And more from our window

From our window.

Naadam - 2008. Darhan.

Naadam, just outside Darhan. Waiting for the horses to arrive. 1 - Pieter, 2 - Pieter and Haniki, 3 - Ali and Arioka, 4 - Arioka (in charge of the Youth Centre at ABTC) and 5 - Ulzee-Erdene (our translator, to name one, at ABTC). Ali arrived 4 weeks ago, from Australia, and is currently busy with language study. She will be working at ABTC, teaching English as her main ministry.

Naadam 2008 - Horses and Wrestling

Naadam

Naadam (meaning ‘holiday’ or ‘festival’) has its roots in the nomad assemblies and hunting extravaganzas of the Mongol armies. Even today, Chinggis Khaan’s nine yak tails, representing the nine tribes of the Mongols, are part of the celebrations.

Naadam is known for the three manly sports of wrestling, archery and horse racing (though women participate in the first two events). Winning at Naadam carries great prestige and financial reward.

Wrestlers wear heavy boots, tight pants and a small vest across the shoulders. The open-fronted vest was allegedly introduced after one Amazonian-sized female wrestler floored all the male wrestlers. The vest was introduced to ensure that women would no longer take part in wrestling.

There are normally six categories of horse racing, depending on the age of horses. There are no tracks or courses; it is just open countryside, which leaves great scope for cheating. The jockeys, boys or girls, must be between the ages 5 to 13.

These pictures are taken during Naadam in Darhan in July 2008.

Naadam - 2008. Costumes

Naadam - 2008. Costumes

Naadam 2008 - Children

English Classes for Young Children

The schools are closed for the summer here in Mongolia. For 3 months. I’ve started with a new group of students, at least 2 times a week, ages 7 to 12. The students especially like playing games such as “Old Maid”, Memory games and Word games.

More from Western Mongolia

Dawaa - coffee break, Busy morning in town, Luxury - hotel (turned out, no power, now water, no shower!), Road - what happened to the sign, and "Will you please wait, we're trying to get somewhere".

Exploring Western Mongolia

Snow on the mountain tops in the middle of the desert? Yes, truly! Dozens of camels alongside and on the road. Dry, arid land, sometimes with stones as far as the eye can see without any sign of vegetation causing you to think that may be you are on a different planet. Crawling over bad roads, sometimes at 10 km/h, fording rivers and slip-a-sliding through mud pools! Getting lost in the vastness of Mongolia. These and meeting some very interesting people were our experiences during the ten days from June 16-26.

The Field Leadership Team undertook a journey to Western Mongolia to explore opportunities for extending our ministry and training to this region. We visited three provinces, called aimag in Mongolia, namely Hovd, Bayan Ulgi, and Uvs. Traveling over very bad roads was slow and sometimes painful, both for the vehicle and us. We met many interesting people and were overwhelmed with the needs, opportunities and challenges for ministry in the West. Especially relevant for me is to learn about the needs for leadership development for the church leaders already serving in these areas. As soon as our training program is up and running in Darhan, we will begin to think about how to extend the training to the West. Most likely we will do this in partnership with other organizations and training programs.

Monthly Church Leaders Training

Pieter and Jeremy Fields are facilitating training for the local CAMA church leaders. This is part of a larger strategy to develop a biblical understanding of church and reorganize the local churches so that they are sustainable and multiplying. Once a month we meet for two days of very intensive and interactive learning experiences. The church leaders then go back to their churches with Bible studies and a variety of activities and projects they must do with their church members.

Here are some photos of our sessions together.

ABTC Program Development Updates

We’re making progress! Slow, but we see changes. The administration and program development take up most of our time. Contracts, by-laws, letters, and training materials, everything needs to be written in English and Mongolian. We’re very fortunate to have found Uulzi who can help us with the translation and administration at ABTC. She has many new ideas and a lot of energy to go with it. Pieter is busy with the training for the CAMA church leaders. It is part of a larger strategy to develop a biblical understanding of church and reorganize the local churches so that they are sustainable and multiplying.

The program development team held two workshops during March and April to plan and work on the theological educational and leadership development program (TELD as we call it). In April the workshop involved all the local CAMA church leaders and church leaders from the other Darhan churches. We were able to gather much input and ideas that will help with the program development. A smaller team is now meeting weekly to work on the program development. We aim to launch the training program in September 2008. Please pray for that!

Thank You!!!

We have a car!!
With the contributions we received from you so far, we managed to raise over half of the money needed to buy a car. We borrowed the rest from the mission office. We want to thank you for your support in helping us to buy this car, but we would like to ask you to pray and contribute more to this fund if you can. We still need to raise US$15,000! Vehicles are very expensive here. Used cars are imported from the US, Japan and Korea. We still use public transport in and around Darhan (effective and cheap), but a car does make life much easier when you have to prepare food for 50 or 60 people, and when traveling outside of Darhan. We are thankful for this car which is sturdy and able to handle the road conditions in Mongolia very well.
Thank you to all of you who have contributed to our car fund. Praise the Lord!

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.