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.

Pool and Pizza

  

Homemade Pizza at our house with the younger five siblings
I blurred faces just because I'm not getting permission to upload these!

Getting a little rooftop time on a pretty day

  My health remains unremarkable as we head into September. I have started getting more exercise -- and one of my favorite kinds, in fact -- by going down to the a local pool a few times per week. I have fond memories of my brother and I riding our bikes down to the Westgate pool for swimming lessons on summer mornings for several years in a row, and this new ritual-forming habit revitalizes that feeling. That was one of the first instances of independence I can remember having -- that we had an appointment at a public building and were responsible to get there on time with all the things we needed without any parental assistance at a pretty young age (I think I was going by bike from about age 7-11?). Well... realistically I wouldn't be surprised if mom had to orchestrate much of the preparations to get us out the door on time, but from my perspective it was a great leap in personal independence to have my own scheduled appointments. 

    My brother-in-law was the one who initiated going to the pool and drove us there (I'm still waiting on my green card before I can transfer my U.S. driver's license to a Mongolian license) because his afternoons have cleared up and he is interested in learning to swim. But the pool is really close to our building so I have since ventured a few times by bus or by foot, which has further sparked that old nostalgia for summers past. 

    So we initially went to help Jakin learn to swim. As far as I can make out, not knowing how to swim is quite common in Mongolia, and being able to swim anything beyond a basic dog-paddle is fairly unusual.  I suppose that being a dry, landlocked country most represented by mountains and grasslands drops swimming down the priority list, although there are some lakes and it is a very common pastime to wade in rivers during summer. So far at least half of the other patrons I've seen at the pool have been assisted by pool noodles, kick boards, floatation belts, or any combination of the three. 

My neighborhood pool, with one lady using a noodle to.... learn(?) swimming.

    When we first got into the pool, the staff guy (kind of like a lifeguard i guess? But just wearing regular clothes, patrolling the room and making sure people are safe and get out when their hour is up) swabbed our backs to evaluate whether we'd showered thoroughly enough! That was not exactly a welcoming start, but he didn't give us any trouble after that; just told us that beginners are supposed to use the nearer lane. So I started explaining to Jakin how to do the moves of the breast stroke, demonstrating the coordination of leg and arm motions, breathing, etc. I also showed him one or two other strokes in case he thought those looked more comfortable for him to learn. Well somewhere along this process Swab Guy pulled out his phone and started filming! First from afar, then gradually closer until he was walking the length of the pool alongside me to film me!  That was a very funny and flattering surprise. He also asked Jakin to ask me "whether I'm breathing in through my nose or mouth more." I thought "if he's part of the staff who are responsible for teaching beginners, it's no wonder most Mongolians don't get past the dog-paddle!"  I think there are some others who are above his level though.. surely.  In subsequent visits I have not been singled out as anything more interesting than a novel foreigner, so maybe that situation came about simply to build my confidence for using that pool as I like, even if I don't understand much of the language.  

    The second staff guy I met was very friendly as well, insisting on asking me questions even though I was alone and could barely understand anything he was saying. The third guy was a bit of a jerk, giving my brother-in-law and me a lot of grief about not arriving 15 minutes before swim time (they have specific windows of time for cycling swimmers in and out, but I figured being a little late just means that we'll get less over all swim time, so it doesn't really hurt anyone else. He was directing more of his unfriendliness toward my brother-in-law than me, since he could actually understand him. Anyway it turned out ok and when I've seen him since he has pretty much ignored me, but it lead to an interesting cultural remark from one of our NGO teammates. She posited that such hostility is a trademark feature of middle-management in Mongolia, because "the low-ranking people don't have any weight to throw around, and the actual top-ranking people (the owners, etc.) are usually pretty amiable and generous. It's those ones in the middle who are trying to assert their authority and prove something."  I hadn't considered it before, but I would not be surprised if there's a fair amount of the same situation going on in American companies and institutions.

     It's been a long time since i've swum "laps," and the range of the human body's capacity to get in better and worse shape is astounding! I remember those last 2-3 years of childhood swimming lessons kicking off with continuous laps of all six of the strokes we learned (some doubled, so I think it would have been 8 laps straight) and feeling fine, but now i'm panting pretty hard after just 2-3 laps. I'm re-learning to pace myself and also building up my endurance. 

 

Online class time

  In other news, I've completed over a week of teaching my own English class for our school's "Class 2" (a group of 11-14 year-olds working at a 3rd/4th grade level of English). So far I've only been conducting the classes online, but as of Sept. 1 we are resuming regular in-person classes. I certainly didn't see myself teaching English again after I left the Japanese kindergarten, but I think it's going pretty well. We start each class with some Bible reading and that often gives us things to talk about. They have to read it the day before and look up any words they don't know, but the definition they find might not always match the context of the passage. My two youngest sibling-in-laws are in the class, so that's kind of funny to have them as students. It looks like the main English Teacher will be able to stay around for a while, so for the time being I'll just teach the one class and focus my other time on learning languages and software.  I expect to have a better handle on the rhythm of school life by my next update!

Thanks for your interest and prayers, everyone.

Homework help (hopefully a rare necessity)

Brilliant rainbows from a prism hanging in our window!

Another of Yaedam's birthday masterpieces, and the cheesecakes Yaejin made for Master Baker Yaedam's Birthday

Back to School

The usual traffic congestion on a pretty day

The kids' summer break finished, the high schoolers have finally started their next set of courses, and the Mongolian church families who were out in the back country have returned to us. Along with my language studies, I was also joining in on the high school accounting class (which is actually much more interesting than I would have guessed) along with my other usual things, but suddenly the trajectory of my own work has changed.

The woman who has been teaching the kids here English for the past decade has decided to leave Mongolia to be closer to her family and teach in another country. She was not in any particular hurry to leave but unbeknownst to her, our organization was already having trouble renewing her Mongolian visa this time and there was some serious concern that she would not be able to stay on after it expires in September. So when she told the principle about her decision expecting for the change to take effect at the end of the school year or even once her successor could be established, it was deemed possibly an answer to that dilemma if she were to go ahead and leave next month. She initially recommended me as a potential replacement as a native English speaker who already knows all of the kids, and when the timing of her departure began to accelerate I thought there probably wasn't much room to consider alternatives and this way I can give back a little more for the various lessons I'm receiving now. So I started observing the English classes to see how things are being done -- what they're learning, where their ability is, what materials are in use, etc. Thankfully, however, it's started to look as though her visa renewal will be accepted after all, so now the timing isn't quite so pressed and I hope to start taking over classes gradually. I didn't see myself going back to teaching, but most of the kids seem excited to try using English so that will make it much easier! I'm optimistic that the small class sizes and prior relationships with the kids will make it an enjoyable "day-job." 

As for other responsibilities, I've started sharing messages on every third Sunday morning, and Yaejin re-initiated the youth small group she was leading two years ago. It's a smaller group now but we feel pretty good about it. I'm also still overseeing the high school siblings' studies, but I called in Yaejin to crack the whip on them because I felt like I didn't have a good handle on how much work they are actually getting done and what I should be expecting of them.

She was able to interrogate them firmly and measure how much work they can get done per hour, so now we have a much clearer plan moving forward. Thank you, Dear! 

At the end of July I had an odd and frightening physiological experience, similar to a stroke. It started with my vision getting blurry while trying to read, as though I had stared into a light beforehand. I went outside for a little fresh air and sunlight and my right hand grew numb and tingling. This feeling migrated from the right hand to my mouth, and I noticed that I was randomly inserting wrong words when trying to speak -- a little girl had asked me a question and when I wanted to say "many languages" i said "many red... no, I mean many languages" (this was in English).  I went inside and sat down, trying to get a hold of myself. Yaejin was teaching a class, and I was debating whether to interrupt it to go to the hospital.  

I felt a little vertigo, like I was spinning, and I tried listing off family members' names, game titles, the meaning of various familiar acronyms, etc. with mixed success. It felt like I was partially dreaming or falling asleep and had to keep snapping my brain back in focus. I went to the high school room to see if they noticed anything (i had rehearsed their names earlier, and struggled to pair their English and Korean names but eventually got those). I realized I couldn't remember any of the Mongolian church members' names except for the guy who teaches me. The high school kids were able to give me the Mongolian neighbors' names and I could retain them then, but over all they were characteristically non-responsive so I quickly left them before making things too awkward -- if fearing for the future health of my mind can be rightly called "awkward."

I called my parents, and while talking with them things seemed almost normal except for the onset of a headache and general feeling of fatigue. I laid down in bed until Yaejin came to check on me a few minutes later. I told her what was going on and she was like "you know my name, right?"  "Of course!" I said. But then i couldn't come up with it! I started smirking at the absurdity of it, how ridiculous it was that I couldn't even come up with her name... Finally i pushed out "Jae... Yae... jung? ... Yae...jin! Yaejin. I know it, i do! It's just something really weird."

Just like with the Mongolian church members' names, once I got it, it stuck with me and I didn't have to keep struggling to remember. Yaejin called her parents over and they called a few doctors, all of whom said that in the late evening (it was nearly 11pm) none of the local hospitals would be able to help anyone who wasn't dying, so we arranged to go to the hospital the next day.

The next morning, and ever since, I've been back to normal. Eventually I was able to get an MRI with MRA, and when we met the the neurologist she assured us that there's nothing wrong or damaged in her field. She suggested it could be a form of migraine "with auras" or a mild form of epilepsy, or possibly a heart-related issue. For the time being I've started taking vitamins and an occasional aspirin and just trying to stay healthy -- nutrition, exercise, hydrated. I'm very thankful that my brain is ok, but it is a little frustrating to have no clear answer to what happened.  

Other than the above, the most exciting things going on for me is going to a local pool for exercise and the birth of my second nephew.

We really appreciate everyone's interest and prayers. Things are steady at present. Not a whole lot of ministry happening (mostly internal) but Yaejin and I are still relishing our stable living situation for now.

At the War Memorial (commemorating cooperation between Mongolia and Russia/USSR
against China and Japan) in the Zaisan area of U.B.

Summer Break

 

Our delicious "Sea & Shore Fruit Cake" 
by sister-in-law Yaedam

I last posted very soon after my birthday, which turned out to be premature on that topic.  Yaejin's family is in the habit of observing birthdays on the following weekend, and with 14 family members that means it isn't unheard of for two people to share a birthday. So this Saturday I shared with Ju-il ("Andrew"). Their family tradition is to bring out the cake before dinner, sing the song and blow out the candles (in this case we each blew out our half -- mine being the sand and his the water) and then set it aside before dinner. Then Yaejin's dad says "Ok, presents!" and everyone scatters off to go retrieve the presents they had stashed away for the occasion. These get brought back and piled up in front of the recipient in a somewhat chaotic but festive manner. We were given a fair amount of chocolate and other snacks I'm known to appreciate, and at the end her dad was like "and for our Andrew... money!" So i wondered whether they'd also give me money, which isn't quite the same for me as for a 15-year old! But instead he went, "and for our Daniel..." and pulled out a new phone! That was a huge shock and I really didn't know what to say. They told me since it is my first birthday here they wanted to do something extra, and extra it was. It was very nice of them and I think they all enjoyed keeping the secret from me, haha.

The following week (7/11 - 7/18) was a national holiday in Mongolia, known as Naadam. Normally this period would mark a time of nationwide feats of local horse racing, archery, and wrestling tournaments but this year the government decided to prohibit such festivities for Covid safety -- which was protested by the horse farmers (who apparently need the races to offset their costs) at the capital and counter-protested by health-conscious university students; neither with any discernable effect. Even without the events, however, most businesses took the week off and even more of the city-dwellers set out for their country-side homes, in addition to those who already went for summer break. Our own building was feeling kind of empty as most of the larger families also went out to remote areas so that the only kids left were those of our family. The kids at our church school had the month of July for summer break, which filled many more of our days with their activities and entertainment than under normal circumstances. Usually the church would all go on a camping trip together at some time during the summer, but again, all the usual plans are on hold. Personally I would have been happy to see some more remote areas, but I was quite glad not to be stuck away from our home, bed, and shower!  We did manage to get the kids on a few day trips, which they seem to have loved. 

I went on two of these outings with Yaejin's family + the Russian and Chinese Teachers. Both were beautiful days with fun activities in the crisp fresh air. Here are pictures from the first trip:

We eventually had about six of us up here. 
No one was hurt, although the Russian teacher gave us a scare when she
tried to join us and the branch she was grabbing broke. She said she was ok.

Youngest brother-in-law and I sitting in some tower we found with my oldest brother-in-law.

I thought I had posted this weeks ago. I don't want to make these entries too cumbersome and I want it out there, so I'll wrap this up for now.
There has been a lot going on this month, including an odd health scare for me and an impending job change, so please stay tuned for another update soon!

Children bringing their household water containers back from the neighborhood well.
This is how many of the neighborhoods around the edges of Ulaan Baator look.
You can see the white gher interspersed among brick or wooden houses. These homes all have electricity but few if any have indoor plumbing.

Suddenly my Mongolian teachers are gone! 

    One morning, not so long after my last update, my main teacher texted me "Today I got some work. I think I can't have lesson today. I'm sorry."  I didn't think much of this, just that it was a good opportunity for me to review my notes from the past few lessons. Then an hour later Yaejin came to me saying that she'd just heard that both Javhaa and Shiné would be moving away the very next day! Oh.. that's quite a different matter from my understanding of his text. We both sat in the apartment relatively quiet for the next few hours, feeling discouraged over the news -- not because of my Mongolian lessons, but because we see both of those young, reliable, and spiritually focused guys as a positive influence on the team here, and were expecting them to be stepping more and more into leadership roles. The fact that they were both leaving at the same time (which was mostly coincidental), and so abruptly; leaving behind only one young adult member remaining in our team (who may end up leaving himself eventually, now that all of his friends are gone) felt like the rug being pulled out from the future of the group. This church is too small to already have sustainability issues like a lack of healthy demographic. Are young people simply not interested in working with us? Is this a pattern which will continue as the students graduate and move off as well, leaving the two of us as the closest thing to "young" people around?  Etc.
    For my part, I also was puzzled over how they could find more comfortable living conditions in Mongolia than here, but I don't think that's an immediate concern for most Mongolians, who are well-accustomed to living in gher (or "yurts," to use the Russian word).  Upon further reflection we were able to come to more empathy for their decisions -- I certainly wouldn't have wanted to stay in one place forever when I was their age, though as far as I've seen so far we already have an above average national setting right here in our community -- even if the abrupt revelation was perplexing. Anyway, we were sad about it and there wasn't really anything to be done.

    Thankfully, however, each of them paid us a visit before they left, which clarified their motivations a good deal and helped soften our shock at the situation. Both of them have had pressure from their families to do something that makes more money (Here they are only given a small salary, as their room & board, medical expenses, etc. are covered by the NGO. It is certainly enough for them to live comfortably and even save a little, but only a very little at a time.), and logically they know that now is the time to try a different career because they most likely will be able to come back here any time they want and the reverse may not be true. Shiné had an especially compelling reason, as his aging solitary grandfather has had some health scares and nearly died when he had a stroke and remained undiscovered for 3 days, and currently Shiné lacks the resources to make sure he's taken care of if something happens again. He was particularly sorry to leave us, as he's been here for over two years and really does love the work when they were actually able to go out and travel to share the gospel. I'm sure the past year of Covid restrictions inhibiting the evangelistic efforts of the group have been taxing on both of those guys in terms of feeling like they may as well get some different working experience and save up for now, and honestly they may be right as long as the main thrust of the missional work here is stymied. 

    Anyway, it was good for us to be able to hear their reasoning and know that we could part on good terms and hope our paths will cross again in the future. It doesn't change our concerns for the health of this group moving forward, but at least we know they weren't motivated by deep sources of dissatisfaction which could have been amended. We are praying that they will be able to stay rooted to Christ and be a light to others as they (Javhaa in particular, who says he will be living in a camp in the Gobi desert) are likely to be rather isolated from other believers in their new settings, and from what I hear there are no churches meeting together even now, for justifiable fear of government oppression if they were to do so.  Prayers for our group's current demographical imbalance would be appreciated as well -- we want to have spiritually solid teammates of as many ages and stations of life as we can. 

    Thankfully, 18-year-old Bilthgé has volunteered to take up my Mongolian lessons. He has strong English compared to my previous teachers, which has its pros and cons, as you might imagine. He can explain to me a bit more easily, but also it can become a crutch if I'm not disciplined to try communicating as much as I can in Mongolian during our lessons.  He has also started taking morning English classes with Yaejin in return. His English is good, but there's still enough room for improvement that she has plenty to teach him. 

My birthday cheesecake hommade by Yaejin
The flare was more than we anticipated!

In other news, I had a lovely quiet birthday! Yaejin went to great effort to make it special for me as my first birthday in Mongolia, and it ended up being relaxed and delicious. Many people reached out to me via text and 'the socials' as well, which I appreciate and hardly ever think to do likewise for others.

The school kids started their summer break on July 1, so we've had young sibling visitors hoping for some extra weekday game time! They are very glad to be free for the next month.

I've gotten some feedback about these entries going too long, so I think i'll wrap up here for now with a few more pictures and maybe update again sooner than I usually would.  I'll post this now and check for typos later. 😅

These little cottony seed things were
blowing all around for a week or so

A member of Yaejin's collection.

                      

We had a lot of rain in June, and sunny evenings produced 3 sequential days of rainbows 

Settling In

Some of our first house guests

Hello everyone!

We’ve been in our “newlywed” (9 months after the actual wedding, but still) loft apartment for more than a month now, and enjoy it very much! Yaejin especially has been working on beautifying our home by developing a most enthusiastic floricultural hobby. "Our" collection is ever growing, which is a point of humor among us and the family, but it does make the apartment feel more pleasant and alive. Coincidently our home has become quite the popular spot for Yaejin’s siblings to gather on weekends and national holidays (of which we’ve already had several, including Buddha’s Birthday, Children’s Day, and Election Day). During school and homework hours we don't see the children much, but throughout their free time they will come around, hoping for something interesting to happen in our house. At least one evening during the weekend we'll do a movie or something with them, and when the weather is nice (which has finally started to be the case now and then!) I might bring one of our American outdoor activities out. Of these outdoor activities, we brought:

1) Frisbee - I brought this last time I came (in 2019) and it was a hit but I never  managed to impart the concept of an actual game with it, and it's lost a good deal of the novelty it had back then. I'd like to get a game of Ultimate happening, but so far it's proven difficult to get too many of the kids doing the same activity outdoors. 

2) Slackline - This has been a curiosity to the older kids and great fun for the small ones to play on with a handline, but it's hard to appeal to both groups, as the hand guide the kids use gets in the way of taller people. I also worry about safety and care of the material some, since Mongolians tend to be pretty DIY about stuff, and I already observed tying knots in the hand line instead of using the ratchet. Still, if i take the time to set it up it will stay occupied by younger ones.

3) Spikeball - This is my personal favorite, and has been well-received by those who have played it, though I definitely feel the need to keep my eye on it the whole time unless one of the more responsible siblings are there -- lest some younger kid jump/fall into the net and break its frame! The chief detriment to this game has always been the lengthy set-up process, and often it takes time to get new players to realize how to pass the ball instead of just trying to bat in into the net every time.

4) Pickle Ball - The clear and current winner in terms of popularity with the kids here! They have all taken ping-pong lessons so the paddle motion is somewhat similar, and the younger kids especially like being able to play competently without any supervision. We don't have a net though, so there's a bit of subjectivity in judging whether a shot is too low or not.

For the older kids, though, none of these games compare to the Mongolian affinity for Basketball (which i find utterly boring) and Volleyball (pretty enjoyable, but again without a net limits the playability). While the national sport of Mongolian wrestling is still quite popular, basketball is the clear king, with many of the youth wearing Nike and (bootleg) Air Jordan apparel; NBA, MNBA, and even 3x3 games are televised, and I'm told pick-up games can be a form of outreach for Mongolian churches -- at least, thus it was before Covid-19.
While the older kids / young adults might try out our strange foreign games, their attention always settles back to roost on basketball. Anyone who enjoys the sport would be quite welcome to come over for an international missions-type experience.  But enough about games.

Mongolian lessons in the morning

While the nature of our work is still a bit in process, we have started to fill out our daily schedules. Yaejin has continued to teach English and Korean online and work on discipleship with the other women of our church, and has taken the job of cashier for our group’s NGO. I have been taking Mongolian classes every weekday morning -- a super nice guy named Javhaa volunteered to spend and hour and a half with me in the mornings, declining the teaching fee we offered (and occasionally switching out with other nice guy Shinē who I know from my visit here before our wedding).
I'm also doing an hour of Korean practice with my high school sibling-in-laws in the evening, and helping them with their studies in the afternoons (they are doing an American correspondence course for their high school). Generally they don't need frequent help so I just study and work on other projects with them until they need explanation on something. I also was there to prevent too much goofing off on the computers, but hopefully we have that a little more under control now without the need for my supervision. I've also just started teaching them how to use MS Excel.

Working with the high schoolers

Elderly man waiting for the bus
wearing traditional deel.

The various other tasks and projects we are working on are related to the existential question looming over the church group: how to pursue new evangelistic endeavors in this Covid age. Up till now the Mongolians had been going door-to-door to give a 5-10 minute gospel presentation, with some effect in the capital and great effect in the countryside villages. Mongolians have a very easy-going and hospitable culture, usually letting strangers in for a cup of tea unless they have a strong reason not to (on their way out, someone is sick in the home, etc.)  However, Mongolia has been one of the strictest nations in their pandemic response, nearly shutting everything down for many months, and still oscillating between medium and tight restrictions even today. When the infection numbers go down they start to loosen up, then it jumps and they clamp back down in what seems to be a two-steps forward one-step back kind of way -- or often closer to "two steps forward, two steps back" as the case may be.
In spite of these measures, the infection rate has been and remains extremely high per capita, so attempts to meet with strangers face-to-face will not be welcomed. Moreover, the government/society seems to be extra suspicious toward churches, to the point that we still have not resumed our regular Sunday worship gatherings but only meet in smaller family units
(which still amounts to 14 people in our case). 

 

The government gave out a stimulus check to all citizens over a certain age, but it had to be picked up at each person's bank, leading to huge, hotspot-looking lines for several days.
This is the only picture i managed to get but some banks were lined around the building with people waiting to get their parents' checks.

No one knows how long the cautionary measures will continue, if they ever end at all -- whether due to lasting cultural shifts from this period or due to further permutations of this or other pandemics to come. The obvious idea is to move toward media-based outreach, but that is something for which we are way behind the curve in terms of learning how to do well. However, due to the small population of Mongolia (last estimate at 3.2 million) it's not as hard to be among the first to try things in the language which could potentially gain traction. To that end Yaejin and I, and some others are trying to get used to different media-related software and hardware, and we've all been asked to brainstorm on other approaches to reach people in these times. 

We also submitted my Mongolian green card application, which required quite a lot of documentation (information about my parents, paternal uncles and grandparents, financial status, etc.) but that preparation seems to have paid off because the actual submission went very smoothly. They will send someone to our house to interview me at some point, which I understand will be the final hurdle to getting legal residency here. So please pray that that goes smoothly!

Other than that, we are doing well. We both feel quite busy, though we often have few substantial results to show for it. We want to edify our siblings and the other church members, and strengthen the community therein. We need prayers for wisdom and creativity on how to effectively reach out to the Mongolian people during these anti-social times.

Made a large snowman on May 22

Enjoying our "balcony" (the rooftop outside our window) on May 29