Final Weeks as a Family of Two

My new favorite U.B. café, Macaroon 153.

Happy summer, everyone! Hot weather arrived late but abruptly this year. We had two weeks of stifling heat before returning to the very temperate days we are enjoying now. The elevation and dry air means that summer feels awesome in the shade but the direct sunlight is intense and can burn much faster than I'm used to. Baby Sigler is coming along well, and we've enjoyed feeling (and now seeing) her pushes and kicks. Both school and work have entered into a summer break, so I'm finally compiling the report I've been wanting to give for a long while now.

The most exciting development around here has undoubtedly been the efforts of our evangelism team -- which I am not even part of, as my teaching and training duties keep me here in U.B. For the majority of May, our group partnered with a couple of local churches to make the 3-day cross-country drive (camping along the way) to the westmost province of Bayan-Ölgii. This region is the most "foreign feeling" in Mongolia, being the only province with an ethnic majority other than Mongolian as about 93% of the 108,000 residents are Muslims of Kazakh descent. [info on Bayan-Ölgii]
The team had some adventurous roads in the final stretch once the paved highways gave way to rocky streamside paths. In Bayan-Ölgii they partnered with some local Christian groups and churches (familiar among them to Western readers will be YWAM staff), and started systematically knocking on doors in the 14 small towns throughout the province.

Camping along the way

Based on our team members' reports it seems to have been a mission of great contrast － warm hospitality from the local people who were receptive to the gospel (though at times suspicious about whether this activity was approved by their Muslim clergymen) and would invite our people in to their home for tea and snacks － and opposition and harassment from the local police who seemed  concerned with preserving the Islamic status quo. 

Our team had prepared Kazakh tracts and Bibles since many of the people there aren't fluent in Mongolian. They tell us that when they gave out full-sized Bibles the recipient would hold it in front of them with both hands and raise it above the level of their head. This signifies that they are receiving a valuable gift and feel honored. Middle- and lower-class people tend not to have much reading material in Mongolia, and I assume that's even more the case among the Kazakh-Mongolians out in the far west. While there was some variation in the level of opposition they faced from village to village, almost everyone who answered the door invited them in and listened intently to their gospel presentation. There were even a few who asked our people to repeat it for a friend of family member who arrived after they had already told it once. Once in a while someone might ask, in a mildly accusing manner, "Who told you to do this?" or "Who translated this stuff into Kazakh?"  One of our guys said that he just answered "our clergyman" (using the same word they use for local Muslim leaders) and then they'd be ok with it.

One of our younger guys knocked on a door and was greeted by several men wielding knives who asked "what do you want?" I have been told that the Mongolian stereotype of Kazakhs is that they are always stabbing people. Our guy answered "I'm here in Jesus' love to share between we Mongols and the Kazakh people." One of the men brandished his knife while stepping toward him, demanding "What did you say?" So he repeated himself at a higher octave while backing away. This exchange repeated a couple times until our guy just left some tracts and backed his way right on out of there. Such rebuttals were few, however. Another man was stopped by a guy on a motorcycle and asked "who gives you the right to go around doing this?" he answered with some quick thinking: "Well I'm a Mongolian citizen, and Article 2, Section 4 of our national law says that I'm free to do this." The motorcyclist seemed satisfied with this answer, saying "Oh" before driving off. In essence, our guy's claim was true in that Mongolia does officially espouse freedom of religion, but the law he cited to the man was completely made-up. 

Sharing at a home

Distributing concise Bibles to students

Toward the end of their trip, and particularly in the largest town of the province, the police started causing more overt trouble, claiming that there had been complaints that they were disturbing the peace of the town and threatening to post pictures of our vehicles and faces on Facebook so the Muslims would know whom to attack. Fortunately, this final confrontation came at the time when they had pretty much finished going to all of the homes in the town, so our guys decided to just say "Alright, we'll leave." Besides the fact that they had finished all the homes in the main town and 11/13 of the villages in the province, they were concerned about the local churches and ministries who were partnering with them in the work. Our team will leave and head back to safety, but the local church and ministries might have to deal with consequences from the agitated local authorities or religious leaders.  So they decided to pack up in the night to get out of the province by morning, so that those local Christians could say the evangelists had already left/been sent away. Our people all said as soon as they drove into the next province (still days away from the capital here) they all felt "back home," even though they hadn't actually left the country. It was a hard but rewarding expedition for the team, and they came back full of excitement for what they had done and how the people had responded. There were some locals who remembered our team going there previously, about 10-11 years ago. One such man said "You're still saying the same thing you did way back then. I think this must be the truth, because people don't keep their story the same for so long when it isn't the truth."
The people throughout Mongolia tend to be impressed when they find out that we aren't trying to recruit them for any particular group (though of course we encourage anyone who believes to get connected to a local church) and are clearly just interested in giving them this crucial information about judgment and salvation.  They also reported several cases of people asking to pray for salvation, which is always exciting though of course we have to pray for the Holy Spirit to protect this step through what will likely be a dry and challenging spiritual climate.

Paved highways mostly just link provincial capitals

Various challenges on the rough country roads

Fell through the ice

When setting up camp between villages, a strange cloud formation appeared as a two-pillared arch above them, touching down before and behind them. This was encouraging to our team and recalled God's direction of the Israelites in Exodus.

Sharing about the evangelistic trip
during Sunday morning church.

A couple of weeks after the team's return they set out on a shorter mission to partner with a sizeable local church in Mongolia's third-largest city (about 85,000 people), Darkhan. This trip was a mixed bag in a different way from that of Bayan-Ölgii. They joined with some other churches here in UB and drove the 3-4 hours to Darkhan, where they would stay at the church and go house to house alongside those church members throughout the entire city. Altogether they had a team of about 100 people going door to door to share the gospel and invite people to an event at the church at the end of the week. So on the positive side, it was a big team working together and having communal worship each morning, who got to visit about 4,500 homes, talk with over 18,000 people, and pray with about 900 to accept Christ. The Saturday event attracted more than 600 people to the church which exceeded its actual capacity.  

On the negative side, several of our people felt that they were having to do a lot of the work and the local people would show up at meal times expecting to be fed or even given extra meals to take home to somebody! Our people felt like the Darkhan church members were shirking work and expecting just to be "ministered to" rather than partnered with. So despite these amazing numbers (which in itself can never guarantee the breadth of sustained transformation) several of our guys came back feeling exhausted and mistreated. Nevertheless, when you look at the big picture we feel that it was an anointed trip in which God transformed possibly hundreds of lives. 

One of our guys shared that the Darkhan church assigned his team to specifically  visit homes which were known to have Christian relatives. One man he visited was drunk and angry and said that instead of listening to Jesus talk he was going to beat him up. Our guy responded, "If you're going to beat me, at least listen quietly to what I have to say first. Listen without interrupting me, and if you still want to beat me up after I finish I'll let you." So he started sharing the gospel and had to remind the guy several times "Hey, you said you'd listen without interrupting!" when he started mumbling and saying things. But when he got to the part about heaven and hell the man calmed down and gave rapt attention. Then when our guy finished he said "Ok, so that's what I wanted you to hear. Do you still want to hit me?" The drunk man said he didn't. Instead he wanted to know if he can go to heaven too, and if so, how! 

Another house had a guy with a bad leg who also responded angrily when our people came and told them to get out of his house once he heard what they were there for. But our guys just said "Hey you need some water. How long have you been sitting here?" So they got water for him and made sure he was okay and then just told him the gospel. He thanked them, apologized for being angry, and showed up for church the following Sunday morning!  It's hard to see the forest for the trees when you feel personally misused, but we trust that it will be more than worth it as God tends the many seeds which were planted that week. And hopefully clearer communication with the local church next time could alleviate the pragmatic troubles.

Besides that, our church team has experienced some changes. I think i recently wrote that we had been enjoying a season of growth without loss, but it looks that we may be entering a phase of change here. While a new family of four has just joined us and another family of three are expected to come after the break, one of our largest families may be on the way out as they have become embroiled in legal matters, are being currently held in government housing for protection, and their future involvement with us remains unclear. They are a family of eight, with two in my English class and two more slated to join our youth group this autumn, so as far as the children are concerned this development weighs heavily. The parents have long been known to be of dubious character but we always wanted to do our best for the six children and pray that the whole family could be transformed. We still pray for that, but the future arrangement is tenuous.  Furthermore, the other English teacher has moved away to be with family after working here for 11 years. Originally she planned for me to succeed her but in this past year of delay in her departure I took another job and can no longer accept her mantle in full. We originally thought to hire another teacher alongside me, but it's come to light that our NGO will not be able to sponsor a visa until another year or so, which leaves us having to fill the role from within. Normally Yaejin would be the perfect fit, but with a newborn that will have to be off the table! 

My class (minus one boy) on my birthday

On a lighter note, July has brought about an exceptionally calm and quiet phase for us, as almost all of the Mongolians retreat to the countryside for summer break and five of Yaejin's siblings have gone to visit relatives abroad. This leaves only her parents and the three youngest (11, 12, 15) alone here with us as the summer vacation entertainment! Most of the time we are enjoying it. We had them spend the night, I took them to my office to help me with an unfinished project, we play frisbee, soccer, etc. and have Mario-Kart or movie nights at our house. They usually have a very demanding schedule for school (learning 5 languages with extra time for mathematics and Bible) so it's good to see them enjoying some free days of fun.

I hope to post another update sooner than this one. The content is already largely evident in that we'll have our baby daughter with us! Praying all goes smoothly and quickly -- before the 18th if I'm going to be allowed in with her, due to some odd hospital issues --  and that the doctors are right about her being a daughter, otherwise we will have to come up with a different name!

One of our clients asked me to be a judge for their "Got Talent" styled
English recitation contest.  It was a great event for all involved.

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!

The Year That Keeps On Newing

Lunch Guests for "Tsagaan Sar" (Lunar New Year)

Happy New Year, Everyone! ... Again... 😆 I say this because we're just recently wrapped up a big holiday season in Mongolia, the Lunar New Year. This entailed a two week break from school and one week off of work... but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

During the Christmas break I was able to try the nation's one and only skiing place (so far?I heard rumor that there is or will be a new one). It was tiny but nearby and cheap (rental + ticket = about $12 for 3 hours) and was fun to get on a board again for the first time in a while. Unfortunately I had to go solo, as Yaejin's condition is not advisable for learning to ski or board for the first time!  Given the size and temperature of the place, the three hour timespan was enough for me, but I think it would be a good place to teach people how to do it! I hope i'll get a chance to try that some time. 

On January 3 I started on as a consultant/trainer for the local branch of the English curriculum we used to teach in Japan. I enjoy getting out a little bit and having a bus ride + walk for a change of scenery and feeling of independence (since I still haven't been able to get my driver's license until my green card is returned to me from its updates) -- though starting in the dead of winter was a little extreme, perhaps! This company has ties with the ministry, and will prove helpful in streamlining my green card renewals and presumably help Yaejin's case for getting into the U.S. each time we return now that I have an official salaried job. 
My expectation was that I would only be on part-time and thus well able to handle it along with my current teaching and language classes, but on my first day they hit me with "And we have two teacher training seminars at the end of this month, we'd like for you to be part of the training for that." So that meant I had to jump in pretty fully in order to be up to speed on presenting/co-teaching those events just 3 weeks later.  The first was a teachers' "Refresher Training" and the second, a two-day "Foundation Training." The presentations were divided between me and the two other trainers who have been working here.  Ultimately they turned out fairly well and I enjoyed being a part of it -- meeting new people, doing stage presentation, answering questions, feeling well-enough equipped due to the strong training we enjoyed at the kindergarten in Japan, etc. The Mongolian branch of the company hasn't had any native speakers on staff, so that itself can strengthen the perception of the curriculum among potential clients.  Anyway, it was a fun, tiring time. 

Teachers doing a group practice activity
during our second, 2-day training seminar.

After these events I shifted focus to going through the company's official training path, and have also been providing advice/feedback for video recordings of client teachers' classes. I had planned to do an in-person visit as well, which will be a good chance to see more sides of Mongolian life, but that plan was met with a delay, as I'll get to shortly. 

Young adults helping make dumplings. We ended up with about 400 I think.

From the beginning of February began Tsagaan Sar! Yaejin organized a dumpling stuffing party at our house (getting some of the "youth" / young adults to help cut, stuff, fold, and freeze the dumplings to be steamed for each visit we were to receive as part of the holiday celebrations. On the first day we went to three homes and had two couples come to ours (total 4 "meal/teatime" visits).  It was nice to get to know our fellow church members like that -- we've been invited here and there, and had some of them over once or twice, but since our regular church gathering is still not taking place my interactions with them tend to be pretty limited. I teach their kids. However, it naturally was also quite exhausting to spend the entire day doing visits at tables filled with food and snacks! In order to go to each home, and have each of them come to ours, it turned out to be a pretty full week, although not quite as packed as that first day. I enjoyed getting to connect with each family, but by the end of the week I felt like I needed an empty day, and I was ready to eat something other than dumplings and pasta- / potato- / fruit- salads! In that regard I benefitted from Yaejin's multi-cultural heritage, however, as she made more Chinese/Korean style dumplings rather than the Mongolian version that we had everywhere else.  It's been long enough now that I wouldn't mind having all of those things again, come to think of it.....

The Mongolian families always had this stack of  curd cakes present
 -- which I happily ignored.

A big, varied meal at our neighbors'!

The next week I continued most of my curriculum work online, and school was on break, so I was able to recover with half-days of work. However, this leads to the newest little hurdle for us. On Thursday the entire church went out together to go sledding on a long, gently sloping hill. Fun was had by all, but after about an hour I was pretty much done with it. A few of the younger teenagers (13-15) were trying to stand on the sleds, so I tried amusing myself with that as well. After several times doing so with varying success it went wrong. When i felt myself starting to lose control I would just step off of the sled and slide on the snow, not wanting to fall over. For some reason, this particular time doing so resulted not in my foot sliding on the snow as before, but sticking fast into it while the rest of me kept sliding on the sled. I twisted awkwardly and fell, with severe pain in my ankle. I also thought I had heard a sound, but couldn't be sure if that had been my body, or just the sled colliding with my boot, or something else entirely -- even my imagination?  Anyway, the pain lasted for longer than I've experienced with sprains in the past, and I was seriously concerned, but the guys with me asked if I could wiggle my toes without pain, and I could. So they all started opining that it was probably a really bad sprain, and those swell up too and can take a long time to heal, but probably no damage to the bone. Believing this, I hobbled about on crutches, resumed teaching, and even had started standing on it some before deciding that a week without the swelling fully going down probably warranted a doctor's input and went to the hospital, hoping to get a brace or some advice. 

When the doctor bent my foot up and down and side to side, everything felt fine. But when he applied pressure to the sides the "bump" of my ankle really hurt. So he had me get an x-ray and the next thing I know they were wrapping my leg up in green casting, as there was a fracture after all. So that's been frustrating. I can't take out the trash, go to stores, carry much at once, and it takes me longer to get things around the house -- all while Yaejin is 4-months pregnant! I later caught a stomach bug and was truly pathetic for about 30 hours. A fine pair we make now, but at least I didn't cause damage by trying to walk on it, and the cast will come off in a few weeks and I'll be able to help out more as she gets bigger! 

Other than that, things are going along as well as ever. We continue to feel good about our connection with the young "youth" adults and my 11-14 year-old students. This week the parents are invited to watch our classes, so that is a new and exciting thing for everyone.  

Of course, the Ukraine news has rocked the world and troubled us all. Many Mongolians take the position that Putin is justified and Ukraine was asking for trouble by flirting with NATO when they know Russia can't allow that, etc.  Mongolians are generally very positive toward Russia. I was surprised, therefore, to hear that a Russian person living over here was assaulted by some locals in some misplaced attempt to enact punishment on "you Russians think you can just have your way with other countries."  The police contacted our school's Russian teacher to warn her to be careful in public with such sentiments flying about.. so it seems that the Mongolians are quite divided on the topic.

The news also has given me a strange awareness of my own national identity, which I also experienced some after the Afghan withdrawal. Generally I hadn't considered my nationality as a huge factor in my day to day life, fancying myself a good unique individual. This experience of questioning the moral intentions of America's actions, however, has given me a strange sense of guilt or frustration. Almost like a chip off of some confidence I hadn't realized i possessed. That isn't to say I know for certain how we should have responded, but feeling like "terrible things are happening to people and my country is not attempting to stop it" was a kind of overwhelming consternation for those instances. It's a new insight into the whole realm of how one's nationality (unchosen) can affect the psyche. I would love to learn more about that, since it's so unfamiliar to me, rejecting the notion of monolithic national traits. But that is a conversation for another time.  Yet another reminder that our primary citizenship is not meant to be the earthly kingdom on our passports, but the Kingdom of Christ to come. In that Kingdom I am copatriot and brother to many Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, Afghani, Americans, and on and on. 

Holidays and an Announcement for Summer!

    

Inside the State Department Store, Celebrating its 100th year.

    Merry Christmas, everyone! This update comes later than I would have preferred, but I trust that everyone's holiday festivities keep that fact from being conspicuous. As long as I don't draw attention to my tardiness I doubt anyone will notice.

    We have felt busy in the recent months (until our Christmas break now). In addition to my Korean lessons 4 evenings per week I have settled in to a good pattern of daily Mongolian lessons just before noon, which has yielded tangible results. I continue to teach and enjoy my daily English class of 11-14 year-olds, and have generated more (albeit enjoyable) work for myself in incorporating a geography phase of each class for which i make slides featuring the nations' flag, border outline, and location on the globe (with these three they can guess what the country will be), capital and largest city, population and global rank, head of state's title (President, King, etc.), currency, official languages,  major religions, and pictures of as

The "Key Facts" slide from my geography lessons.

many of the main things the country is known for as I can think of/find. 

It's a topic I and the kids both have a lot of fun learning, but has ended up cutting into most of my free time -- specifically that last part, where I have to determine what aspects to include, then find suitable pictures to represent these things and make slides of it. I'm hoping to cut down on these more trivial slides in order to lessen the burden each of these countries has become to prepare, but sometimes it's necessary to give them a sense of what the countries look like today and what most people know about them. 

    Besides these daily tasks I now lead a 30-minute school Bible class every Monday evening, we are continuing our Wednesday night youth group (for the most part going well, we feel. we recently got them all to write down some topics for us to cover in the group and submit them anonymously, which has been helpful to see where their attentions are focused), and every other Sunday morning I share a devotional message/ sermonette. I am supposed to start a job with the English curriculum next week, and need to see how that will interplay with the other activities in which I am involved.

    For her part, Yaejin has started teaching piano to the women here on MWF mornings, after which she teaches English to two of the younger guys. Her official work hours for the NGO cashier are 4 hours on MWT, though she ends up having to do extra bits here and there as different expenses come up and whenever the standard Mongolian pay days fall (15th and 30th or the weekend before). She co-leads a women's small group on Tuesday and Friday nights, helps me with the youth group, and continues to do some online language teaching a few times per week. 

Christmas time at the Zaisan Mall.

    In all of these things, I think we have increased our awareness of our roles here as more internal support than external outreach. That works perfectly for me as my linguistic ability and cultural knowledge and interest suit me for it, but Yaejin feels passion for evangelism as well, and is wondering how and if that will come back as a major focus of her ministry here. That possibility has been further hindered by our next significant life development -- pregnancy! 

   For those who haven't heard, we are expecting a little Sigler this July. This has created great excitement among the family and church, as the youngest church member is four now and the Yaejin is the only married member of her family and friend group so there aren't any of this next generation yet. All of her siblings feel a novel strangeness at the prospect of being someone's Uncle or Aunt and their parents being "Grandma&Grandpa." The youngest siblings (11 and 12) are especially excited about being able to teach the baby their games and help out with him or her, no longer being the youngest around. So far everything seems to be coming along quite smoothly and healthily, and I'm sure Yaejin could expound upon that for those interested. That's the biggest announcement for us, and I'm hiding it away here in the middle of my update! True readers will see it 😁

    Other than that, we have had a good time with the holiday season! Yaejin did a wonderful job of planning out a nice Thanksgiving meal so that I wouldn't feel absent from that worthy celebration, and it was good fun for the whole family, as she planned out different dishes for each of them to be responsible for. My job was to help the youngest three accomplish their assignments: fruit salad and pasta salad. 

The crew starting their tasks.                                Meanwhile, I led Team Grocery-Store Run after they finished their jobs.

    We held the meal at her family's house, and her parents were very impressed with everyone's work and were interested in the American dishes. Her father kept saying "I can really feel like this is the authentic American taste of Thanksgiving." 

That evening we had our second Thanksgiving meal, as the English teacher prepared one at the school for all of the students to try. This was followed by a time of sharing for each student, from the youngest to the smallest, which was a nice time. A couple of the kids actually shared touching things beyond the typical responses, one of whom broke into sobs when saying that if her parents hadn't chosen to come live with this team she wouldn't have learned foreign languages and might not have come to know Jesus.
    And one of the youngest boys was very cute in loudly sharing his English phrases "Thank you for the house I live in. Thank you for the Parents I have." and looked very proud of himself when everyone clapped for this answer. 

              

 

    

School Thanksgiving

    Our Yuletide season was marvelous as well. We had a nice time getting into the spirit of the season with Christmas Hymns, theming for our small groups, snacks, movies, and so forth. I've always loved Christmas (as should, I believe, all Christians), but I think that depth of meaning is possibly even heightened for me when I'm in places that don't give it as much fanfare. As if the onus of not letting the season pass by without sufficient appreciation is more on my own actions. Or it may just be a factor of getting older and ever growing in appreciation for miracle of Christ's coming. In any event I think Yaejin and I have made a concentrated effort to experience the season to the full in light of its meaning. Many of my Christmas thoughts are covered in the podcast I recorded with my two brothers, which I invite everyone to try. Other than that I would just say that it is a miraculous time of year in which the presence and goodness of God is more easily felt by many people throughout the world, and that God choosing to become a man is the greatest thing that's ever happened. Accordingly, I wish hope and pray that all of yours were merry and full of His presence. 

Outing with the younger siblings

          

Christmas Cookies

My youngest brother-in-law got a little

carried away with the little fish cookies!

Christmas Cookie Party

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.