Mongolia Update 6/14/12

UB

I don't know what my problem is but I felt very grouchy and out of sorts today. Honestly, it's probably because I've learned that I likely won't be getting to do as much herder training as I thought I would and want to do. So essentially I was testy because I wasn't getting to do what I wanted to. Pathetic. I think Tsomoo knew something was bothering me because he asked how it was going and I said "ok" but wouldn't look at him. Very kind of him but his concern made me feel bad for my mood. I had to pray for a heart change because I didn't want to hurt others by my attitude.
We acquired a new roommate for the night: Tara from Saskatoon and she is helping my attitude without even knowing it. I only wish she and I were going together. "Blessed are the flexible for they do not get bent out of shape."- Tara. Please, Lord, soften my heart so I may be of use.

An apartment building being built by the Chinese just across from the V.E.T. Net offices.

Oh, lovely UB traffic

Mongolia Trip 6/13/12

UB

Jenny and I found a little yellow budgy on our way to work this morning. He's a friendly fellow so we (rather, Jenny) caught him and took him with us. The plan is to try to find his owners and if they can't be located, someone from V.E.T. Net will adopt him. I did more office work today but that's alright. I had lunch with Lhkavga. She asked about my plans for the next five years. I told her. Then she teased that I will be married with children. She has a beautiful smile.

My mess in the office

The view from the office window

I had supper at a nice Chinese place with Suugii.  We had a wonderful visit. I think I have found a friend. She is the only believer in her family so I need to remember to pray for the others. God must have been with me because I ate all but a couple bites of my meal using only chopsticks. Usually my attempts with chopsticks end with my food going everywhere and I give up and do something atrocious like stabbing meat with my chopsticks. I am so thankful for that seemingly little gift to be able to eat my food with chopsticks tonight.

Suugii and I outside the apartment after supper

A page from the herder training books. How would you treat these injuries?

Jenny took me shopping tonight. Great fun. I saw a puppy sleeping behind a fenced area on the street.   

3rd Mongolia Update 6/12/12

UB, Mongolia

I cannot believe I have only been here one day. It feels like several. The people are so kind. I worked in the CE department today putting together things for the countryside. I had lunch with Altaa. (They schedule us for lunch and supper with different members of the staff each day). She told me her story of coming out of Buddhism to a relationship with Jesus. How she was so angry when her daughter became a Christian that she kicked her out of the house. Then she overheard the daughter telling her little brother about Jesus' teachings of loving and forgiving one another and "I realize: these no bad things. These are good things." How people at V.E.T. Net prayed for her for two years and her daughter didn't give up.
After lunch, Tsogoo and Tsomoo helped me put the booklets together that will be used to teach the herders this summer. It was nice to have the help and the company even though we mostly worked in silence.
Supper was spaghetti and brownies at the Ballengers. Then off to the airport to pick up my bags! I was very glad they came and everything seems ok. God is definitely working on me because normally I'm a total control freak and everything has to go according to plan. However, even though I was missing all my luggage I was very relaxed about it and knew that I could always pick up a change of clothes and whatever else I needed at the department store before I head to the countryside. As Mary Ballenger said, I'm "a great Asian size." Haha sometimes it pays to be short.

Other notes from today:

-I didn't notice the pollution in the city until I woke up with a headache. The sky is fairly clear (nowhere near as bad as China) but apparently there is still enough junk in the air that it got to me.
-Besides the headache when I woke up, I saw a pigeon peeking in my bedroom window. Good thing I slept with the window shut or I would've had a bird in the apartment and I do not do birds. (Except with a gun or in my crockpot).

L-R Me, Miranda, Renee, Jenny

-We said goodbye this morning to two shuttles from Nebraska. Renee is a small animal veterinarian and she brought her teenage daughter Miranda. I only knew them for a day but they seem like good people.
-Jenny is my housemate from Australia. She is serving in Mongolia for a year so keep her in your prayers!

Mongolia Update #2 6/11/12

5:30a.m. Beijing Airport

Somehow, with crossing the International Date Line, we lost a day. I'm sure this will prove confusing but maybe not. It proved incredibly easy to make my transfer [here in China], go through security, etc. which is a huge blessing in view of the horror of LA. We arrived nearly a full hour earlier than planned so after I got through the security checkpoint, I took the time to wash up and do my teeth. Not a big deal to some but it was to me. The stalls in the bathroom had big red and gray fish painted on them. Two said "mind the step" and when I peaked in, I saw why. The toilet was set down into the floor! No thank you. I have been up for many hours, how many exactly I don't know but I think it's close to 48hrs minus three catnaps of approximately 6-7 hours total on the plane. It's very peaceful in the airport right now and I'm enjoying the quiet.

Cloud shadows on the desert floor; flight from China to Mongolia

View from the shuttle apartment in UB

The kitchen in our apartment....I loved it

Later same day Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (also referred to as UB)

Well, I arrived fine but my bags are missing...both of them. Hopefully they will come tomorrow. I learned that this is not an uncommon occurrence. I was met by Tsegii and a driver and we went to lunch. The food is delicious the salted milk tea is going to take some getting used to. Then we went to the office where I turned in my valuables and met some of the staff. Dulmaa took me to my apartment for a rest. I asked her what the main occupation is for Mongolians and she said herding but mining is growing. Many are educated as lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc but not necessarily working in their major. Supper tonight was cheeseburgers and mud cake at the Mitchums. Very good.

In Transit- First Mongolia Update 6/9/12

At DIA

The lady at the ticket counter was so nice. She checked my bags all the way through with no problem and was just generally cheerful and helpful. There are few people [in the airport] today and we were plenty early so Mom and I go a personal pepperoni pizza and a lemonade from Domino's. It was nice to spend a bit more time with her before I left. Security was a breeze which improved my mood all the more. As I walked to my gate, I saw an old French fry at the end of a moving walkway and each bump caused it to jump like a worm. It was silly but it brought a smile to my face. I feel so at peace right now and everything is going so well. Thank you, Lord!

LAX 11:30p.m. 9 hours after leaving the house

On the plane in LA, ready to head across the Pacific!

Well, my good mood pretty much disappeared when we got to LA. The signage is terrible and confusing and there is no one to help. The few people who are supposed to help you speak very poor English and just added to my confusion. I got so lost and finally found ticket lines for China Airlines. The line was very long and slow. I finally got to the front and learned that I needed Air China instead. I had been stressed before but this just made it worse. I got directions and ran in what I hoped was the right direction. The terminals don't go in order and I walked/ran nearly the whole airport until I found the Air China booth. Once again it was a long line but thankfully this one moved a fair bit faster than the China Airlines one. I got a very nice attendant who even gave me the option of a window seat...my favorite. In the security line up, I realized that I needed to turn all of this over to Jesus and trust Him and not rely on my own strength to get through this. That is so hard for me to do! My sister was incredibly support for me tonight. I would have lost it completely if it wasn't for her. Thank you, El! Security was quick and easy. My gate was close by so I grabbed my Starbucks favorite before sitting down. Thank you, Jesus, for getting me through.

Sunrise viewed on my flight to China

It is worth noting that when I was walking from the ticket counter to security, i felt so discouraged and tired that I wanted nothing more than to turn around and go home even though it would mean I had failed. Immediately, I realized that this was not of God and I remembered all the ways He had shown that this trip was His will. So I prayed that He would give me peace and went forward, still upset but not ready to quit.

Home Safe

Ok, I promise I will update this soon with the daily updates from my trip. I think I missed three days due to illness or how late it was when we finished for the day or lack of power but I accounted for the missed days in other entries so fear not, you won't miss anything. I arrived back in Colorado at 9:30 yesterday morning, 14 hours later than I was supposed to. Ugh. To start with, my flight from China went from a 12 hour flight to an 18hour flight due to multiple delays. They pushed the plane back from the gate and let us sit there for 6 hours with 300+ people on board and no AC. Horrible. Plus, until just before we actually left, I had no way to call my family and say I was going to be late. The worst part about being stuck in China was the fact that I was stuck by myself. Just a few days before, Tsogoo and I had been stuck in the center of Dornogovi but it is much better to be stuck with someone than by yourself. It didn't matter that the person next to me was a native English speaker because I didn't know them. I wanted my friends back! When we got to San Francisco, 6 hours behind schedule, I went to the desk and they said they couldn't get me on a direct flight to Denver but could fly me to Houston in four hours (at midnight) and then on to Denver. So I got a free meal in a restaurant, courtesy of Air China, and waited around for my flight to leave. We arrived in Houston on time, I boarded my Denver flight after a couple hours, and.....waited on the tarmac due to weather. Thankfully, we were only half hour late getting in to Denver and my bags came through just fine.
Also, I was very grateful that the three border/customs officers I dealt with in San Francisco (yes, three) were the nicest border guards I have ever had to face. It made everything so much easier. They easily could have detained me because I had been in the countryside and handling livestock but they didn't! Nor did they go through my backpack even though I declared some felted cashmere. Animal byproducts are a huge concern from foreign countries due to disease but because I didn't have any leather, it was ok. Now, my experiences with American border guards in the past have been far from positive (except once) so when I saw three checkpoints, my heart sank. I was tired, I was late, I had been handling livestock and in the countryside, I had animal byproducts with me (one of which was a gift), and I'm not a natural-born American. I really wasn't looking forward to being taken aside, questioned, having my stuff gone through and possibly seized, but God prepared the way and made them very easy to get along with. Two were a tad bit snippy but nothing like usual and the last one was so pleasant.
Yes, I had a wonderful time in Mongolia. The trip definitely had its challenges but it was so worth it. I made some lifelong friends and God taught me a lot about submission to authority. He reinforced that I can always trust Him (something that He's been trying to teach me my whole life) and because He has taught me so much about trust in the past, I was able to relax more in some situations.
Before I end for tonight, let me give you a quick introduction to some of the people who will be mentioned in my other updates.

Altaa- my Mongolian mama; head of teachers for Dornogobi
Tsegii- my very dear friend who trusts God amazingly and is grateful for everything; the leader of our first team; she is married to Tsogoo
Tsogoo- my brother, my friend; the veterinarian on our team and Tsegii's husband
Naraa- my dear sister; character teacher on the first team
Kherlan- dance teacher on the first team; full of laughter
Bhyna- the veterinarian in our first community who welcomed us into her home on many occasions and at all hours; a close friend of ours
Namjaa- a believer in the second community; a leader of the church there; a good friend of ours
Temuujin- English teacher on the second team
Urynga- Naraa's best friend and the leader of the second team
Tsoomoo- daycare worker on the second team
Tsomoo- large animal veterinarian at Vet Net who helped me in the office
Saraa- Tsegii's friend who took Tsogoo and I in while we were in the center of the province and showed us amazing hospitality
Sara- a longer-term (4 month) shuttle from Australia who was my roommate upon my return to UB

**Important note: Tsoomoo is a girl and one of the teachers, Tsomoo is a man and one of the vets; the spelling makes the difference. Also, Saraa is a Mongolian believer while Sara is an Australian who is in Mongolia temporarily; again, it's the spelling that tells the two apart in writing.

Pre-Trip Update

Greetings, all. I apologize that I have not posted an update in two months. This is mostly due to the fact that nothing huge or exciting has happened and we have simply continued with preparations. I am scheduled to leave on Saturday!! I can't believe it has come up so fast. I never imagined that eight months would pass so quickly. I am fully funded and my medical/dental work is complete.
The plan is for me to spend a few days in the city once I arrive in Mongolia before heading out to the countryside, specifically a province known as Dornogobi. Dornogobi is a province on the southeastern edge of Mongolia in the Gobi Desert. I thought I was going to the steppes.....apparently not. I hate the heat; God must have a sense of humor to send me to the desert in the summertime. Anyway, my specific jobs will be giving workshops to nomadic herders, teaching English, sharing the gospel when possible, sharing devotions and my testimony with my team, and possibly helping Mongolian veterinarians treat some sick animals. Any cases that I assist in treating, I will need to photograph and write up. This is called doing a case study and the studies will be used in the veterinary school this fall to show vet students how to write their own. I have been told that one of the most important parts of my ministry in Mongolia will be building up my Mongolian teammates and encouraging them in their faith. Please pray that I will be effective in doing this...and whatever else the Lord has planned for me. I am getting packed and feeling more excited. Thank you for your support; it is truly appreciated.

Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (NLT)

I think a lot of times we focus on the first verse of the Great Commission and forget about the second part. We go boldly proclaiming the word of God, making disciples (or at least converts) and baptizing them. But then we leave it there, figuring that they now have Christ, they are saved, good enough. Sadly, we forget that to truly make them disciples, we must teach new believers to obey all of the commands that Christ has given us. The teaching is an on-going process, one which cannot be completed in a specified period of time. As believers, we should all always be learning more and more to obey our Lord. It is this part of the commission that the team has assigned me. Yes, I will hopefully be making disciples as well but for this trip, teaching new Christians to obey what Christ has taught will be my focus. Please continue to pray for me and for the Mongolian people as a whole.