Sports, Surprises, and Sickness

 

I'm 16 days later on this update than I expected to be! Let me see if I can fill in the details.

    My classes (three learning, one teaching) were going well, and in addition to my continued visits to the pool, the kids here suddenly developed a great enthusiasm for soccer, which was another fun physical activity I hadn't been able to enjoy for a long while. Some of the older guys from the church would play as well, so there was a good mix of ages involved and I really was exhausting my decreased stamina each time we played. After both of the first games I played I developed and thick, troubling cough, which I assumed was because of the sudden exertion and breathing in hard the chill air. Looking back now, I wonder if that was my first symptom showing, because one of my students reported the same result from those soccer games.

    On Tuesday, October 5th, my students started off class full of excitement for their idea to make some surprise for the other English teacher's birthday. She is planning to leave Mongolia sometime in the near future, so they correctly pointed out that it was likely to be her last birthday in the country.  I considered it worthwhile to entertain this notion, and for the first half of class we only talked about what we could do for the teacher in the short notice -- her birthday was the next day! Better late than never, but it would have been easier to plan with a little more forewarning. We plotted some ideas for decoration and deserts, and during the break i smuggled some colored paper to our apartment and enlisted Yaejin's help in the scheme. We planned to have my class spend their homework time after class at our house. The English teacher has traditionally overseen this homework hour, but I just told her my class would have a snack during homework time so we'd bring them to our house, and that didn't seem to arouse excess suspicion.  

    Together with the kids we made bunting-styled banners, we had them all write letters to her, and one girl wrote a poem to put on the board, and Yaejin helped direct the crafting and a simple cake decoration. It all was coming together well, and we were able to enlist the Chinese teacher to unlock the school for us after 9:30 in order to decorate secretly. When the kids gathered for this school raid decoration time, the coughing boy wasn't with them. His parents made him stay home because he had a fever. Hm....
    Regardless, the surprise turned out beautifully and the kids were very pleased with it. Later one girl wrote us a nice little get well note thanking us for the direction, which was very considerate of her.  We were told that the teacher was completely surprised when she got in to class the next morning, and loved all of the decorations and treats. Great success all around.

    However, as I've been alluding to, all was not well in the Sigler household. That very evening I woke up with some discomfort, and in the morning felt positively unwell. Yaejin took my temperature, and I had a fever. Knowing there was at least one lady here with Covid-19, and remembering the student who had been in our home until his parents made him go to bed the previous evening, I thought it best to take caution and not go to any classes that morning. I ended up sleeping until about 11:30 and generally feeling bad, coming in and out of fever. Yaejin also had cold-like symptoms, but finally in the afternoon we got out to get tested at a center. Hers came back negative, but mine was positive, and thus our self-imposed isolation was restarted anew. 

For the first few days, we  kept coming in and out of fever, feeling hot and cold, and my cough continued. I also had general muscle soreness so that I didn't like to sit in one position for too long. Concerned about respiratory issues, I went out onto our rooftop and jogged in a little circle or did soccer-practice-style cross-stepping back and forth to get some fresh air and exercise. The area being pretty small, i did feel a little like a caged tiger pacing around and back and forth. Later, my taste and smell faded, followed by Yaejin in the same way. That has been an irritating symptom but much better than the pain! Our meals were mostly constructed on the basis of nutrition and texture. Hot soups with beans, vegetables, and meat were the most enjoyable to us.

Cooking with gas by candlelight during a power outage one evening

    For me the worst symptom was probably lower body pain when I tried to go to sleep. It seemed that every night was a struggle to position myself in a way that wouldn't feel like my groin and hamstrings were being overstretched! I'm still not sure why that was happening, but it climaxed on perhaps night #9 when i ended up getting out of bed and walking around, standing with my hips pushing forward and seeking relief on the couch. Since then it subsided , and my taste is about half-way back now too.  
    Yaejin is a few days behind me, and although she didn't have the legs sensation I had, the fevers and soreness has been tough on her. For a while it seemed that she suffered in the morning and got better as the day went on, whereas I started out feeling good and would deteriorate in the evening and then suffer most at night. 

Getting an accidental nap in the early evening.

    

    At the time of writing this, I am merely waiting for my cough to clear up and my taste to keep coming back. In my case it was never 100% gone, but I could only taste the basics of "sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, sour" so that anything that did have a flavor ended up just being the flavor of salt or sugar. Coffee was just bitterness without any of the roasted flavor I like. This morning too, i suddenly woke up with through pain, which hasn't been a symptom of my sickness, so I'm not sure what to think about that.
    For Yaejin's part, she still has a cough and no taste, and seems to have a litlte more body pain remaining.  We're still planning to isolate until Monday, but overall we are both thankful to have seemingly gotten through this without any complications. The back of the mind "what if" anxiety makes all of it harder to get through.

    Other than feeling bad, I think it was a blessing for us to be put into another quarantine together! We have both been so busy, and it was nice to spend time reading, talking, watching movies, and suffering together. Especially when the pain wasn't happening it's been nice to just enjoy eachothers' company.

    This is now our fourth mandatory quarantine, and it has been the hardest by virtue of actually being sick. But I'm glad to have a partner to go through it with. I'm sure it would be harder to do it alone for such long periods of time, and our sympathies go out to anyone who's had to undergo that true isolation.

    We thank everyone for your continued prayers and for anyone who reaches out! It's always nice to hear from our friends across the world, even if the time difference sometimes makes us slow to respond.

We're on the mend. Enjoy this picture of us with our cacti!

Ulaanbaatar x Kabul

Absolutely scrumptious Afghan-style meal and tea made for us by △.

    

    

 

   Hello everyone. I wanted to share something a little different today before starting on my regularly scheduled update (which is actually behind schedule due to our contraction of and ongoing recovery from Covid-19). 

    Last month we had the privilege of dining with a Mongolian missionary -- already quite a rare category, but this person's calling was all the more intriguing in light of recent world history. This missionary -- I'll call him/her △ -- had been ministering to the Hazara people in Kabul for ten years before coming back to Mongolia to raise support. △ was aiming to return to Kabul when the Pandemic started and Mongolia locked down its borders. Still they planned to go back again when possible, but the current crisis began before there was a chance, endangering many of his/her friends. △ cooked a delicious Afghan-style meal for us and one other couple from our church, accompanied by saffron-green tea, which was exquisite as billed. As delicious as the meal was, the real treat was hearing △ tell us about the church in Afghanistan and their way of reaching out to the Hazara people.

    First of all, I was fascinated to meet a missionary from a developing nation -- I assumed that makes it hard to raise support, but on the other hand probably helps △ keep a lower profile in other low-income nations in ways that would not be possible for people from first world nations (or who "look like" they would be) and possibly helps with some cultural expectations as well. Secondly, we were amazed to hear how well God has equipped △ to minister to this specific people group, the Hazara. The "Hazara" are believed to be named for the Persian word for "thousand," and to descend from the Mongol squadron of 1000 troops the Khans left to manage the area after they conquered it. For this reason, the Hazara not only bear physical resemblance to Mongolians, but apparently their language and culture both have many commonalities with Mongolia as well. △ said that he/she doesn't stick out in the region unless he/she starts talking and reveals the foreign accent.  I asked whether △ has to keep their faith a secret, but they told me "there's no avoiding it once they know you're foreign. 'What do you believe?' will be the very first question they ask you. In many places that would be 'what do you do?' or 'Where are you from?' -- in China they always ask 'How much do you make?,' but in Afghanistan the very first question is 'What do you believe?'" △ said that they struggled with how to answer that question at first, because if you say "Christian" they just roll their eyes and say "Oh, the Hollywood religion. You say you believe in God but smoke and drink and sleep around and do all of the sinful things." They equate the word with hypocritical hedonism.  So eventually △ started describing him/herself instead as "a disciple of Jesus." That always gets their attention, as they'll say "Oh, is there a religion like that? Jesus is a good prophet." And they often will be curious to know more about it.

    △ told us that he/she appeals to Mongolian origins as the basis for sharing their testimony, saying "I was born in a land caught between Buddhism and Communism, so I was never able to know the True God."  That always stirs their sympathy, because the Muslims consider themselves as knowing the True God. △ then goes on to share about meeting Christ and being changed by Him. He/She said that any time the Muslims start to get upset at △ about God becoming a man or Jesus being the same person as God, he/she just uses the Muslim mantra "God is Great; I am nothing." △ takes on a hurt expression and says "What can I say about it? I'm not saying this, my God says it. God is great; I am nothing! How can I say anything different if God tells me He has a son and became man?" △ said that line of  humble "don't shoot the meek messenger" usually calms them down and they'll say "Alright alright, fine, it isn't you saying this." 

    While △'s own faith is quickly placed front and center, he/she said that the local people who do come to faith must only do so under extreme secrecy, because you can't know if your neighbor will turn you in to the Muslims and they'll burn your house down or make you disappear. △ told us that everything is done on a 1:1 basis -- just mentor to mentee and onward. △ told us that they did organize a mass meeting of the members of this mentoring network, and described how beautiful it was to see neighbors recognizing eachother and saying "You too?! Hallelujah!" and realizing they'll be able to silently encourage and pray for oneanother. △ went on about this need for secrecy: "Here in Mongolia, we ask people to believe in Jesus because He will help repair their families and solve their alcohol problems. In Afghanistan, we're saying to people 'Please believe in Jesus. You'll likely be killed for it, but please follow Him just the same and it'll be worth it.'"  -- and that's before this new takeover by the Taliban. △ said from what the converts are saying, they don't have questions of "how to survive." They expect that they'll be martyred eventually, unless the Lord chooses to spare them for His work. So they are joyful.

    As for △, they say they intend to work more with the Hazara people. Now that Afghanistan is off limits, △ intends to visit the border countries available for visits from Mongolians to reach out to the many Hazara who are fleeing Afghanistan, and also to work on trying to get out those who can be helped.
    If you're like me, right now you're probably thinking "Let's get △ hooked up with American funding and make a big difference!" But throughout our conversation I learned that △ has a passion for being a Mongolian-supported missionary. They were saying that the Mongolian church needs to learn consistency; to step up and keep supporting instead of giving a one-time gift and then forgetting about it. △ was saying that the Mongolian church doesn't get enough teaching about generosity, faithful prayer and giving, and trusting God with money; and that "even though what they can give is just [a few cents] per person -- almost nothing -- just like the widow's mite, God can use it if they just faithfully give, and it's an important lesson and blessing for the Mongolian Christians to take part in God's global Church" etc. So I determined that △ would not be interested in foreign aid. But I wanted to share with my friends around the world about the awesome work God is and will continue to be doing in Afghanistan and the surrounding nations.  I know that many of us Americans have been praying for them lately out of a national guilt for the predicament in which our government has placed the Afghan Christians, but our time with △ showed me that: 

    1) It has always been dangerous for our brothers and sisters in Muslim-controlled regions.

    2) The Lord will protect His people or otherwise use them for His glory in whatever they have to 
         face next.

Either way, I invite all of you to be praying for the Hazara, the believers in and fleeing Afghanistan, and for a thousand other Church enclaves like this that we haven't heard about yet.

For my next entry I have much to update about our own lives.