I want to share with you all in a little more detail how we have been serving Mongolians & others recently. The last 2 weeks I have been helping our community centre's director build a house for a Mongolian family in the ger district close to the community centre. Here is a picture of the house all 4 of them live in now, personally I like it. I know many of you cannot believe what I'm saying, but when you go inside there is everything a family would need & it's comfortable. The biggest problem with their home now is that there is no isolation. The walls are totally made or brick & cement. The steel roof also lets out a lot of heat too.
The owner has a good job as a cook for an Indian restaurant here & was starting an addition to the home they are living in. Our director came over for a visit one day & saw what he was doing (adding another home with no isolation) & said that he could build a nice little home that would be warm (isolated well approx. R-20) with him & the community centre staff. He is paying for as much of the home as he can with his salary. God has really taught me that many times excess material things prevents real deep relationship with people. I have to be careful because I can hide myself behind my stuff & prevent real relationship from happening.
As I mentioned in an earlier post that Teresa served at the orphanage camp for a week in the summer. Well one of the orphanage girls (age 16) has come to hang out with Teresa a couple of times thus far. This is when Mongolian conversation can be a real struggle as she visited the house for 6 hours. Teresa said it was really hard because she doesn't know any English, but in spite of that her, Teresa & Esme made cookies, played some card games & talked a little. Another time she joined Teresa & Esme as they went to the market to buy Esme's birthday gift. It was funny because she is 16, but always wanted to hold Teresa's hand when they were out. Teresa & I realized that she really knows that verbal communication is not really what she needs. She just wants someone who loves her to be with her, to hold her (doesn't get a loving touch) & to have something to do with someone, like a big sister (Teresa.) It's a real gift just to let these kids know we love them & care about them.
Teresa is also helping at Kiel's school again once a week. She really wants to help Mongolian & foreign students with learning disabilities this year. There really is not any help for these students & many of them get frustrated, discouraged & have low self-esteems. Teresa wants to help these students with their English & other learning so that they can feel encouraged & will have good self-esteems.
My main responsibility at the community centre is being their IT person & this service keeps me busy. At the community centre we have a small library/computer room. The room is about 7 meters long & 4 meters wide. In this room we have a bookshelf with Mongolian & English books, a large couch, 4 desktop computers, a kitchen table with 4 chairs & a whiteboard. You all have provided many of the parts for these computers as I had to fix them all up so they would be ready for our ger district students to use for school projects & homework. You all have also provided the homemade wooden kitchen table with 4 chairs & the whiteboard for the older (high school, university) students to work on projects together. Many of these students live in a Mongolian ger & do not have the space to work or have access to the internet at home.
About half of each week I monitor the library to help the community kids with the computers, using the internet, talk to them & possibly play a board game or two. It's been a great way for me to build relationship with these kids. In Mongolian they all call me "big brother" which I like a lot.
Already when I walk up the hill in the ger district & pass by the kids Mongolian ger's they all run out to meet me with smiles on their faces. They also pet my arms & face like I am an animal & call me by my nick name (hairy animal) because Mongolians don't have any body/facial hair & well, I have been blessed with it. Many of them have never felt arm/facial hair & think it's cool. They always have big smiles on their faces when they are with me & call me their big brother. I really love meeting them each week to talk about what they are doing, what their week has been, how things are at home, to encourage them in what they still have to do & to play with them sometimes.
Some of the other ways we are serving is networking people who normally wold not have contact with many people in the ger district. A friend of ours (Canadian) who is an art teacher working here wanted to offer art/craft classes to kids in the ger district. I have organized it so that she can use the community centre to serve the kids & teach them fun crafts. I will also be meeting with a businessman next week to show him around the city, the ger district, community centre & host him for a home cooked meal at our place. We were introduced via an email by a Canadian businessman friend & supporter of ours.
Each week we have two home groups for expats we lead. One is always at our place & the other is sometimes at our place & sometimes at other homes. We share a meal, laugh, encourage, share our thoughts & pray.
Please pray for us & my Mongolian best friend. This morning I started Mongolian language classes with him again for 3 hrs. once a week. I need a translator because my Mongolian will take years to be at the level it needs to be when I visit more adults, students, children & families in the ger district. Many of these people are suffering in some way & we at the community centre offer them help, just enough to help them get back on their feet as we say. The visits are to find out how they are doing. We not only provide them with some physical needs, but also whole person needs. We care about all of the people we are helping.
My Mongolian best friend has a really good job with an Embassy in the city. I told him that I have started praying for someone & could you please pray too. I told him that I would like him, but know he has an awesome job already. This man is amazing, when we are together we are like 2 brothers. He has known me since we came & was my Mongolian language teacher. He knows that I want to continue to know & learn more Mongolian. He has a heart for his people, families & children, more then I. He knows how to push me with my language & challenges me with cultural things. He comes for meals from time to time, Teresa & the kids love him. For a short time he was Teresa's Mongolian language instructor & has helped Teresa with many Mongolian things already. Please pray & time will tell.
This time of year is also very hard because there are 1 month old puppies & kittens (strays) all around here. You walk by them & they come running up to you wining, meowing & howling. You know that most of them will probably die this winter of the cold or of starvation. Here is a little puppy that was jumping on my leg this morning. I didn't take him home. You have to get thick skin when you live in a place like this. We have already rescued 2 kittens, which now are very big cats.
