English Speaking Coffee Club Begins!!

Today Haniki and Kirsten started with the English Speaking Coffee Club ("shop"). This is part of our plans for a Youth Community Outreach Center at ABTC. Haniki will write later more about what they are doing and their goals. Here are some pictures in the mean time.

Sukhbaatar Square

And -20C.  

In July 1921 in the centre of Ulaan Baatar, the "hero of the revolution", Damdiny Sukhbaatar, declared Mongolia's final independence from the Chinese.  In the middle of the Square is a statue of him on his horse.  As you face north, the large grey and blue building is State Parliament House, which, like every ger, was built to face south.  A statue of Chinggis Khaan is in the middle at the front.  

We braved the cold to get these pictures for you.

Christmas 2007

We started off with a birthday party on the 20th for one of Larry and Susan’s Mongolian “adopted” children. A family of three children whose parents died a few years ago. The daughter (also the oldest) in the family is looking after the two boys. The eldest boy had his 15th birthday, and with Larry and Susan visiting their children in Canada, we spent some time with Mandal-Sogt and Monkh-Erdene. We needed some help with the conversation, and Bodyo, our translator at ABTC came to help us for the evening.

On the 21st we had our annual Language School Christmas Party. This is the time when you have to introduce yourself - in Mongolian- and tell people about yourself with your teacher watching you. Well, what else can you do but just laugh at yourself making silly mistakes.

On the 22nd we had our CAMA Christmas party, for the workers and delegates from the different churches. Dennis and Marilyn’s told the group about how they celebrate the four weeks of advent. Gifts were exchanged, and we had lunch together. Pieter and I worked through twelve kilos of beef the previous night to make the biggest pot of stew which you would probably only see in an army kitchen.

Christmas day was a quiet day here. Well, Mongolia goes on like every other day during the year. We talked to family and friends in South-Africa (and one of my sisters in Kansas). What would we have done without Skype!!!

We had our Christmas dinner with our neighbours and friends. Batbold, Gerlee and their family. This was their first time they had a Christmas dinner. All six of them came in with a Christmas decoration which they hanged on our Christmas tree. We became friends a few months ago through their daughter whom I’ve always greeted outside the building. She came to our door one day and asked if she could come and introduce her mother to me. From there on, we became good friends and we especially appreciate their help with some problems we encountered so far. Gerlee speaks no English, but that does not keep us from having long conversations. Pieter and Batbold has conversations about fishing, mining (Batbold is in the gold mining business) and books.

Today, the 27th, we finally have some real snow. It actually starts to cover the brown hills behind our apartment. And I get the time to write. Finally!

Long Silence

You might have wondered what happened to us. We have been silent for so long because we have been traveling, and after returning to Mongolia we had to adjust to new schedules, routines and ministries.

Pieter was in South Korea for two weeks teaching at the Onnuri World Mission Center. He goes there once every six months to participate in the training of missionary candidates and missionaries on home assignment. As always this was again a wonderful time of fellowship and learning.

Haniki was in South Africa for about five weeks visiting our daughters and attending to some personal business. She also visited some of our other family.

Since returning to Mongolia, Pieter continues with part-time language study. Haniki will continue with part-time language study in January 2008. Since November we have started with our ministry at the training center. So far our time is spent mostly in getting some administrative things in order and set up. Pieter has started with the necessary research for the training program. He has also started with some small study groups for leadership development and ministry training. He meets weekly with our local church's worship team for training. He meets every second week with our church's cell group leaders for training in leading house churches, conducting Bible studies, and how to evangelize. Once a month Pieter and Dr. Nghia Pham are meeting with all the local Alliance Church leaders for leadership training.

Haniki has been helping Pieter at ABTC, especially with the financial management and organizing the support staff and maintenance. She is also helping Anhoa Pham with the CAMA Projects which is going through a transitioning period. We are handing over the current projects to local Mongolian leadership and management and plan to begin with new projects in 2008.

We are very happy that Sonja, our youngest daughter, has finished her first year of university very well. We are especially happy that she is able to visit with us now during the Christmas holidays, which is the summer holidays for South Africa. Unfortunately our eldest, Anri, could not come to visit. She is finishing up her course work to graduate from her program. She will continue next year with graduate studies. Please pray especially for her as she is finishing up her course requirements, and as she will be alone during this Christmas.

Now that things are being sorted out and our lives are getting into a new routine, we hope to keep you updated more regularly.

Painting and a Surprise.

I’ll have to explain this first. Green, gray and light blue are the “in” colors when it comes to wall paint. If you prefer anything else, you better mix it yourself. The light green and white walls of ABTC were in desperate need of a few layers of paint. Another color!! To help some of the college students attending Nikdovnixon Church at ABTC, we got five young men to paint most of the building inside. And here is the story I have to tell. We started on the Friday two weeks ago, and for that day all I could do was to try to remember the names of the guys. That Sunday, one of the guys, Baatraa was preaching. When we left, I told Pieter I thought he did it quite well. He looked confident, not that I understood much of it. A friend of ours told us later he did quite well with the content of the sermon. The following Monday, I felt I need to find out more about their backgrounds and what they are studying. Baatraa is eighteen, graduated from high school three months ago, and is starting his studies at the local college in September. His dream is to be a pastor one day. Can you imagine an eighteen year old student, with not much training at all, having to give the sermon on Sunday in the church you attend?

So, in future, whenever we would doubt our coming here, I will think of Baatraa. The church has many young people who need training and hopefully we’ll be able to help them a little.

In the second photo is Pieter. He worked during the summer with the same group of young people to clear ABTC's yard from tons of rubbish and stuff that collected there over the years. ABTC begins to look more and more like a training center and a nice place to be, learn and fellowship together. Our next project is to transform the back yard into a nice place where the MK School's children can play and students and staff can relax and have fellowships (during summer time of course!). (Note - the Missionary Kid's school for Darxan is located in the ABTC building.)

Suu avaaree!!!

“Suu (milk) av (to buy) aaree (please)”!!! Mongolians have pretty impressive voices, you can hear them announcing the arrival of milk even with the windows closed. Mongolians buy milk every morning, just enough to make some suutae tsae (boiled milk with some tea leaves and salt). The salt in the tea is probably the equivalent of a strong cup of coffee. They were quite surprised in the beginning when I bought up to 8 liters of milk at a time (one or two times a week), enough to also make yoghurt and cottage cheese. We strain the milk through several layers of cloth, and then boil it for 10 – 20 minutes. Quite an operation to boil 8 liters of milk. We’re just glad to again have “real” milk and not like in the Philippines where we had to make do with powdered milk. The prices range from $0,25 per liter during summer, up to $0.80 during winter.

High School Students

We were a little confused in the beginning to see so many girls with these black and white dresses, until we found out that they’re actually high school students. A good example of the fashion left behind by the Russians. They actually don’t call it dresses, but shirts, and all the while I was thinking they just want to see who can get away with the shortest dress. Just before the summer holidays, during graduation and the many end-of-school-year activities, they usually wear black stockings instead of jeans.