Arkhangai...stripped bare. (Part 2)

Alas. This is yet another post that should have been finished in December, but that I have only now edited and completed. It is not my favorite piece of writing therefore. Not very creative, and mostly just giving the facts. On the other hand, this was my experience in Arkhangai. Completely honest. Nothing held back. The depths of my being were changed. It's a long story because a lot happened and I didn't want to leave any of it out. It would have robbed you of the truth. So if you've got the time, I hope you'll read it all. I also hope (fingers crossed) to be writing something more current and up-to-date soon. And also hopefully back to my preferred style of writing. In the meantime, here is what really happened in Arkhangai from my perspective:

It’s funny how sometimes two people who experience the same thing come away with completely different stories about it. During my two weeks in Arkhangai, I’m not sure what my 5 teammates learned on the trip, what surprised them, what was difficult, what was encouraging, or the ways God spoke to them. However. I would be willing to bet they learned something completely different than I did. Because I am almost 100% sure our experiences were entirely different even though we were in the same place.

When we were first driving to Arkhangai (let’s say 2 hours into the trip) I had this bursting excitement that we were God’s ambassadors carrying the most precious thing on earth to these rural communities and I was so excited to share God’s love and truth with the people I met. We did share God’s love and truth and people’s lives were touched. But now I’m not sure that’s why God brought me specifically on this trip.

Let’s be real. I can’t speak more than 10 sentences in Mongolian. I understand just as much when I am listening to Mongolian being spoken. And so, after I’ve introduced myself, shared my age, where I come from, talked about my family and what I do here, learned what the rural Mongolians’ names are…after that…well, my part in the conversations were done.

I obviously couldn’t give seminars. I did teach an English song twice to the high school students for fun, but that was my only “official” purpose on the trip. In fact, when we visited families or met with other Christians, I couldn’t even have conversations with them unless someone wanted to translate for me, but mostly there wasn’t a lot of time for that. I could talk to my team because they speak English…but it isn’t helpful or good time management to always be translating. And so I couldn’t understand what they were saying at all. I just sat there. Language is a funny thing. You don’t know how much you rely on it until you can’t use it.

Even our Bible reading times every morning with my teammates were almost all in Mongolian and not translated. So I couldn’t even share in those special times with them. And I got a little bitter about it. I kept thinking, “Why aren’t they including me?” And then I was hurt inside. I felt somehow inferior and like I really shouldn’t be there. It was like I was just taking up space you know? And every time something was translated for me, I just felt worse like it was a burden to them to have to translate for me. I felt so isolated, so alone, so useless, so inferior. And all because I couldn’t participate in any of the teaching, encouragement, conversations, seminars...anything.

And so, I began to seriously wonder “Why am I here God? Why am I on this trip?…I can’t contribute anything of worth. I can’t do anything. I’m just an awkward burden. And all of this makes me feel so incredibly isolated from every person around me.”  

It was sometime in the middle of feeling really isolated, alone, useless time that I began to realize that finally God was teaching me humility and breaking down my pride.

How could I have had pride when nothing was about me and nothing depended on me? I was completely in the background…and it hurt…but it was good for me. I can’t take credit for any of the success and amazing things that happened. I was completely dependent on my team for everything. From language and understanding what was happening and who people were, to telling me what we were doing next.

I finally realized I had to take on the mentality of a servant…not to belittle myself or my worth, but to remember that I was here to serve my team…not to have them serve me. That was the first mental and heart shift I had to make. I remembered that I was there to support and encourage my teammates as much as I could. This was at least a purpose I could have and way I could participate on the trip.

So, I began to pray for them all the time. Or rather I tried to. It is so difficult for me to not daydream in the middle of praying. And after a certain amount of time, I’d sort of run out of ideas or things to pray for. And if I wasn’t praying, I looked for ways to help out, like washing dishes or sweeping the ger. It was so humbling. I was still in the background, still isolated, and I was immersed in my role as a servant. However. God wasn’t done yet.

Because sometimes I even have had pride in doing things for people – you know? I so often find worth and value in the fact that I can contribute, help and do something for someone else. I am always the strong one, the one who can help others. And in my heart I’m prideful about it. Additionally I put part of my self worth in it.

But in the Arkhangai, God stripped me even of this. It turned out that I really didn’t have very many times to “do things” for other people. For the most part, they served me. My teammates showed me where things were, how to do things, told me what people were saying. They even had to show me how to wash my hair since we had no sink or shower!

And this all culminated in one final collapse of my pride when I got strep throat. To my best knowledge I have only had strep throat once before and I was young enough not to really remember it. And now I know for sure that I never want to experience it again. To be brief – I was completely miserable and weak. There was no way I could take care of myself. Raging fevers and the almost complete inability to swallow and talk topped the list of  “I’ve never felt this aweful or helpless in my life” events.

And so. I had to submit to everyone taking care of me around the clock for two straight days. I couldn’t even put up a fight to explain that I’d be fine and I didn’t need their help. It is so humbling to be served and to let other people help me and take care of me. I normally want to be strong and independent, but this time I couldn't. I learned to take the seat and position of someone who needs help and takes instruction and advice without arguing or insisting on my way. It was hard. I didn’t like the feeling one tiny bit. But. It was good for me. However. God wasn’t done yet. He took it another step further still…

At this point I was really sick, but not delirious enough from my fevers to realize that I did indeed have strep throat. (As a microbiologist I recognized that white spots ALL OVER my very swollen red angry tonsils is NOT a good sign and is definitely more than a “sore throat”.) I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were about 100 different ways and places I could have gotten Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria in the countryside. Other people had different theories however. When my teammates explained that my sore throat was probably because I had gotten too cold outside from not wearing my warmest socks and shoes, my instinct was to argue and try to explain that it didn’t work that way.

But when God is teaching you humility, funny things start to happen.

I learned to submit to people even if I did know more. I had to love them by respecting them. So like when they insisted that I wear more layers because I was an American and not used to the cold, even though I knew I would, in all honesty, be fine, I went back inside to put on more layers. Because in Mongolian culture I needed to show them respect and honor because they are older than me.

In American culture, I’m so used to arguing and fighting the point…”No really. I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself, thank you very much for the offer, but I’m fine on my own.” In Arkhangai, I realized it’s like saying “I know better than you and so I’m going to exercise that authority and knowledge over you.” We’re so independent…we are so assertive…and it’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s good you know? But other times, it’s worth it to just listen to others and let them have the last say.

And so instead of making a point that I knew better than they did. I learned to submit and be humble instead of prideful…even when maybe I did know better. They so wanted to take care of me that I wanted to honor and respect their care…not throw it aside and disregard it by asserting my own strength and abilities.

So. While I am absolutely sure the cold didn’t make me sick, I promised to wear more socks from then on so that they would be honored and so that they wouldn’t worry about me. It’s a completely different way of thinking from American culture that’s for sure. I think I’ll even take this practice back home with me. It’s changed me for sure.

Some might call me submissive, without a backbone, and a bit of a pushover.  But it’ll be willfully done. Now I’m choosing to back down on purpose.

Anyways, I think this is what God meant when he said we shouldn’t do anything with selfish motives, or vanity or pride, but instead we should consider others better than ourselves. (I love that Paul, who wrote the part about being humble in the book called Philippians in the Bible) used the word ‘consider’. It’s as if you could say “consider others better than yourself”…even if they aren’t better.) We’re supposed to pay attention to their best interests as well as our own. It’s a hard lesson, but it’s good.

Truthfully, outside my personal feelings of isolation and bitterness, our team had so much unity and love for each other. We really were like family because no one was “the boss”. And after I put myself mentally in the role of a servant and let myself be the least and let myself be weak and intentionally be taken care of…then all of a sudden, my heart didn’t hurt and I didn’t feel excluded anymore. I still couldn’t understand 80% of stuff going on and being said, I still couldn’t really participate, but it was ok then. It didn’t hurt my heart anymore. I was ok in the background. It’s not about me and what I can do anymore.

Later I found out that I was quite the ice-breaker. I was so easy for my team to start conversations with the students and couples and various families because they all started off by asking about the blonde foreigner who spoke a little Mongolian. It was way easier for them to build trust and relationships with people. I am not sure if I am flattered by being an ice-breaker and conversation starter, but it’s something I wasn’t even aware of during the trip.

So for me, the trip wasn’t about the seminars or the beautiful scenery, or even about making cool friendships, or about the amazing ways lives were changed. I think I got to go on the trip because God knew it was a perfect way to teach me humility and break apart my pride (not to say I’m not prideful anymore, but it’s a step in the right direction).

So you see, God did amazing things in the lives of the people in rural Arkhangai. But he took along a head-strong, independent, prideful American girl to break her like a wild colt. Humility is one of the most bitter bits to wear, but when you stop bucking and fighting the one in the saddle, the ride through those Mongolian mountains is one of the most peaceful and freeing you’ll ever know.

Arkhangai (Part 1)

And here we go again…though I haven’t written on the blog near as often as I planned, I have at least started to write several times without actually finishing the post. So this post I started writing at the beginning of December just as soon as I came back from my countryside trip to Arkhangai…

Well, here I am, far too long later, updating my blog again. I can’t believe I haven’t posted in well over a month. There is so much I could write about. There’s the English classes I’m teaching – how at first I was overwhelmed at the amount of work I had to do: lesson planning, preparing materials, actually teaching, etc... and all as a completely inadequate person for the task – how then God gave me strength to somehow do what I need to do and finish everything with just enough time.

I could write about the student Bible study – how I was and still am most excited about this part of my time here – how I am excited that some of my vet students are attending the Bible study along with 30 some students from other universities and almost all do not believe in Jesus…yet… - how I have been asked to lead the actual Bible study lessons almost all alone for the whole month of December – how I’ve never led a Bible study for THAT many people very new to the whole “Jesus thing”, - how I feel that at just the right time God will again give me strength to do this task also.

I could write about how I love my roommate and we get along fabulously, but outside of her friendship I am finding Mongolia very lonely – how I am missing home and my friends especially during this holiday season (Christmas isn’t very big in Mongolia yet) – how most of the people I know are at least ten years older than I am and married with children – how many of the Americans are leaving for their long awaited furlough and I am wondering…”so, who’s going to be left here?”, - how my roommate is now going on 3 weeks of vacation and I’m living alone now.

I could write about how after 2 months here, I am starting to wonder if I could ever handle long term cross cultural missions: it is so difficult on so many levels and I begin to see how big the sacrifice is, - how I know Mongolia is changing me in good ways and difficult ways – how I am a little apprehensive (already) that re-entry culture shock is going to way difficult in May.

I could write about all God has been teaching me, -how first he reminded me that what I NEED most here is to BE with Jesus everyday (The book of “Luke” in the Bible, chapter 10, verses 41-42), -how then he reminded me that He himself is my strength and he’ll give me the ability to do things I think I can’t (The book of “Habakkuk” in the Bible, chapter 3, verse 19), -how he next taught me again and again to be humble, -how he showed me the importance of unity in gatherings of Church people, - how he is now teaching me to trust him in everything ahead of me, including matters of the heart (The book of “Proverbs” in the Bible, chapter 3, verses 5-6, and also the book of “Philippians” in the Bible, chapter 1, verses 3-13).

Yes, I could write at length and in detail about all of these things. But. I need to skip ahead to something more important. I finally got out of the city and went into the Mongolian countryside for two weeks! And this trip is what I want to explain at more length. So. This then was simply a summary. Life in Mongolia fast-fowarded for you. Ok…now…about the countryside trip…

So for the sake of time and space, I’ll just give you a brief overview of what we did on the trip and so on. Just the logistics. It might be a little boring. It certainly won’t be my best writing. But. To get the “meat” of the trip, you have to understand the basics. So. Here we go. This is the fast forwarded cliff notes version of our countryside trip (I know it’s long. But I swear this is the cliff notes version!):

On November 19^th,  five Mongolians and one very excited yet naïve American crammed into an old Russian truck and traveled about 9 hours west of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. My teammates (Amaraa, Altai, Nuda, Sukhee, and Muugi) I might freeze to death (I was indeed the “baby” on the trip in age and experience!) so they made sure each day that I passed a clothing inspection. Really thick long underwear? Check. Two layers of socks and one of them wool? Check. At least three sweaters? Check!

We were driving to four different towns in the province of Arkhangai: Sitserlig, Jargalant, Irdnmandl, and Kharkhan. Each town is a very small, very remote village of about 1,500 to 2,000 people and very isolated from the rest of the country around them.

The rest of the land is just a vast expanse of untouched beauty interrupted only by unfenced grazing herds and the occasional herder’s ger. Simply amazing. No fences. No private property. No real roads. Just beautiful land and mountains. I was eating it up. All the natural beauty. In smoggy UB for 2 months, I was starved for it. Let me tell you, I have about 300 pictures of God’s nature to speak for themselves (check out the poetry page for some of the pictures). Anyhow…

The purpose of the trip was to visit each of the four towns and conduct some seminars there. Some were about developing and encouraging good character in high school seniors – you know showing them the value of traits like unity, respect, diligence, etc., -and how to value those things in themselves and others. Some seminars were about having healthy marriage and family relationships – for married couples of course.

Each time we gave these seminars the students and couples alike thanked our team again and again for coming and speaking. Their villages are so remote that no one had ever taught them how to develop or value good character or how to have a healthier marriage.

I think we tend to take these things for granted in America. We have pre-marital and marriage counseling and countless books on how to have a happy peaceful marriage. Most of us have had at least someone in our life to encourage us in the good things about our personalities and strengths and to challenge us to develop the parts we’re not so strong at.

In remote Mongolia, it seems that no one talks about, encourages, or openly and outwardly values these things – even if they are valued inwardly. It was amazing to hear the students share how encouraged they were just by hearing the good things they already have in their characters – no one had ever told them before… Couples were hearing for the first time how men and women communicate differently and have different needs (of course they know these things in principle, but it’s one thing to know about it and another to hear how to work with these differences and to know ways to encourage each other).

So in short, the seminars were a huge hit and people’s lives were changed because of them. But that’s just scratching the surface. All 6 of us on the team follow Jesus and take him at his word. All 6 of us know personally the difference Jesus has made in our lives and the difference he can make in the lives of others. We have experienced the peace, freedom and love that he brings into our lives like nothing else has.

And so we don’t want to keep it for ourselves…we want to share it with as many people as we can. They can take it or leave it, but we want to at least tell them what Jesus offers them and give them a choice. (Church people call this “evangelism” or being a “missionary”…I’m not a huge fan of churchy language, but if you hear those words, that’s really all it means. Just sharing the peace and hope we’ve found with someone else.) So while giving seminars on good character and marriage relationships is great and helpful…it’s not the most important thing we want to share. The seminars will help to change the outside, Jesus will help to change the inside.

So because of these seminars, we were able to develop a lot of friendships and relationships with people that now are willing to hear our personal stories about Jesus and Jesus’ own story in the Bible. It’s never a good idea to just march in someplace spouting your own ideas and opinions and make other people agree with you. Far from that, we want to genuinely care for these remote towns and start to heal them where years of poverty, broken relationships and alcoholism have left their mark…and then we can tell them that we care because Jesus loves us and them too. Jesus is the one who inspired us to care in the first place.

In most of these little towns there are no organized church meetings. To begin with there are so few people who follow and trust Jesus. Jargalant has only 6 or 7 people who know Jesus. And then, there are no leaders to teach what Jesus had to say in the Bible. So these people who left their Buddhist or Shamanistic traditions to experience a different kind of peace and power, really really really get excited when other people who love and trust Jesus come into there town. It’s a chance for them to let their spirits get fed and nourished.

Our team had a chance to really encourage and pray for many of these small groups of God’s family. They loved studying the Bible with us and sometimes just showed up unannounced at our door to join our Bible reading time or just to hang out with us. Actually, there was only one planned meeting with these people. The rest God planned but didn’t leave us the memo. So our door was always opening with an unexpected but welcome new friend. (Well new to me…my team has worked in the towns for several years and they know many families quite well already.) I’ll continue to be praying for these brothers and sisters of mine (God adopted all of us into his family so that’s how we’re related.) since I  know it’s hard to keep trusting God when you feel all alone. I am learning to trust that God’s got them in his hands and he will be their teacher and their support and strength even when we can’t be there to encourage, teach, and support them.

Then there were the people that are so hungry in their spirits. Nuda had told me from the beginning that countryside people are different than city people. Those in the countryside are HUNGRY. And you can see it in their eyes, they’re just looking for something to fill them up inside. Something to satisfy them finally. Wow. It was so true. Maybe it’s because they live so remote to everything else. Maybe it’s because they truly do have a hard life in rural Mongolia. Maybe it’s because God’s spirit is yanking hard on their hearts trying to tell them something. I don’t know…they’re just thirsty. They aren’t really so sure about this Jesus guy and the Bible…but they’re looking for something and they’re looking hard.

So several people, though they’re not really sure they’re ready to trust Jesus and follow his ways and give him control of their lives…they wanted to learn how to pray…they wanted their own Bibles so they could figure out who Jesus was on their own…they opened up the depths of their hearts to us and bared all the crazy hurt in their lives because they knew we would be able to encourage them and pray for them. Some of them, they are inching closer to Jesus every day to see if they can see what he looks like, feels like, smells like…and maybe just maybe they’ll see that he does have the peace and hope and love that he says he has…and maybe someday soon they’ll decide that they’d like to have that love too. It was so exciting and good for my heart to meet with these kind of families and people. I hope someday soon I’ll get to call them my adopted brothers and sisters too.

And then we also had some very unexpected meetings indeed. First this single dad (and former town drunk before he let Jesus free him from alcoholism) came to pray with my team and brought his 8 year old daughter. His wife (her mom) just up and left one day when the daughter was pretty young. Just deserted them. And when I heard that, my heart just broke for this little girl. She reminded me in an indirect way of one of my close friends and so my heart just broke for her even more.I could only imagine the kind of questions, the kind of bitterness and anger, the kind of hurt she already has and how much more she might have as she grows older.

I wanted to give her something, anything to say that I cared and that I loved her even though I didn’t know her. I had a small bracelet with red beads I could give as a gift and then I thought I’d have my teammate Altai translate an encouraging note into Mongolian for her. Altai had a better idea though.

While I shared one of my favorite comforting Bible verses for her (Altai translated) and then shared “The Big Picture” story with her (a shout out to all my C-State Riders for that one!)  (which is basically just sharing how Jesus has plans to heal us on the inside so we can help heal the world on the outside) and then Altai asked her if she’d like to trust Jesus and follow him. She said yes and Altai prayed with her.

I still wonder how much this little girl understands and meant in her heart and how much will stay with her…but at the same time Jesus knows her heart and the trust that she had then so I am excited to call her my sister. Her life is still hard and still full of aching pain, but I know that if she runs to Jesus he will bind up her heart and I may indeed see her again in Heaven some day.

Then there was the man who year after year was shown love and care by people who trust Jesus and he too decided he wanted to follow and trust Jesus when Amaraa shared his story with him – to the joy of his wife who is a very committed follower of Jesus!

And there was the woman whose husband my team met quite unexpectedly last spring – Jesus whispered his truth and hope into his life then and on this trip we were able to welcome her into God’s family too! We didn’t even plan on stopping by their ger, but we had some extra time, so we just popped in the door to see if they were home (it seems that that’s just how visiting people happens here). Nuda shared Jesus’s story and the woman took Jesus at his word and now that ger is filled with God’s spirit and changed lives.

And another day two sisters came to visit us. One is 15 and the other is 11. The older sister has been trusting in Jesus’ words in the Bible for a couple years now. They both live with their oldest sister, her husband and their baby. Except the husband is a drunk without a job. So he stays home and drinks and watches the baby while the oldest sister (his wife) works as a teacher.The two young girls say that the couple fights all the time and it is really difficult for them to live with the oldest sister and her husband because of that.

The 15 year old girl came to pray, hang out, study the Bible and just be around other people who know Jesus (this was in Jargalant – she is one of the 6 or 7 people in the whole town who know Jesus). Nuda shared Jesus’ offer of love and peace with the younger sister and this little girl’s face lit up and she said she wanted to follow and give Jesus the reins to her life too! It was amazing! She was so excited and full of joy. Then Nuda was able to encourage them both to encourage and hold each other accountable, especially given their hard home life.

I could go on…this is just a snapshot of what went on during the trip. One amazing encounter after another. One changed life and touched heart after another. All the time more and more light and life creeps into rural Mongolia as Jesus makes himself known. The sun is rising. Dawn is upon them. The door is bursting at the hinges. May the perfect love and freedom rush into these little towns like a flooding river! May the small sparks not grow dim but in boldness and love spread the heat of the fire to every dark and cold corner!

And so we were mere garden hoses that God poured his living water through. Some soil was tilled until next year’s planting. Some seeds were sown. Others were watered. And some. Some were harvested and brought inside for the dinner feast. God took me to Arkhangai for 13 days. Now I am back in UB (sigh. smog. bleh.) God stayed in Arkhangai even after our team left. But thankfully he came back to UB with me too. So that even here without the beautiful mountains, or cute yaks, or cozy gers, or fresh air…even here I can be a garden hose again. And that. Is quite an exciting thought.

Airag and other first time experiences.

So this is a post I started writing in early October and finally decided that I should at least post what I had started to write and sum it up the best I could after three months sitting on my “to do list”. So without further ado…

I can’t decide if I like fermented mare’s milk.

Yep. That’s right. Somebody milks a horse (without somehow getting kicked). Then they let the natural yeast in and from the horse, ferment the milk. Then it is served as a special occasion drink at room temp or a little colder.

I hadn’t planned on having to drink airag (the name for the fermented mare’s milk) until I went out into the countryside…which I figured wouldn’t be until the spring. But in the last four days I’ve had it twice. And I’m still very much in the city.

All 50 or so staff who work at the V.E.T. Net offices here (the Non-Governmental Organization, or “NGO”, that I am now a part of) decided to have an office retreat and prayer day on Thursday and Friday. Everyone really looks forward to this as it happens almost every year and is a lot of fun.

On Thursday, we all piled (quite literally) into some vans and drove to a retreat center just outside the city. We were on the very edge of a mountainside and could see the span of UB from there. The ger district on the north slopes of the mountains and tall downtown buildings in the center. To top it off, it had snowed in the tallest mountains the night before. Totally beautiful. We weren’t even in the real countryside yet and I was loving the nature around me!

The retreat center is one very nice two story building with a conference room at the top and a giant dining room at the bottom. The “hotel rooms” were fake gers. Which to me was really really cool! The differences were that 1) they had an attached shower and toilet, which never happens in real life and 2) it was made of cement and was thus totally immobile and would be totally useless to a nomadic family. But. It was a start. I like gers so far.

My camera has died (may it rest in peace) and so I will try and describe a ger for you…at least a fake one.

All ger doors face south. The doors are short…maybe only 2/3 the height of a standard door and slightly wider too. They are usually decoratively painted either on the inside or outside or both. Usually in bright reds, oranges, or greens. It’s rude to step on the threshold of a ger so you have to step over it as you enter. Inside it is much bigger than it looks on the outside. The one round room has a peaked round ceiling with a small hole at the top for the stove pipe to stick out of. I’d say the peak of the ceiling is maybe 10 feet high. The wooden frame that supports the walls and roof is also decoratively painted with flourishes and little flowers (kind of). It looked a lot like Scandinavian Rosemaling painting actually.

If you are standing in doorway, the area of the round room directly to your right would be the “kitchen” area. Then as you continue around in a counter clockwise direction there would be at least 2 or 3 narrow beds, maybe a short dresser or two, a mirror, some pictures, and perhaps some Buddhist idols or charms. In the center of the ger is a wood burning stove with the pipe that goes up through the ceiling. Just behind the wood stove is a short rectangular table and some square stools. Now, maybe it was because it was still warm outside at night (in the 30’s I think) or maybe it was because the ger was made of cement. But. It was utterly amazing how hot the ger got from just the little stove! It was super cozy!

Sleeping in the ger made me feel as though it was a place for community and closeness a place where family was really important. There’s not much privacy to speak of…but the sense of community even for one night with my “ger-mates” was really cool. Except for a normal lack of indoor plumbing…I think I could get used to living in a ger.

I forgot to mention that it rained almost all of Wednesday and part of Thursday. So. Technically beginning Wednesday I started a long list of “first time experiences”

1) First Mongolian rainy day (very unusual in the fall!)

2) First time in an almost-ger.

3) First time almost out of the city.

4) First time I saw Mongolian cows. (They are somehow nicer than American cows…)

5) First time I saw the city skyline at night. (It’s really pretty)

I’ll continue it in a bit.

Meanwhile, we had a day of prayer in the big conference room…complete with breaks for food every two hours. Every 2 hours. We worshipped God through music and prayed for each other briefly in groups of three. Then we had “tea time” with tea, coffee, milk tea and lots of cookies and Mongolian donuts. Then we had a short talk on the importance of prayer and unity within God’s family and continued to pray for each other. Then we ate a huge lunch…something like mutton stroganoff. It was good. Then we gathered for some more time of worshipping God through music, shared stories of what God was already teaching us. Then we had a second “tea time”. Then we regrouped to pray for our organization as a whole and each department. Then we had dinner – really tender chicken. It was really good. For an hour we had time to go our “gers” and just chill. Then we came back for a huge party. With lots more food…mountains of fruit, chocolates, soda, meats, veggies and …. airag.

Fermented mare’s milk. The first time I had it, it was a little fizzy (although not carbonated), cold, and tasted like a collision of lots of yeast and sour yogurt. I couldn’t decide if I liked it at first…then after some more tastes I decided though I could politely stomach the stuff…I definitely didn’t like it. It wasn’t really the taste, it was the after taste that did me in. To me the combination of yeast and sour yogurt was a bit akin to stomach acid if you catch my drift. Not entirely pleasant. And this was supposed to be “mild” tasting stuff. My future trip to the countryside with lots of airag suddenly got a little more difficult. How was I going to be able to politely drink a full mug of this stuff!

The Mongolian party was really unique and I liked it although it took some getting used to. My friends from the office like to dance…to electronic sort of modern disco music. It has a good hip hop beat but with disco sounding music. And instead of just gathering in a big mass of people on the floor all dancing together (which I am comfortable doing) they all form a giant circle to dance (which is slightly more uncomfortable because you can’t be inconspicuous that way. If you’ve been…uh… “privileged”… to see me dance and haven’t died laughing afterwards…you understand why I like to be as inconspicuous as possible!).

Then the music changed to the equivalent of the Mongolian waltz. And couples waltz around the dance floor for a while. And finally when the music speakers went out temporarily, the singing games began. Mongolians know several hundred folk songs. And they love to sing around the table after a meal…just singing until they feel it is time to stop. After about two lines of a song, everyone joins the person who started it. So, to ask three teams to come up with as many songs with the theme of “mothers” as they can in turn without repeating any songs…is really no hard task. I don’t know how long the game lasted. There were probably more than 30 songs sung before the first team couldn’t think of a new one! Then the music speakers turned on again and the dancing commenced.

To continue my list of first time experiences…

7) First Mongolian party

8) First time attempting to dance a Mongolian waltz (To say I was horrible is an understatement!)

9) First time I tasted airag.

Then it was back the ger and time to light one last fire in the little stove before heading to bed. Between me and my American friend who has lived here 8 years we got a total of zero fires started. Granted we had no matches, lighters, blow torches, etc…We just threw some toilet paper on the glowing ashes (which then caught fire) but we couldn’t get the wood to catch fire from the burning toilet paper.

When our nine month pregnant Mongolian friend came in she started the fire on the first try, in about 5 minutes. And she couldn’t bend over and reach in the stove as well as we could either. This is what I learned: Let the Mongolians start the fires. They are just better at it. Unless you want them to laugh at you when you decide to add Purell to the fire because “it has alcohol in it so it must be flammable”. While flammable…I learned that Purell is not good for starting fires.

10) First time I tried to start a ger stove fire. (Stove: 1, Me: 0)

The next morning we woke up at about 9am for “morning excercises”. I opted out of this part and continued to sleep in.  J After a breakfast of a hearty mutton soup, we went upstairs for a short time in Scripture and then it was “game time”. My bad. First we had another “tea time” then it was game time. We went on a scavenger hunt (I found the clues at least, because I couldn’t help to read them!) and ended up creating a costume for one of my team members to make her into a princess. It was hilarious! Then it was time for “khorkhok” or Mongolian BBQ. This meal is so unlike the “HuHot Mongolian Grill” back home I wanted to laugh. It is a meal that is saved only for special occasions. Basically they take a ton of mutton…like a lot. And put it in a giant metal canister with some carrots and potatoes and water and some large black stones.) Then they put in a fire for several hours. By the time it is ready to eat (with just your hands mind you) the meat is so tender and juicy from being stewed that it is absolutely delicious. And the carrots and potatoes are good too. The only problem is that my hand got super greasy and messy! Finally we packed up and went back into the city.

So I wrote this post in early October. I wrote it before I wrote the post entitled “Sunshine on a Sunday”. I hadn’t been in a real ger or in the countryside at this point. And clearly I was very excited about all my first time experiences. To update the post as of 1/6/12, I do like airag. I’ve had it several times now and I like it. It’s not exactly my favorite Alley Cat Chai Latte, but it’s pretty good.

In addition, what I didn’t have time to finish writing is that while on the prayer retreat, I kept asking God, “Why did you bring me to Mongolia? Why am I here? I feel so numb…so out of place…I feel like I have no purpose here…nothing I can do for the greater good…why? Why am I here?” And God didn’t give me a direct answer. But as I stood alone in the cold night air looking at the city skyline all lit up, God reminded me that this city –dusty, crowded, and ugly as it was to me – is a city that God is deeply concerned about.

The people living in Ulaanbaatar are people that God desperately wants to know Him. God deeply loves and cares about these people’s lives intimately. And I am here to be His ambassador of love and hope to these people…even though I couldn’t see how that was going to happen through me and my English classes. Even though I didn’t feel a deep compassion for these people at the time, even though I still didn’t understand why God sent me to Mongolia, all I knew is that God loved this city, and He DID bring me here, for a reason that He alone knew. And so I had to trust in that.

Since then, I have still asked God why I am in Mongolia. He still hasn’t spoken out of cloud and directly said, “Here’s why you’re there…”. But I have seen different glimpses of a shadow of a reason I’m here. From the things that I have learned and that have changed me forever, from the people that have poured into my life and broadened the scope of my heart and mind, to the people God put in my path so that I can encourage and pour into their lives…I don’t understand it all (I certainly am still  not in love with UB with it’s smog and bland cement apartments) but I’m just trusting that God’s got all the details worked out.