Monday, April 18, 2022

Working and Walking Again

April snow makes Winter.... go? 

"Winter is finally over!" I was just typing, when I looked out the window to see a hearty, flakey snowfall. Still, the previous weeks have been mild enough for light jackets or even less (when in the sun), and now it's getting that way again. Accordingly, there is a sort of feeling of the "end of hibernation" among our people here as the kids are now spending every available break out in the yard area.

With four of my students during homework time.
The Snow was coming down so marvelously that I decided 
to cancel homework for the day in order to enjoy it.

I also have been getting out again after my cast-bound confinement last month, as I've started visiting schools for my English curriculum job. It's nice to see other parts of the city and how so many of the local people are living and going about their days. I also enjoy the aspect of having some valued input to offer to the English teachers at different institutions. For (if it wasn't clear) that is the nature of my job with the English curriculum -- observing classes and advising teachers on best practice strategies. Because I'm still teaching my own class at 3pm there are times when the school is on the other side of town and I end up feeling pressed to get back in time for a lunch before class (sometimes at the cost of my dearly beloved after-lunch couch time!). The class, for its part, remains a pleasure, except when a certain individual fails his weekly vocabulary test and I have to take extra time and energy to print a new one and make him retake it 3-4 times over.... which happens every week so far.

Actually, the "other side of town" isn't all that far as the entire city could be traversed longways in 
Dust storms: Now that's how a Mongolian Spring is supposed to look!
This was taken less than a week before the great snow.
under 30 minutes if not for the traffic, which is horrendous more often than not and can extend the same journey to more than twice as long. The reason for this traffic issue is that Ulaan Baatar has contains most of the universities and best job opportunities are here, which has resulted in the population continuously surging faster than can be adequately planned for. Fortunately, I recently learned how to use the Taxi calling app and pay through our company account, so that has made these excursions much easier. And it's great to have a position with a registered company for any issues pertaining to interaction with national governments.

My cast came off on March 17, and I was quite shocked and a little distressed at how much that right leg had atrophied in the 5 weeks of not using it. I had a rehab session to learn some exercises to get back up to strength (they acted like "why weren't you doing exercises with the cast on?" but I can say with confidence that no one ever told me I could be doing so, or how) and so was able to stop using the crutch after a week or so. Even then the ligaments needed to stretch more from side to side, so that I didn't feel comfortable on bumpy ground for a while longer, and only recently have felt like the swelling is nearly over and I can try to run again . So that's nearly over. Thank you for your concern.

Our young adults group remains a fulfilling ministry. After several weeks in a row of many to most of them admitting trouble with maintaining the habit of daily (or even every other day) time with God Yaejin had the inspiration to buy little notebooks for everyone to write at least one thing they thought/learned/heard from God during daily devotions. We set up an additional evening to review these with each other, and it seems to have been a great help with everyone's consistency, and over all we feel that the group is trending in a healthy direction.

View from part way up the mountain




We took a day trip recently out to a popular spot called "Terelj," which is kind of the nearest naturey place that all the U.B. people love to visit. To be honest, I wasn't much looking forward to spending my Saturday in a car (it's about 2 hours each way) and then out in the wilderness and was thinking it was just a sacrifice I was making for our group ... but it turned out to be a nice day! Probably my best Mongolian countryside experience so far. Unfortunately I didn't get enough pictures, as is my wont.





After a steep and weary climb (from the right) the
top ended up being a pleasant sloping cliffside forest.
We brought games, firewood, plenty of food and drink, frisbee, spikeball, slackline, volleyball, and two small tents to rest in. It took us a while to find the right spot to set up, but eventually claimed a little area at the edge of a valley between steep inclines. After a quick lunch several of us decided to scale this, as well as we could. It was dry and gravelly, making it slippery going, but six or seven of us made it to a good viewing spot next to a rock wall before starting back down, but soon after we started doing so I decided to just see whether or not there might be somewhere to get around and on top of that wall to reach some sort of peak. My lateral trek was soon rewarded as I came to a picturesque crevice path which led upward to the top of that area, which was grassy, snowy (where the sun didn't reach yet), and much more level ground than I had leading up to there. It was really peaceful and pretty, and immensely rewarding to come upon from the Mt. Doom-like slope preceding. I wished I had someone with me, and I almost wished for a tent to pitch up there in the grass, which many of you will know is a weird idea to come from me. It reminded me of reaching the top of a cliff in Breath of the Wild, for those of you in the know. Anyway it was a very appealing view of Mongolian nature, and I enjoyed taking some time walking along the top ridge. I was quite tired when I got back to the group though, and my ankle swelled up so I enjoyed laying in the tent with a book to recuperate. I think it was rehabilitating for my foot's mobility though. After a rest we got in to spikeball, which was the first time for some of them and my first time in quite a long while, and I was very pleased that they took to it with enthusiasm. Back at home it was difficult for me to set it up without young kids crowding around and begging for a turn even though they can't really properly do it, so the olders hadn't gotten a decent shot before. They all play a lot of ping pong, and there's a fairly good correlation from that with the hand-eye coordination and aiming aspects of both sports.

Panorama from the top. Our camp was at the bottom of the drop to the right.










Last week we did our own Tenebrae service for that group, which was a last-minute kind of decision as I had planned to do a completely different topic when we both felt like "Hey, we should do something to observe the Holy Week."  And thankfully Yaejin believed we could pull it off. She was able to dig up 15 candles and find appropriate songs to do, and we told everyone we'd start 30 minutes later than our usual time. It all came together really nicely. I think it was the first time for any of them, and everyone enjoyed the novelty of a different style. So that's another instance in which I owe it to Yaejin for pulling things together to make a plan from nowhere! 
Tenebrae worship for nine

She was also instrumental in helping me with my little Easter festivities in class, finding and printing out several Easter-themed activities for me to give them in class (word search, word scramble, maze, coloring bookmark). I didn't start searching around enough to get plastic easter eggs so I just got them kinder eggs, which they enjoyed. 
They are a fun, talkative class. Most of them have caught my enthusiasm for geography as we continue learning the countries of the world (we're up to 46 now, for which I periodically test them on the Flags, Capitals, and location on a map), and we recently started a little book on logical fallacies which is a little hard for them but they're catching on and are often amused at the examples of fallacious arguments provided. The school has quite a nice little library of classic literature, containing most of what comes to mind (in the moment) as "essential reading," but I would love to add to it as possible. 

And the school continues to grow as new children come in -- several who have come without their parents to stay with relatives. This is a little unorthodox and slightly controversial to provide multilingual schooling for children whose parents are not actively contributing to the work of our team here, but I think we've generally felt that it is good for our kids to have more, rather than fewer classmates, and the great potential for lifelong effect on these kids in multiple ways -- being in a Christian community, living with stable families, learning different languages ... our accepting such cases has a high likelihood of changing the trajectory of their lives for good, and more hopefully their afterlives besides. These additions do not affect my own class as it is too advanced for new children, which is fortunate because mine is already the largest at eight students. But our church additions are not limited to stray children, as we also continue to add families now and then. Over the 20+ year history of this team, both families and individuals have come and gone, as even I've seen since I've been here. But since last summer we've only been adding members to our group without having any families depart. We're about to run out of apartments. By Mongolian standards, our church members get a pretty good life here, so there is often some questions about the motives of everyone who joins us. Ultimately, however, I think our influence and affect on anyone who stays with us is worth the instances of being "used" from time to time. It's moving to think about how these kids might have turned out had they been left to the regular, struggling system vs how they are currently developing.  I've heard stories from those whose lives were changed through youthful interaction with godly families and went on to be used by God to accomplish great things. As Jesus told us, even a cup of cold water given in His name will be rewarded, and whatever we do for the least of this world we have done for Him. The reprieve from an indifferent to hostile world allotted these youngsters can bear eternal fruit. So I'm thankful for each person sent our way.

Well, the update is a little behind schedule because I've felt pretty busy most of the time, but we are immensely grateful for your continued prayers and for any time someone emails or initiates contact by other means. I pray that your Easter Season was happy and holy!