2007 Our Pastor Dr. Howard Dial's Visit back to Heinz Homepage
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We were privileged to have our pastor Dr. Howard Dial and his wife Beth visit us this year from Aug 24-28. They traveled 11 time zones to be with us and we deeply appreciated their company.
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Friday. Above. We hit the ground running the day they arrived (Friday). We went to visit some unbelieving friends of ours on Friday. Goolmira and her husband Yerbol.
We met Goolmira in 2001. She was in our English club for 2 years. (See photos of Goolmira in 2001 and 2003 below) She was and continues to be full of questions about God and the Bible and Jesus Christ. We have presented the Gospel and talked about Jesus Christ with her for many dozens of hours over the years, but she is not a believer yet. We have tea or dinner together a couple of times a year. In 2007 at her request we began seeing more of each other and of her husband Yerbol. He is a narcotics policeman. He enrolled in the police academy when he was 18. All of the instruction was in Russian and he didn't speak a word of Russian when he started. But he stuck it out and did well. He will be retiring from the force in Mid March after 20 years and looking for work in the private sector.
Left: Goolmira in white, 2001.
Right: Goolmira in jeans jacket in 2003.
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Saturday.
Above: We visited Misha and Yulia on Saturday in their home about 20
minutes from ours. Yulia served a delicious meal and we heard Misha's
testimony.
After lunch we had watermelon (left) and then went for a walk around the neighborhood. We met this little guy (right) eating ice-cream and took his picture with his family (above right)
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Sunday. On Sunday we had a full day at church. Meal preparation from 10-11, Service from 11-12:15, Prayer Meeting from 12:15-12:30, followed by a meal and fellowship until 2pm. Beth got to try making "monty" which is a Russian ravioli. Howard and Beth were able to meet and get better acquainted with the members of our little fellowship.
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Monday.
The Market. We started the day on Monday with a visit to our outdoor market which is about as big as the average mall in the USA. We walked around and Molly showed Beth the stalls where she buys meat, paper products, canned goods, fruit, vegetables, and several others. They are all separate sellers here.
Below: "Samsa" is a bread pocket with either meat, cheese, or potatoes inside. It is the most common "fast-food" here. It is one of the few things that people eat standing up or walking or even driving. They make fun of Americans always eating in their cars.
Monday.
Out of Town. After our long walk at the Market we started driving west out of town into the rolling fields along the snow-capped mountains. We showed Howard and Beth the camp where we took the Berachah team with Alpha-Omega Church in 2003 for a summer picnic. We passed through the town where most of Kooderbye's relatives live about 45 minutes west of us. It was a sunny day and it was nice to get out of the city traffic and breath fresh air for awhile.
Below: That evening Howard and Beth took us out to our favorite restaurant for dinner. We introduced them to the Greek salad with a different kind of feta cheese. We also introduced them to Almaty traffic jams and people carrying funny loads of junk on the roofs of their cars on the way home!
We all went to the airport for their 5am flight out on Tuesday. It was wonderful having them here with us. They were so positive and encouraging!
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Maybe you too would like to visit Kazakhstan. If so, let me formally invite you to come and visit any time. We can help you get visas and find tickets. If you come in the summer you can eat fresh picked fruit off the trees and of course you can enjoy Molly's world famous pizza and other gourmet dishes as you enjoy real Kazakhstan hospitality. Please be our guest any time!
The Heinz Family
