Just another manic Monday?

Today was the first that you could call "typical" since arriving in Mongolia. We didn't do anything new today, but were involved in continuing projects that we'd started last week.

In the morning ...

• Scott spent most of his time talking with the Mongolian worship leader and working on music theory with the two keyboardists.
• Ardi, Sharon, and I were in the library cataloging, labeling, and shelving new books.
• Ron, Rachel, and some of the Sprenger kids helped out in the American Food Shop: reorganizing, pricing, and shelving.

After lunch with the worship team as usual ...

• Ardi, Sharon, CB, Laurel and Holly finished up the morning's library projects

while

• Ron, Scott, Rachel, and I rehearsed some music with the students who will be involved in Thursday night's community worship program.

We've just finished dinner and are set to enjoy a relaxed evening with the Sprengers. Mike will be treating us to tapioca, which is one of his specialties. Yum!!!

Zaison (the Russian-Mongolian monument)

Today has followed the Colorado weather patterns: we started out with sun, had a bit of rain in the early afternoon, and then that cleared up for some more sun in the evening. After enjoying a really yummy meal at an Indian restaurant, we had a few hours to relax (most of the team napped or attempted to ... I blogged). ;) When the sun came out, Mike decided we'd try to make it to Zaison while the weather was good.


Zaison ... what is there to say about this monument that was erected while the Soviets were still in power. It is a mural-history of the relationship between the Russians and the Mongolians ... the battles they fought together against the Chinese, the Japanese, WWI and WWII. It ends with an image of the Russians and Mongolians standing together in peace ... holding hands, wearing astronaut uniforms, releasing doves. You know.


Despite the fall of communism and Mongolia's independence, the monument has remained and, ironically, has began to double as a religious site. It sits on top of one of the foothills south of UlaanBaatar and because of its height is a natural spot for signs of religious devotion in the form of blue scarves and piles of rocks.

A day in the life of our team ...

I thought it might be neat to give you a picture tour of what one of our typical days might look like here in Mongolia. Enjoy!

8am: Team Devotions

(guess I should take a picture of this before the trip is over)


sometime in the morning: we all manage to scrounge up some breakfast somewhere


10am: Work Projects at the Bubbling Springs building


noonish: Lunch with the Root of Blessing worship team


1pm-4pm: While Scott is teaching the worship team ...


the rest of us either hang out with the Sprengers or spend some more time on work projects


6pm-ish: We sit down to one of CB's amazing meals (you should all be very, very jealous)


post-dinner: Site-seeing or some shopping if the weather participates, hanging out with the Sprengers if it doesn't (OR BOTH)

night: and then we sleep

"It's like we're in a different country." -- Ardi

This was a keen observation by Ardi early on in our trip. ;) She was commenting on the vans that kept driving by blasting political advertisements. They can be heard throughout the day, but are most prevalent in the evening hours.

You see, we've arrived in the midst of elections. Today (Sunday) is the big day. Until today, there were political posters plastered all over the city. The big question is if the democratically-elected Socialist party will stay in power or if it will pass to the Democratic party.

As elections are today, we'll find out soon enough.

Scott speaks

In the past two days, Scott has had the opportunity to teach members of the Mongolian church in two different settings. On Saturday, he was asked to conduct a seminar on worship. He spent three hours with the worship team, other leaders in the church, and anyone else who was interested in learning more about worship and what it means in the context of community as well as in individual lives. Then, this morning during Sunday worship, they asked if Scott would give a sermon on worship. He did a great job of communicating truth in spite of some hiccups (like the fact that the Mongolians do not yet have a complete Bible translation ... they only have the New Testament right now). Many members of the church have expressed their thankfulness at having the opportunity to learn more about worship -- much of what they heard was being said (to them) for the first time. We are hoping that God's truth about worship takes root in their lives and in their church and that it will grow to become a deep aspect of their faith.

the American Food Shop

Remember Friday's "work day" post that included some information about the American Food Shop? Well, it's a good thing we got everything moved and organized before the weekend because Saturday afternoon the container came! (The container is the big shipment of food and supplies to restock the store that Mike and Tom have been waiting for.)

Saturday afternoon at 5pm, it showed up on the back of a big ol' truck and there were 30 or more people waiting to help unload it. 1 hour 15 minutes later it was empty and everything (everything!) was either in the storage area of the new store or packed into the old store. The Mongolians who run the store will spend the next week sorting through it all, creating an inventory, and shelving as much of it as they can (with a little help from our team, we hope).

Gandan Monastery

After Scott finished the seminar on Saturday morning, we thought we might all head up to the Russian monument called Zaison. An abundance of rain and clouds south of the city forced us to change our plans so we went to Gandan Monastery instead.

Like many of the monasteries in Mongolia, Gandan was closed down when the soviets arrived in 1938. Its buildings were destroyed or repurposed. Its monks were killed, jailed, or conscripted into the army. Surprisingly, a petition from a group of monks convinced the socialist government to reopen the monastery in 1944 with limited freedoms.

When the Soviet empire fell, religious freedom was restored to Mongolia and Gandan was one of many monasteries that began a lengthy process of restoration. Its most sacred temple -- the Migjed Janraisig -- was one of the reconstruction projects and was completed in 1996. It houses a 26.5 meter tall statue of the Buddha of compassion and is visited regularly by tourists and Buddhist pilgrims alike.

Dinner with friends

Last night, one of the families that Mike and CB work with invited our team and some other folks over for dinner, games, and prayer. It was really fun to get to know them a bit better, to spend time in conversation with them, and to laugh over this silly game. We ended the night praying for the worship seminar Scott would be conducting Saturday morning and for some other events that are coming up in the next few weeks. They are a neat group of people and we are all excited that Mike and CB have such good friends here.

We enjoy not just our time with the Sprengers but getting to see their world -- home, school, church, grocery stores, friends, co-workers. We'll be coming home with a better understanding of what their lives are like and how we can be praying for them.

Friday - Work Day #4 (amongst other things)

Friday was a busy, busy, busy work day for our team. Between the six of us, we:

• participated in the first day of baseball camp
• worked in the school library
• met (for the last time) with the Mongolian worship team
• joined CB and a bunch of other women in scrapbooking and card-making
• moved all of the shelving units and stock from the former location of the American food store to the new location
  

originally uploaded by Wanderings.

What's this? An American food store? What's that all about? Well ... it's a relatively new business that Mike and one of his teammates came up with as a way to provide jobs for Mongolians and some American products that were previously unattainable here in Mongolia. A new building has recently been added to the Bubbling Springs property and provides the perfect space for an expanded store.

What does this have to do with all of us? Funny you should ask. Remember how we were supposed to be doing a musical out here but had to cancel become of some restrictions on group gatherings? Remember how we wondered what we would do to fill our time? How silly we were to wonder ... God had bigger plans for us. Soon after (or perhaps shortly before) our arrival, Mike found out that the next container (think: huge shipment) of goods for the store would be arriving while our team was here. Since we're here, they were able to speed up the process of readying the new store so that we'd be able to help out in the huge task of unpacking the container, moving everything into the store or storage, and arranging all that product in the store.

As of Friday, everything is moved and reorganized. Now we're just waiting for the container.

Baseball camp -- day 1 (a post by Heather)

Well, I was an irresponsible red-head today, and I got sunburned at baseball camp because I didn't put on sunscreen. Oh, well, silly me. So, enough about that.

For the past 6 years the highlight of our summer is having baseball camp. Usually 20-30 MKs participate. Caleb, Cameron and I are included, and Dad is one of the coaches. Mr. Bridston and Mr. Naden were able to help with the coaching today, and Rachel played with us (she should get the MVP award!).

We had planned to start on Monday, but we were delayed because of rain, and Wednesday the field was too muddy. But, happily, the weather was beautiful this morning, so we were finally able to play!

If the weather cooperates, we'll have it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week. We'll get some pictures up for you soon!

Want more pictures?

Ghengis Khan, originally uploaded by Wanderings.

Some of you (coughcoughMom) have indicated that you'd like to see more pictures or that I should post a link to our online photo album for this trip. So, you may now click on Ghengis here (or to the left in the sidebar) if you'd like to see more pictures.

Community Worship Service (part I)

originally uploaded by Wanderings.

This morning we had our second meeting with some members of the youth group to plan a community worship service (in English). Mike and CB asked if we would be willing to assist them in the planning and implementation of a service designed for the English-speakers in the area who don't normally gather together for worship, but who spend a lot of time together through the co-op or the Bubbling Springs building or other ministries.

One of the things that's been really neat about this process is listening to these teenagers talk about wanting to be able to encourage their parents through this service. They are energetic and sincere and have a lot of great ideas.

Most of the service is now planned and Scott will begin music rehearsals with them on Monday.

Wednesday - Work Day #3

originally uploaded by Wanderings.

The library has become one of our main projects at the school and their are a number of different tasks that would take one person all summer to accomplish, but with 5 or more people helping out, we are able to get a lot done in a small amount of time.

Now that the storage areas have been cleaned out and organized, we've turned our attention to the library. We spent Wednesday morning in the library with Bridget and her daughter Claire helping to sort through boxes of donated books, labeling books as Bridget added them to the system, and prepping the rest of the books onto a shelf for easy access. My hope is that we'll have the library reorganized and all of the new books entered into the system and shelved by the time we leave.

Our first guest blogger!!!

Now it's Scott's turn to blog -- my first ever (stop laughing Dan!)

Jen R. led a great team devo this morning 'cause she thought outside the box in her creativity, but in the end it caused most of us to cry -- actually, that was the Holy Spirit. Rachel told us she wasn't bored by the trip, something she worried about and that she really admires the way the Sprenger kids treat each other -- we all do -- watch out Taylor!

Saw a statue of Lenin today, one of the only old Soviet ones left here. It was interesting that the small square it was in was filthy with garbage and lots of empty booze bottles laying at his feet. The evil and brokenness of their godless system is still very evident in everything here, but our God is greater and no government system can stop Him.

My teaching time with the worship team continues to go very well. They keep coming back and acting happy, so many prayers about my teaching and saying the right things are being answered.

Thank you all for your prayers -- keep em coming. And most of all, we thank Christ for his mercy and grace. As one of my fave new contemporary songs goes, "His grace is enough, His grace is enough, His grace is enough for me."

the Mongolian Cultural center

Here are some pictures that Mike took when he went to the show a few weeks ago. He was kind enough to let me post some of them here.

Mongolian Contortionists

Mongolian Contortionists
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

Just wanted to share another video from the performance we saw on Tuesday night. This isn't for those of you who have weak stomachs. ;)

Humi: Mongolian Throat Singing

Humi: Mongolian Throat Singing
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

Tonight, Mike took the team to a traditional Mongolian concert. The program included: Mongolian folk songs and dances, traditional instruments, a contortionist act (which is relatively new to Mongolian culture), and Humi -- a type of singing that is (I believe) found only in Mongolia.

Thanks to Ardi, we are able to share a clip of this amazing sound. Listen for a bi-tonal sound ... both the high whistling and the low reed-like humming are coming from this man's throat. Wow!

Tuesday - Work Day #2

the finished product
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

I know this may not look like much to you all, but to us this is the happy result of two hard mornings (and one afternoon) spent sorting through boxes and boxes of crafts supplies and sports equipment. Everything is now well-labeled (thank you, Rachel), organized, and re-packed in the storage loft area of the school's computer lab.

Go, team!!!

Music Theory

Originally uploaded by Wanderings

None of the members of the Root of Blessing worship team have ever received any formal music training. Nothing in school. No private tutors. They've picked everything up by watching videos, studying chord charts, or just playing around until they were able to match sounds. This is pretty amazing considering how great they sounded in church on Sunday!

They are all eager to improve their skills, though, and so have asked (begged, really) Scott to spend a couple of afternoons this week teaching them basic music theory: how to read music, how to harmonize, and any tips he can give them on their particular instruments. Today was their first theory day and it was a hit! When Mike went to pick up Scott, it was well past the time the meeting was supposed to end and they were still going strong. As Scott wrapped things up, the team indicated that they were going to stay and spend some more time practicing what they had learned.

Scott is really looking forward to tomorrow. With such enthusiastic participants, can you blame him?!

Monday - Work Day #1

stacks of magazines
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

Since we aren't able to do the musical we had originally planned to fill up most of our time with, Mike and CB have come up with a number of projects around the school for us. We spent a good part of Monday working on those projects.

In the morning, we were in their school library sorting through the curriculum shelves -- pulling everything off, trying to match sets, and putting the incomplete sets in boxes and piles to be given away. We hope to spend more time sorting and labeling the new fiction books that have been donated and then reorganizing the library to accommodate them. (For those of you who are wondering, it is a lot more exciting to reorganize someone else's library than it is to work in my own.)

In the afternoon, while Scott and I (Jen) were meeting with the Mongolian worship team (more on that later), the rest of our team was back down in the school sorting through the storage area. This will be a major project of deciding what to keep, what to trash, and where to store it all. It's great to be able to do this during the summer when we can spread everything out and chip away at it every day.

tastes like beef

tastes like beef, originally uploaded by Wanderings.

We had our first Mongolian meal today: montone bods and hushuurs. They were both made with horse meat, which was a first for all of us except Sharon, I believe. Rachel couldn't quite bring herself to eat the meat of our beloved equine friends after that first bite, but the rest of us dug in with gusto (well, we tried). Some of us aren't feeling so well at the moment, but on the whole, we can agree that as our first experience of Mongolian food, this was fairly tasty.

a purpose-driven trip?

In one of our early team meetings, Scott said he'd like us to go through The Purpose-Driven Life as a team while we were in Mongolia. So every morning (all three of them so far) we meet up in the apartment that the Nadens and Bridstons are sharing for an hour of reading, discussion, prayer, and debriefing. It's becoming an awesome time to be together as a team, to express how we're doing, to argue about what we're reading, and to refocus.

This morning, Ron led our time together and shared a quote by Mother Teresa that I wanted to pass on to all of you. We are quickly realizing that so much of what God is and will be teaching us here will only be of lasting value if we bring it back with us.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have; it may never be enough. Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

~ Mother Teresa

An American/Mongolian BBQ

After church this morning, the Mongolian church leaders and musicians came over to Mike and CB's apartment to join their family, our team, and some other Americans who attend the Root of Blessing church for an American-style bbq. Mike grilled up hot dogs for 50 people. There was coleslaw, chips, baked beans, macaroni salad, pop, cookies, and carrot cake. I'm not sure you can get more American than that without frying up some chicken or mashing some potatoes.



We are really looking forward to spending time with this group of people throughout the next two weeks. They have expressed their excitement multiple times and, as their church leader put it, are hoping that we will be rejuvenating for their church and worship team "like sap is to a tree -- bringing new life". We feel grossly underqualified, but are confident that God will be working in them and in us. Pray for us as we plan our time with them and for Scott especially since he will be their main contact and teacher.

Sunday morning

Sunday morning I, originally uploaded by Wanderings.

This morning we attended the Root of Blessing church that meets in the same building as the school that Mike heads up. It is always such a unique experience to be part of another culture's worship service -- there is so much that is the same and so much that is unfamiliar.

We were all immediately struck by how young the church is. There were very few people over the age of 30. There was a lot of music and prayer during the two hour service. There were a lot of people involved -- a lot of different talents were being used. A group of five girls joined the worship team for a few songs and led the group in some dance/actions. We enjoyed experiencing all of that energy and excitement and only wished we could understand what they were saying. :)

a brief history

Sukhbaatar
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

Saturday afternoon, half of our team (Scott, Ron, & Sharon) set out with Mike to see some of the sights of UlaanBaatar. They wandered around Sukhbaatar Square, drove by the Wrestling Palace (not Sumo ... don't get too excited), and visited a museum that chronicles the history of Mongolia.

Sukhbaatar Square -- the hub of all things historical including the square itself, which is said to be bigger even than Red Square in Moscow -- commemorates (you guessed it!) Sukhbaatar. He was one of this country's greatest leaders ... second only, perhaps, to Ghengis Khan (or Chinggis Khan, as they say it) himself. Sukhbaatar was part of the revolution in 1921 that brought the Russians in and pushed the occupying Chinese forces out. He continues to be celebrated as one of their greatest heros. (The "baatar" in Sukhbaatar and Ulaanbaatar means "hero".)

One of the other highlights (according to Sharon and Scott) was seeing the traditional costumes that were on display in the history museum. The museum has a collection that spans time and region to display the changes and variety in Mongolian dress over the centuries.

the Zax (prounouced Zah*glottel throat sound*)

the Zax
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

Imagine the biggest, baddest, muddiest outdoor market you've ever seen. Rows upon rows (in the loosest sense of the word) of stalls filled with clothes old and new, shoes, antiques, hardware supplies, hats, housewares ... anything and everything you could ever want or need.

We spent the morning here checking out the wares, making a few purchases, and then escaped without any pickpocket incident. That, ladies and gentleman, is a feat worth talking about.

UB Roads

UB Roads
Originally uploaded by Wanderings

kill or be killed -- intimidating -- beep -- onslaught -- lots of cars -- bumpy -- eye-opening -- beep -- stop lights: optional -- where we're going, we don't need roads -- scary -- BEEP -- potholes the size of your car -- aggressive -- broken-down cars everywhere -- BEEPBEEP -- stop-and-go -- traffic suggestions rather than rules -- biggest car wins -- BEEPbeepBEEEEEEP

No, this isn't a picture of an accident about to happen, this is the nature of driving in UlaanBaatar and believe it or not, this is TAME, compared to most of what we encountered on the drive home from the airport. Driving in UB is not for the faint of heart -- it takes guts. Lots and lots of guts.

Wish you were here. ;)

We made it!

We survived our (almost) 24 hours of travel and arrived in UlaanBaatar this morning safe and sound and tired. It was a joy to see most of the Sprenger family waiting to greet us. We've been in UB less than 12 hours and have already...

-- toured one school
-- enjoyed two wonderful meals with the Sprengers
-- been to three different grocery stores
-- gone to youth group with the some of the Sprenger kids (Rachel)
-- settled into our living spaces
-- duct-taped a pair of broken glasses (Ardi)
-- taken naps AND
-- decided that 8pm sounds like a good bedtime

We are EXCITED to be here and are looking forward to our next two weeks working alongside and serving the Sprengers. Pray for us over the next couple of days as we plan our schedule for the next two weeks, recover from jet lag, and adjust to Mongolia.

Less than 24 hours to go ...

We're down to the final few hours before we jump on a plane and fly to the other side of the world! I don't know about the rest of the team, but my to-do list is still pretty lengthy.

Our flight leaves Denver tomorrow evening and, if all goes well, we will arrive in Ulaanbaatar Friday morning (which is Thursday night for those of you who are stateside). Pray for smooth flights, short customs lines, and delivered luggage.

We hope to be posting again in a couple of days if the internet connection in Mongolia cooperates. Check back for updates and (hopefully) pictures!