Meet Kostya & Kristina, Our Keynote Speakers this Dec!
Decades ago, a Russian named Kostya moved to the United States for college.
He graduated and met his wife, Kristina, and the two started work building houses. God blessed the business, but they had an itch to do more with their skills.
While traveling and exploring opportunities, they ended up in Central Asia. Then, during the Joseph Project a few years ago, they felt God calling them to stop building houses in the USA and instead to build people...in Kyrgyzstan.
The following year, they moved their family from a house in the Portland suburbs to a former soviet general’s compound in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan.
Pictured: The building ground for Oasis Agro farmer outposts.
The couple took a leap of faith, trusting they would find a way to use their skills to bless neighbors, and after settling into their new home, Kostya & Kristina were given a way forward through Oasis Agro (OA), one of our oldest partners. OA aims to address two critical needs in a self-sustaining way:
Create better access to quality inputs for rural farmers
Be a light to the community by creating jobs (keeping people from displacement)
They found a solution to both as the feed mill they operate exploded in growth. Thanks to our community of C Fund impact investors (many of you!), our partners managing the feed mill had the capital to purchase the supplies they needed, then turned that into a local feed source serving their neighbors at a competitive, fair rate.
Oasis Agro had a vision to distribute feed to poultry farmers operating in remote communities through small farmer outposts. This strategy would allow a greater number of small-scale poultry farmers access to feed, boost sales for Oasis Agro, and provide jobs to so many people, including several local pastors we’ve befriended who otherwise would’ve been forced to leave the country in search of work.
God’s vision for and through Kostya and Kristina was a win, win, WIN!
Partner Video: Watch farmer outposts being installed in communities throughout southern Kyrgyzstan!
To execute on this people-building vision, Kostya and Kristina went to work creating and implementing ‘farmer outposts’ in remote parts of the country to distribute feed more easily to rural farmers.
In mountainous, still-wild regions of Kyrgyzstan, farmers lack access to even basic inputs and were having to travel long distances to pick up OA feed & other products. The outposts were identical and mobile, meaning they could be easily installed and staffed wherever most convenient.
Rather than renting existing buildings, they rented space and put the buildings down.
Kostya, Kristina & the team at OA—with the support of our AgG community—have established 12 farmer outposts and have plans to at least double that, and the impact is undeniable.
While it’s provided jobs for many formerly struggling Christians and other minorities, it’s also had a positive impact on communities, many of which celebrate business coming to their small rural communities and the local Muslim leaders have welcomed their presence with ceremonies you can see in the video above.
Come meet Kostya and Kristina!
Our 4th Annual Meeting happens Dec 1 and you’re invited!
Kostya and Kristina are scheduled to speak and share more of how your giving, volunteering, encouragement and every other contribution of this community has impacted farmers all over Central Asia, get more info below.