I’ve never seen a sky like the one over Mongolia.  It’s always wild, like having a river overhead, and feels like it’s right on top of you.  This isn’t the best picture ever - Kim’s are way better - but it gives you an idea.

I’ve never seen a sky like the one over Mongolia.  It’s always wild, like having a river overhead, and feels like it’s right on top of you.  This isn’t the best picture ever - Kim’s are way better - but it gives you an idea.

It’s been over ten days since our last update.  Sorry about that!  It’s been extremely busy over here; oddly because there’s been a lot back home to take care of.  Hopefully we’ll have some good news for you later this week! I wanted to post a couple pictures from our last trip to UB for Kim’s close of service seminar and to say goodbye to a few friends. In this picture are our good friends Johnny, Marina, & Amy; and Patrick, Aurelia, and April.  Johnny and Marina were here for four years and brought Amy back with them for this past year after having her in Canada.  Johnny co-taught the Bible study to the small group leaders with me every Tuesday night for the past year.  He also endured the humilation with me of being spanked on the butt with a shovel by a huge M*ngolian ogre as we scrambled over a fence after trespassing onto a really nice soccer field to throw my football around.  They’ve moved back to Canada where they’ll have baby #2 and Johnny is working for their missions organization and teaching at their Bible school. Marina was one of Kim’s partners in crime in the kitchen and they traded recipes and generally made everyone around them, especially in our Bible study, much happier.  Amy was one of the smartest and coolest kids we’ve ever hung around.  We’re really gonna miss her gregariousness, laughter, and when she would sing songs that she made up at the top of her lungs and with her eyes closed. As sad as saying goodbye was, we made it more tolerable having a great dinner together at our favorite restaurant in UB called Veranda.

It’s been over ten days since our last update.  Sorry about that!  It’s been extremely busy over here; oddly because there’s been a lot back home to take care of.  Hopefully we’ll have some good news for you later this week!

I wanted to post a couple pictures from our last trip to UB for Kim’s close of service seminar and to say goodbye to a few friends.

In this picture are our good friends Johnny, Marina, & Amy; and Patrick, Aurelia, and April.  Johnny and Marina were here for four years and brought Amy back with them for this past year after having her in Canada.  Johnny co-taught the Bible study to the small group leaders with me every Tuesday night for the past year.  He also endured the humilation with me of being spanked on the butt with a shovel by a huge M*ngolian ogre as we scrambled over a fence after trespassing onto a really nice soccer field to throw my football around.  They’ve moved back to Canada where they’ll have baby #2 and Johnny is working for their missions organization and teaching at their Bible school.

Marina was one of Kim’s partners in crime in the kitchen and they traded recipes and generally made everyone around them, especially in our Bible study, much happier.  Amy was one of the smartest and coolest kids we’ve ever hung around.  We’re really gonna miss her gregariousness, laughter, and when she would sing songs that she made up at the top of her lungs and with her eyes closed.

As sad as saying goodbye was, we made it more tolerable having a great dinner together at our favorite restaurant in UB called Veranda.

This is from when we said goodbye to our friend Vick because he went back to the States for vacation and will be getting back after we leave.  We had dinner at an Americanized M*ngolian BBQ place in the capital.  It tasted straight out of a mall food court! :) Vick and I taught English together to the missionaries at the YWAM base for the first year I was out here.  I learned a lot about teaching English from him.  And you can’t tell it from the picture, but he can play a mean game of basketball.

This is from when we said goodbye to our friend Vick because he went back to the States for vacation and will be getting back after we leave.  We had dinner at an Americanized M*ngolian BBQ place in the capital.  It tasted straight out of a mall food court! :)

Vick and I taught English together to the missionaries at the YWAM base for the first year I was out here.  I learned a lot about teaching English from him.  And you can’t tell it from the picture, but he can play a mean game of basketball.

Traveling To UB

Yesterday I took a bus to UB to start editing the TV programs.  Here’s a little glimpse of what traveling here is like.

-Two days ago it was 78 degrees.  Yesterday there was a blizzard.  Yes, a blizzard on May 27th.

-The heaters in the bus didn’t work so it was like spending 7 hours in a shaking fridge.  I wrapped myself in my bath towel.

-Though there was a blizzard it didn’t stop the driver from having one hand on the wheel and the other on his cell phone or cigarette.

-And my personal favorite…when approaching a line of cars stopped at a blinking train track crossing, the BUS driver guns it around the line of cars and across the tracks, weaving between the guards and blinking signals.

I almost kissed the ground when I got off the bus.

My parents’ church, St. John’s Lutheran in Orange, was kind enough to send a gift to that enabled us to buy 35 children’s Bibles and 20 full Bibles for the church, and a New Testament commentary, a church history book, and two theology books for the pastor and the church leadership here. Think about how many Bibles or theological books you have sitting at home on your shelves.  I know I have many, and worse, a lot of them are unread.  Back home people are philosophizing over minutae and debating over terms like “contextualization” (which is needed in many cases to correct error).  Out here books and Bibles themselves are luxuries. They don’t have many materials in their own language and those they do have are often very expensive because they have to be printed in another country.  It’s awesome to be able to give things that we take so horribly for granted to people whose access to them is so hindered.  I was so stoked when the pastor saw the church history book and his eyes lit up and he said, “I’ve been looking for that one!”  Though I get a similar feeling when I find a book on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble,  I can’t really relate with what he was feeling. I’m happy that their gift will help not only an immediate need in the church, but the next generation of Christians in Mongolia as well, by giving Bibles to families and giving teachers more study materials. God is good.

My parents’ church, St. John’s Lutheran in Orange, was kind enough to send a gift to that enabled us to buy 35 children’s Bibles and 20 full Bibles for the church, and a New Testament commentary, a church history book, and two theology books for the pastor and the church leadership here.

Think about how many Bibles or theological books you have sitting at home on your shelves.  I know I have many, and worse, a lot of them are unread.  Back home people are philosophizing over minutae and debating over terms like “contextualization” (which is needed in many cases to correct error).  Out here books and Bibles themselves are luxuries.

They don’t have many materials in their own language and those they do have are often very expensive because they have to be printed in another country.  It’s awesome to be able to give things that we take so horribly for granted to people whose access to them is so hindered.  I was so stoked when the pastor saw the church history book and his eyes lit up and he said, “I’ve been looking for that one!”  Though I get a similar feeling when I find a book on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble,  I can’t really relate with what he was feeling.

I’m happy that their gift will help not only an immediate need in the church, but the next generation of Christians in Mongolia as well, by giving Bibles to families and giving teachers more study materials.

God is good.