Under Almaty Mountains

Amy, Lena, and I are leading our first international King’s Kids outreach. We have 8 Russian kids with us from different churches and we just finished our long trip from Perm, Russia to Almaty, Kazakhstan. The train ride was not uncomfortable, but as the border police checked our documents they discovered two of our girls were without the proper stamps in their paper work. We had to get off the train. Amy however already had her visa stamped before we found out about this, she had to go on ahead alone. This was God’s plan as Amy went to Almaty and made many friends at the YWAM base, participating in the Gateway camp there. Praise God for his wisdom and provision.

The next day Lena took Alissa back with her to Yekaterinburg in order to receive new documents. Alissa has an amazing testimony, she is 13 years old and comes from a Godly family. She received all her support for this outreach from a church in America, at the same time her leg was broken and the doctor was sure she wasn’t going to be able to go any where, but now she is walking and healing every day. Then at the border it was sure that she would never get these documents in time, as bureaucracy in Russia can take weeks to get around. But praise the Lord again as Alissa returned with Lena after 2 days with all the necessary documents!

While Amy and Lena were gone I was alone with 7 young teenagers. It was an interesting and bonding experience, especially when discipline was in order. But the kids did a great job building relationships, prayer walking, and seeking the Lord while we were stuck on the border. We shared watermelon with people at the train station and shared the gospel with other children that we befriended.

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Once Lena returned we bought new tickets to Astana in Kazakhstan. Our ride across the border was smooth and we arrived with no problems. We got off the train refreshed and excited. Lena and I found a place to exchange money from Rubles to Tinge, and we hired two taxis to drive our team to Almaty. The drive would take about 12 hours. And after Lena’s car getting a flat tire, helping some strangers with another flat tire, then my car getting a flat tire, we finally made it to Almaty at about 5 am.

The next morning was the last day of the Gateway camp, we were welcomed by so many smiling faces and hugs, it was overwhelming. We participated in the worship and got to hear a word from Dale Kauffman, the founder of King’s Kids and Gateway. And because of our delays and tickets we were over our budget of $1,000. However, at Gateway an offering was taken for our team and we were given $1,050!

It was a great day but in the end we were feeling the effects of our journey. The next day was Saturday and we spent it practicing and resting at the YWAM base. On Sunday our team was welcomed to do a program and share at a local church (Center of Hope, thank you Jan!). We were blessed by them probably more than we were able to bless in return. The rest of our time was spent prayer walking around the center of Almaty. That evening we had home made pizza, watermelon, and team time with Dale Kauffman. It was a great fun hearing stories of early King’s Kids days and praying together. It seems the Lord desires to show his strength through our weaknesses and joy, and we believe He will do more so through our team in the future.

Today we will be traveling to a town up in the mountains, we will stay there for 3 days. Please pray for us as we may be out of contact for a while. Please pray for safety, for the Lord’s blessing on our team, for hearts to open to Jesus, and for Lena and the baby’s health. Thank you friends for being with us through this adventure!

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