Kosovo, Farming Sisters, Your Ideas, April 2008
KOSOVO
Ramadan reports that he was able to visit the family we reported on in the last carelink, have a very humble birthday celebration for one of the girls' birthdays, and instruct them further from Bible Basics towards their desired goal of baptism.
SISTERS IN LATVIA
We're still working away reconstructing the home in northern Latvia. Many of our sisters in Latvia are subsistence farmers or live in rural areas with some land. Their enthusiasm for the home reconstruction project is great- some of them in later years may well end up living there. So we set up a project for them to dig up various flowers and hedge plants from their land, put them in plastic bags with soil in, and we then went around Latvia and picked them up and along with 3 sisters [and a grandchild], went up to the home to plant them.
Our deaf brother Vladimir and sister Maryte are seen here digging up some of the flowers around their farm:
Our 3 sisters, Tatyana, Vija and Nora, unloaded the many bags from the vehicle and got straight to work:
They worked like trojans for the day, despite our efforts to persuade them to take things slower. Two have had heart operations and Tanya was hospitalized last year for a month with serious back problems. But their enthusiasm for this project was unstoppable; they were simply so happy and excited to be involved! Especially as they were not only transplanting their own plants, but those of other sisters whom they know.
Photos: Tanya and her granddaughter. It's not uncommon here to see women well in their 70s working the land, but Tanya really has a back problem, but we caught her still pushing wheelbarrows and carrying things.
A simple project, although it required driving 800 km. all up, but one where the spirit of the Lord Jesus was manifest.
YOUR IDEAS
As you know, we seek always to give a fishing rod rather than a fish, i.e. to help our brothers and sisters be self-supporting. But it's hard to think exactly how. We have a number of unskilled brothers and sisters who are hard working, but stuck in rural areas working for low wages. Given economic changes, it's just not possible to survive as subsistence farmers in Europe any more. We're especially exercised by our brother Vladimir and sister Maryte, who along with their 2 children are totally deaf. They aren't online, and live in a remote farm not even in a village; they work in a factory but are often deceived of their wages because of their inability to hear or speak. What could we set them up doing, so that they can make a better living? Assembling things is difficult because of high postage costs if they were to send them outside of Latvia. They have no particular skills but are intelligent and hard working. They don't know English. What could they do instead of getting deceived of their wages working in a factory- or often, having no work at all? What kind of fishing rod rather than a fish could we set up for them? Do give us your ideas, at info@carelinks.net. Or pray for such brothers and sisters if like us you draw a blank as far as ideas!
Photo: Our deaf brother and sister at the breaking of bread meeting on Sunday. Everything has to be transcribed for them. They're really faithful in the Lord and have been a long time.
With love from your brothers and sisters of CCM