I want to go back to the Place I Don't Understand!

This time last year I was in a foreign country feeling a bit lost, unsure & excited. My time in Mongolia was awesome, I learnt a lot, grew a lot and had fun. Since then, I've had a longing to go back that I've found really hard to explain to others and myself...

I've had a few days off this week to recover from my exam (which btw was not as bad as I thought it would be - see last post) and spent some time watching Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round. Actually, I only watched the 2 episodes where he and Charlie rode through Mongolia as i was feeling a bit Mongolia-sick.

At the end of the 2nd episode, after riding through Mongolia and getting to Russia, Ewan talks about how he feels as though his experience in Mongolia was the whole reason they were doing their motorbike ride around the world. It is such a different life experience to any other country he has been in, it's so hard to get around in & communicate to the outside world in and it's a really tough place to live in - he doesn't understand the geography, the culture, the people, but he loves it all at the same time. He says "I want to go back to the place I don't understand".

I think that's how I feel about Mongolia too...

More Mongolian People

Greg gave me some of the photos he took in Mongolia, they are so much nicer than mine. Sigh.

This is Tseegi & Muggi, two of the girls in my class. They were also the best English speakers and would often help us by translating for the rest of the class.

Tseegi's sister is one of the doctors in Ulziit, both of her parents are teachers. She wasn't to be a teacher when she grows up.

They also taught me to "coo" when the horses approach the finish line at the Naadam races.

How Much do I Miss Mongolia?

You may have heard me say, or read somewhere, that I miss Mongolia... I really do, I miss the people mostly but also the simplicity of life in the Countryside and the animals.

Apparently I don't have to miss the animals to much because I managed to bring one home with me-meet Giardia (pictured right) who (or some other similar protozoan) is currently having a party inside my intestines.

I had been really proud of the fact that I didn't get sick while I was away... Oh well...

Someone I really do miss is Zula (pronounced Zola), she is a 19year old Mongolian student who spent her summer teaching English with VETNet in Ulziit. She also looked after us very well during the 2 weeks that we stayed with her.

Zula has an amazing story, her father died when she was young and her family moved in with her Uncle who is very opposed to Christianity. I don't want to say too much online but through some hard times Zula came to know Jesus and finds her family relationships very hard at times. This is something that is very common for Mongolian Christians, opposition from, usually Buddhist, family members.

Please pray for Zula that she will remain strong in her faith and deal with her family wisely, also that I and the others who met her can be a good support network for her even though we are so far away.

Mongolian Pinnochio

I've been back in Australia for 4 weeks and I guess it's about time I wrote something about Mongolia.

Above is a video of the Ulziit Children's Intermediate English class performing their version of Pinnochio at our English Party. I asked them to write a play about English class and this is what they came up with. Stu says this task was too post modern for high school students, let alone high school students who speak english as a second language, perhaps he was right...

I miss my Ulziit class, we spent 2 weeks together, which really wasn't enough time to get to know them all. I hope and pray the time I spent with helps them to understand how much Jesus loves them.

I'm Back!!!

It's been almost a week! What can I say? It's almost impossible to describe four weeks in one blog post and I haven't quite worked out how to communicate everything to you, or even if I should ;-)

For now here are a few links to some photo albums I've created - enjoy!

General photos of Mongolia
Ulziit - the first place we taught English
Naadam - The yearly festival of "Manly Sports"
Burd - The second town we stayed in
How to Build a Ger - the tentlike structure many people in the countryside live in
Making Buzz - very yummy dumplings

The photos have fairly detailed comments and give a good idea of what we did, hopefully I'll get around to posting some reflections of what I learnt.

17 Hours to go

And I haven't started packing yet!! I'm not sure what the countdown timer will do when it hits zero, maybe it will start to count up?

So, I shall say goodbye, not sure when I'll get to write next. Pray for me and the team.

See you in 4 weeks :-)

Mongolia Itinerary

We know where we're going and when now :-)

Check out the Credo Mongolia blog to see our itinerary.

Catching up on the news

Well, it's been a while so I thought I should write something down.
My news so far:
1. My brother is now engaged to Katie, and he didn't tell me :-( but I'm over it now ;- )
2. He also bought a cute little red Alfa Romeo
3. My dad found out he broke his knee when he tripped over a pallet in a hardware shop more than a month ago. (Knees seem to feature a lot in my life lately - one of our Mongolia team members is also having knee trouble)
4. I'm going to Monogolia in just over 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5. The Uni semester is coming to an end and I'm going to miss seeing all the Credoites in the next 2 months (although get to hang out with Mongolia team credoites - cool!)
6. I made Dahl for dinner and it was good (restored my faith in lentils)
7. In preparation for painting our lounge room, Stu and I rearranged our house today, we now have a temporary lounge room in the massive space we use as a kitchen/dining/sun room
8. We also pulled the board off the fireplace in our bedroom and found a really old cute gas stove thingy
9. I have been to 4 Nutrimetics parties in the last 2 months (my excuse is my sister became a consultant)
10. I keep waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep because I'm thinking about Mongolia
11. Did I mention I'm going to Mongolia in just over 3 weeks?!

Ultimate Mongolian Adventure

We're going to Mongolia!

2 years ago Credo started their first overseas short term mission trip as part of mid year evangelism (MYE). Each year in the July holidays Credoites are encouraged to spend part of their holidays sharing Christ’s love with others at uni, in their community and further a-field.

This year I was chosen to lead the team to Mongolia, we are going to join a Christian organisation called VETnet, who are part of Christian Veterinary Mission , they do a lot of veterinary work and a lot of other stuff as well. We will be teaching English in summer schools that are set up in rural areas for the nomad/herder people of Mongolia. Check out this National Geographic page to see pictures and a description of how they live.

We are leaving on Tuesday 26th June (see countdown timer on right for how many days are left).

Pray that we will prepare well, that we would be a blessing to the people of Mongolia, that we would learn more abour God and rely on Him, that God would provide the extra finances that we need.

Stay tuned for mre updates :-)