I cannot believe I leave tomorrow to go to my last country and the fact I will be back in the states on June 21st! It is mind blowing on how fast this year has flown by and getting to experience and be a part of what God is doing around the world. I will not be able to contact anyone while I am in this country until I land back in the states in just a short period of time. I look forward to getting to see everyone when I return!
love (God) love (others) love (yourself),
Preston
It was incredible having the opportunity to have my parents come to visit and do life with me for about a week while I was in Kyrgyzstan. Here are some of the things my mom wrote about of things she learned and experienced during her visit:
Kyrgyzstan reflections from Mom:
Pre PVT: I had doubts whether it would really happen, so I tried to not get my hopes up too much. Three weeks before we got on the plane, the flight was booked- gulp– this was really going to happen!
Preparation: lots of prayer, researching where we were going-Bishkek, practicing how to even spell and pronounce Kyrgyzstan, looking up youtube videos on how to pack for this trip in just a 23# carry on.
Time in Bishkek: Amazing, absolutely amazing- I am so glad we went!
Favorite memories: 1. Seeing Preston for the first time in 9 months! 2. Beauty of the mountains and the people 3. Devotions and worship time with PVT team and the Z squad 4. Treasure Hunting/ATL as a family 5. Communion as a family 6. Walking a lot everywhere we went everyday, anywhere from 4-8 miles (my legs were very happy about this) 7. Building relationships with Kyrgyz University students throughout the week through our ministry host, teaching at the University, serving alongside the students at the orphanage and the old people’s home, getting to hear testimonies of new believers, meeting random students at the college fair, going to the outdoor bazaar with students 8. Trying new food (some really good, some I will leave for the locals) 9. Seeing God at work growing His Kingdom and letting us be a part of that! 10. Not having to worry about money or translating at all because Preston had things under control! 11.Meeting Pastor Ruslan (from Kazakzstan) and hearing about the vision he has for the youth of Central Asia 12. Praying for a stranger’s knee in Istanbul that I met getting off the plane 13. Thankful God healed my shoulder pain right before we took the trip so it wasn’t a hinderance.
New experiences: 1. Being somewhere I didn’t hear ANY English or even see it written on any signs, having no wifi, no currency- in the Istanbul airport 2. SQUATTY POTTIES (at the university, the mall and a few restaurants) 3. Using an outhouse with a keyhole opening in the ground behind a mountain house 3. Treasure Hunting/ATL 4. experiencing a lot of attention from locals because we were Americans5. Drinking fermented horse milk- Kumis 6. Yummy Plov (a rice dish)7. Yummy ‘pillow’ like bread the size of a chic fila mini chicken nugget biscuit that melted in your mouth 8. Kyrgyz word for Thank you is Spaciba, not Placebo (haha) (this may not be how you spell it) 9. seeing a local eat mud right off the side of a house
Learned: 1. God is good all the time
2. Be Interruptible (here at home we are so schedule focused vs relationship focused)
3. Chose ‘joy’ in every situation (when I’m tempted to focus on the negative possibles or my lack of feeling prepared or when I’m hurting- don’t focus on that, focus on the joy set before me- Preston was really good about encouraging me in this frequently- THANK YOU LORD for the joy you give this young man ALL THE TIME- what an inspiration!)
4. Be intentional
5. Love others, this speaks volumes to the nonbeliever-drawing their attention
6. God is on the move, continue to pray bold prayers for his kingdom and for him to work
7. Don’t take for granted my: freedom to speak freely about Jesus, or that my family loves the Lord Jesus (in a Muslim family if you become a Christian, your family will likely reject you)
8. Americans: we talk louder than most people on the other side of the world, we tend to dress more casually and we aren’t as friendly to foreigners as Kyrgyz folks here were to us
9. Kyrgyz people love America and want to come here and travel
10. Always carry TP with you when in other countries
11. I don’t ever need as much clothes as I thought I would need
12. Doing ministry as a family is AWESOME
13. When God gets you out of your comfort zone, then He can really start showing what HE can do
14. I learned the Kyrgyz dance
15. I read an amazing book AFTER I got back, that would have been super helpful if I had before I went: Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus
