So far the beginning of our month 7 in Mongolia has been great! It was such a breath of fresh air to come here from China and be able to tell everyone that we are missionaries on the World Race and that we are Christian! I really felt a weight lift off me the day we arrived in Mongolia!
We are the first World Race squad to EVER come to Mongolia! We are pioneers! So our contacts have never had a team before. But we lucked out with an amazing contact. He is a pastor of a church and also works with many other ministries.
We have worked with a homeless ministry that an amazing woman started. She grew up in California and has been a missionary in Mongolia for over 20 years. Every morning she prepares and serves around 100 homeless men, women and children a meal of soup, bread and tea. We were able to go work their one morning. Some of us helped serve the meals while others helped clean and paint the kitchen. We took everything out of the kitchen and gave it a deep cleaning. We cannot wait to work there many more times this month!
For our first Sunday here our contact took us with his church out to the countryside about an hour outside the city. We had a picnic lunch and then church under a tree. To get there we had to cross a small ankle deep river in our bare feet! It was the coolest way I have ever gotten to a church service! After the service he showed us other fun things in the countryside. We saw a cave where over 100 Mongolian’s hid from enemies, we hiked Turtle Mountain, went horseback riding and tried a traditional Mongolia food called Khuushuur!
We were fortunate enough to be in Mongolia in the month of July when they celebrate Naadam! It is a huge festival, which to me is a combination of the Olympics, a Knights Tale and a county fair. There is a big opening ceremony to start the festival in the large stadium where the wrestling matches and archery competitions take place and then there are horse races in the countryside. Outside the stadium there are tons of tents full of food, drinks and merchandise. Mongolians get many days off work for these events and many establishments are closed. Also, Mongolians seem to be very patriotic during this time (kind of like our 4th of July). They have Mongolian flags everywhere including temporary tattoos, wear tradition Mongolia clothing, etc.
It has been an amazing month so far! The Mongolian people have been so friendly and welcoming! I am excited to see what the rest of the month brings!
