Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Returning to Mongolia, shortly

Sorry for not writing for a while. It has been an enjoyable summer here. We spent two weeks in Port Macquarie and surrounds over Christmas with Rachel's family. This was a good time for relaxation and reconnection. Since then, Rachel has been spending her days at an English language college in the city doing her teaching prac (and trying to resurrect her Mongolian with the Mongolian students there and not getting very far), and Seumas worked on a tan down on the south coast for a week. But now he too is back to doing important things like reading and writing and preparing lessons.

The latest news from Mongolia is that our visas have been approved. In fact, according to the documentation I have, we are able to get them at the airport on arrival. This seems unusual, but the documentation is very clear on the matter! So we have booked tickets and leaving on the 7th. We have already missed several weeks of semester, so there will be classes to make up indeed. This semester Seumas has the following subjects:
  • 1 & 2 Peter (Greek Exegesis)
  • Amos (Hebrew Exegesis)
  • Ezra-Nehemiah
  • Church History 4BC - 1052 AD (seems a strange year to stop, though I suppose it does relieve me from teaching the ins and outs of the filioque controversy!)
Also he is slated to go on a short-term mission to western Mongolia with the second-year students. Adventurous times!

Our apologies to any individuals we haven't gotten around to see. We have tried! Over the next few weeks we will be, as you can imagine, a little on the busy side. But not too busy we couldn't squeeze in a few more hang-outs.

We will be having a low-keyish sending-off service at Lane Cove Mowbray Anglican on the 2nd of February. You could come to the 10am or 6pm service to join with us; both will involve some commissioning of us as well as hearing me share from 1 Corinthians 12.

Please pray for:
- preparations for return
- settling back into Mongolian life, relationships, and ministry
- faithful and fruitful service
- the inevitable sadness of change