Hello from Western Mongolia! It has been quite a while since my last update, so this post contains some highlights from the last 3 months. I’m planning to post some more stories in the coming weeks!
After spending our second month on the Race in Bangkok, Thailand, we (the women of my squad) hopped on a bus and headed for Myanmar. We got to hang out with some cool people in Mae Sot at the border of Thailand/Myanmar, and eat delicious burgers at Famous Ray’s–a burger joint/Kingdom business there. We got a good night’s rest there (i.e. slept in beds) before crossing the border into Myawaddy, Myanmar and getting on our overnight bus to Yangon.
Dyer reading Chronicles of Narnia to us while we waited for our bus
We arrived at the bus station in Yangon around 5:00am and split up to head to our ministry sites for the month. Tandi, Elva and I hopped in a taxi with a driver who spoke no English and set out to the small village where we would be serving for the month.
On the way to our host’s home in the country
We were reunited with the guys on our team- Jordan, Tomas, and Sam, at Father’s House, the orphanage/missions school we would be serving at about an hour outside of Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar. Almost as soon as we arrived, we felt like we were at camp. Kids running around playing games, the hot sun glaring down, and lots of hugs from the amazing kids! We had so much fun teaching English while we were there. Don’t get me wrong, it was exhausting (I don’t know how you teachers do it) and man, the Myanmar heat was literally unbearable sometimes. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had on the Race yet, though. To see our kids grow in confidence with their English vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversation level was worth every chaotic day, and sweaty post-class afternoon nap.
We also helped out with construction of the new church building on campus, cooked meals with our host Nancy and her family, and shared messages at Bible study/worship with the kids.
Every night we would spend at least 20 minutes after worship just hanging out and hugging the kids before they’d head off for bed–also known as human jungle gym time.
Poor photo quality, accurate representation.
One little guy named Ay-ta-phye stole my heart with his feisty personality and the way he’d belly laugh at everything. He also learned how to play Dutch Blitz with us, and two days later he was schooling me. It’s hard to put into words the things God did in my heart through the orphans at Father’s House. It was such a sweet month learning from their unending joy and zest for life.
Me & Aye-ta-phye
At the end of our month in Myanmar, our whole squad met up in Yangon for a week of rest and debrief time. Our coaches, Deon & Rynette came out to be with us again, and we had an amazing time resting and pouring into each other.
worship with the squad back together
The New Year Celebration, Water Festival we got to partake in! Basically everyone everywhere spraying, dumping, and shooting water at each other in the entire country.
During that time, we were split up into our new teams! We found out our new team leaders, Casey & Eric, and our new raised up squad leaders, Soloman & Elva. A little curve-ball in the plans came up though, and some members on the squad chose to pursue and opportunity to go to Cambodia to help with an AIM event that would be happening there. So, alas, we were put into temporary teams for a few weeks. My team was headed for China, traveling strictly overland! Gina, Aaron, Tomas, and myself were team #ChinaGetToBeijing, and let me tell you, those few weeks were probably the hardest yet coolest couple of weeks yet.
somewhere in Southern China
The vision for our time traveling to and through China was to seek out possible contacts for AIM/World Race, while meeting people along the way. We traveled from Yangon back through Thailand, Laos, and into Southern China, and made our way from Kunming all the way to Beijing! I’m not sure if we actually spent more hours stationary or on a train, but we met some pretty amazing people along the way and learned a ton about Chinese culture. China is definitely a place I plan to visit again someday. My next blog post will be about my time in China! There are some pretty cool stories, so stay tuned.
Tomas contemplating life on one of our many train rides across China
We met up with the rest of the squad in Beijing to regroup and check out the Great Wall of China of course!
#squad at THE Great Wall of China
We began our journey into Mongolia on a sleeper bus (yes, a bus with beds) to the border of China and Mongolia. From there we boarded an overnight train to Ulaanbaatar. We could already tell the difference between the cultures in China and Mongolia, as nearly the whole squad had a cool story by the end of that train ride, of a local Mongolian helping them out or extending hospitality and welcome to us. This adorable woman named Miga shared her whole dinner with me! It was such a blessing, as I somehow had only an apple left to get me through the next 12 hours. She spoke zero English, but we had fun communicating over doodles and hand motions! I learned about her family, some of the local food in Mongolia, and the (many) strange animals that they eat. I didn’t ask what was in the food she was feeding me..
We arrived in Ulaanbaatar safely, and after a few days split into guys/girls, we hopped on yet another bus headed to the most Western side of Mongolia. This was not a sleeper bus, and we were told to expect a 2-5 day journey. Yep, you heard that right, 2-5 days! Luckily it only ended up being 38 hours, but the majority of the ride we were off-roading across the Gobi desert, stopping only for pee breaks and yak/sheep/horse/camel crossings.
At long last, we made it to Olgii! We’ve been here 3 weeks now, and we are beginning to feel like locals! It has been a nice change of pace to stay put somewhere, and make friends with locals. We have been spending a ton of time pouring into our new teams, getting to know each other, and exploring the city of Olgii and the surrounding mountains.
us girls hiking up the mountain, that’s Olgii in the background!
I want to thank each and every one of you for the unending support I’ve received since starting out on this journey. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much to me, as life on the missions field has many challenges.Continued prayers for my squad and I as we keep digging into what God has for us are much appreciated. Some specifics you can be praying for would be: clarity as we discern where the next leg of our journey will take us in central Asia, homesickness and feelings of missing family/friends/life events back home, God’s provision for our squad to reach fully-funded status, and cohesion as we transition into new teams. The local believers in the city of Olgii need prayers for strength and comfort, as they deal with constant persecution. The long-term workers here need prayer as they battle the spiritual warfare of the region. Pray that local non-believers will see the light these locals and missionaries carry with them, and for softened hearts!
I am almost 75% funded friends!! After a recent anonymous donation of $500 I am $4,472 away from reaching my goal of $17,617! I want to take this space and opportunity to thank the anonymous donor for their generous contribution to the Kingdom work my squad it doing. I am absolutely humbled, and so encouraged by you!
I ask all of you to continue to pray about helping me reach my final fundraising goal! Another fun thing coming up- The Parent Vision Trip (PVT)! My mom and dad (John & Raye) are planning on coming out to the field to see me and join in ministry for a week! Ask them about it, and if you have a heart for helping make this happen for them financially, reach out to any of us. I have faith that the Father will provide!
Love you all so much!!
Whit
