Dancing with the King of the Ages!

Right about now I get a little bit "home" sick. No, it's not for my childhood home or where my parents live, though I miss that home too. But today I miss my Mongolian home. For the past two years I've either been there now or headed there soon. Unfortunately, this year, I'm not going and that's sad. I'll readily admit I can see why and I see God's hands in this (especially since I'm going to the Philippines!!!) but still, I miss my Mongolian home. I've been looking at my pictures tonight and thought it'd be appropriate to post some. So, though you may have never been, I hope you enjoy them even half as much as I do! Ulzi and Moogi and their family. They're in the Philippines right now! Our breakfast table... Having fun in the river I'm pretty sure one of the kids was taking this picture... :) Turtle Rock in the background goofing off while playing cards... again, I think the kids were taking this picture. Ruthie's nickna...

In Mongolia this year I really connected with a beautiful girl named Tuya. Two years ago she and her sister were more quiet around our team, but this year I really felt a connection with her. She wrote me a letter before we left, which I still have and will probably always keep. Bonnie got back from Mongolia a few weeks ago, and with her came letters for our team written by some of the kids. Today I got an envelope from "Far Far Away". When I opened it I had a letter from this dear girl. It's times like these when I don't know how I can't go back. Here's a picture of this lady. She asked me to come back next year, but this time I need to bring my boyfriend. I guess I should get cracking on that...

I spent quite a bit of time last night trying to upload some more pictures for all of you, so here they are! The first four is an attempt to show you the view as we saw it from our ger. The fourth picture shows you Lotta and Doljin's ger and the house he's building. Also in that picture are the goat and sheep stalls. This is our shower. May is peeking her head out of the stall. Bimba and the kids loved to help us. Here Bimba is bringing us wood for the fence we built. Isn't he cool in his sunglasses? Kate "The Arm" checking the depth of our post hole. Dani is standing by ready to keep digging with a piece of rebar. Stess and Howard using the posthole diggers we brought. They were a great help until we got to the large rocks a few inches down. It got hot during the day so we worked at night on the fence until it was done. This was probably one of my favorite projects because we were all working on the same thing at once. Bada, one of our translators, worked alongsi...

I've been asked by several people at work to see more pictures of my trip. I also know some of you would like to see some, and I'd like to have some pictures at work for backgrounds, so I'm going to start posting several pictures at a time. My pc is pretty slow in the uploading process, so it will take a while, but in the meantime, enjoy! Our team at the Portland Airport before taking off. Our "home", two gers that were put up for us. This is the inside of a ger Don't you love the wallpaper? These are the beds we slept on for three weeks! Ah, the bathroom. Girls on one side, boys on the other. Yep, we have a picture of the toilet (if it can be called that)! Be careful how you sit! Too far forward and you get splatter, too far back and...yep, splatter. Oh, and don't scoot unless you want slivers! After three weeks we were pretty used to it, and it leaned a bit more to the side than in this picture... Here's the cabin we worked on. The roof came off and ...

Since I got back from Mongolia life has been pretty hectic so I appologize for not posting more pictures (still to come) or telling you more about my trip (also, still to come.) When I got back I realized I had 2 weeks to find a place (Praise the Lord, He provided!) and move (this weekend). On top of that, last weekend was a big family gathering, and stuff at work is changing along with my schedule. But, in an effort to at least give you something, I thought I'd tell you about one story from Mongolia that wouldn't have happened last year. Stess, Kate and I went evangelizing in the countryside with Pugi (the pastor) and Oyuna (our translator.) We ended up at a home with three generations all living together. They were all there and invited us into their home. Pugi spoke with them first, telling them what he did and why we, the Americans, were there. They asked what we did for work in the states. Kate works as a manager in a hotel and Stess is a teacher. Both those seem to t...

I'm back! Yep, I'm back from Mongolia. We got into Portland Friday night. Thank you Stacy for coming to meet us! It was fun seeing you and getting to have dinner at McMinneman's. And Lani, I'm glad you stopped by too! For now, I'll just tell you what I'm sure you already know, the trip was amazing and I wish I was still there! I'm headed off to work, but I'll tide you over with some pictures from the trip. Enjoy for now! "Super" the tickle monster A beautiful Mongolian sunset Azaa, Batraa and their beautiful son "Everlasting Joy" Munktsetsig and Khurley, looking at our photos Old Mongolian dress We took down that fence and built a new one, like the one on the far left Kate, Jack and Joseph, lot's of hot days Eric was the new favorite This is where we lived, in 2 gers!