mexico

Kyrgyzstan

2008-01-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I wrote anything. I'm sorry. So yea, life here is pretty crazy sometimes. I'm staying busy. I'm working with Teen Challenge Kyrgyzstan. Just looking after stuff while leader are gone. Things are going great with the center. I thought there'd be problems with students and workers(since they are all older than me, and it's kinda hard in our culture), but everything is going fine. I've been working with Teen Challenge for quite a while, so I know how it should work.

We have a cool little team. Baski is stubborn little old man. He is cool though if you find his love language(words of affirmation). Eldiar is pretty cool too. He is responsible that students are learning stuff, and reading their bibles. Kolya is responsible for discipline. He wakes up earlier than everyone else and makes sure students do their devo's and do their work duties. Bolot is our new worker, ex student. He is a good worker. I'm trying to give him more responsibilities. He is doing really good.

What else, I'm also working with Talent Resources. TR is a YWAM ministry. My friends Jerry and Gabriella started it a while ago. TR finds jobs for the locals. So it's really nice for workers, and for the clients. So I just make sure everyone is coming to work on time. I call clients and ask them if the worker has been coming on time and if everything is going good.

I also am doing my homeless ministry. Lots of the homeless guys I knew died over the past few weeks. It's been really cold, and some of them got drunk and fell asleep outside and froze to death. The ones I took to the rehab center are doing good. They are learning about God. One of the students that seemed to have lost his faith in God offered to pray for food, and when he prayed he really prayed. I was glad to hear that he talked to God like he talked to his Dad. I'm glad.

So yea things are going good. It's just hard sometimes. So much responsibility, and so many things to do. My parents are telling me to quit working with bums. They told me that I look like a homeless person. Funny, a homeless person told me I looked like a bum. I told him, cool, man, I fit in yo. Haha, I love homeless dudes. They all got amazing stories, and when you really get to know them they are awesome. Yea they drink, and yes they smell, in summer they smell really bad, but inside they are cool. And when they get saved and God is living with them the transformation is soo beautiful it makes think of how good is God:)

Homeless buddies of mine

2007-10-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Hi there,
I know it's been a while. Sorry about that. It's been kinda hectick lately. The director left for a conference to Turkey, so I was all alone. I had to bring food to the center by myself. It was kinda hard, but I did well I think. What else, my homeless friends that survived the winter are doing well. The ones that are at the center are doing even better. Lots of them died though. Didn't make it through the winter. But there is still hope for the ones that are alive. I'll try to get as many homeless friends to come to the rehab center as I can. I met a guy that can't really walk, I need to find him and bring him out.

My friend Kyle helped this other homeless guy named Talant, and got a room for couple nights. Some people were trying to kill him. He is safe now, and tomorrow I hope to see him and talk to him about Teen Challenge.

It's amazing how many people living on the street now. There are so many of them. They wake up at about 5 in the morning and collect bottles and anything they can sell out of trash cans. Then they go to a place where they can sell their bottles. At about 12 o'clock they get drunk and sleep for the rest of the day. They eat out of trash cans, and they smell really badly, but you can get used to that smell. So yea, because they drink so much their livers stop working and their stomachs starts filling up with fluids and they die. Lots of people die, but there are always new ones. They come from the villages and get stuck in the city and they never make it home. It's weird, since it's a shame based culture, they decide to stay and die then go home in that condition. But there is always hope. Some of them are awesome people when you get to know them. All of them have stories. You could write a book about their lives. Sometimes I think about maybe writing some of the stories down and post them on my blog.

So yea, just wanted to thank you guys for praying for me and supporting me.

Hope you guys are doing well.

Blessings,

Jengish:)

Wheel chairs for kids

2007-08-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Wheel chairs for the kids with brain damage in Talas.
Guys and girls,
Happy to inform you that I'm doing fine. I just came back from the boonies(meaning a place where there is no toilets). I helped a guys who is a fisio therapist from the states who brought wheel chairs to the handy happed kids, kids with cerebral pulsy ( I don't really know how to spell it) in the mountains.

I met most amazing kids. Even though in constant pain they find strenth to smile. Their little bodies won't listen to them and they are stuck lying on a dirty rag. My friend that brought wheel chairs, Lauren, truly believes that they are angels that are stuck in human bodies. I don't want to argue with him. They are beautiful. My heart was tearing apart, but there is nothing I could do.

Lauren is an amazing guy, and kids love him. This little girl that couldn't talk hugged him and wouldn't let go. She somehow knew that he came to help.

One day I translated for fifteen hours and I thought my brain was going to explode. But it was good. All they chairs found their little owner. They all fit perfectly. I think there was God's help in it.

Yesterday we decided to go fish and relax after working so hard. Then when we were coming back from the river one of the fishermen that came with us told us that he knew of a girl that had CP (brain damage) and couldn't walk, or control her body. We were on our way to see her right away. That day was awesome. The girl was 17 years old. When Loren saw her he cried, cuz she was a spitting image of a girl that he treating back home.

Now I'm back in the city all sticky and yucky, but happy that I was able to help bring those chairs to this litlle valley. I have a little head ache, but I should be fine. I'll drink some good ole IB profein. I lost my running shoes, darn it, I'll get some new ones I guess. Finally broke my glasses. Pash fixed them using a string but it doesn't look too sexy.

What else, tomorrow I'll be working at Teen Challenge. WOOHOO I love when life is so fast.

Now prayer request, pray for me. Pray that God would give me wisdom, and strength to keep going.

Ok that's it. I'll post some photos of the most gorgeous mountains really soon.

Love ya'll

God bless you lavishly:)

Truly yours

Jengish:)

2007-07-10T04:20:00.000-07:00

I got here at 5 am Bishkek time, 4 pm LA time. I went to a party right away. My mom made some good ole plov. It was good. But then they (relatives) started asking millions of questions, you know, the kinda questions I don't have the answers for... I had to retreat to my appartment. Told everyone that I was really sleapy and wanted to rest.

As I already told you all, I got stuck in Moscow for a day because my flight was delayed in LA. I was kind of bored. So I went and looked at duty free shops. Went outside and watched a crazy man dance and laugh... I like happy crazy people. They are happy no matter what. Lucky people.

Then I went and asked a police man about his motorcycle. He was nice enough to tell me pros and cons of his Kawasaki. Told me that Police is getting rid of them, and that I could actually buy one for fairly cheap.

Then I went to the place where the Airplane were... They were loud. I pretended that I was a president of the U.S. and made a speach about Homeland Security. Pretty soon I ran out of words... It must be hard to be a President.

Tried on a whole bunch of glasses and met a dude from England who was looking at buying one.

Then I went and called my friend and left a message on her answering machine saying that I missed my flight and got mad and broke a window with my steel toe boot. Stupid joke really. Sorry Suzanne.

Anyway, I'm home now. It's weird to speak Russian and Kyrgyz now. I walked around the city and it's weird to be back. Hot weather, way hotter than Mexico and San Diego, Asians everywhere (No wonder, I'm in Freaking Asia)

I went to the office and asked people to put me to work right away. Hate sitting around. So I'm going to start working tomorrow. With God's and Red Bull's help I'll do it.

After work I'll go meet up with my homeless dudes... I'm sure they'll be excited.

OK please pray for me, for my reentry to my culture.

Thank you guys.

I miss you all and love you.

Jengish:)

Ensenada

2007-06-28T22:10:00.001-07:00

So I'm in Ensenada waiting to get back home. As I already said I was foolish and went to LAX thinking that I would hop on the airplane and be back home. I know it was stupid and now I have to wait till July 7th. But it's all good, I'm having a great time with Ensenada Mission Adventures. These guys are cool. Couple of days ago we went to the orphanage and helped with dry walls. Then when we were done I had a chance to play some soccer with kids. It was fun. It made me remember kids in the orphanage in Bishkek. I now know that you don't really need to speak that much language to hang out and have a blast with kids. I showed them my trick where I make a coin disappear... John taught me that trick. Thanks John:) They figured it out pretty quickly. They are so smart. I even learned to make balloon animals. I put too much air in one and it blew, I couldn't hear for little while. I hate when that happens.

in LA

2007-06-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

I left Ensenada thinking I might not see it ever again. It was sad. I like Ensenada and the ocean, even the smell of the fish factoy doesn't bother me at all. People are nice and friendly. So I said my good byes, it seems like I said them too many times. Oh well, that's ok I guess. Then I jumped on the van with Mission Adventures staff and headed to San Diego where I was going to catch a train and head out to LA. When we were crossing the border the person that checks passports asked me if I was related to Genghiz Khan. I told him he was my Grandpa. He laughed.

In San Diego I hopped on a train to LA and I was on my way... On the train I met a lot of interesting people. I met this girl that was travelling and she was from Italy. She had a funny accent. Then I met a group of young kids, maybe 16-17 years old. They were a little drunk. They had some kind of alcohol mixed with their Coke. They were nice though. I showed them my photos and they told me if I were selling them they'd buy them, and that I was a good photographer.

When I got to Union Station I decided to call my friend who was going to come pick me up. When I walked towards the phone this man asked me if I could use another phone, because he was waiting for a phone call. Then he told me that he lost his wallet and that he emailed his friend using his hand held device and was waiting for him to call. He was really excited to hear that I was from Kyrgyzstan. I told him about YWAM and what it's all about. He told me that he trains basketball kids from one parent families and that he teaches them to be good and to give back to the community. His name was coach Hobson. I gave him 5 dollars so he could make a phone call. He wouldn't take it first saying all his life he was giving instead of taking. I told him well it's time to learn to take it.

When I was at my friends place I decided to Google his name. And guess what I found him.

Here is what I found about him:

Lou Hobson, co-founder of YES, Youth Educational Sports Foundation, works with his players to make sure they are enrolled in the correct classes to get into college and meet NCAA standards. (April 09, 2001).

Coach Hobson has my absolute respect. He doesn't just train kids to be good basketball players, he also teaches them to be good men.

My last day in Ensenada

2007-06-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

So today is my last day in Ensenada. I'm sad, I love this place. I've fallen in love with the ocean. Soon I'm going to be really, really far away from the ocean. Oh well, I'll have mountains though. People are telling me that I should come back and work with YWAM SD Baja. Maybe I should, some day I will. But right now, I need to go home and pray about things. I don't want to come back just because I love the ocean, or I love people here, because YWAM Bases are tricky, people come and go all the time. If I will come back, it will have to be God telling me to come back. So I will be praying about the future.

I really want to become a good photographer. I think I could reach so many people by taking photos. Rob Morris that spoke about Justice told me to keep shooting, to keep using my skills and talent to further the Kingdom of God, . He said that Photography is a good tool for raising awareness, for showing people what is really going on around them. So I will keep shooting...

So yea friends, please pray for me. Pray that God would make things clear. Even though I'm sure I will miss this place I won't be here if God tells me to stay in Kyrgyzstan. So this might be the last time I see these people and I see this place. I'm sad, but I'm also happy that I had a chance to get to know these people. Yea I will miss the ocean and the smell of the fish factory in the morning. I will miss hearing Spanish, I will miss my friends. But this is a time for me to go home and ask God for directions.

Graduation

2007-06-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

So I graduated, and I'm in Mexico right now. I should be heading home soon. I hope I will be able to apply everything I learned here in Mexico on my life. I don't want it to be just, you know, fun 5 months. I learned a lot about God, and His unconditional love. I've learned to be content in Him, to trust Him. I learned about Justice and Mercy. Grace and Forgiveness. It was amazing 5 months. Every time I ran out of money or didn't know what to do, God was right there to help me. Even though I didn't get to go to Peru, I know God had a purpose in me going to Modesto. I learned that there is darkness everywhere, not only in Islamic Kyrgyzstan, but also in Christian US... I spoke on that about my outreach on our graduation and it was really cool how people responded and agreed that America did need missionaries. If you are rich it doesn't mean you are not lost.

Anyway, it was an amazing lesson to trust God and have faith in Him. Thank you all for praying for me and supporting me. I'm ready to do whatever that God tells me to do next.

...

2007-06-03T00:40:00.001-07:00

They left. The team left, again, leaving me behind. Once again, I said good bye's thinking if I'm ever going to meet them again. It's hard... I think I'm becoming a wuss. I cried again. I hid it well though, no one saw it. It's sad that they have to leave. I'm glad that I was able to share my life with them. I feel like I have so many brothers and sisters... I'll miss them. Hopefully I'll see them again one day... You never know, as Russians say "World is round, so we'll meet again".

Today we went to Eduardo's aunt's house. They were very nice. We started eating and sharing our testimonies at lunch time and finished at about 5: 30 pm. I think it was awesome that they were able to hear testimonies from people from 3 different countries. Stacey - New Zealand, Nick - Canada, Me - Kyrgyzstan. It was amazing how hospitable those people are. They told us that now we had a family in Mexico. I think it's pretty sweet to have a Mexican family. I love Mexicans:)

So now I'm just hanging out. Tommorow I will go to Kaiden's funeral. Sad... I don't really want to talk about that right now.

Ok Gotta go to bed. I need to wake up at 5: 30 am. Woohoo fun.

Anyway,

Over and out

Yosemite Park

2007-05-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

Jim, John and I went to Yosemite Park for a night. It was awesome to have a chance to just listen to the sounds of the forest, birds, gorgeous El Capitan, huge trees all around us. I felt tiny because everything around me was so huge.

We hiked to Stanford Point. It was pretty steep, but it was worth it. Then we kept walking until we found this beautiful place called Meadow Brook. There was a creek we got our water from, there was a fire place, and bunch of dead branches lying around. It was perfect. Then if you walked a little bit to the west there was a cliff and you could see the whole valley and El Capitan, and the Waterfall. It was amazing. I was taking photos of all that beauty and got a little excited and dropped my lens. I had to climb down and find my good lens. Good thing I had a flashlight with me.

Later on John told me we were almost 7000 feet above the sea level. I don't really know the feet, but man, that sounds like a lot of feet. Oh boy, I destroyed my feet. I have crazy blisters. I had to cut of a piece of my skin, because it was stuck to the band aid. Jim had a thing called second skin. It something like a glue, you can put it on the wound, and it acts like you actual skin. It burns like hell fire though. Man it hurt.

There was an opening where you could see the El Capitan, the ocean of trees and a Bridal Veil waterfall, I said we gotta stop so I can capture it. I started running around trying to compose it well, but there were couple of trees on the way. I blamed it on my bad luck. I was thinking, how come Ansel Adams doesn't have those stupid trees on his photos? Anyway, I took couple shots and then we hiked down and went to the place where we got the bear canister from (which is really hard to open and close) and there was an Ansel Adams Art Gallery. I of course went right in started looking at photos going Ohh Oooh and I found a photo from the Stanford Point, the same photo I took earlier. Guess what? Ansel Adams has those stupid trees blocking some of the view.

Of course those trees were a little smaller, because he took that photo sixty seven years ago, but they were the same ones. Of course his photo looks absolutely amazing. I bought a card with that same photo for a dollar. I was two cents short but the lady said not to worry about that. She was very sweet. I'm gonna frame that photo... I respect Ansel Adams. He is the man!!

Anyway, I should go and take a shower.

A helmet

2007-05-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we gave out bread and clothes at the motels. Arlee came along with us. I like that dude. I took bunch of his photos. He is really interesting. You can tell, he's seen a lot in his life. He talks kinda funny, I can hardly ever understand him. He is cool though.

I was looking and I found a helmet in one of the boxes. Decided to wear it. It looked absolutely funny. So wore it all evening. I even fell asleep on the couch wearing it. Aaron told me I looked like a special student in that helmet.

Today I woke up feeling a little crappy. Decided I needed some God time, some silence and solitude time. I decided to fast and talk to God and confess my sins. When I looked I found my helmet, I thought I better wear my helmet, that way if I faint and fall I won't crack my skull open. I don't really know why I like to wear that stupid thing. Maybe that's because I think it makes me look bad ass, but it doesn't. I looked at the mirror. I do look like a china man that's gone crazy... And it gives me a headache because it's not my size. Too small, stops the blood circulation in my head.

Well anyway, maybe I am crazy. I better go to bed.

Over and out.

Modesto

2007-05-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

So I'm in Modesto... I thought it was really close to LA. Well, it wasn't. I spent 16 hours on the bus. It seemed like 20. The whole time I was asking the driver if we were there yet, but he kept saying that it was still 3 hours drive. Then when we finally arrived I didn't know that we were in Modesto, so I just sat there looking around. Chris told me that I looked really tragic. No wonder. My butt hurt from sitting.

But bus ride was good in a way, I saw a lot of weird, or interesting people on the way there. This chinese couple was really loud. They weren't really yelling at each other. They just spoke really loudly. I wanted to get up tell everyone in the bus that I am not with them. I felt people were getting a little annoyed. There was this other man that asked me if I had a bomb in my bag. When I told him that I was a christian and had no business carrying around bombs of any kind, he started asking me how come I don't want seventy seven virgin... I told him I didn't believe in that, he started laughing. But when I told him about Jesus he got all weird. Interesting...

One other interesting thing that happened on the bus. I was sleeping and bus driver woke me up and asked me to sit on a different seat. I was comfortable where I was sitting and wasn't gonna move without a good reason. I asked him why he wants me to move... Then, he hesitantly told me that a lady that just came in wanted to sit together with her little son. There were no seats where they could sit together. I got up immediately and moved to the seat crammed with someone else's suit cases. I could tell people were surprized. Interesting, in Kyrgyzstan it's a normal thing to give your seat to the ladies with kids and old people. Even, if you have to stand the whole time.

So now Modesto... It's really interesting. America needs missionaries. It's crazy how people don't see that. There is poverty in the US. I saw people that don't have houses and they are caught up in a vicious circle... Government does nothing to help them, or helps those that they think will get up on their feet. The others are left on their own, left to live in dirty little motels full or roaches and rats. Of course alcohol and drugs never help to fix the problem. There are many drug addicts that live in motels. There are many women that sell their bodies to be able to stay at the motel for one day longer, and to buy a dose of drugs for the day. It's heart breaking to see kids growing around drugs, gangs and prostitutes.

But there is hope... That God will speak in their hearts. That God will change their lives, circumstances and thinking. That God will come and save His kids, so kids don't grow up in the crap hole, so his daughters don't have to sleep with men for money, so his sons wake up from the darkness, and open their eyes to see the Glorious One and jump in His arms and find peace...

This is what my friend that works with YWAM Modesto, John, wrote about it:

Welcome to the Shiva
No money no honey, no chicken no curry
C’mon, it’s only 20 bucks and I’m in a hurry
I smoked my chrys and I got my rock
Hope there’s enough that they’ll open the lock…
…to my motel

I got what you need and you need what I got.
Help ignore the pain and help your brain rot
I only know the streets and how to survive
High on my supply; I need to stay alive…
…so I sell

Don’t go to school, my only friend is a beetle
I found him outside by another used needle
My parents party all night and sleep all day
I really just wish someone would take us away…
… from this hell

Did you give me a shoulder, something to cry on?
How ‘bout food when you knew I was starvin’?
Did you feed My sheep or love My lost?
Didn’t think you had to, that I was just…
…a “good deal”?

YWAM Modesto is doing it's job. Praying for those who need prayers and delivering food to those that need it,caring for those that need it... They are truly the followers of Christ.

Bored

2007-04-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

I was bored all day. I didn't know what the heck to do with myself. All the people went to a meeting, so I was kind of alone. I spent sometime on the internet, but got really tired of it. Tried to call friends but they were not home. I've decided that I don't like answering machines. In fact I think I hate them. So I refuse to leave any messages on them. Even if I do leave a message, it's gonna be something like 'Hello it's Jenish and I hate answering machines'. So yea I was bored.

But after we went to get some coffee. Yea it was good to get out of the base for a little while. I didn't have any money but friends help me out. So that was good. Good to have friends.

All the coffee that I drank all day made a little sick. I had to drink some water after. My kidneys hurt. I need to drink some more water. Water is good:)

What else? Ummm I think this is it. What an exciting life, eh? I don't know why I'm so bored though. I met all these people, took photos of most beautiful sunset ever, and still feel like I'm wasting time.

But next week I'm going to be going to Modesto for my outreach. All the people go to these crazy places to do their outreach, and I'm going to the States to do my outreach. But I prayed about it, and this is what I heard from God. My team is in Peru, I'm here... It was a plan all along. God is good, because He cares and He is on control. He wants me to learn things from the people in Modesto... I'll obey and go.

Hello everyone.

2007-04-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

I've decided to create this blog so that way you can see what I'm doing here in Mexico. I'll try to be posting at least once a week. I guess that would be a good idea. Since I'm really bad with keeping in touch with people, I thought this would be a good thing to do.

Ok now I'm in Emsenada, it's a beautiful place but my team is in Peru and I want to be with them. But seems like it's impossible. The Peruvian Embassy in Mexico denied me a Peruvian visa, so now I'm stuck far far away from my team again. It really frustrates me, but people have been telling me that there is a reason in everything. So I hope that God wanted me here.

For now I'm helping out in the kitchen, fixing computers in the IT department, building houses with Mexican Mission Adventures. I never liked just sitting around and doing nothing so I'm quite happy to be doing things I like to do. Well working in the kitchen is not exactly something I like to do, but I decided I wanted to work there because I could learn to cook, that way I don't have to eat fast soup out of a bag for the rest of my life.

Today Tym, our school director is going to be back and he'll tell me about the place where I'm going to do my outreach. I think I might end up going to Tepic, which is in the south of Mexico. People told me it was a really cool place. I'll take bunch of photos and post them when I can.

About photos... someone told everyone I was a great photographer. Which is not really true. I'm under a lot of pressure here, every photo I take people want to look. I've been telling people I'm not that great. I just have couple that are kinda good the rest of the are... not so good.

Ok I gotta go. Will post some photos later.