Bishkek is the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. I have been traveling to Bishkek for almost ten years now. For the past decade, this small city has transformed tremendously. There are more buildings, more cars, more people, and greater hope for the bright future. After we crossed the border, Mr. Hyun Park came to pick us up to the lodging. He runs a travel agency and tour operating business. He came to this country as a missionary but decided to devote his time to running this business instead.
The first program we had was time with Caleb Choi and Caleb Park, two leaders of Eastern Christianity Institute. We had dinner together and learned about Eastern Christianity that practically was buried by the western Christianity.
Our next meeting was with Dr. Luke Moon, a dentist, who successfully established a few dental practices and has been running them sustainably. We listened to his journey and ministries. Also present was Mr. Hugh (Sehyun) Choi who runs the property business including the building Dr. Moon's dental practice is located. Our meeting was educational and inspirational. We had lunch together.
After lunch, we headed out to visit Almaz's sowing factory. Almaz is a local pastor and a leader of house church network. He runs a sowing factory to generate profit and establish financial sustainability to run his house church network. To empower local pastors and their businesses for self-sustainability, we agreed to help automate his factoring operation, first. The timeline for implementation would be in 2027.
Also present at our meeting were two ladies who also run sowing factories. One of them, Aizirek, I met at the BAM Global Leaders Forum. She is a young lady leading a youth ministry as well as running her sowing factory. She was quite passionate about serving the Lord and we plan to empower her with her business as well. We visited her operation as well. All our members shared the sentiment.
We had dinner together with Almaz's team members at Navat, a traditional Central Asian restaurant. This time of fellowship was cordial and encouraging.
The next day, we spent the whole day visiting Dutch Nature, and meeting the CEO Micah's team members. First, we listened to Micah's presentation about what the Lord had been doing in and through Dutch Nature, which serves the six-phase value chain of agriculture. Its main cash cow business is animal feed, but there are seven other businesses affiliated to Dutch Nature.
I knew the stories through Dutch Nature board meetings, but all others praise God for His grace poured upon this business and its affiliates. Micah's passionate presentation was always challenging and inspirational. SfK made an investment in Dutch Nature, made a loan, and I serve its board. Three leaders of this business attended SfK's BMT program.
After his presentation, he gave us a tour of the manufacturing plant that had expanded since the last year.
After lunch, one of Micah's leadership team, called Jengish, was taking us to visit a few places where DN Impact is serving. DNI is the public foundation of Dutch Nature and Jengish is the director of DNI. DN provides DNI 10% of its net profit every year. DNI's major goal is to empower local pastors to be self-sustainable through jobs or businesses related to Oasis Agro or Dutch Nature. He used to work for Food for the Hungry Korea so he spoke fluent Korean as well. Since he joined DNI, DNI's activities became much more active and the reporting has become streamlined. We thank God for sending him to us.
One of the places we visited was the seed farm that I visited a few days earlier. Kyrgyz government officials visit this seed farm and Dutch Nature plans to supply seeds of good quality to improve the Kyrgyz agriculture.
We found a great potential with Almaz's team and we prayed to God for His provision of ample grace upon his operations and his network members. - Jeffrey
After his presentation, he gave us a tour of the manufacturing plant that had expanded since the last year.
After the factory tour, we took them out to lunch. People in Central Asia eat a lot of meat, being the nomads. There was no exception this time. We ate a lot of meat along with traditional spices and veggies.
We also visited a rehabilitation center where drug or alcohol addicts receive the rehabilitation over a two-year period. There is no outside support, other than $100 they receive from a local church. So they had to support themselves. They raise layer chickens, the program participants work at construction sites together to earn money, and they grow veggies in the field. Their story was touching our heart and we gave a donation to support their operations with a prayer. DNI provided them with a grant to finance the expansion of the chicken coop.
Before we left Bishkek, we met Sy who had been running a silk product purification business. Unfortunately, his factory was located in the area close to the new presidential complex, and he had to close the operation. He was feeling disappointed and somewhat bitter about the situation. We promised to explore ways to help him out. Later, Mr. Sangtaek Oh of Rothem Cafe met with him and we are also exploring the possibility of a joint venture with a Korean silk manufacturer.
We had to say good bye to Koo Chung who would be returning home in Atlanta Georgia in the U.S. due to his limited vacation time availability. We took a flight to go to our next destination, Tashkent Uzbekistan.
We found a great potential with Almaz's team and we prayed to God for His provision of ample grace upon his operations and his network members. - Jeffrey
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