We also did some Christian things too. =D
When I went in the summer, the first thing that I noticed as soon as I stepped out of the airport was the fresh air. Going this time in the winter, the first thing I noticed was the cold air that froze everything inside my nose. It was quite a sensation.
Our apartment was awesome! Warm water. Warm rooms. We were very thankful.
One of the main things we did during our time there was visiting many many families. Our first family was Ugi's cousin, Eedee.
Eedee is the same age as me but already has two children. His first child was awarded 1,000,000th citizen of Ulanbator.
He is a believer but has not been too plugged in with the church for a while with all his studies and work. So we went to meet and encourage him.
It was wonderful seeing Tseggy's kids again. Namuun and Dolguun both got bigger since we last saw them. As we spent Christmas with the family, Namuuna played many songs for us on her violin.
Tseggy cooked an awesome dinner for us. I asked Ugi if the dish was Mongolian. He said, "No. It's Tseggy." Haha. It was amazing to see Ugi know even more English than before. He gets better every time we meet him!
We also celebrated with their cell group.
Lots of food, sharing, songs,
and gifts.
This is Tonga, the tallest Mongolian I have ever seen in my life. As you can see, she is even slightly taller than me. She not only looked Korean but also spoke it pretty well.
This is Tanya. She is the only white person at their church and has been in Mongolia for nearly 14 years doing translation work with Christian books. It was impressive to see her speak and understand Mongolian, the most difficult language in the whole world.
This is Elder Damb. He is involved with a youth group in the Ger District, which is kinda like the ghetto. He is trying to find ways to make sure that his kids continue to live faithfully even after they move onto to adulthood. Joe and I had a special heart for him, especially after meeting his kids.
The church in Mongolia lacks men. There is a big imbalance of men and women, so Ugi really wanted us to reach out to the young men especially.
It turned out that their idea of a Christmas celebration was more along the lines of a high school prom. There was a best dressed contest and even...
a dance! If you look to the left, you'll notice that I got to dance with the prom queen. Haha. I mean, if they're running up to you to dance with them, how can you say no?
I personally felt pretty awkward, especially during the dancing. However, these kids showered us with so much love and joy. It was really refreshing to be around so much youthful energy again.
This was the outer entrance to Tseggy's place that we always visited.
It was very encouraging to see just the everyday living of this family. Ugi is possibly one of the best fathers I have ever met in so many ways. Tseggy, my hero, is an awesome helper to her husband and a loving mother to her kids. Namuuna is my best Mongolian friend. Dolguuno is my special Mongolian enemy, always calling me Santa Clause. I love this family so much.
I'm sure Joe loved them too.
Dolguun takes after his father in eating very well. Every time I asked if he was hungry, he would always say yes. I guess that's why we got along too.
Grandpa Joe had to sit out this time because of his jacked up knee. I had a pretty good time playing though. The guy next to me actually plays professionally in Mongolia. He was holding back a lot, but he was still pretty darn good.
We met a lot of families that had young grandparents because they had married early and so had their children. We had an interesting conversation about the pros and cons of marrying and having children at an early age.
Joe and I had a chance to stay at a community house with 10 young adult Christians living together. We all went around sharing our testimonies for around three hours. That night, I learned that many Mongolians grow up in broken families. Many are separated from siblings. Many have grown up with a Buddhist background. Many have tried or seriously considered committing suicide. It was an amazing night.
They were so good to us. Translations. Food.
And even a place to sleep. Three of the guys huddled close together
so that Joe and I could sleep in their own spots. So nice.
Breakfast.
Next, we met some college students who were involved in the biggest Christian fellowship in Mongolia, FCS.
It was encouraging to see how open and honest they were from the getgo. There were all sorts of questions regarding addictions, peer pressure, and culture. This was when Joe really shined.
This lady invited us to her house for dinner after we had briefly met her at the community house. She had an overflowing joy that really encouraged us. She invited us to come stay at her place the next time we go.
This is one of the cell group members, Muugi, and his two daughters. I had briefly met him during the summer when he shared about how he first came to hear the Gospel by watching a free screening of a movie, which turned out to be the Jesus Film. He is only 30 years old and has a great heart to be a good husband and father. I grew a very special heart for him.
Another one of our big events was having several young men come over to our place to have a time of encouragement to be men of leadership and godliness. I really wanted to encourage them to be men who could lead future families as godly husbands and fathers.
It turns out that they also have Mr. Pizza in Mongolia.
Our particular pizzas tasted like cheeseburgers.
In the middle of our time, my stool broke on me. Before Joe even asked if I was ok, he busted out his camera to capture this precious memory.
It was really amazing to hear about what they had to say about Mongolian men as husbands and fathers. "Drunkards...irresponsible...unable to provide..." Many Mongolians either do not have fathers or have ones that do not raise them up properly. They need a lot of encouragement.
We met more of Ugi's side of the family.
This was a pretty cool ice sculpture that was in front of the nearby department store that supplied all of our needs.
We rode taxis everyday. I had always wondered how Ugi knew which car was a taxi. It turns out that anyone could be a taxi driver. If you wave and they stop for you, you're good to go. They're cheaper than real taxis that go by the meter.
Since we usually brought the kids along, we often had a packed car.
On New Year's Eve, we went to this area called "The Dark." There were no lights around and was indeed pretty dark. On this particular day, the air was super bad as you can see the light reflecting off all the dust particles. Joe was commenting on how foggy it was that day, but Tseggy told us it wasn't fog. Yikes. However, I still think Shenyang had worse air. UB's a close runner up though.
We indeed ate A LOT as every family we visited has food to give to us. Buuz, the Mongolian 만두, quickly became an obstacle.
I actually got sick this day and was dying. With each day's activities and lack of sleep, my body finally broke down on the last day of 2009. I'm still in recovery mode.
Ugi's mother gave us gifts and now considers us her two new sons. I now call her, "eej," which is mom in Mongolian.
Then we went to Tseggy's side of the family to celebrate the end of the year.
Normally, it's supposed to be a huge celebration with all of her family members together. But this year was the first time everyone was separated for various reasons. Nevertheless, it was a very fun way to welcome in the new year.
It was so good catching up with Chika and hearing about some of his stories when he was in Korea. I was so encouraged to hear that Tsema, Tseggy's oldest sister, now goes to church with her two sons. Although she is not a believer yet, there is a slow working progress that is evident.
This was a child care center called Rainbow House. It's technically an orphanage, but the reason why they don't like calling it that is because they try to run the place as if they are a real family.
I was very impressed with their practical and efficient system with the number of kids and age limits that they have set.
They are seeking to transform these children so that they could transform the world. They are really seeking to be a model child care center. Joe and I really grew a special heart for this ministry too.
Then we did lots of walking to go to a men's prayer meeting on the first day of the new year.
It was great seeing a very decent turnout of men, especially since the prayer meeting was very far away on New Year's Day when no one goes out.
Joe did a very good job in specifically asking Ugi to call Eedee to come out. It was wonderful to see that he came out and was even encouraged and challenged during the meeting.
So this concludes my superficial update on Mongolian Winter 2009. One more ministry that really touched our hearts was the slums area where we were asked not to take any pictures. Lots of Mongolians have it tough, but the Lord is doing some amazing things in various places. When Joe emailed Pastor Frank, the pastor of the slums area about his ministry, he told us to just see for ourselves. I encourage you to do the same with Mongolia if you ever have a chance. God is so good.
I'm pretty sick right now. My dad is having a major oral operation tomorrow. Please pray for the Chung men. Please pray for the Mongolian men.
Thought of the Day: Sick
Song of the Day: CL-Heartbreaker
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