Eight Days

In eight days I will be on a plane back "home" to the country that I love to see my family, friends, and children in Kazakhstan.  I am asking God's blessing on this time.

A few weeks ago I had the joy of being able to attend the wedding of good friends, both of whom I got to know in Kazakhstan.  Ember, was an intern with us and while in Kazakhstan she met Kiikzhan, who worked for our company.  Many of you might recognize Kiikzhan's name, since he, Ken, and I worked together on Kid's Connection for several years.  During our time working together we all became very good friends.  Joy radiated from their faces as they went through the evening.  It was extremely fun to spend time with so many people at the wedding that I had not seen for a while.  I look forward to going back to Kazakhstan and being able to tell his mother all about the wedding and how happy Kiikzhan and Ember are.

Side note:  I ended up getting the bouquet ... so be prepared for a wedding sometime soon in my future ... I guess I just I need to find the man to go with the bouquet.  :)  

I have been working full-time at Interlink this month and enjoying it thoroughly.  Thank you to those of you that have supported me either in finances or prayer.  I wanted to go ahead and give you a quick update on where things stand (you can see the sidebar of my blog for a more detailed account).  I have raised about 50% of the funds needed, both for the short-term trip and my full-time employment here at Interlink.  I am thrilled to see God's continued provision in my life.  Thank you for partnering with me so that I can continue on this journey.  I am very blessed!

September Trip

Quick Update:  Recently I purchased my plane tickets to visit Kazakhstan this fall.  The definite dates are September 3-27th.  I am so excited that I will be able to spend time with family and friends in Taraz.  I have a lot to do here in the office to prepare for being gone for three weeks.  Also, I started working full time with Interlink here in Muncie as of August 1st.  We are beginning preparations for next year's delegations already!

One Class Down Nine to Go

It seems kind of bad that I am already counting down the total number of classes before I can graduate.  Last week I finished my first class.  Although at times it was boring, I really enjoyed the information that I learned.  My favorite lecture was on adaptive technologies.  It was fun to hear about all the free things available that I could see helping the kids in Kazakhstan.  The whole way through the lecture I kept thinking of specific kids and how certain types of technology would allow them to have a fuller life.  I am going to take one class this fall in order to gage the amount of work required for one class.  I am looking forward to it, since one of the more interesting lecturers from my last class will by my professor.  

Both of our delegations returned home safely.  It has been fun to hear about their time in Kazakhstan.  This week has been a bit crazy with a lot of meetings at work.  I am looking forward to seeing how we implement some of the concepts we have been talking about.

This morning my mother came out of her bedroom to find me sitting on the couch in the living room.  Since there was a light behind my head, she had a hard time figuring out who was in her living room working on a computer.  Her reaction was priceless.  This is only the third time we have succeeded in surprising mom.  I will spend today and tomorrow with them before heading back to Muncie.  I'm looking forward to hanging out here.

More Changes

It seems like this has been a year or two of change.  I am currently at another set of crossroads in my life.  As you know, I have started grad school courses.  Although I'm not sure yet if I like having to do the homework and prepare for tests, I am really enjoying what I am learning.

Even more exciting to me right now is the opportunity I have to work full-time for Interlink starting in August.  I will continue taking one class, while I spend my days in the Muncie office.  I look forward to the ways that I can continue to be a help to the work taking place in Kazakhstan.  It will also be really refreshing not to be jumping between three different part-time jobs.  It also looks like I will be able to travel to Kazakhstan for a couple weeks in September.  I had just resigned myself to the fact that this would be the first year in 8 years that I would not return to Kazakhstan when my boss approached me with this opportunity.

I just mailed a newsletter that goes into a lot more detail about my more immediate future.  If you did not receive one and would like to, please contact me and I will get one in the mail.  I have also updated the sidebar on my blog to show the funds I will need to raise in order for this to all be possible.  I can't wait to see how things takes shape.

Summer Fun!

I had a great time at SERVE.  My group was such a fun group.  We worked really well together.  The culmination of the week was something called the "Party in the Parking Lot."  All the youth help put on a carnival-type event in the parking lot.  There were inflatable games, food, live entertainment, and all sorts of other free fun.  This year our group was in charge of inflatable games.  This included putting the games away in record time.  A storm appeared quickly and we had to clean up about 10 different inflatable games (with several other groups) in about 20 minutes.  It was fun to see everyone pull together all week and accomplish so much good in our city.

My favorite project was building a short rock wall to accent a park area that we worked on.  It was fun to try to fit the rocks together like a puzzle.  Below are some pictures of my team.

My first graduate class is going well so far.  I survived my first test and paper.  Also, God has provided places for me to stay this summer.  It is fun to see how God continues to provide for my every need.