The Teaching Begins

I'm in a routine now. Start the day with a shower, take my vitamins, make breakfast (which consists of two packets of instant oatmeal mixed with Russian half and half and cranberry raisins, Russian bread, and maybe a Clif Bar, some beef jerky or some trail mix). I swallow all this down with either Blackcurrent tea, Russian apricot or granny apple juice, water or all three.

Around 9:00 AM I'm off to Eagle TV to check email and update blogs and client web sites. Around 10:30 AM I'm done and then it's off to some type of appointment. Today was a little different. My appointment fell through but it worked out good because I was a bit tired and under the weather. I got a solid two hour nap and then got ready to teach this evening.

At 6:20 PM I began my twenty minute walk to the church office. It was pretty dark and I was beginning to wonder whether the drunks would be in their full glory. I prayed in the spirit the whole way and made it to the office without incident. One weird thing: very large fireworks were going off to huge booms and nobody could tell me what they were for. One person said Halloween but I kinda think they were kidding. Another weird thing: when you walk down the street praying in tongues they either think you're just talking to yourself in a foreign language or you're crazy. Either way they tend to leave you alone.

The leaders were beginning to arrive when I got to the office. As I watched them arrive the Lord reminded me how young the church is here both in age and the the age of its leaders. As I normally do I asked the Lord for the specific teaching about ten minutes before we started. I quickly jotted down some notes and then it was time to get started.

My good friend Dogi was translating for me and doing a great job but soon tired (she's pregnant and the room was warm) and another young lady took her place. My new translator, Moni, was wonderful; exceptionally good understanding of the content and able to faithfully translate it to the leaders. I spoke on the Holy Spirit as the very Presence of God and His desire to live through us and best reflect the love of our heavenly Father. I brought their latest difficulties into the conversation and dealt with some very difficult feelings they all shared and they handled it well. For their age they are amazingly mature.

Afterwards a few wanted prayer and then Ps Ganbold and I took a taxi to my apartment. (By now the drunks were definitely in their full glory.) Ps Ganbold went on his way and I downloaded the pictures and short video you see here and then it was off to bed.

Once again I'm moved by the love and appreciation of the Mongolian church. They are so eager to learn and then put into practice what they learn. They desire all the changes the Holy Spirit wills to bring into their lives and do everything with the least complaint. If they're reading this they're probably laughing right now because we always see ourselves far differently than others do. I see these folks by the faith God has given me to see them.

Here's some quick pic's and a short video:

Time for bed. Peace to all.

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Up early this morning to get to Eagle TV to send this blog. One little change to my routine mentioned above: No hot water this morning so I showered quicker than normal. Way quicker. Like a cat in a bathtub quicker.

I'll leave here at 9:30 AM for the twenty minute walk to the church office. Later today Hetee will pick me up and we're off to Darkhan. I'll be teaching in the morning and after that I'll find out what the schedule is for the week.

Thank you always for your prayers. Please pray for my wife and family.

Peace.