and we will work hard to have many more. Reunification is our goal is possible. All children need families and our family at Dayspring is a welcome respite for our little one. She loved her shopping trip with Dayspring mommy Acel and was eager to show off her new clothing. She only had the clothing she wore when she came.

TOMORROW: We are heading to Kemin in the morning - Senior Day - we will take gifts to our 32 seniors and just tell them how much we love them. We will enjoy company with them and then head to Iskra to take some gifts to our friends at the home for disabled men - many there are seniors too. AND we will see the progress of the renovations going on. We should have our window grates in, and the heating system started. So much more to do.

- Complete the heating system
- Plaster the ceiling
- Plaster the walls
- Fix the floor - just to begin with and this does not include the needs for the kitchen, for dishes, spoons, and so many other things.

But watch - we know you care and ANY donation designated to this project goes immediately to work. You will see pictures in our next blog.

YESTERDAY: We had the celebration for the opening of the Bishkek Humanities University Child Welfare Specialization. We honoured the President of the Association of Social Workers - Vera; and the Dean of the Faculty for the BHU Social Work Department. It was an awesome fruchet with the faculty and friends of BHU. We thanked Chris Tappan from New Hampshire for her hard hard work in being the key person to work with the faculty in implementing the courses. Chris has done an awesome job and will greatly missed by all the faculty and students of the University. We also recognized the United States Embassy for their contribution in this project - giving Chris the financial support needed to do the work she has done. Chris was recognized by the Embassy as a Fulbright Specialist and approved to help us with this incredible project.

We have more work to do before completion - but things are well underway.

The LAMb Team
Serving on the Silk Road
(Thanks to Jayne Schooler for taking these pictures when she was here just two weeks ago.)

ED DICKSON - WHO IS HE?

WHEN HELPING GETS FORGOTTEN

ED DICKSON - WHO IS HE? Many of you know him on this blog and some of you don't. But in reality everyone knows him through the work of our TEAM. Let me explain just a little.

THE STORY AND MY THOUGHTS: Tonight we had a celebration in Bishkek for the opening of the project to strengthen families and protect children at a level of developing social workers. This project is really large - it has involved hundreds of hours, lots of talented people and the reality is now being seen. Bishkek Humanities University is now implementing a specialization for their social workers in the area of child and family. We have been working on this project since 2008. Tonight we hosted a fruchet (a stand up snack table) for the celebration. Complete with flowers, gifts and speeches. Success, outcome, completion, all very exciting words for this day.

Now, the story. I intended (still will later) to post a blog about the event - giving credit to individuals here and there about their involvement. I could not do the story. All day today I have been thinking of how it REALLY started. And how so many other successes, outcomes and completions come about - so many of the individuals with blogs and ministries have the same beginning we do. We met Ed Dickson. Ed Dickson invited us to Ukraine. Ed Dickson set up venues for us in which to serve. Ed Dickson encouraged us and inspired us with his work.

So my thoughts all day were about who is really to be given credit for the incredible projects success and again and again, I thanked Ed in my mind. Ed is truly the real champion here. Because of Ed there are hundreds and thousands of outcomes, successes and completions.

ED YOU ARE A CHAMPION - AN EXAMPLE - A MODEL.

Ed might not have been at the fruchet, but he was there in spirit. Ed this is YOUR victory - your success, your outcome.

The LAMb Team

SERVING ON THE SILK ROAD

The staff in planning at Dayspring around the "BIG" dining room table!



Natasha and Dasha at our staff meeting - Dayspring.

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

DATELINE: Monday, September 26, 2011
We arrived yesterday and it was a 5:30am arrival. We headed to Tokmok, unpacked, showered and then headed back in to Bishkek.
1. Meeting at SOS Children's Villages to make plans for upcoming training of staff. Planning a potential project for family strengthening in Osh.
2. Headed to meet with Chris Tappan - our champion on the ground for the Bishkek Humanities Child Welfare Specialization project. All is moving forward as expected.
3. Then headed to check out a venue to host a Furshet to honour two individuals who were instrumental four years ago in working with us to visualize the BHU Social Work problem.
4. Finally hit the road for Tokmok and crashed for the night.

DATELINE: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
What a day!
1. Mercy Foundation devotions early this morning - great time to reconnect and share.
2. Invited three families for dinner - Pastor Sasha and family; Elena from Mercy Foundation and Dabu and Tanya. All accepted - tomorrow night first dinner in our home for Pastor Sasha and Elena - then Friday night dinner in our home for Dabu, Tanya and Anita. Fellowship means everything!
3. Off to Dayspring for an all day staff meeting. So much planning. Plans confirmed for the Senior Day on Saturday, the renovation beginning at Iskra, the Emma journey of rice delivery, and of course the future plans for Dayspring.

DAYSPRING UPDATE - we are thrilled that we have little Dasha as our first child. She is tiny for her age of 8 and quite shy. She was timid to come around us, but very connected to Natasha. She sat on her lap most of our staff meeting - and every once in a while she and Natasha had little lessons. "What colour is that?" "What is the name for that?" Dasha has never been able to attend school due to health problems. Madlin, our Child Advocate has taken her to several medical appointments and we have been directed to take her to Bishkek for extensive medical tests. She will likely need to remain in the hospital for about a week. The team will take turns to be with her there. It has been identified that she might have a serious heart problem - as that is why she has not been allowed to attend school. So tomorrow, Acel "mommy" will take Dash shopping to get some clothing and personal items and on Thursday she will go to Bishkek to meet the specialist at the hospital for an assessment of the next steps. All education plans and reunification plans will be developed once the medical issues are clearly identified.

AND

Now, we have been told she is not to fall or get to "rowdy." And guess what she likes to do most? JUMP. She just loves jumping. And she is showing what she has learned in language and writing. She found the wall of Dayspring to be a great canvas board. Sound pretty normal, right? We just laughed and decided we needed to stock Dayspring with the wonderful Magic Erasers from the US.

Please pray for Dasha and pray we will have a sponsor for our first child. She is truly a little darling. We have been notified by Social Services that there are four other little girls that might need placement soon. Pray for them before we even know their names. They are all precious in HIS sight.

The LAMb Team - serving on the silk road

HEADING TO KYRGYZSTAN - JUST 25 HOURS TO GO....

HERE WE SIT....waiting. We will have a very busy schedule once there and lots of plans to do lots of things. We will:
1. Head to Kemin to see the seniors - cook for them and take them some new things. And we will be taking food.
2. Be at Iskra Men's Home for the Disabled - to start/continue with the renovations of Wetheir dining room. Thanks to the donation of $5000.
3. We will have the IUCA students who are invited by Altanai - to a special evening of celebration of their faith. Paula from Ontario will be joining us along with lots of our team members in Tokmok - we expect about 40 students.
4. Emma's rice project - will take place - delivering over 100 bags of needed rice for winter - and of course delivering lots of love and encouragement too. Thanks to a donation of $3000.
5. Lots of training.
6. Time with Russian Church and pastor.
7. Time with Mercy Foundation - coaching team of young people who are working on their leadership for this great Christian organization.
8. Training with SOS Children's Villages and with the Family Strengthening project.
9. Lynn will be spending time in the prisons - with a team of nationals joining him.
10. Dayspring - working with staff - the project and getting to know our little Dasha.
11. Working with Tokmok leadership on the next steps for Dayspring.
12. Meetings galore to anchor the Dayspring project, the training for the Ministry and for the upcoming days with teams and our time there.
13. The search continues for Slavik.
14. And some special work to uncover how we can help those who wait and wait....and wait. We believe in a Kyrgyzstan Without Orphans - and families are waiting - we just need to help where we can.


AND SO MUCH MORE. WANT TO JOIN A TEAM? LET US KNOW - WE ARE PLANNING A TEAM FOR THE SPRING OF 2012.

THE LAMb TEAM!

DAYSPRING HAS OFFICIALLY OPENED DOORS TO CHILDREN

YES, DAYSPRING IS NOW OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR CHILDREN

The journey has been a long one, but one that is totally in the control of our Heavenly Father. Yesterday, Dayspring received through the open doors a little girl - the first child to be placed into our new pilot project. She is a little darling that will need lots of prayers and some loving arms to carry her through this time of fear and questions. Her name is Dasha. Appropriate to say she is a darling, right?

You might want to be the family to sponsor her - let us know.

We are in the process of creating our policies for privacy on the children of Dayspring. We will not be posting individual pictures that are face shots - but will do group pictures at a later date. We will also not be telling their full stories on the internet. We want to protect their stories as much as possible. We will tell general stories of the children in the future - when more children are with our family at Dayspring.

For today - we ask for your prayers and for your love for our little Dasha. May we be a bearer of blessings to her and to her mother. We ask you to pray for her mommy too. We will be working to get Darla home with her if possible.

Thank you so much,

The LAMb Team

WHEN CHILDREN SMILE - A HEART SINGS

Lynn and I were blessed to serve in Kherson, Ukraine at a conference for adoptive and foster parents. We were there to work with the parents, but also had a wonderful opportunity to do one session each day with the older children. It was awesome and we received so much more than we might have been able to give.

It did not take long before the children were gathering around us each time we were out in the public areas. It was delightful to have them so open and come up to us - foreigners - and tell us their name. In this picture are two of the younger children that really thought Lynn was the BEST! Every time they say him - they would come running. I snapped this photo as he was sitting with them and showing them some photos from the conference. We don't know their stories - but you can see their hearts in this photo.

Interest and delight!! What joy children can bring.

The parents at this conference are all Ukrainians and the children have been adopted from the orphanages. Again - a reminder of the movement toward a UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS.

NEXT STOP? KYRGYZSTAN - WE LEAVE A WEEK FROM SATURDAY. STAY TUNED FOR WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE. WE WILL "just show up and stop for the one HE puts in front of us." And - the update on Dayspring - hopefully we can introduce you to the children coming to Daysping...children you can "adopt" in your hearts from afar.

THE FUTURE WE CAN SHAPE

His name is Karill. He was living in a home for disabled children when a family visited to take aide and crafts to the home. Karill touched their hearts and soon became their son. Adoption in Ukraine and adoption in Kyrgyzstan is on the increase with nationals. Join us in believing in A WORLD WITHOUT ORPHANS!


John Wright recently posted this message he received from a friend in Bishkek - it says it all - WE CAN HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE!

Bishkek the capital of Kyrgyzstan 3 million people limitless Internet, coffee shops, new buildings, I pad’s, etc… sometimes I almost forget I am in the 7th poorest country in the world until I take another look around me!

• The other day I passed an older Russian man sitting next to a scale (where people weigh themselves) asking 1 Kyrgyz som for this service and about block later a Russian lady with two small wooden stools next to a cardboard box reading peoples fortune’s for a small amount of money.
• I also noticed a small boy with clothes that looked like they had never seen a washing machine and he hadn’t eaten in a long time. There was no smile or joy anywhere on his face only sad resignation that his life was in the pits. It hit me right in the gut this boy had NO hope for today, let alone a future.

These children are supposed to be the future for Kyrgyzstan??

What will happen if these boys and girls are left alone? Well our news tells us every day what happens: drugs, murder, sex without love, more abandoned children and the cycle goes on and on. The Taliban get most of their recruits from orphaned boys, drug lords all over the world get their new recruits from boys with no fathers, and the girls end up in prostitution or single mothers with children they can’t take care of, our societies becomes numb to the need and these children are forgotten!

The GOOD news is that God doesn’t forget and wants us to reach out to these children and put them into loving homes and families to help reach the potential God has given them. When we invest into these special children we invest into the future of the countries we live in. The children of today will be the future leaders of tomorrow either good or bad depending on how we respond to them.


HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP;

1. Go to iucascholarshipfund.com and donate to help a youth in Kyrgyzstan go to a university. We commit to helping those who otherwise could not even begin to consider this.

2. Donate to help the different work of LAMb International with the Dayspring Project.

3. Join one of our teams to Ukraine or Kyrgyzstan.

4. Read the blogs of our LAMb team and let us know you are praying for us - email us!
actofkindness.blogspot.com
dandjschooler.blogspot.com
and of course this blog.

5. Become a monthly supporter...JUST HIT THE BUTTON ON THE SIDE OF THIS BLOG!

THANKS FOR EXTENDING YOUR HAND IN GRACE AND MERCY - YOU TOO CAN BE A PHILANTHROPIST! IT JUST TAKES A COMMITMENT TO HELP SOMEWHERE.

LAMb - TELLING THE WORLD

In Ukraine we can often find things that are so helpful to us - and this is one of those situations. We found we can get a beautiful banner for about $25 each. So, we had them made and are carrying them home. Take a look -

UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS IS OUR MESSAGE - our daughter and son-in-law have been working hard creating conference tables that carry the message of the orphan. We must be active in this work, as the heart of the orphan cries out loudly all over the world, from Asia, Russia, Africa - on an on. Consider what YOU MIGHT WANT TO DO TO HELP THE CAUSE...

LAMb International has a fabulous team - our on the ground team - John and Julie Wright, Emma and Bekah Wright, Pastor David and Jayne Schooler - all committed to make a difference - bringing hope and dignity to those suffering from the loss of both.

I AM SPECIAL

Adoptive and Foster Parent Conference

The last five days we have been involved with an Adoptive and Foster Parent Conference at a center just outside of Kherson in Ukraine. There were about 50 families in attendance.

Our days started at eight am with breakfast and the workshops began at 9 am each day. There was a large selection of topics. Topics such as "My Home is a Happy Home", "Biblical Marriages", "Helping Your Child Grieve", "Communication", Wounded Children Healing Homes", "Conflict", "Identity", "Social Styles", "Change", "Healthy Sexuality in a Sexually stylized World", "Fear", "Behavior Management", "Honesty and Truth", "Talking With Others About Adoption", "My Family in 2021", plus lots of active discussion.

The classes for parents ended at 2 pm, just in time for lunch. The classes for the children ran from 6pm for an hour.

The evening programs started at 8pm and included skits, singing and other entertainment.

The interactions with these families was fabulous. For those of you who have adopted or fostered, you will understand many of the challenges these families face. What a blessing it was to be able to come together to learn, share and discuss.

Included are a few pictures of the parents and children 'at work'.