Merry Christmas!

Sukhbaatar Square

Walking around UB, the songs "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas", "Winter Wonderland", "White Christmas" all seem pretty appropriate. I used to think the concept of Broomball (walking with your street shoes on ice) was pretty fun and cool--little did I know that I'd be walking on ice everyday!  Sometimes it's fun but sometimes it's just dangerous. Our Mongolian friends told us that it's a "common thing" for people to break an arm or a leg. That combined with the very aggressive drivers around UB; hehe, you have to be careful.

We've been really busy preparing for the Christmas party (we have one for high schoolers and one for university students). It was quite a success in some senses--over 90 people showed for our high school Christmas party! in other ways, it was pretty difficult trying to pull off such a big party with our limited resources and all the rush.  Somehow we managed to pull it off though--so thankful for God's grace through the whole process.  Nevertheless, I was exhausted this past weekend.

Apparently, Saturday was the beginning of the "really cold" winter weather.  Sounds strange since we've already been trying to survive -20 some degrees, but now we're moving into the -30s and and even inching toward -40. Scary.  If you're reading this, please pray for my teammate, Chloe. She's been sick almost the whole winter (starting around Novemeber).

Anyway, just wanted to send out a random update. Hope you're all doing well this Christmas season!

When the going gets tough...

...the tough get going?

Honestly, this week has been one of the toughest out here in Mongolia, perhaps just due to physical exhaustion.  The days have been so busy with our teaching program (usually we teach in pairs but since we only have 4 teachers, I taught a class of 15-20 by myself).  It shouldn't seem too bad but I happened to get sick this week so it was a rough 3 hours each day, trying to engage the students, be funny/interesting, and teach good lessons.  I really praise God for how He sustained me as well as my teammates (Taurus, Chloe and Mei--Lorin was on a trip to Lanzhou).  This week was definitely a stretch physically, mentally and spiritually.  In order to establish better relationships with the students, we hung out with them directly after our lessons until late into the afternoon, which meant we skipped lunch for the past few days.  With all the nonstop interacting, the never-ending vacuuming/mopping/washing cups after the kids leave, and also being in full-swing of our college ministry, life has been crazy.

On top of it all, this week the temperature got pretty brutally cold (lows of -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit)), to the point where I didn't want to go outside anymore (partially because I was sick).  Despite the difficulties of the week, it definitely drew our team closer and brought us to our knees in prayer.  Not only did a handful of children pray to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but we were able to grow closer to these School 50 students and try to shower them with as much love and affection of Christ as possible.  All in all, I'm very thankful for this rough week-- the Lord be praised!!

A Church Hike

Some pictures from our recent hike:

Youtube Video: Hiking with UB ICA

Family Portrait

A blurry pic taken from my phone.  I really love this picture and I'm glad i brought it to Mongolia haha. It's my one-month old birthday!  The best part is, my mom is 27 in this picture, which pretty much how old I am now.  Crazy to think that at this point in my mom's life she had two kids! This picture reminds me to pray for my family and to thank God for His blessings.

Hot Water

So I heard from various friends that they recently discovered that I've actually been updating my blog! PTL  ppl are actually reading this! :P I'm not really good at writing really deep, inspiring things but I just wanted to share random tidbits of daily life here in Mongolia.

Our hot water cut out about a week ago, which is not surprising because that usually happens every summer during VSET. We took bucket showers in Lanzhou, China last summer on vset bc the hot water for the shower was broken, but that was still doable because we had buckets, hot water boilers and a scooping thing. However, on VSET in Mongolia we usually have none of the above so taking a shower in the ice-cold water is almost unthinkable. There are other inconveniences to ice-cold water too: for example, its really hard to wash raw chicken goo off your hands hehe. I think every one of these experiences makes me appreciate accessible hot water more though, especially the "instant" kind that just comes out when you turn the handle to the left (in Beijing the fire had to light and then heat the water before it would come out hot).

We have many friends who live in gers and they don't have hot water (unless they boil it). I asked my friend how they shower and she said they have to pay money at a public shower or they go to a relative's who has an apartment. That's pretty crazy but knowing that that's many ppl's life makes me think twice every time I take a hot shower.

Btw, the hot water came back faster than expected-yay! We heard one summer it was out for two months *gulp*. Also, weather update, it snowed/hailed again yesterday! Its almost June and its still sporadically snowing... Amazing!

Pickpockets

Lessons in Surrender..

Especially since last summer, I've been increasingly cautious and almost paranoid of pickpockets in UB. I've tried to think of various inventive ways to get them off my back, literally. When I walk through the streets of UB, I check over my shoulder almost every 5 minutes and I look at every window I pass to catch a reflective glance of what's going on behind me. I've learned the beauty of a inner pocket where I can pretty safely listen to my mp3 player and hold any above-norm amts of cash. I even got a backpack by pacsafe that has various "anti-theft techonolgy" components like special slash-resistant material (not as common in UB for theives to use knives but still happens once in a while) and zipper clips to prevent the all-too-common zipper pull and swipe.

In one moment of stupidity I fell victim to a pickpocketer in the summer, but since then by God's grace, there have only been attempts. It's annoying though-just this morning on the way to school, someone tried to pickpocket me, and then less than 5 minutes later, another pair tried. I wonder if the extra security on my backpack makes them feel even more inclined/challenged to try to open my bag. Each time the tug of their attempt to unclip the zipper was very noticable. As I whirl around to confront them, they always whirl equally quickly away as if nothing happened. I must admit, each time I have to remember to forgive them and pray for them. Otherwise it's easy for me to get angry and be unloving.

Usually pickpockets are harmless in UB. They're not looking for any trouble and they don't want to get violent. However, every so often I hear of cases where people get mugged; some big guys walk up and forcibly take someone's phone or money. (I guess this is better than just being jumped by several guys, which has happened to my students before :-/) Hopefully that will never happen but if the time comes, I hope I won't be surprised and I can freely surrender my stuff. After all, "those who buy something [should live] as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away" (2 Corinthians 7:30b-31)and "life does no consist in an abundance of possessions" (Luke 12:15). I'm still in the process of learning this though. I'm in a great place to learn! :D

Yay, mail from America! :D

This totally made my day. I went to the local internet bar to print out a handout I had made for my students to teach tomorrow and to my dismay my flash drive totally didn't work anymore and had random folders with shady names. How embarassing! Lol. I'm used to viruses on my flash drive since I have to go to a net bar for internet but it never did this to my flash drive before... Anyway I had to go home to retreive the file and possibly reformat the drive.

As I waited for my computer to disinfect the drive, I heard a knock on the door. It was the mail lady! She's very old and nice. There are no mailboxes here prbly since sending things by mail is not very common. She had a small packaged envelope with my name on it. My first letter I've received in Mongolia! It's from my middle school friend Vy. I thoroughly enjoyed the snail mail, hand-written letter, and surprise! It came with a beautiful journal (my current one is just about to finish! :)) and two stunning pictures, one of the beach that I never get to see anymore. Needless to say, this totally made my day :D. Thanks, Vy!!

A short video I made on Thursday after it snowed :D

Pictures

I thought the brothers in the first picture were really cute, wearing matching green and yellow clothes and holding hands.  Next two pictures are of the sidewalk getting torn up. PTL, the sidewalk was so uneven, making it really hard to walk on, especially on rainy days :D.  It's funny because as they are tearing up the sidewalk, pedestrians are just walking all over the dirt.  Last pictures are an exhibit of really cool structures that the architecture majors at SHUTIS (Science and Tech University) created.  Aren't they awesome?? I thought it was cool :D.

Pictures

A view from outside our kitchen and some of our daily life :)

Work Visas

PTL! Chloe and my work visa are well underway and should be ready for the “next step” by Thursday. The “next step” is that we both need to exit the country and get our visa in a Mongolian embassy. This takes us halfway through the process. Then after further paperwork processing, we will finally receive our work permit and residence card. Lorin and Taurus are already on the last stage. However, the visa that we receive is a single-entry (which means once you enter the country, you cannot leave and come back in). This is a problem because we often need to exit the country, whether for our summer VSET program or whatever other trip we need to make (usually to China). As of right now, we’re not sure if Taurus and Chloe (the non-Americans) will be able to change their visa to multiple-entry but it seems that Americans are able to do so. Please continue to pray for this process as it is very confusing, complicated, and time-consuming.

Mei’s visa also has issues because she also needs to exit the country to get her visa in a Mongolian embassy but our closest and least expensive country to travel to would be China. She cannot enter China because she was escorted out of the country in 2008 for sharing the good news on a university campus. We are in the process of trying to see if we can secure a visa into China for the express purpose of her getting her Mongolia visa (confusing, huh?). Anyway, every step of the way is uncertain so please pray that somehow the doors would open and Mei would be able to enter into China to get her Mongolian visa.

Thanks for all your prayers thus far! Mei, Lorin and Taurus already started their first week of teaching at School 23 and Chloe and I will be teaching at School 50 sometime this week. It’s exciting to see God opening the doors for us to meet all these high schoolers! We are still praying and hoping for a strong ministry among the high schoolers so this is just the beginning.

My 'Hood

random pictures near my 'hood haha. The last picture is High School 50, the school I will be doing part-time teaching at starting mid-April. It's a 5 minute walk from our place.

Photo Update!

<- University fellowship (left) || Sunday Church (below)

Celebrating Tsagaan Sar; Cooking with the Team; The key growing sisters in our church!