March 8th was International Women’s Day, and it was a big deal in Kyrgyzstan. My team decided that for ministry that day we wanted to hand out flowers to local women. So they raised some funds then went out and bought lots of flowers from several local businesses. We each wrote notes, some in Russian and some in English, to pass out with the flowers. We wanted the women to know they were beautiful, appreciated, and loved by us and the Father.
We started off Women’s Day with a delicious delivery of baked meat pie and warm apple pie from our landlord and her son. They took such great care of us and became some of our favorite people! After lunch we each grabbed a bunch of flowers and some notes, then set off to see who the Lord would have us run into.
Our first stop was the “mall” where many souvenir vendors are set up. A few teammates had met a woman there that they wanted to give a flower to. We stopped by several of the small shops, blessing the women inside, then we came to a shop with four women sitting inside eating together. We felt the Lord leading us to go inside, and when we gave them each a flower they were so happy! They gladly offered us some of their chocolates and asked to take a picture with us. The whole shop was filled with joy and laughter.
After that we made our way to the coffee shops we’ve been frequenting. One of our English club students/translators works at one so we stopped to see her first. We gave flowers to her and her boss, who we’ve also gotten to interact with a few times. And while we were there, a mom came in with her toddler daughter. The little girl LOVED us. She gave lots of hugs and cried when we left. I wonder if she could sense the Holy Spirit in us. God knew I needed that little hug.
We finished handing out our flowers to the women at the other two coffee shops, and we even got to see G briefly! (I wrote about her in my other blog you can see here.) We all had smiles plastered to our faces. We could feel the Lord’s love for all these women, and we could feel His love and favor for us. It’s so cool how we can be blessed by blessing others. His Kingdom truly is wonderful and mysterious.
One of my favorite parts of the day was an Instagram post. We handed out many flowers and notes to random women throughout town as God would lead. Later in the evening one of my teammates saw an Instagram post from one of our English club students, B. She had posted a picture of one of our notes. The crazy part is that we hadn’t seen her, so it didn’t come directly from us. After reaching out we found out that one of us had given her mom a flower and a note. Then her mom had given her (the daughter) the note and said it was a gift from God. This student is a believer, but her mom isn’t. God blessed and encouraged her through us and her mom!
We decided to keep it a secret that we had written the note, but it was incredible to see God working! It was a good reminder that we have no idea what God is doing. Sometimes he gives us a glimpse, but other times we have to simply trust that He IS working even when we don’t see it.
This was one of my favorite days of ministry on this trip so far. What an honor it is to serve a loving God!
What a beautiful day! I am so happy that to be able to read this blog post, the very first I have read from you. How beautifully the Spirit works through small gestures. About a year ago we gave flowers away in Key West and were so rewarded with joy- something very special happens when you love people and give flowers!