I’m invited on a parent vision trip to meet up with Catherine for a week in Bishkek Kyrgyzstan. Here’s what’s running through my head “Really? Kyrgyzstan! For just a week, and Mark can’t go because it’s planting season?! I will try to get out of it, hopefully Catherine will say, “You don’t really have to come” ”. Well that’s not quite what happened. While talking to her about it, it was clear she wanted me to come, but what she said was she wanted me to come because I wanted to come. So that did it; I started making plans to go. Mark suggested I call another mother that might be planning to go, and who lost her husband this last fall. We connected and traveled from Chicago to Bishkek together. It made the trip more relaxing but it was still long. Finally after flying for 11+ hours to Istanbul, Turkey a 5 hour layover and then another 5 hours to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan our daughters met us at the airport. It was a tearfilled reunion of joy and of love. Why did I even consider not coming! What was I thinking? When I got to hold my daughter in my arms and really see her in front of me, I’m so thankful that God knew the desires of my heart and used Catherine to communicate that to me when this vision trip was just in the planning stages.
We arrived in Bishkek at 5:30 AM on Sunday and from there Catherine and I decided to walk around the city. Bishkek has many universities and is also the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Here are some my highlights:
- A little reminiscent of home, Bishkek has construction going on.
- It is impressive with all it’s government buildings and the changing of the guard.
- We ate horse meat for lunch and it was delicious.
Sunday evening we had an orientation and were served a typical dinner consisting of buttery rice with veggies and lamb, a flat bread served with a sour cream mixture and fresh fruit. Everything was very good. The group Catherine was working with this month was well organized and very helpful. At this meeting we learned our mission work for the week included teaching an English class at the university, working at an orphanage painting murals, pulling weeds, painting fence, and digging holes, and volunteering at a nursing home painting fence and visiting with the residents.
Our typical day started with breakfast, followed by youth led devotions, and prayer time. After the organizational instructions we were sent off to do our assigned work for the day. The most important thing in all of our work was to follow in Jesus’ footsteps showing kindness and love to everyone we met. At the end of each day we met to debrief, have another devotion and pray together.
On our free day three Kyrgy young ladies took a group of us up to a house in the mountains. Catherine chose to stay back and sleep as she had not felt well all week. While I missed spending time with her, I know that she slept better knowing I was well taken care of with this group learning about Kyrgyzstan’s history. On our way we stopped at a restaurant that was set up to show how the nomads lived. We saw how the yurts were set up, and then went on a tour and learned all about their nomadic way of life. It was a rainy day, but the countryside was no less beautiful. The new friends I had made and the stories they shared made the day extra special.
Our last day we were taken to the bazaar by some Kyrgy volunteers from the center they had been working with for the month. They didn’t want us going alone which I think was a wise decision. It was huge and amazing! Everything you could imagine was being sold at this bazaar. We saw food from fruit to meat, clothing from shoes to blankets, and the spices were delightful just to look at. That evening the center had a goodbye party for Catherine’s group where they put on skits and played special music. At the end they even had s’mores for the “Americans”. Pictures were taken, and many sad goodbyes were shared. Catherine mentioned that she had no idea that so many kids would miss her. The whole team was loved and going to be missed dearly.
When I look back on the week with Catherine in Kyrgyzstan I’m so grateful and thankful that I went and experienced as much as I could. I may have been hesitant to make the plans and go, but once I took the first step everything fell into place. Meeting her teammates, the other parents, and getting to serve alongside her helped me to see just a glimpse of what she has been getting to do these past 11 months.
3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth”
-Gabriele Read
