Mongolia, July 2006

As some of you may know I am now back in America. I returned and jumped right in helping my family with the next move. We will be leaving California September 1st and start driving across the country to the east coast visiting family and friends along the way. But I did not want to let you all down and not let you know the things that the Lord did in Mongolia the last few weeks I was there. So here are some of the things that you can continue to pray for. Even though I am not serving in Mongolia right now, God has planted seeds that I pray will continue to grow. The training of the World Vision staff is going well, recently some of the staff came up after the meeting and asked if they could use our Christian materials as they go out to the country side and use it as a tool to help reach the Nomads. Tim has started trying to get the overlays for our lessons, with the Mongolian and/or English, translated all the way so that they could purchase them at the cost it would be to make them. The translation work is going slow, we are down to one translator, Idree. Idree also has a family and other responsibilities, and cannot help with translating full time. But it is being done well. Pujee, one of our best translators, just had her baby, and so cannot help with translating for awhile. The baby's name, in English, means Fragrant Lily. She was born early but is doing well. She is a tiny adorable little girl. There have been meetings with the Mongolian International Institute about the classes the Character Training Institute is going to be starting this new school year. The leaders at MIU are excited about CTI coming and teaching, and many plans are being made to help the students to really learn, and not cheat. :-) The Trainings at the Children's Place are going well and strong. Mostly Tim is the one teaching, with Idree to translate into Mongolian. Please pray that this Christan Orphanage will be blessed with the teachings from Gods word. A few weeks before I left, Erin came up with the wonderful idea of doing some cooking and craft classes with spoken English for some of our students and friends who don't have as much to do during the Summer. This was a wonderful time of getting to know some of the Mongolian people we come in contact with more personally. They loved the classes! We shared with them some of our American culture through the food and crafts that we taught them how to make. We had all ages attend, from child to grandmother. I think they enjoyed the cooking classes the most. We made Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal cookies, Banana Bread and Apple Pie! On one occasion, Duma's sister and law came (Duma is one of My Christan Mongolian friends), I assumed that she was a Christan too, but she was not, and so I started asking her questions like what church she went to and such, Duma was very pleased that I was asking her these things and it brought up more opportunities for Duma to talk about the gospel with her sister in law. Toward the end of my time in Mongolia the Lord gave ma many neat opportunities to experience the culture. One of them was with Julie, a Mongolian girl that went to our church, she invited Erin and I out to the country side to stay in her Ger (a round tent like house). We had a relaxing time. It was neat to be with all the Herder families and their heards of horses. We climbed a mountain and viewed the wonderful scenery from the top. We also had our meals cooked over a fire and milk tea in the morning, and brushed our teeth in a nice fresh flowing river. While I was there I learned how to make a Mongolian dish called Hosher, I have already made it for my family and they seem to really enjoy it. Looking back on my time in Mongolia, I would say that my main ministry was discipleing young Christian ladies in their walk with the Lord. Many of them are new Christians, and I was asked a lot of things. Like, "How do I stop this life of sin I am living in, when I know it is disobeying God, but I just can't stop?" or just simple questions about how to have personal devotion time and studying Gods word. I am so grateful to God for giving me the words to say. Thank you all for your interest in what God is doing, and the support you have given me. There are many other trainings that are going on and that have started recently as well, so obviously there is much more that I could say, but I hope that this gives you a little picture of how you can pray for the country of Mongolia. May God bless you as you seek to serve Him. Naomi Lyons

Mongolia, June 2006

When you are walking around the city of Ulaan Baatar, you dodge cars and carefully step around open man holes, drunk people sprawled out, chopped off animal heads, and many other things. It takes longer to do anything here. You can't just go to your nearest Wal-mart. A lot of times when we make plans to meet with someone, they may just not come because something came up, or they are 30min to an hour late. And they don't always let you know about these things either. It is frustrating sometimes. For a city, crime is not bad at all; the only real reason that you try and go out by pairs, at least, is because of the attentiveness that you need while getting around. One of the biggest crimes is theft, but you don't have to worry about your safety, many people are just poor and think that stealing is the solution. Sakhiya, a Mongolian friend that used to work for the Character Training Institute (CTI), came over for dinner one night. We had a really good time talking and getting to know more about the Mongolian culture. She is 22 years old. We started talking about height. I am surprised at how tall some of the Mongolian people are and Sakhiya said that she was surprised at how young some Americans were when we stopped growing taller. Sakhiya said that it is the same way with the people that live in Ulaan Baatar city, they stop growing at a young age, but for the Mongolians who live in the countryside, they grow until they are about 25 years old, men and women. I had noticed that I seem to be on the short side here. :-) Erin and I helped with translation work on our Attentiveness overlays. They needed to be updated. I helped with back translating with Ideree, one of our Mongolian staff. Erin helped with re-wording some of the overlays in English and suggesting helpful changes in the English. When all the English changes were done they were passed on to me and I helped with making sure Ideree understood the meaning and got the closest and best translation into Mongolian. We are now finished with Attentiveness and are starting on the Obedience overlays. On our last day at Mongolian International University (MIU) we gave the Final Exam for our classes. How the Seniors have done in our class is a big deciding factor on their final graduation grade. We went early that morning to set up the chairs far apart from each other to prevent some cheating. We still had 8 people that we caught cheating and had to fail on the test as well as on the semester. I am sure there was a lot more cheating just from looking at their tests and grading them later. We think that maybe our test got out when we had it printed at the school. But one good thing is that we had 2 slightly different tests, so it was easy to tell the ones that had only seen one of the tests because they started answering the test with the answers to the other. There are some amazing things that these students tried to get away with. One guy had written notes on a piece of paper with invisible ink, and then the pen that he was using had one of those black light flash lights on the end so that when he thought we where not looking he flashed it on to see his "invisible" notes. Some people had notes that were printed so small that I could hardly read them, they put them on the smallest pieces of paper and tucked them wherever they thought we could not see or held them in their palm. One girl wrote some notes on her little pencil bag. We hoped that the training on Truthfulness would have impacted them, but I guess not all got the point. Some though, really understood the character qualities that we were teaching, and applied them to their life, and that was an encouragement. One night when I was brushing my teeth I had an experience that I don't think I have ever had before. You know that not very pleasant sensation that you feel when you bite down on a really cold Popsicle? It feels like freezer burn or something. Well I got that when I was brushing my teeth! The water was so cold, and I started brushing my teeth, it hurt! :-/ I can hardly believe how cold water can get before it freezes. Holy Way Church had a retreat in Guchert, a place in the country side, for a few days. Erin and I stayed over night one of the nights. W ally and Jeannie Stephenson , a missionary couple from Canada spoke at the retreat on Helping Hurting People, and how to have a Godly family. Wally is a pastor who's wife and daughter died in 1993, through that, he started writing a book called "Helping Hurting People". Jeannie, a single lady that was a missionary to Bangladesh, was given the Wally's book to Edit. In 1996 they were married. Now they go all over the world giving seminars in different countries. It was wonderful getting to know them and learn from there experiences. There was a girl from Singapore at the retreat and she pointed out to me that the traditional way for a Mongolian person to point to something is not with their fingers or using their arms, but to use their lips! They sort of stick them out more and move their head pointing their lips at what they want to point at. A man did that right in front of us! On Sunday morning I took the opportunity after the church service and during testimony time to give a testimony, and encourage, the young people especially, on obeying and honoring their parents. It went with what Jeannie had talked about on Saturday. The Lord laid it on my heart to share about the blessings of obedience. This was a chance for me to communicate with all the young ladies that I had been getting to know through a translator. One girl would take me by the arm and drag me places, but she could not really speak to me. She told me in what little words she knew, something like, we will be friends forever and then started singing the Titanic song to me! J (I have never seen the Titanic, but I have heard the theme song), I guess she memorize the words in English. The real reason that Holy Way has a retreat once a year, is for the new believers to have the chance to get baptized. Sunday morning was very cloudy. The wind came and it got even colder, and then it rained. Thankfully the rain eventually stopped and it was not raining for the baptism but I think it was in the 40's for the baptism in the river and still windy. Not quite what you would want. But about 50 people were baptized that day. Some of the very young and the very old though just stood by the river and got a sprinkling baptism. One evening we invited Janelle over to join us for dinner. She is a young Christian Mongolian lady. She seems to be really growing in her faith. The end of last year her 29-year-old brother was murdered. They did not know where he was for a while, but then later they found him floating in the river with what looked like stab marks all over him from a knife. Janelle said that her small hometown is rich in gold, it is a gold mining town. And there are a lot of crimes there because of it, and her brother is just one of the victims. She told us some of the things that the Lord has been teaching her from this. How it made her think of the pain that Jesus suffered for us and other things. She said that two of her sisters and her mother tried to commit suicide because of this; they were so sad that they just did not want to live anymore. This was their 'favorite' child and brother, so much so that the parents 'hid' him until he was graduated from High School. They 'hid' him by having him look like a girl. Long hair, and girl clothes. Now that we are done with the school year trainings, we have started character trainings with the Biblical references for an Orphanage called the Children's Place. There is probably about 15 to 20 Christian Mongolian staff that came to our first training. They really seemed to get a lot out of the character lesson, and the American ladies that are in charge of the orphanage were very grateful for the discipleship. They gave us a tour afterward, and we were able to see some of the orphans. There are only infants to toddlers in the orphanage, about 30 children, they try and get them adopted in about a year. They are adorable kids. It was such a blessing to get to hold and play with some of them. Another training that we have just started this summer is training the World Vision staff. We are able to tie in the scripture with our lessons to them as well. It was neat to hear Tim talk about some of the history of CTI with Mongolia. About 6 years ago the Mongolian government invited CTI to come to Mongolia and teach character in their schools and other government offices. Since then we have also received many other opportunities from organizations and church groups to come and disciple and train them as well. This was a wonderful opportunity for CTI. One of the first things that Tim said to the government officials that invited us was "you do know that we are a Christian organization, don't you?" There was silence in the room, and then one of the men spoke up and said, "Yes, we know you are Christian, but we want you to teach our government and schools character without the Bible". Knowing that we needed to comply with the government on the restrictions they gave us, we also realized that we had a great opportunity to be able to be in places that other Christian organizations would not normally be able to get too, or even groups that they would not likely be involved in. And to build relationships with them. Many have come to Christ this way, through seeing Christ in us. Praise the Lord that he can use even our weaknesses and show Himself strong through us. "...My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities , in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 God really does redeem the time. These are just a few of the things that have been going on and that you can pray for. May the Lord bless you as you seek to serve Him in whatever He has called you to.

Wallpaper Wars

We tore down wallpaper for about 4 hours today! Any wallpaper job is not easy, but it went faster than I thought it would. The wallpaper here does not really have any protective washable serfice so the water soaked right throgh to the glue. We are getting our apartment ready to paint, and to do that we have to strip all the wallpaper, put plaster on the walls, scrap the chulky stuff off the ceiliings down to the cement, and then paint!

Last night...

Last night was my first night in room 119. Yesterday I moved all my stuff there from 121 because on Monday we are going to start striping the wallpaper and painting 121. On Monday we will also move Erin out of 121. I had a good time this afternoon moving our kitchen stuff to the main apartment's kitchen and then taking down shelves and getting it ready for painting. It is going to look so nice and different. I think our apartment needed a nice painting about 20 years ago. I hope that the girls that come after me will appreciate it. It is nice that we are getting these projects done while there are not as many trainings going on. And I am glad for yet more painting experience!

Saturday, June 3

Saturday, June 3Today we worked on grading journals. And I hope we will be done by Monday. I hear that the Expo went really well. There were a lot of people there and it seemed there were also a lot of people interested in CTI. There is a man who does painting, and I told him that I would be interested in some cards that he painted. When he came by today he told me the price for 1 card, and then he said if I bought a certain amount then he would give me this certain price, and the way he said it made it sound like it was a better price for more cards. Well, it did not sound quite right to me and so I figured it out and the price he was offering was really 1000 tugrugs more! Well, I told him what the price should be; he sort of grunted and said that sounded good to him. J I may have to give my updates a little farther apart, but I will keep you posted on the major things that happen and the different things that you can pray about for me and the others here. Thank you so much for your prayers! May God bless you all!

Friday, June 2

Friday, June 2This morning there was an Expo in Ulaan Baatar, and CTI was invited to have a table there. I am not sure how it went yet. Only our Mongolian staff went. Tim, Erin and I were at MIU. Today we gave the students the last quiz on Responsibility. I think it went pretty well compared to the last times. Next week we give the final exam. All those who pass get 2 hours of credit in Social Studies, which is a good amount for them! I think for the final exams we are going to have them all sit about 2 feet away from each other so that we can keep a better eye on the students and watch for cheating. ;-)

Thursday, June 1

Thursday, June 1Happy Mothers and Children’s Day!! I got a bunch of emails today saying that Erika’s flight from Beijing took off and then turned around and landed again because of mechanical problems. And so her flight out of Beijing was about 4 ½ hours late! So of course she was going to miss her connecting flight out of Chicago. Erika’s parents found this out before she even landed in Chicago, and so they had quite a time trying to find out if she could make the last flight out to Atlanta at about 9:30pm. The agents kept on saying either yes or no she could not. They were not giving any sure answers. So just in case she was not able to make that flight my mom was able to get a hold of Amy, my friend that works at IBLP HQ. She and another girl were on call to take Erika to HQ to spend the night (thank you Amy!:-). It ended up that Erika was able to catch the next flight. It was so close though, that her luggage did not make it on the flight, but had to be delivered the next day. We spent time this afternoon preparing for the Expo and MIU quizzes tomorrow. Erin and I spent the morning figuring out the best curtains to put up in our apartment, and then putting them up. The curtain rods do not always fit the style of curtains that we have and so it took awhile to get those up. Then we were able to do other household chores.

Wednesday, May 31

Wednesday, May 31We took Erika to the Airport this morning. Her flight left at about 7:30am. We are really going to miss her around here. It was already getting quiet enough with the Waller family gone.We went to MIU this morning and taught on Responsibility. I think a lot of the students are really starting to get the concepts that we are teaching, and not just to get a good grade in school, but realizing that we are trying to help them. Dorjbat put up curtain rods today in our apartment. The only thing that we had before were some wires that were holding some curtains, and it really did not look that good.

Tuesday, May 30

Tuesday, May 30It was our last day teaching at Oyunii Tov today, for the school year at least. The girl that Erin gave a Bible too was not in class today. We saw her on another floor, and maybe she was busy with something else and could not come, or maybe an authority found out about the gift and she was not allowed to attend, or maybe she did not want to. Who knows, but please be praying for her. I don’t know if we are going to be able to see her again or not, but at least she has God’s word. We were able to get Erika’s replacement passport today. There was a meeting at the Embassy at 1am. But at that time their computers where not working and so they had to go again at around 4 to 5pm. And PTL, they had it all ready for her. This means that her passport, if we find it, is no good anymore. But I think it would be nice for her to have as proof of her trips overseas.

Mongolia, May 29

Monday, May 29Dear Family and Friends,Happy Memorial Day!today has been quite a day for us here at CTI. Erika is due to leaveWednesday morning, and so she has been getting all ready and packedtoday. This afternoon Erika and I went to the "Mini Delger" where webuy most of our food. It is just about a 5 min walk from ourapartment. Well, on our way back Erika's wallet was stolen right outof her bag! We did not realize it until we were back, and then Erikarecalled a time that she thought she felt her bag move. This is not acrowded area, and it seems they knew what they were after, because herwallet was not right at the top of her bag and it was zippered shut.It would not be that bad, there was only a little money and herdrivers licence. But her Passport was in her wallet, and she is due toleave Mongolia in about 33 hours!We have already contacted the American Embassy, and she is going for a1oclock meeting there tomorrow to try and get either a replacement, ortemporary passport, not sure which. The Embassy requested a policereport, and that was interesting to get. Our Mongolian staff reallyhelped us out alot with that, as well as in helping look in a bunch oftrash cans and under cars where they might have disposed of the walletwith (hopefully) the passport still in it. There is going to be anannouncement made where the thieves can get a reward if they give thepassport back, because it is not much use to them other wise.We watched a documentary today in honor of Memorial Day, called "Aleague of Grateful Sons", it was done very recently, and it was verygood. One interesting thing about our Memorial Day today was that itsnowed! And it even stuck to the ground. I will attach pictures thatwe took this evening.Please pray that we will be able to get Erika a new passport soon, orthat we will find or that the "pickpocket" will return Erika'spassport.

Monday, May 29

Monday, May 29Happy Memorial Day! We got a lot of snow this evening just in time for Memorial Day! J Erika, Erin and I were invited to Tim and Angie’s to have a dinner of hamburgers, potato salad and baked beans, and then brownies and ice cream for dissert! Afterwards we watched a video called “A league of Grateful Sons? a Christian documentary on the War on Iwo Jima. It was very good and I would recommend it to those who love American history! This afternoon Erika and I went to the "Mini Delger" where we buy most of our food. It is just about a 5 min walk from our apartment. On our way back, Erika's wallet was stolen right out of her bag! We did not realize it until we were back home, and then Erikarecalled a time that she thought she felt her bag move. It was not a crowded area, but it seems that they knew what they were after, because her wallet was not right at the top of her bag and it was zippered shut. It would not be that bad, but her Passport was in her wallet, and Erika leaves Mongolia May 31st!

Saturday, May 27

Saturday, May 27Happy Birthday Mom! Today we had a nice morning catching up with some of our personal things. In the afternoon Angie took Erika and I to Ticsicktov (not sure of the spelling, sounds a bit like Tic-tack-toe to me:-) to get some souvenirs for friends and family. It was so hot today, in the 60’s! The contrast from what it has been, to today, is big. We had some snow flurries the beginning of this week!One praise for us today, is that our water seems to be getting warm! I have been learning to take bathes with water heated from the stove, and it is quite the technique. Even washing the dishes in cold water is very hard. When you have hot water it helps cut the grease more than I knew. And after awhile of washing the dishes my hands would get so numb that they almost felt hot! Any way, it was quite strange. Thank you all so much for your prayers for us right now. There is so much that happens in a day, just little things here and there that I don’t always write down for you all. I wish I could remember everything. But for some things it seems that you just have to be here to understand. :-) God bless you all!

Friday, May 26

Friday, May 26This morning I woke up with a cold, and was not feeling the best, so I did not go to MIU this morning. I was feeling much better after about 3ish, and so Erika, Erin and I walked to the Taylor’s so that Erika could try on her unfinished deel, and they could make last minuet adjustments before they made it all the way. A traditional deel is really quite thick and bulky because of all the cold weather that they have here. Erika is getting one that is a lot thinner and can be warn in her warm Georgia climate. :-) I am also getting something made, but it does not have to be rushed since I will be here for another 2 months after Erika leaves. This evening, Angie and Tim took us three girls out to dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant. It was very good, and more Mongolian than I thought. I got dumplings in cream and onion sauce, and they served my food in a clay pot. :-)

Thursday, May 25

Thursday, May 25This morning we finished grading the Journals and Quizzes and entering the scores into the computer. Erika and I have a great system going for getting them done well and fast. I think we really work well as a team. We got them all done by about noon. One of our motivations for getting them done was we were going to Narantuulzakh today to get fabric, lining and buttons for our deel’s. Narantuulzakh is an outside market where they sell just about everything! Tserendulam, and Chingis (one of our Mongolian staff), came with us. They told us not to bring our cameras, passports or keys, because this place has a lot of pickpockets, and supposedly this is the place that a lot of the “professional? pickpockets go.

Wednesday, May 24

Wednesday, May 24We went to MIU today and gave the quiz on Patience. I think there were not as many cheaters, but then again, they could just be getting better at cheating. J Most of the classes they take, it seems that the teachers don’t care as much about cheating. So for us it makes it worse when we are one of the only exceptions. Though I think they are starting to realize that we are consistent. We spent hours today grading the quizzes and Journals. We are done with the quizzes, and the journals are more than halfway done. We have to go through, read and grade about 220 journals. It is fun to do, but a lot of work. There are many Christians in the School and it is neat to see from the journal entries how they are applying Gods character in their lives.

Monday, May 22

Monday, May 22This morning we got up real early to say goodbye to the Waller family. Their flight left at about 7:30 this morning. Erika and I did a lot of work in the Waller’s apartments. They had 3 apts. For their whole family. We took a lot of CTI stuff down to the main apartment. We are going to organize the stuff and figure out what needs to be where. I think we are going to have some guests stay in the apartments that we now have open. This afternoon we had a meeting with some MIU directors to go over next years schedule. The school is run by Korean Christians, and that is one of the reasons why they want God’s character taught in the school. This school is like a mission field to them, and they want Christian teachers teaching the student’s. And even though we can’t teach about God, we can talk to the students personally about it.

Sunday, May 21

Sunday, May 21At church today a Mongolian girl came up to Sarah to say goodbye, since it is the Waller’s last Sunday before they leave (they leave tomorrow). She told Sarah that about a year ago she was a student and she started learning Character with CTI. She said that she did not know why she even had to learn character in the first place. But now she is a Christian! She told Sarah that now she knows why character is so good, and how it helped her to “see? the truth. Sarah shared with her a verse that says… “ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.? God gave us the law to show us clearly that we are sinners, but also the law is to guide us. It was neat to see how God used the character training in her life.

Saturday, May 20

Saturday, May 20Today at noon prayer, I specifically asked for prayer for us to have more opportunity to share the gospel with our students, and the different “non-Christian? groups that we teach. And this afternoon, on the same day, Erin saw one of our MIU students passing by, and was able to share the gospel with her! She did not know hardly anything about Christianity, and was very curious. Erin even shared her own testimony with her too. She invited her to come to our church tomorrow; though it sounds like her mom is coming to visit her tomorrow and she said that tomorrow she might not be able to. But she seemed really interested. Please pray that she will come, and even feel free to bring her mom with her, and that we will have more opportunities to talk with her.

Friday, May 19

Friday, May 19MIU teaching went really well today! Other than the regular teaching that I did, I shared one of my own experiences that went with one of the “I will’s? that we are teaching on, Patience. The “I will? was, “I will keep trying until I succeed.? I shared about some of my struggles of being dyslexic, and how my Mom encouraged me, and we did not give up. 2 Chinese girls in one of our MIU classes today, asked us if we would like to come to their Chinese church! I meet one of them the other day, and she invited us then too. Tim would really like to start reaching out to the Chinese and Russian people that are in Mongolia, and so this is a great opportunity for us. I think we are going to try and go on Sunday the 28th.

Thursday, May 18

Thursday, May 18Happy 18th Birthday Ben! Today I did the most training that I have done so far. I was allotted about 35 min of speaking time training the World Vision district leaders how to teach these Character qualities to others. Really we are just teaching the character qualities to them and then we provide some materials that they can purchase to aid in them passing on what they learned. One of the ladies, a social worker, said that the Government knows what we are doing and is very thankful to us and so she gave us a gift from them. They provided lunch for us after the training. It was something that looked a lot like the Chinese dumplings but bigger and not as good (to me). J They were full of mutton. Usually the meat that they use in their dishes has a lot of fat and chewy parts of the meat still in it. So it was a little difficult to eat. We were also serve what they call milk tea. Now, when I was in Taiwan they had some really good milk tea, nice and sweet, but the Mongolian version of milk tea is a little salty, not sweet. It tasted like salty chalk water. But I hear that some of the milk tea they have here can be good, but I have yet to try it. JWe have also been able to go to meetings with Christian groups from MIU, other churches, as well as the one we go to now, and help to disciple them. One of the blessings with teaching Character to the Schools, government, and businesses, (and even though we are not allowed to teach about God in the actual classes) is that we are able to have contacts and friends with groups that we would not normally be able to have contact with. We are sharing about what the Bible teaches though, and then as we get to know more and more of these different groups and the people in them, we share with them the gospel. Different people in CTI have been able to lead many to Christ. (Romans 2:12-16). “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing…? and when you start sharing with them the Character and principles that are from Scripture. People say, “Yes, this is true!? And then they come to us and ask questions about it. Please pray that we will be open and take the opportunities that the Lord gives us to share the gospel. Please pray for the Waller family, they leave on the 22nd, Monday morning. There will be a big gap in our team here in Mongolia, and we will have to cut back on some of the things we can do. Pray that I will be able to see what needs there may be that I can help fill. Thank you all for your prayers!

Wednesday, May 17

Wednesday, May 17Today we went to MIU and taught on the Character quality of Patience. So many times the Character that we are supposed to teach on that day is one that is very helpful for us to remember at the time. Like this morning we felt a bit rushed out the door, and we were all waiting on others at different times. J Today Erika got the opportunity to help watch some orphans that came by, and to play with them outside in the stadium that is next to our apartments. This orphanage is run by a Christian family with the last name of Morrly (not sure of the spelling). Just recently the Morrly’s house, in Mongolia, burned down. Please pray for them. We did a bunch of collating this afternoon and evening. The pages were hot off the press, and the 5 booklets that we collated are needed for tomorrow’s training of the World Vision district leaders.

Monday, May 15

Monday, May 15Yay! We finished grading the journals today. And also we are celebrating Erin’s 23ed birthday this evening. Her real birthday is tomorrow. Erin invited some Mongolian young ladies to our apartment to celebrate her birthday. We played a game, ate ice cream, and sang some hymns. It is really neat, especially, to hear both the English and Mongolian languages at the same time when we sing. I think that all of the Mongolian girls that came are new Christians, they have mostly come to know Christ through someone in our team, and it is neat the relationships that we have as a team with them. I think one of the major things that we have been able to do here in Mongolia is to disciple the Christians here. There are a lot of new Christians and they do not always know how/or what it looks like to apply what God says in the Bible to their lives. And for those of us who have grown up in Christian family’s I think it gives them more of a vision of how a Christian family can work. Not that we are perfect. J One of the girls that came this evening, asked me to share my testimony of when I became a Christian. It was neat to share with her, and then she shared her testimony with me. I have been surprised at how many Mongolians ask me if I am a Christian. They are very direct and say things that in America we might think are rude. One girl told me that my lips where chapped and I should probably use some chap stick, and licking your lips is not good for your chapped lips. J They really try and help out and say what they think on a lot of matters.

Saturday, May 13th

Saturday, May 13thToday the CTI group had their last Character English class on Saturdays at MIU, until they try and start up again in the fall. I helped Erin Randall and Sarah Waller with their class this morning. They were teaching English words in the category of Traveling and Directions. Some of the students want to learn more about the way we do things in America, because they all seem to want to go to America, and I think are planning on it. It was interesting watching their faces and talking about how people in the cities of America usually use the sidewalks and do not walk on the road like they do here in Mongolia (you would have to see it to know what I mean:-). And how what we call "Jay Walking", is against the rules in America. Those things where only touched on in class but they thought that they were weird and funny in a way. :-)

Friday, May 12th

Friday, May 12thThis morning at MIU we had 3 classes, an hour each, from 9:30 to 12:30. Tim usually teaches, but he will be gone for about 3 days and so David is teaching in his place.We got a lot of the Journals graded today. In total we have about 120?ish?journals to grade. In the evening we went to a Christian Mongolian “Opera?, though it was not only Opera. I think mostly the Korean Missionaries ran it. The Mongolian orcastra played mostly on the “Horse Fiddles? I don’t know the Mongolian term for the instrument. The fiddle has 2 strings with a bow and a box shaped body with the carving of the head of a horse on the handle. It was really neat to hear the Mongolian orcastra play some American songs like “Hoe Down? and “Serenade? by Mozart. There was a Solo played by one of the Mongolian “Horse Fiddlers? of “Ave Maria?. It was really beautiful! Then a Korean American choir (from New Jersey USA J) sang some Christian songs in Mongolian, I think. Anyway, it was not English. Then one of the highlights of the evening was about 6 or 7 selections from the Opera by Jerome Hines “I am the Way?! It is the only Opera on the life of Christ. One of the really funny parts at the end was when they closed the evening with the Hallelujah chorus. All the Americans that were there stood up for it, and the Mongolians were very confused as to what we were doing and why we all stood up. I have a feeling that a lot of them asked their American friends what that was all about. J

Thursday, May 11th

Thursday, May 11thThis morning we went to Vitsamo, a juice factory that is run by a Christian man. We teach his staff about character, and how to apply it. Today we talked about gratefulness. And how to not just think, “I am so thankful for such, and such?, but to express your thankfulness in words as well as with your actions. Ex: you tell your Mom how grateful you are for cooking a meal and how good it is, and then when you are done you start helping with clean up. That is expressing your thanks by your words and your actions. We where able to get a tour of the factory. It was neat to see how they used even the old bottles and the process of cleaning them before they are used again. This evening our group went to a church and taught Mongolian Pastors and Sunday school teachers how to teach character, and since it is a church group we are able to talk about some of the commands of God, and how these character qualities are related to obeying them.

Wednesday, May 10th

Wednesday, May 10thToday Erika and I helped with teaching at MIU. We helped by passing out a quiz and then once the quiz started we walked around and pulled people out that we would catch or even think might be cheating, then we would give them the quiz orally, tomake sure and see if they were cheating or not, cheating is a big problem in the schools. We then spent the rest of the morning and awhile in the afternoon grading the quizzes and the student’s journals that they are supposed to turn in. In their journals they are to give personal examples of the 5 "I will's" of the character quality that we areteaching at the time. The one for today was Initiative. And the “I will’s? are;1. I will do what is right before being told2. I will not put off until tomorrow the things I can do today3. I will contribute to the success of the whole team4. I will be part of the solution rather than the problem5. I will look for ways to help othersIt was neat to read some of the journals and see into some of the lives of thestudents.

Tuesday, May 9th

Tuesday, May 9thI went to the school called Oyunii Tov today, with Erika, Erin and Sarah. We had two groups, the 1st to 6th graders, and then the 7th to high school group. We taught on the character quality of Gratefulness. It was one of the first times I was able to help teach. We have been observing the first few days, so that we can get a better idea of what we are to do. Sarah gave her testimony about her brother Isaac that just died in November, and how out of a love for Mongolia, he was buried here. Sarah (15) talked about how you can be grateful in any circumstance and how to find the good in everything. It really moved a lot of the students, and the translator, who was not expecting this, was having a hard time translating and when it was over, rushed out of the room. I am not sure if she is a Christian, but sometimes it is easier to become close to the translators and share the reason for the peace that we have in Christ. Please pray for her.

Mongolia, May 8

This morning when we got up it was snowing outside! And it continued to snow all day! We were going to take a trip to the countryside this afternoon, but since there was so much snow, it was not safe to travel out side the city. But I really did not mind, it was just so cool to see all the snow, and in May too! We went to a character class for teachers, teaching them how to teach their students in the schools different character qualities. In some ways it is really hard in those certain classes not to be able to tell them about God, the reason behind the character and why we even need to strive and be people of character. Sure, it does make peace with others and a better quality of life, and there are blessings to fallowing these things. But the motivation, a lot of times, is not on Glorifying God, as much as it is learning how to better them selves. We (CTI) have been learning new ways to get to know our students, and have personal relationships with them so that we can share the good news with them. It is interesting, the students who are already Christians very quickly realize that we are Christians by the things that we teach and the way that we live, and we have been able to disciple them and encourage them. This afternoon Erika and I had to go and get “Registered? all we needed was a picture and a letter from CTI, and they stamped our passport as registered. I guess it is a precaution in case they have to get a hold of all the American’s in Mongolia for some reason.

Mongolia, May 7, 06

Sunday, May 7thThe church that we are going to is a Mongolian church. Its English name is "Holy Way". All the foreigners that don't speak Mongolian sit in the back, while a translator sits with us and translates the sermon. It was difficult to even understand the translator, but I did get some points from the service. Since it is hard to get much from the service in the morning, CTI gets together at about 6:30pm and we watch a message on video. This Sunday we watched "Sermon on the Mount - Virtue" A man that gives lessons from God's word using illustrations with horses.

Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia May 6, 06

Hello to all from Ulaan Baatar Mongolia! Erika and I arrived here safe and sound early on the morning of May 6th. The Lord has been working in many ways in the lives of the people of Mongolia.My first impression is that the people of Mongolia look a lot like Chinese people. But I have been told that it seems they act more like Russians in their culture. As I have been here though, I think both the Chinese and Russians have some of the same types of cultures, because of being communist countries. Supposedly, in Mongolia, communism has fallen, but in some ways it is still here, because it has not been long since it was gone, and there is still a lot of influences of the way things were.Since Mongolia is on the border of China and Russia it does have a lot of Chinese and Russian people as well. Mongolians though tend to look up to the Russians and seem to like them better in a lot of ways, and that is why, I guess, they live more like the Russians. They do have some of there “own? culture too J. They really look up to Chingas Khan, and some even worship him. The time of Chingas Khan is looked upon, as probably the best time for Mongolia, they seem to always look back on that time. I hope that they will learn to look forward.

First we went to MIU (Mongolian International University), and observed the Character and English classes. There will only be one more class with this group next Saturday, but it is nice to see the types of things we are going to be teaching and how it is being taught. Every weekday, whoever is at CTI, gets together at about 12:30 to share praises and prayer requests and then we pray together. It is a nice time to get to know what all the different parts of the team are doing. On May 22nd the Waller family, all 11 of them, are leaving Mongolia. We don't know if they are coming back or not, but they have been such a help to the team. When they leave, CTI is going to have to cut back on the teaching and different ministries that they have, because there just won't be enough people to do everything.