Mission Trip, Day 4

There is a problem with waking up at 5am when everyone is sleeping in the same room. It's difficult and pointless to actually get up. Unless, I suppose, you are making milk-tea for everyone, but that was not my lot.

So it was get-up time at 7:30 and then devotion time from Psalm 23, followed by Mongolian breakfast. The plan for today involved in going out in groups of 2 or 3 to invite people to our programs. But first stop was to visit the student dorm; I suppose it is more like a boarding house for children from families who live not in town. We were supposed to meet some teachers in charge there, but they weren't there, so then we did go out into the streets.

I went with Enkhtsetseg, and we would stop and say hello to people and explain who we were and invite them to various things that were on at the church pertaining to their demographic category. We ran into a few people hauling water, so it was decided to head to the water-station. This was a good strategy, as we could just stand there while people came to get water and people would come to us. Enkhtsetseg has a good friendly manner about her which is perfect for talking to strangers. Though countryside Mongolians are very approachable, and the Mongolian language means that everyone is your brother/sister/little sibling/grandma/grandpa.

An Emee carries her water

Getting the water

It might have been -20 or so outside, I don't know. I didn't feel too cold, I think this is a function of superior quality clothing. Anyway, after an hour we walked to the house, but there was no one there, then to the church. Davka was at church preparing some lesson materials. Davka taught Narantuya (the church elder) and her son Baggii a series of lessons on Bible Interpretation over 3 or 4 days. Anyway, we then walked back towards the school, and met with some of the team, and there was discussion about meeting the aforementioned teacher(s), but then it was back to the house for lunch. A lot of walking around in the end.

Lunch ran late, finishing up at 2, which was when we were meant to be at the church (it was a 5 min walk away). So anyway we hurried over. I wasn't sure why we needed to hurry, since it's Mongolia, but surprisingly some people were turning up. We had separate men's and women's meetings this afternoon. The older brother who was coming to morning devotions came, with 2 other men; there were many women there also, maybe 15 or more. The men's meeting was hard-going, they were not super responsive or talktaive. Meanwhile the women's group went well, and later some of us came in to join them and we prayed for six women to receive Jesus that day.

The Men's meeting, a little subdued

Praying times!

In the late afternoon/evening it was rest time. The students had decided to specially cater for me a little, and prepared a meal with rice, beef (instead of mutton), a fried egg(!), and vegetables. Then of course there was team-meeting time.

Today let me introduce you to Enkhtsetseg a little more. Here's a nice picture of her.

My friend Enkhtsetseg

We spent quite a bit of time talking. She became a believer at 16, after reading a children's Bible, which she then read about 5 times. She worked as a journalist, knows some Russian, and before coming to Bible College spent 3 years ministering in countryside towns. Her main ministry passion is for children's ministry. She knows a little English and likes to practice it. Also she likes to ask "why?" a lot, and tease her teacher. After college she plans to return to ministering in the Mongolian countryside. Lastly, she takes a lot of pictures.