Classmates in Costume

The kids got a day off school for celebrating Lunar New year.
Here they are in costumer and apparently intense conversation.

Clara Jemimah

Clara enjoys helping mommy with baking.

Her middle name really is Jem, but I couldn't resist the cultural reference.

Lunar New Year 2012

This is the first of many families we visited to join celebrations of Lunar New Year 2012.

The mutton meat and dumplings copiously flowed over this intricately decorated table.

The kids enjoyed dressing up in the traditional Mongolian dress.

The man in the picture works at the project center.

And the lady in the middle is a leader in the church.

Thankgiving for An Encouraging Word

A sharp dressed young man stands in the foyer of the CAMA project center as I walk in...

Inside I smell our Vietnamese food cooked by our IM Family friend for our Thanksgiving meal.

The same guy then says to me in perfect English: "Could I talk to you?" I tell him sure.

"I'd like to know how I can enroll in (I'm thinking he's going to say English courses) the Church", he says.

I ask him, "Are you a believer?" And he says, "no I'm just interested".

I tried to mask my surprise and amazement and pointed down the road to our church building, got his name, and found out he is already a student of our CAMA English teacher.

It takes a team eff Teaching English, Cooking the Food, or whatever you do, "do it all for the glory of God." Jesus said, "He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it."

A Life Rebuilt

A Life Rebuilt

In 2001, River of Love church moved into a vacant office building. A large structure with lots of rooms, an auditorium; it held a lot of potential. But it lacked a good heating system or insulation and was famously cold. Most everyone who has attended River of Love has a story to tell about how severely they have froze. Too cold to use in winter, it became uninhabited and fell into disrepair. Windows were broken and bricks were stolen right off the structure. The auditorium wood floor was torn up and burned for firewood. The fence around the yard was missing so many planks it looked like a toothless grin. The name and face of Jesus in this little town was under a load of shame and disgrace.

Spring of 2011, the church decided to do something about it. They made a God-sized plan to dismantle the building and reassemble it smaller and warmer. They made a list of materials. They noted that the building frame was loaded with more bricks and lumber than they would need which could be sold. But they still needed 4,000 dollars worth of materials. Thanks to Alliance people’s giving to our approved Work Special account, we were in a position to bless God’s church in Mongolia with needed assistance.

At the same time, a new assistance program called Food for Work was born at the CAMA services project center. The program targets unemployed men by offering work in exchange for food or other non-cash compensation. The idea being that if they are at work and don’t have cash, they won’t be as likely to dive into a drinking abuse cycle. While they enjoy the fruit of their labor in the form of a meal, they also hear hope for rebuilding their life from God’s word. “Man does not live on bread alone”.

July 6^th, a Food for Work team joined a few locals to begin rebuilding the fence around River of Love. A cold rain bore down on us from the north. It made the ground softer, but the railroad tie posts heavier. That evening, muddy boots and clothes tramped into the condemned building to sleep on a linoleum floor in the building’s one usable room.

Under the demolished auditorium floor lived a family of dogs. Down the hall a homeless family squatted without the blessing of the church leaders. Settling down for a sleep would not have been easy had we not been so tired from the work. Drifting off to sleep there were thoughts of what other unwanted inhabitants might be haunting around. A screeching sound woke us from sleep in the middle of the night. What was that? Out into the hall I crept to find out. A howling cowering puppy cried in a corner of the dark hallway. He was more scared than I was, and bit ferociously when touched. It was at least a little less scary that what I might have imagined lived in such a forsaken place.

Soon the fence was finished, and the real work began. Demolishing the church building began by pulling down the exterior bricks and dismantling the roof tiles and frame. Then the floor boards were removed sorted and stored. Windows and doors were removed and stacked up and stored. Soon we were pulling down walls made of massive 2-inch rough sawn planks covered with lath and dried dirt. (Noticeably absent was any kind of insulation.) The ceilings were just as heavy built and covered with tons of dirt and coal ashes. They made terrific plumes of dust when the crashed to the ground. Lastly, the frame itself had to be dismantled. First we tried to pull it down with ropes, then pushing from the corners, then hitting with sledge hammer. Cheers went up when it finally fell.

At meal times, men who had never heard the good news of new life and forgiveness listened to God’s word. We sat in the shade and digested our food and discussed what was read. Among the workers hearing God’s word for the first time was a man named Happy. He had helped on a previous Food for Work project and proved both useful and faithful. He was especially pleasant to work with because he was so thankful to be out of Darhan, where his drunkenness demons seemed to have a stronger hold on him. Church leaders began to ask about him when he was gone. They prayed for and cared for him.

Soon the rubble of the old building was cleared and a new floor was built on the old foundation. Getting the new floor level was a big challenge. The Apostle Paul was right; it’s no fun building on another man’s foundation! But soon it was nailed down and wall erected, this time 6 inches wide stuffed full with wool, foam and fiberglass insulation.

The frame covered less than half of the old foundation footprint. And half of that became a parsonage with a special heating system to keep the church space warm all the time.

Church leaders decided on November 20th for the grand opening. The ladies worked away decorating and preparing. The Saturday before the big day teams spread out all over town inviting people to the party and sharing the good news. An old classmate of a leader had never heard the gospel before and prayed to receive Christ.

The Church building was packed with people the next day, and plenty warm. Songs were sung, speeches given testifying to God’s goodness, gifts of appreciation given and finally a group picture taken to commemorate the beginning of a new chapter for River of Love.

As the crowd dispersed a mid-aged man holding a new bible nodded at me. Someone took his picture. Curious, I inquired to find it was the guy who received Christ yesterday.

Happy, the man who did so much good work on the building, still has a long road to recovery from alcohol. The last time I saw him at the River of Love church I told him “Jesus loves you”. He shyly looked at his shoes and smiled an “amen”. Now he is faithfully following Jesus and attending Celebrate Recover class Saturday nights at the CAMA project center. Whenever I see his bright smile, which is still minus more than a tooth or two, I see the love of Jesus working on him, and I see hope of a life rebuilt.

River of Love Grand Reopening

Missionary Kids' School

Maggie, Lydia and Johanna with their two friends are part of a one-room MK school. They have one kid in each of 5 grades.

Darhan Prison Heart and Soul

This week I went to the Darhan prison with a team from the Cama Project Center. Dr. Pham and his team taught about health for the heart. They asked me to talk and lead the folks in prayer about the heart’s function in matters of faith.

The prisoners especially enjoyed the game “Healthy Heart”. Dr Pham divided the audience into two teams. The players took turns rolling dice to advance. Some squares were labeled, “you quit smoking, advance three spaces” Others were marked “heart surgery”, “eating too much grease”, with a ladder that slides you down a level or two.

My part was to demonstrate the other use of the heart, prayer from the heart. God says that we believe with our hearts in Romans 10:10. “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Mongolians have the same idea that belief is a matter of the heart.

So we prayed the Father and Creator of Heaven would give them faith to believe in Jesus and join the family of God. After all, none of them has ever seen Mongolia’s founder Genghis Khan, yet they believe in him fervently, heart and soul.

The visit with the prison workers promising to invite us back soon. Amazingly that’s actually something to rejoice about! I think we were all encouraged, heart and soul.

On the Job Drinking -- Drives you to Prayer

The more you live here, the more used you get to seeing people buy vodka at all hours in every store you go into....even in the early morning hours on their way to work.

This week Renee and I saw a man on the walking along at 9 am with his freshly purchased bottle. Yesterday morning I saw two men walking to work each drinking a big can of beer.

But even worse is smelling alcohol on the breath of people who work in public places, and offices.The hardest is having people who are trying to escape the demons of alcoholism, people you've come to know and love, show up to work late and smelling of liquor.

Life in this country is hard. Scarcity, poverty, and the power of sin can drive a man to drink, even a woman. Lately, a lady collecting bills came to our door with what smelled like paint-thinner on her breath. A man from the heat company showed up on official business. When he talked and all I understood is what he drank for breakfast.

I hope hardness and darkness here would drive people in another direction -- to their knees before the only One with the power, knowledge and presence to save and set free.

The only way that will happen is if we willingly lead the way and bend our knees to Jesus on their behalf for as long as it takes.

Today a worker came and confessed he fell off the wagon and was in no shape to work....

It's hard when you see it on the street, but it's much harder when its someone you know and are pulling for to escape the alcohol trap. There's only one way from here - forward on our knees.

Food for Work Job #2

I guess we're about half done with the rebuild. Using old wood and nails from the previous building has been a bit tedious. Sometimes you have to start 5 nails to drive one. In the same way, you go through many workers from week to week. But eventually you end up with a set of folks that can bring about the finished product. But the church is not the building. We, God's people are.

So it says in 1 Peter 2;6 "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

Resurrected Church Hall Frame

These walls have 3 layers of insulation, where as the old ones had only dried mud.

Brick by Brick

These bricks were so loosely slapped up that they were easy to pull down by hand. Therefore, many of them had been stolen.

Inside Old Church Building

This building was built 20 years ago, and came to us ten years ago. Since then it has deteriorated to be unusable. This area was a part of the sanctuary at one time. Even when it was usable it had a reputation of being reliably a few degrees colder than the winter weather cold outside!

Tearing Down

As daunting a task as demolition is physically, the implied committment to rebuild is greater still.

Rebuilding

Food for Work project #2 this summer began by rebuilding the broken down fences around the community of faith in Baruun Haraa, a small town about an hour south of Darhan. One of the books of the Bible we studied after mealtimes was Nehemiah. He was a man sent by God to rebuild a people ruined by rebellion. He began by getting them to work rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

Grandparents Deliver

Here's Johanna showing off the stuff that makes for smiles...especially when sent 10,000 miles.

Present Time

Johanna is six!

Package from Grandma

Johanna starts the 4th of July right by opening her present from Grandma.