It has been almost a full month since arriving in Mongolia and a lot has happened!
For starters, the original plan for my team was to go to the Mongolian countryside upon arriving in the country and to partner with The Nomadic Church about 80km (about 50 miles) outside of the capital city of UlaanBaatar (UB for short).
Needless to say, that is not what happened…
We arrived in UB and met with our host, Boldo, that was in charge of where the different teams on our squad went throughout the country. His church is called The Church of All Nations, which is in UB, but he is affiliated with a lot of different churches throughout the country. Because we needed to get our Chinese visas, Boldo had arranged for us to stay with a pastor of another local church on the outskirts of the city whose name is Mumbo. This was completely unplanned and not part of our itinerary. We were supposed to go straight to the countryside and stay there for about three weeks, instead we were being told that we would be staying with this pastor and his family for a whole week, so we would be close to the Chinese Embassy.
Something you learn very quickly on the race is that plans are tentative and you have to be flexible because things rarely go as planned. This is all part of learning to trust where the Holy Spirit is leading us and wants us to go.
So that evening we were on our way to Mumbo’s house.
We arrived at his house which is shared with another family that lives in a yurt, which is a traditional Mongolian dwelling that is like a large circular tent that is made with animal furs and wood supports, and his church is also on the same property with a small library attached to it for the local children to read and hangout at.
The guys slept in the library and the girls stayed in a room in the house.
We went to the Chinese Embassy the next day and were unable to get in as it was not the right day for foreigners to apply, due to it being the time of year when a lot of students apply. So we decided that we would try again at the end of the month and continue with our ministry for the next few weeks. We spent the rest of the week at Mumbo’s helping out in whatever ways we could. We helped patch a roof where the pipe of a wood burning stove went through, cut down weeds and raked them up to be burned, and helped cook meals and wash dishes with the family.
There is a scripture that says we are all one in Christ Jesus and that is exactly how I felt staying with this Mongolian family that barely spoke English. Even though there was such a wide language and cultural barrier between us, and it was a little awkward at first, we literally became part of their family. We ate meals together, talked together, and did chores together, and played with their children and the neighborhood children, and it felt like home. When we left to go to our next host, I was sad and knew that I was going to miss these people whom I had grown close to in just a short week.
The next week we switched hosts again and we were on the other side of the city near the airport (because there were planes flying over constantly and at all hours). I am going to write a separate blog about the first night we were there because of how much it broke me and showed me how important being there for someone in need really is, no matter the cost. During this week, we did more manual labor, such as mixing and pouring cement and cleaning up the yard for the church where we were staying at. Because we stayed in a mission house separate from the family and there was again a very large language barrier, I felt like it was a lot harder to get to know the host family we were staying with and it felt really awkward at first to be around them. At the end of the week though, it too felt like home and I was sad to go.
But for the next week, we were finally going to where we were supposed to have been the whole time. We were finally going to the countryside and meeting with the host that we should’ve went to at first.
The Sunday of the third week, we were picked up by the pastor of The Nomadic Church, whose name is Gumba. We left in the evening and drove for a few hours to their home in the countryside. We didn’t arrive there until almost midnight though because on the way there the truck that the pastor was driving with all of our bags and two other guys on our team broke down on the side of the highway in literally the middle of nowhere. We spent a couple of hours trying to fix the truck before eventually having to tow it to a repair shop.
But after many troubles, we finally made it!
The pastor‘s home was four yurts inside a big fenced in area in this tiny spreadout village in a valley close to a river with mountains on all sides. Our team stayed in two of the yurts.
The week we were in the countryside, we helped the pastor and his son build a fence at their winter home which was deep in the mountains and we stayed there a night as well. The second day we finished building the fence and moved back down to the four yurts in the valley. The next few days we were able to rest a lot and it was much needed! We were able to go to the river and wash our clothes and clean ourselves (the water was ice cold though!), we were able to go on hikes in the mountains and watch the sunset, we laid out under the stars at night and counted how many shooting stars we saw (I’ve never seen so many stars in my life!). Needless to say, it was beautiful. After those few days, we helped the pastor by going to his winter home again and cleaning up the place a little bit. We took all of the extra wood down to their summer home to be used as firewood for cooking and warmth and then hauled a lot of styrofoam and rusted metal down to a trash pit.
After this, we had church on Sunday and met with about 40 American university students from a Christian university based in California. We had a meal with them where the previous day two sheep had been slaughtered in their honor and we ate the sheep with them. I quickly learned that Mongolians eat EVERY part of the sheep… I mean the heart, brains, everything… I did not try everything though.
The next day, we headed back to UB to once again try to get an appointment for our Chinese visas. Because the Lord was with us, the appointment process went very smooth and we were able to all get appointments with no complications.
But our appointment wasn’t until that Friday…
So, we once again were moved around and were told we would be staying with the pastor, Boldo, who we originally met at the airport when we first arrived. We helped him with construction he was doing around his house in preparation for winter.
Mongolian winters are very long, cold, and harsh. It gets down to -40° without including a wind chill.
So, we were helping him lay concrete around the foundation of his house so it would be better insulated and he would be able to put styrofoam up for insulation as well. We also helped him build and reinforce a “squatty-potty” which is a deep hole in the ground that they use the bathroom in. It was pretty hard work and we worked until sundown both days, but we were able to finish all of the concrete, and by doing so, we were able to be a huge blessing to Boldo and his family who often neglect things around their home because they are very busy helping those in their church.
Boldo also told us that because of financial struggles with their church, they will no longer be accepting any pay from the church until the church’s finances pick back up. This is very hard for them as being pastors is their full time job and they will have to find other ways to make money while continuing to fulfill the duties of pastors.
After two days and one night with Boldo and his family, we came back to the church in the city we were staying at while trying to get our visas, and that Friday we were there for our appointment and after waiting in line for some time and many people being sent back because of issues with paperwork and also being sent into a separate room for questioning (I was questioned!) we were given a receipt and told to come back the following Wednesday to pick up our visas if we were approved.
Now, we’re about to go to what is called debrief where we get together as a squad and talk about what has happened with everyone over the last month and my heart is so full from all of the awesome things God has done with our team and I can’t wait to hear the awesome things he’s done with the other teams!
Change, flexibility, being interruptible, faith, trust, vulnerability, community, and hard work can best describe my month in Mongolia and I’m so thankful and humbled that God has chosen me to be a part of this worldwide family!
