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