The end of last week & the beginning of this week we were meeting with a Canadian family. They live in the countryside & in their town are the only foreigners. They have been very stressed lately with not being in Mongolia for a full year yet & not having other foreigners in their town. They came into the city to rest, get supplies & to get together with us. They have 5 children & our kids have been having a blast playing with them. Teresa & I have also enjoyed having them to our place, for food, conversation & getting to know each other. It's nice that people from the countryside see us & our home as a place where they can be encouraged, understood, have fun & enjoy friends.

This week students from a Lutheran College in Western Canada arrived to see & experience Mongolia. They will be here for the next 3 weeks travelling with us to see some of the ways we are serving Mongolians. They also will travel with some others serving here.

Today we went to one of the local hospices I regularly visit. They received a tour of the hospice & then we visited one of the patients. She is 54 years old & has stomach cancer. Her abdomen was very bloated due to the cancer. In spite of the pain she was in was eager to talk with us (me being the translator this time.) Her sister of 69 was with her to be company, to talk to & rub her feet/legs that were sore. We all had a great time talking, laughing & getting to know each other. After an hour unfortunately had to leave, but left with both the patient & here sister asking me to cook Україна холубтси (Ukrainian cabbage rolls) & bring them with me next week when we will see each other again.