Mission Trip, Day 3

The first thing we do of a morning, once everyone gets up (which happens relatively smoothly since you are all in the same room and once a few people are up you pretty much need to wake up, unless you are Davka), is have a devotional time. We sing a few songs, then someone shares a bible passage (Acts 6:1-14 this morning) and everyone has some time to think and reflect and then everyone shares some thoughts, then more singing and simultaneous prayer.

Then we get to breakfast. It is a relatively affair involving bread, jam, a kind of soft flour biscuit (боов), and of course salty-milk-tea.

About 10am we headed outside. Not much usually happens in Mongolia before 10am anyway. The first stop was to visit the local governor/government official, I don't really know what his title is. But there was a town meeting on, so we had to wait. So we waited. For about 2 hours. People came into the local government building. Some also waited. Some came and went. Our team talked to some people. Enkhtsetseg and I went out and visited a few shops and came back. Still waiting. And then it finished and we went to meet the local boss-man. Erka shared about our programme and who we were and gave him a gift, and told him of our desire to bless the community, and then we prayed for the director and went on our way.

Enkhtuvshin shares the good news as we wait for the town meeting

Next stop was to meet the school principal. Again there was more waiting involved. This is the Mongolian way. He seemed a little less friendly to my understanding of what was going on. Later someone explained that while he had no particular objections to our activities, other parties might have some. Also the timing of some of our events had to be renegotiated.

Davka, Badril and I discussing the possible afternoon program

After lunch back at the house I went along to the church with Davka and Badril. We were to meet some people. Who? I just had to wait and see. One man came who expressed that he believed, but he did not have a clear understanding, so Davka shared the gospel from Romans 5 and gave a good explanation. I caught that the man's name was Otgontsog or something like this.

Then 3 elderly people came to the church. I'm not sure who they were or how they heard. Anyway, Davka and Badril again shared the gospel with these people and answered several questions, particularly about how Christianity differed from Buddhism and Shamanism. The two men seemed to be understanding and a little interested, while the women was less interested and saying things about how it was pretty much the same.

Some of the team visit a local family

Those three left and we talked some more with the first man, until he also left. Then I helped with preparing some material for the kids' programme. This mainly involved cutting out paper hearts. The rest of our team showed up later, they had gone out visiting some local families. We heard that some other people were meant to come to visit the church but for one reason or another they didn't show up.

One local believer

So the team had a time of prayer and praise at the church before heading back to the house. Enkhtsetseg decided my hair was too dirty and so insisted on helping me wash it.

In the evening there was some free time after dinner, before our team meeting for the evening. Team meeting is a bit like morning devotion time, except there is also "sharing about the day"; I noticed that the Mongolians seemed reluctant to be too critical in their review, and I decided I should probably adopt this pattern myself for the time being. There was a lot of discussion about the programme since particularly the childrens' programmes had to be rescheduled. There was also much discussion about whether we would go to Tosontsengel on the following week or not. Bed time was quite late.

Now, I feel I should also introduce my team mates, so today we'll start with Davka. Davka is about 25, he is from far western Mongolia. His father became a believer after falling from a camel and becoming at first a bitter alcoholic. Eventually led to Christ, he and his mother become quite transformed, and Davka was so curious about this drastic change that he needed to check out what had transformed his father so dramatically, so he went to church. There he heard the gospel and became a believer. Davka also serves in my church back in Ulaanbaatar. I think his plan is to head back to western Mongolia after graduating and serve the church there. He is quite a smart-alec too.

Davka being a little bit cheeky

Mission Trip, Day 2

Well I slept very well that first night, I was worn out from the day and probably not drinking enough. The students decided that I would have instant noodles for breakfast instead of the Mongolian fare that the old grandfather was dishing up. I was feeling much better, and we packed up the van and got ready to go. It was snowing and we were concerned that driving might become (more) dangerous. Also we had to push start the van. Actually we had to push it quite a way to get it going.

Across the Steppes

The drive on the second day was even more beautiful than the day before. The 'road' disappeared, or rather was marked by the fact that no-one drove on it. We passed mountains, forests, a lot of snow, a frozen lake, a river flowing through a volcano-carved canyon.

For lunch we stopped in a small town called Чахир, and I took the initiative in saying I would eat бууз for lunch. Right choice for me, much more manageable. We reached Их Уул сум about 3 in the afternoon and stopped at a monument for obligatory photos.

Obligatory Monument Photo

Then we reached the town itself, which is beautifully nestled among, as the name says, many mountains. There are two bridges over a river to reach the town, a wooden one that had been closed and then a second one that had never been open. After some weaving around a phone call was made and a path across the river was worked out.

First we stopped at the church elder's house, but no one was home, so we drove to the church, but no one was there, so we drove back to the elder's house and more phone calls were made, and a passer-by informed us that she was in some meeting somewhere. Eventually her son turned up and restrained the dog and let us in, followed by making some milk-tea for us.

Tired after a long journey

Many a game of darts was played

So we settled in and waited for the elder, Narantuya, to come home. Then there was dinner and a visit to examine the church. There had been talk of staying there but it was deemed too cold and we were to stay at Narantuya's house. So there we had singing and prayer and eventually returning home for bed. Bed meant all the meaning sleeping on the floor of the 'living room' and all the women sleeping in the 'bedroom'. 'Room' is a bit of a loose definition, there were no doors in the building anyway. And that is day 2!

Eternal-Life Church

The team assembled

Mission Trip, Day 1

I'm going to write up a series of posts taking you through my recent experience of mission with students from the college here. So, here we go!

We met at School on the first day at 5am. 5am is very early for Mongolians, so I was a little surprised that people were indeed there. It did take us 45 mins to pack the van, and then there was some cake! No one felt like eating cake though, so we prayed and piled into the van, there were 7 students, myself, and the driver. Our first stop was to pick up a couple more of the students and some big chunks of meat.

We stopped for petrol on the way out of UB, and discovered we had a flat tire. Let the reader take note! In the cold we unpacked the van and changed the tire. It was decided that some extra tools were needed, so someone had to go back into the city and come back. 

First flat tire

We probably got about 30 minutes out of the city before another flat tire (2). Again it was changed, but then we drove back to UB, and myself and 3 of the girls were dropped off at a small cafeteria, where the mother of one of the girls worked, and waited there while the rest went off for more serious tire repair. We drank some coffee, played some cards, and got to know each other better. Then maybe another 45 minutes later the van returned, and we were off again. Departure time was now 10:45.

They decided I should sit in the front seat, next to Enkhtsetseg and the driver. I think they were being considerate and concerned about how I would take the drive. There was a lot of Mongolian singing as we set out again. The road out of UB is pretty good, paved for the most part, and we made solid progress through the day. The countryside is very beautiful, with steppes, mountains, rivers, and of course herds.

Driving across the steppe

We stopped about half-way to Tsetserleg for some lunch, and then drove on, past the ancient capital of Kharkhorum.

Kharkhorum

About 5pm we reached the capital of Arkhangai province, Tsetserleg, and there was some more 'repairing' of the car. By this time our van wouldn't start without pushing, so everytime we stopped for a significant stop, push-starts were necessary. It was decided to drive on, and we went for another 150km. The countryside gets more wild past Tsetserleg and the road decidedly less 'road-like'. Eventually we stopped for the night in a small town and found a 70 year old man who gave us a bed to sleep on and some food to eat. I was not feeling great from the food and journey and went quickly to sleep.

A place to sleep

Introducing Erdenetsetseg and Bat-Orgil

In this post I am introducing two of my students who are seeking your prayers and support and want to share what they are doing. I will let them speak in their own words:

Greeting from Mongolia!

Hello, My name is Bat-Orgil. I am 26 years old. I live with my wife and a son. My wife’s name is Erdene-tsetseg. We study at Union Bible Training Center in Mongolia. We are both 4th year students this year. We live in the student dormitory of UBTC. We were married in 2011. And we had a precious son in June, 2013. Now he is 8 months. We take care him while we are studying.  That is a big job. We are studying full time, taking care of him and writing thesis.

We received Christ as Savior when we were teenagers. While we were studying at Bible College, we understood God’s calling for our family. Our family’s life goal is to live for God’s glory with our time, talent, life and everything. So because of that we are studying at Bible College in order to serve God’s people. God reveals His will through His word to us. Studying the word of God is a precious and important thing for us.

We go to the “Root of blessing” church. We are doing teens' and worship ministry at the church.

We are sharing our life, ministry and situation here and asking for your support.

Our prayer requests:

We want to finish our race faithfully

For College tuition fee and living expenses

For our son’s health

For our ministries

5 Points for Prayer

1. As those of you following Rachel on Facebook will know, we received our Alien Residence Cards this week. Contrary to what I had understood, they are valid only until mid April, as they are tied to one aspect of  the College's registration. Essentially this means that we are only currently guaranteed to be able to stay here until mid-April, at which time our registrations and permissions will need to be re-processed so that we can stay longer. Of course, this was the situation 6 months ago when we had to leave. The general atmosphere of registrations and permissions seems better at the moment, but obviously we don't want to be forced to leave again in mid-April

2 . As our last newsletter spoke about, I have quite a teaching load at the moment, around 14 hrs face to face a week. It take me at least 16hrs or more to prepare for those lessons. It also involves teaching a Hebrew exegesis subject which I am enjoying, but Hebrew is not a strong suit in my myriad languages. Another one of these subjects is a left-over from my incomplete last semester, and it takes considerable time to prepare (New Testament theology). It is scheduled to finish up in a few weeks before our Spring Break. But it will be replaced with a 4hr a week evening class for the second half of semester. In this regard you might pray for general endurance and ability to get my work done and not be overburdened.

3. We are involved in two churches here, an English-language and a Mongol-language church. Our English language church is currently in the process of re-registering. As you might have gathered, all this registration is burdensome and uncertain for practically every organisation we know of. We serve on the steering committee of this church, and registration at this stage is vital in order to issue a visa for a full time pastor who is scheduled to come. As a number of key leaders are leaving shortly, we would very much like this to happen so as to avoid me becoming some kind of de facto pastor of the church!

4. In March I will accompany a team of students from the college on a mission trip to Zabhan province. I am looking forward to the gospel being preached, believers being encouraged, and students engaged in ministry. I am nervous about a 10 day trip in the countryside living 'Mongolian-style'. It is well out of my comfort zone and dietary practices. Pray for God's sustaining grace, provision, and protection.

5. Lastly, and related to point 2, I am not only a full-time teacher here, but I am also a PhD student. So it's incumbent upon me to make steady and faithful progress in my research, which happened while I was back in Australia, but certainly I've achieved nothing in the last 2.5 weeks here. Please pray that I can carve out solid and sufficient time, and have very good mental focus to do some very solid research this semester, as I am at a point where some good forward progress and written material needs to be made.

~ Seumas

Returned to the land of ice

Yes, we are back in Mongolia.

After a fairly (relatively speaking) straightforward flight to Korea, hotel stopover, and flight to Mongolia, we were landing on a clear Saturday afternoon with the sun shining and the temperature in the negative teens. We had some apprehension about having only a document assuring us we would receive visas, but it turned out to be a straightforward process and visas were speedily placed in our passports!

And the first new thing to notice was that the conveyor belt for luggage has been upgraded in the airport. Modern living! We picked up our luggage and then headed out to be met by our friend Puje. He is the one whose son has ongoing health issues; the two of them had been in the US recently and the prognosis is looking good that one day his son might give up his medication and live a 'normal' life. Praise God.

It has been a busy week for me (Seumas) in particular. We had a very warm reception at both of our churches on Sunday, especially at our Mongolian church, which was very nice for us.

On Monday things were a little bit quiet. I went to visit the college but Monday is rest day so zero people were present. We also went to visit our Mongolian teacher, which was a good reconnection.

Alas, in the difficulty of getting into our apartment on the Saturday night (one lock had been changed and we had two sets of keys and didn't realise that the lock had been changed so it was confusing), one of my bags had fallen to the ground. When I opened up my tablet on Monday night I realised that the screen had been shattered quite comprehensively. Actually the touch screen still works, but the glass is cracked all over. I have some moderate hope of getting it fixed here but it seems unlikely. Also a tap stopped working so we had to get a building plumber to come and look at it. And my monitor didn't want to talk to my computer (we at least fixed this with a new cable). Lastly my printer doesn't like windows 8 and so now I have to print everything through Rachel's computer. Many frustrations!

On Tuesday I was straight into work. I discovered just half-way through the flight, in Korea, that I have to teach the second half of a course from last semester. Also I have to make up about 3 weeks of missed classes. So this week I taught 14 hours of class.

Also on Tuesday we went out to Immigration with the college secretary. This was to file our registration. It used to involve fingerprints and photos, but ours are on file, so it kind of went quickly, except that we didn't have all the right documents.

Then on Wednesday it was determined that I also need to have some medical tests for my work permit! So the secretary met me at school and we went off to a Mongolian district hospital. I was quite dubious about this. It was very crowded. Once we arrived she phoned a nurse she knew. Then the nurse led us into another building and we queued for some blood tests. They only do 50 tests or so each morning, and if you don't get a number, too bad, unless you are pregnant, or a foreigner with friends. Mongolia is definitely "who you know". I was quite pleased to see a needle come out of a sealed bag so at least there is some chance it was fresh and I won't die of blood-borne diseases. Then we had to go back to the main hospital building for an x-ray. A similar system seemed in progress but I was taken in as the last person of the morning to get an x-ray (at 9:30!)

Also I am scheduled to go with some students on some kind of mission trip to the North west. I don't really know anything about this yet. I suppose it will become clear-ish in due course.

On Thursday the Dean of Students approached me and asked if I could preach Friday chapel. So that was another thing to be done. Fortunately I was preparing to preach on Sunday and work through a sermon that I had previously done and connected with material I taught in class this week. I never enjoy preaching through a translator but it is the only way. Also there was some misunderstanding about one of my classes, so I had to teach a class (Ezra-Nehemiah) unprepared on Friday.

Then we had church music practice. Music practice is often preceded by choir practice so I inadvertently joined the choir! Musical instruction in Mongolian is an interesting experience. Rachel also came and sang. Band practice followed choir practice so it was about a 12hr day at college.

In other college news, there are some financial issues for the college at the moment. Please be in prayer for these. If you would like more details, email me.

Saturday we had a committee meeting for the International church. Since we left the country right after we were asked to join the steering committee this was actually our first time at a meeting.

And that's a week back in Mongolia! It's cold (below -20 most days), the air is very bad (I am wearing a mask to and from work), the people are pleased to see us, and life is busy like everywhere.

~SM

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