I've Seen Greener Days!

As the temperatures fall and the snow flies, we thought we'd take a moment to reflect on greener days!  :)  This was taken the second week we were here at a team training event out on the west side of UB (Ulaanbaatar).  What you're seeing is hardly a common site around most parts of Mongolia and this kind of green really only lasts a couple months in the summer...we were glad to get a quick glimpse when we got here!

Alrighty and so then, let's meet the team:

Starting on the west side of town we have Kim, Corrie, and Donelda...lovely ladies to say the least!

On the opposite end of town we have Kathryn, Kemba, Andrea, and Gillian...equally lovely!  As I've mentioned before, we are so fortunate to have the entire Mongolia team together in UB this year and are hoping to take advantage of the closer proximity to edify and strengthen one another.

Jess and I, along with Josh and Jennifer (other two new teammates), are on a team with all of the leadership folks here in the center of town.  We still must and yet shall take a picture of our sub team and add that soon.

We had several team building exercises, one of which was a photographic scavenger hunt.  This particular shot required us to grab a picture looking out from a gazebo.  How nice, there just happened to be a gazebo nearby.  After we had completed this exercise some of the youngsters and I climbed to the top of the mountain...took about 40 minuets, and they are in MUCH better shape than I am!

I'd brought along a really good book so Mark and I took turns reading passages pertinent to the recent few days' events.  Young Adam was collecting wild onions, they were pretty good!

Trees...another rare site in Mongolia, but beautiful none-the-less!

This is urban sprawl sans urban planning, and this is just a little tip of the west end of town.  People are flooding in by the 100's of thousands and claiming a small plot of free land in hopes of a better life.  What you're looking at are called "гэр" districts.  Гэр (gare) is the word for house.  These districts spread out into every adjacent valley around the city.  Check out Ulaanbaatar on Google Maps and look around the entire city.  The dust haze you see will turn into a thick, terrible covering come the middle of winter.  Every one of these little houses burns lumps of coal for heat and they put out quite a blanket of smoke...especially being stuck between the two east-west running ranges.

Enjoy the beauty of Fall and embrace the cold winters...we'll be bundalin' up right along with ya!

Home Cookin'!

We are so blessed to have so many good foods available just around the corner. I thought I'd share some home cookin' with you to give you a "taste" of what we've been eating! Pictured above (L to R): Russian Milk, Olive Oil, Peanut Butter (from CA!), Apple Cider Vinegar, apricots, bananas, sea salt (from Germany), and fruit juice. In the front we have scrambled eggs, toast, and hash browns. Mmmmmm....

The milk here is interesting. Check out the exp. date...May 3, 2010. Better stock up! And I had to show off my Honey Champs from Germany...breakfast of "Champions". :)

Here we are at our local super market. Lots of juice and pop to choose from, feels right at home. Matt is carrying a big bag of macaroni.

Here we have the ingredients to our famous "Whatever You Got" soup. On the plate is our "mystery vegetable" which we think is a turnip, along with carrots, and potatoes, and in the bowl are some onions. And "Ус" (pronounced Ose) our Penguin humidifier is keeping the veggies from drying out. 

He's a good little helper.

And here was our most recent delight...taco night!

We just got a package of soft shell tortillas from a really neat place in town that teaches women to make tortillas to help them earn a good living and keep them off the streets. They are really yummy! We had fried onions and green peppers along with shredded Gouda cheese (reminds me of my CoWS!). We also tried our first purchase of meat from the store, ground up hamburger, which was quite tasty. We've had horse, which was good, but haven't worked up the courage to buy it at the market yet. We've also had mouton many times in restaurants, but don't appreciate tasting it again later. :)

And the infamous Russian Ice Cream with KitKat and hot chocolate mix on one and lemon waffers on the other. I'm sure some of you can guess who's was who's. :)

And finally...fried bologna and potato pancakes. Mmm, mm. Thanks for joining us for dinner. Come again!

:) Love and miss ya all, Jess

Mother Rock

 

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to visit a famous religious site called "Mother Rock" out in the vast Steppe of Mongolia.  We stopped to take a couple pictures along the way and our driver and good friend одсайхан took the opportunity to chat with the next couple cars that came along.  ...You might notice the young boy off in the distance in the infamous potty stance.  It's very normal to step out away from the crowd (usually a little further) and take care of business and it's up to you to look the other way.  :)

 

As we arrived and passed through the gate we were immediately reminded that superstition rules the people of this land.  These blue ribbons are symbolic of something hoped for (and possibly paid for) in a way similar to somebody flipping a coin into the fountain at the mall...only, the people here actually put their hope in these kinds of things.

 

This is a common modern countryside site.  Mongolian herdsmen have been putting their herds on collateral at the city banks in order to purchase motorcycles and, of all things, satellite dishes for televisions...in their mobile houses (called "gers" seen in the background).

Words don't always add...

 

Everywhere we turned we saw something else to burden our spirits.  This woman had come all the way out here to have her back healed by laying on this rock.  Pray for us that we can quickly learn the language so we can tell her about the rock where she can have much more than her back healed.

This is another common site in the Mongolian countryside.  It is called an "овоо" (oh-woe).  People will walk around them three times, adding stones, fabric, or other items, and thus symbolically adding to this particular spirit's power.

 

Perhaps in another post we can talk about the blending of Buddhism and Shamanism.  The people here will add anything to their beliefs they think will benefit them in some way.

Some close ups...

 

People offer up vodka and/or milk into (and sometimes to) the air.

You would think this is a simple tour guide, which she is, but more than that she was selling prayers and blessings and offering the blue cloths in return.  You can see the look on the woman's face leaning up on the arm of the rock...no one else was smiling.  Even Mother Rock didn't have much to say.  Isaiah forty six, on the other hand, has something very specific to say about this very thing.

One of our teammates asked this woman why she was throwing vodka up in the air.  She replied that it was to honor the sky, and implied that this was the obvious thing to do.  The hopeful thing about this is that she might someday believe that it would be eternally more appropriate to offer her contrition to the Creator and not his creation...

It was a day of many mixed emotions and the beginning of a very spiritually oppressive week for all of us new teachers.  Please keep us lifted up that we would not hide our lights under a bushel and that He would not let one be put over any of us.  The challenges here creep in unnoticed so we ask for Ephesian-like shields, Pauline perseverance, and unwavering hope in the one who will soon crush satan under his feet.

We love you...

It's the Ice Cream Man!

One of the highlights of our new home....

We get to hear the Ice Cream Man travel all over UB!

Matt and I wrote a little song...enjoy!

"Taking out the trash with joy,
But this song is just a ploy.
I am not the ice cream man,
So please bring me your garbage can."

 Look at the children running to get some ice cream!

The Fading Glory of the Flowers of the Field and the Surpassing Glory of the One Who Made Them Both

The one who would spend his days passing by the flowers of the field without marveling at their beauty has forgotten his sense and has wasted his senses.  Those who's gaze can be pulled away from the beaten path of stress and success have discovered an endless array of wonder...so much so that the things that are seen have been worshiped by those who are seeing and yet cannot actually see.  And the ones who would day by day ignore the beauty of the earth have possibly found the thing they admire most instead is the one who stares back at them from the mirror. 

Both have gone astray...

The ancient writer Peter, while quoting a still older source, said this,  

"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." 

All of what is seen is passing away so it seems strange to me that for millions of people the enjoyment of the beauty that they see terminates at the object of their sight.

My friends, this should not be...

Because we have preferred the things that have been made over the one who made them we have fallen under the contempt of our maker and have been given over to fill up our desires with everything under the sun.

Like the flowers of the field we will return to the dust; but in a way that is unlike anything else that has been made we will have to deal with the maker of all things.  Where then is our hope? 

"I lift my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come..."

My help comes from the very one who made heaven and earth!  And this same maker, who said,  

"Though your sins be as scarlet...

also said,

...they shall be whiter than snow."

I was fortunate to see the beauty of a flower under the blanket of the snow, and I bless the one who's beauty far surpasses all of what has been made because it all has been made by the same one, who, along with his words, will never fade away...

"Believe in the one who's crimson flow can wash you so you can be whiter than snow."