House Plans

    Well it is that time of year when you can get outside and get some work done.  We have just started building our house and it has already been an eventful time.  Things move on their own time.  We are hoping to get the foundation done before the 1st team arrives next week.  Jeff is leaving on Sunday to get supplies and pick up our four helpers.  We are very grateful for the 2 teams that are coming to help us build our house.  Just last night as Jeff was building the septic tank one of the walls collapsed and they had to stay another hour to get it fixed and done.  It is okay now but he didn't get home till 9:30 that night and he started the day at 8:30.  Needless to say he was tire.  So here are some pictures of the septic tank.  I hope to add more as more things get done.

Gifts

Mikayla's birthday was almost a month ago now.  This morning K-lee and I were playing with a stuffed bear someone picked up for her at a local store.  As we were playing I noticed that it had a battery pack.  So being the guy that I am I quickly found a few batteries to see what this toy had to say.  I stuffed the battery pack back into the belly of the panda, and searched for the pressure switch to turn this thing on.  I finally found it on one of the bears hand and at 7 am this morning we had a very loud Chinese voice booming out in our apartment.  Both K-lee and I just stood with our eyes and mouths wide open looking at this panda bear.  At the end I thought I had noticed some English so I pressed the hand again.  Sure enough the panda was bi-lingual and said "Thank you for using Western Union for all your international money transfers."  I'm sure whoever bought the bear for K-lee's birthday didn't even realize the gift they had given.

 

For the past few weeks, besides trying to buy property, I have been working on spiritual gifts.  Shauna and I have taken an assessment to see if our giftings have changed and one of the things we noticed is that Shauna's have changed more to the side of mercy, helps, and hospitality.  Gifts that we think go pretty good with being a mother.  My, Jeff's, gifts have changed from being teacher to more exhorter which for this assessment was practical application of truths.  Both Shauna and I thought it was interesting how God has given us gifts to help us in what God wants us to focus on right now.  We did not look at the assessment with eyes and mouths wide open like K-lee and I looked at the bear this morning but it was a nice reminder of how God cares for us, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Moving Again

We finally have moved into an apartment that we will live in until the house is built this summer.  When we first came to Bayonkhongor in September we could not find a place to rent.  However, this spring our friend Stegmend knew someone who wanted to rent their apartment out for the spring and summer months.  Most people do not rent in the winter because they want to live in their apartment during the coldest part of the year.  This family moved most everything out of the apartment so we could move our stuff in. 

As we were getting ready for the move it was a bit complicated.  We cleaned and moved a few things on Friday but the bulk of the stuff was moved on Saturday.  Saturday morning Narcka brought some of his students and they helped move the stuff from the summer house to the apartment.  They moved it all in two hours.  It was so great to have them help us or we would have been moving all week.  In the afternoon the YWAM base sent about six young men to help us put things together and fix whatever might need fixed.  Laura from our team helped me unpack and it was such a blessing. 

Sunday David Jung came from California to help Jeff work on getting CHE implemented.  It has been slow going and he gave Jeff some good ideas to help get him started.  Needless to say I had to do the rest of the unpacking because David was here until Thursday and they were very busy.  Laura did come on Sunday and helped me for a couple more hours, which helped greatly and by Monday I had everything unpack except for a few things that were still at the other house.  By Wednesday the chore was completed and was so thankful for all the help we received.  It made such a huge difference for us all.

Water Fountain in My Bathroom

As we moved our washer was the one problem we had.  We were unsure of where to put it and if it would work.  After Jeff realized we only needed a new faucet I sent him out to get one.  The major problem was we needed the water turned off and the water company said they could not turn it off just for us because it would turn off the water for the whole area.  So, I told Jeff lets put it on with the water on and we can only get cold water in our apartment, so it was very cold.  Needless to say we made a mess.   The faucet leaked and we busted a light bulb and we were soaked to the bone.  Fortunately our friend Boldoo came by and called the water company and they sent someone over to fix the problem that we started.  They ended up turning the water off but that was a bit complicated.

We had this mess when the plumbers came and so they took the faucet off again with the water on and put it back on.  It still leaked and so they had to shut the water off anyway.  So, they shut it off and put it on and it only dripped a tiny bit.  However, after a few minutes it started leaking pretty steadily so we called them back and they shut the water off again.  Jeff thought if they put this new part on it would be okay.  The part in the pipe was very bad and basically was grinding the rubber into shreds and so it would always leak if we had not put on the new part.  All this took place in the span of about 2 hours and it only cost us 3,000 Tugrik's for the work they did.  Next time I will just call them right away and not try to do it ourselves.

That night we tried out the washer since we moved.  It leaked as well but we found the problem the next night.  There was a leak in the drainage pipe and Jeff fixed it with plumbing tape and scotch tape.  Now I am finally caught up on my laundry, but wait.  We also had one more problem.  When the washer would drain it would come back up into our tub.  However, it wasn't our washer water but sewer.  It only happened the first day.  We believe we flushed the junk out and we make sure the drainage hose is lower so it doesn't drain so fast.  Now all is well and I am so thankful that everything works except the outlet that busted.  We just have to unplug everything in the kitchen and move the extension cord over to the washer in the hallway.  It could be worse.

 

Lunar New Year 2009

The three day Lunar New year (White Moon) festival is winding down.  The official 3 days are over although we will be wishing peace to many more households for the next couple of weeks probably.  Out here in the countryside you tend to know more families and when you see them for the first time after the new year there is a special greeting that you give each other.

 

Shauna, K-Lee, and I visited 7 families.  With each family I ate at least 10 bodz (meat dumplings).  This was washed down usually with salty milk tea, maybe some fermented juice, and in one special case some fermented camel milk.  Of course K-Lee loved all the milk products to chew on, and Shauna and I are even enjoying them more then we have in the past.  I caught myself actually reaching for dried milk curds over candy at one house!

 

Here are some pictures of us with some of our friends during the holiday.

 

    

   

New Support Paradigm

Have you ever read the book "Who moved my Cheese?"  It is a good book about change and the way different people handle change. 

 

With the year 2009 comes many changes not just for us (Mikayla, new house) but also for World Partners.  With the downturn in the economy and wanting to be more flexible they have now done away with the SHARE system.  Yes you read that right NO MORE SHARE'S.  For those of you who have supported us but never really understood the whole system you no longer have to worry about it.  Now we will only communicate in actual dollars needed or pledged and not 2.3 shares ($46/month).  This will also save ink (except on this newsletter) in trying to explain the system.  This is also not simply a cosmetic change as some have been in the past.

 

As of now our salary is directly tied to our support.  Meaning if our support falls off so does our salary.  We are still a part of World Partners health insurance, and they do have a contingency fund so that we can have time to bring our support back up.  However if our Year To Date support drops then so does our salary.  What this means is if you normally pay once a year it is better for us to receive that at the beginning of the year.  If you pay quarterly then it won't effect us because of the contingency fund.

 

The amount we need for 2009 is just under $75,000.  This includes everything from our salary, health insurance, newsletter cost's, to our return plane tickets.  This also reflects a 7% reduction in our salary.  Most of this amount has been pledged and we thank you all for your continued support.

Help us build our home

We are planning on building a two story home this summer.  We are building a home that is comfortable for a family of 4 and adequate for a family of 6.  Since Shauna wants 4 kids we are trying to plan ahead.

 

We will hire 3 Mongolian men to help for about 3 months.  We are also planning to have 2 teams come from the US to help.  We hope to do some building for the local community and are waiting to see what the local leaders would like us to do.

 

To get a little feel of what we are thinking here is a picture of our friends houses who lives in Bayankhongor.

                       

 

If you would like to receive an application form please send an email to us.  We are trying to keep the size of the teams manageable.