3. earthquake relief. First, we were able to finally close a project that was started quite a while before we arrived here but the vendor had problems delivering the equipment. The project is for a deaf school that teaches the deaf some vocational skills. One of the skills is to make furniture and the Church donated a machine that puts finishing molding on the pieces of furniture. They use to use an iron to heat the molding and glue for attachment of the molding to the wood. Now they will learn how to operate a machine as it is done in a factory so that they can potentially get a job. Their first project will be to build small chairs 
for a handicapped kindergarten. Second, we have submitted a project to buy eye glasses for 65 members of the Astana Blind Society. If a person is declared legally blind, then the government will not do anything to help them improve their limited vision. For many of these people a set of special eye glasses makes the difference between no vision at all and some limited vision so they can function in society. The wonderful part of our experience, besides just working with the good but poor folks, was getting to know the optician that is willing to work with the Blind Society. She does not hesitate to donate her own funds or labor to help. She also donates eye glasses to an orphanage. When we talked to her about her benevolence, she stated that “all charity comes from God”. We do not mix proselyting with humanitarian work so that there is no idea that the Church only does humanitarian work to get converts or that there are ‘strings attached’ to the donation. We will, however, encourage our missionaries to go and see her after the project.
We have also begun discussions with a handicapped society in the city of Shymkent who are asking for a donation of equipment to start a hair and nail salon that will be operated by the handicapped giving them jobs and any handicapped in the society will be able to get free services. It is estimated that there are more than 20,000 handicapped in that city.
Third, we have been involved a little in trying to discern if there is a need that the Church’s humanitarian expertise can fill to relieve the suffering felt by those effected by the earthquake that hit southwestern Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan killing 13 and injuring 85. Those countries are tightly controled and it is difficult to get much information and the Area Presidency will not allow us to travel there because of the political unrest so good info is hard to come by. Through some obscure connections via email we have been able to get copies of the UN ‘on the ground’ report and have passed that and some eyewitness information on to the Area Welfare Manager. The Lord cares about these people and has made the information flow in ways we could not have imagined when we received the assignment. We are hopeful that the governments will let the relief be sent in a timely fashion.
In the evenings Viviane and I have been watching, via the internet, the BYU series on the Joseph Smith Papers (http://byutv.org/show/5d739281-537f-40f3-92ed-8a60b9f25fb0#!main ). What a wonderful, uplifting experience it has been. We can only watch a couple of them per day since the internet flakes out on us in the early evening but we have learned a lot about the early church environment. We highly recommend it.
As we walk around the city we are amazed at the wonderful flower beds that
have been created to beautify the city. Here are a few examples…
We also found an outdoor exercise park and so Viviane decided to try it out .... The lady on the bench was giving her instructions in Russian.
I close with this quote - "We must be the change we wish to see in the world," Matthew Colling, program co-director of HELP International.
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