First Market Outing

Hi everyone Happy Easter. Here there was no sign of anything. No chocolate bunnies, eggs or chickens. No signs of Christ except for a German Prayer tower overlooking the East side of the city or the occasional small church. All the stores were opened as if it was a normal work day. We see Buddhist monks everywhere wearing their red & yellow robes. Please pray for the Buddhist monk Kiel befriended (Tenzie Lama) on the plane from Seoul to Ulaanbaatar. The whole time they were talking, sharing & playing together I was praying that the monk would feel Christ every time he would tickle Kiel. Both Kiel & Esme emulate Christ's love so well. They love & welcome everyone befriending them as I think Christ did while he was here on Earth.


Saturday morning a Dutch missionary took all of us to the local grocery store to buy some groceries. They have most things that we would have at home, however they don't have 30 different brands of the same product. They have 1 or 2 brands with 15 items on the shelf. I am realizing the excess & waist of our Western society. Here in Mongolia everything is repairable. When things break you don't just go buy another new one, you take it to be repaired & if it can't be repaired the usable parts are saved to repair future things.

Many people have some of their their needs, but many do not have good paying jobs. They just make the best of what they have & be happy with that. My heart just sank when I met the different homeless men who visit the dumpster for our apartment building. They were opening the garbage bags looking for any food they could find. They were eating some of the food scraps, the rest they placed in other bags attached to their little carts to take back for others, I'm assuming for their families. They also are looking for bottles they can take to a recycling place to get whatever they can for food.

Many of you remember that I shared the local newspaper article back in December I read about the 50,000 homeless children that live in the sewers here in Ulaanbaatar during the winter months to stay warm. Well the temperatures have warmed up & they can be seen most places here in the city. Some of these children try to get jobs to help themselves, however when their employers find out that they are homeless most are fired. It is very hard to see these children especially with Kiel & Esme & answer their questions as to why they are so dirty, why they are hungry & why they don't have a mom/dad or home.