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.