Connections

Why Kazakhstan? For the past 11 years God has woven a beautiful tapestry for our family with Kazakhstan. It started one January when I was feeling stagnant in my Christian walk. I fasted and prayed that God would bring something into my life that would give me a jump start. A week later I was invited by a group from the church that I grew up in to go on a medical mission trip to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. I went on this mission trip in August of 1998 and it changed my life! On this trip I was able to cuddle and love on a little abandoned baby at the hospital that subsequently was adopted by a family in Florida. This little one named Karina planted the seed in my heart to adopt an orphan from Kazakhstan. In October of 1998 my sister and her husband felt called to missions. They tried to go to South America but I just laughed at them and said "You're going to Kazakhstan". They ended up in Seryegevka, Kazakhstan and have been living there for 6+ years now. Over the past 11 years our family has organized and hosted 3 groups of students from the Kaz American English school in Karaganda. We have a Kazak exchanged student daughter that lived with us from 2000-2001 that we have kept in contact with that is blessing us with a granddaughter in late August. She currently lives in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In 2003 we hosted a 7 year old from Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan through a program called Kidsave. We fell in love with Galina and have pursued adopting her and her siblings since her visit. We currently have a beautiful 17 year old young lady from Atbasar, Kazakhstan that we are sponsoring so she can live in a safe home and attend school. Mark and I have gone together to Kazakhstan to my sister's village once to help with a project and I have returned to her village 3 other times to help with humanitarian aid and the last time to start teen small groups in their church. We have a friend from our church that married an American that is from Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. We have fallen in love with the people and culture of Kazakhstan and claim many people on the "other side of the world" as family.