Many Updates!

Wow! It is hard to believe that we are already talking about the third week. Dad has definitely done some AMAZING things in the last few weeks!

 

Here are some highlights:

1-       Jondos, a student who the PIED staff has been sharing with for the past two and half years has become a believer! Please be thinking for him as he begins to learn how to grow.

2-       Mac Paul, a student at the Ag, has been asking many questions regarding Dad. She is definitely hungry. Please think that Dad would draw her to himself.

3-       Half of our guys went on a 21-mile hike last weekend, while some of our girls had a sleep over with some of the students and went to a water park (yes, they really have a water park in Kazakhstan—and we had so much fun!), and the rest of our group went on a picnic in the mountains.

 

Let’s see what are some funny stories I can tell?

-                      Ryan D. met a guy from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (his school) while being packed with him on a bus going to the bowling alley the other night…he was actually face to face with him, literally.

 

 

Fourth week: The exposure trip

 

• Our team split up and went to four villages in Kazakhstan for four days. Three of the villages were Kazakh and one was a Uigher village (pronounced Weeger). The purpose of our trip was to open up our eyes to the true culture of Kazakhstan (Almaty is very westernized) and to bring us closer to Dad. We all stayed in the homes in the villages and ate several meals with them as well as interacted with the families a great deal. These villages are considered third world.
• Our host homes worked so hard to make us feel welcome. Most of the host mothers awoke before dawn to prepare breakfast and clean the house before the Americans awoke. These villages were so hospitable, such servants, they considered it an honor for us to stay with them—they gave us their best.
• Most of us ate normal Kazakh food, chai—the Uigher village drinks it with salt instead of sugar—and one group ate an entire sheep!
• In most of these villages, there was a worker (m) family within in. In the Uigher village of 4,000 there was only one. Please think for them, that Dad would send them another family.
• Some of these villages listen to Brittany Spears and drink Coke, but they have never heard the story (the g). And the Uigher village doesn’t even have a word in their language. Puts things in perspective doesn’t it?
• Joanna P. & Stephanie L. got to milk a cow for the first time, Tyler P. rode on a horse for the first time (acting like he knew what he was doing…) and all of us probably used an outhouse for the first time!
• We became experts at dodging cow patties while playing soccer in their “stadium”, which is a bare field with two sticks beside each other representing the goal.
• Our team probably drank about 450 cups of chai during the entire village trip—you must drink 2 cups of chai per meal to be considered polite.
• The name of Jay was spoken in the village mosque for the first time; the holy man (Mullah) asked us what we believe.
• While most of you were sitting in Fellowship sun morning, we were dancing in a disco tech in all of the villages.

 

Well, that is not really all of the stories...so make sure an ask us about the exposure trip when we get back.