Operation Christmas Child 2014

Well all the Mongolian children are now on their spring break.  We here in Bayankhongor received our gifts on the early side this year and the Provincial volunteer team who is responsible for the gift distribution and The Greatest Journey course did a great job in getting the gifts out to the countryside.  We have distributed over 1,800 gifts and by God’s grace we are able to get another 200 next week from the city to finish out the year.

Teachers like myself are now teaching The Greatest Journey and should be finished just as school lets out for the summer.

Thank you to everyone around the world who either prepared a box or help organize the process.  It takes a lot of energy for a shoe box to go from a child’s hands in the west to a child’s hands here.  But it is well worth the effort.

A little TLC

Plants like relationships need “Tender Loving Care” or TLC every once in a while. I remember seeing a plant at my grandfather’s house when I was younger that looked dead. “Grandpa you need to get rid of that plant,” I told him. “No,” he said “it just needs a little TLC”. If you have ever kept a plant or grown a garden you know a little TLC can go a long way. Sunburn on new transplants, dry July weather, infestation of bugs, life happens and a good gardener cares for the plants so that they can do their job producing a harvest.

Relationships also need a little TLC. We have all experienced relationships that have, over time, grown apart. Whether it is roommates from university, or co-workers from your last job, there are no hard feelings or problems but as life happens we grow apart. Then when we see each other again the happiness and joy we feel as we renew the relationship is always good. Also when hard times in life happen that thoughtful card or visit makes our relationships stronger.

In Mongolia keeping up on relationships can be difficult, lots of kilometers to travel very few roads to do so on. Many people feel isolated in the soums (villages) and desire for people to visit. Also most of the vegetables are transported from the province capital. For a JCS couple living in Bayankhongor these two problems have created a unique opportunity.

Jeff and Shauna Spence members of JCS are keeping up with relationships and providing locally grown vegetables with one small project. Last year Jeff started a Bayankhongor greenhouse project where participants receive a small loan for the building material and Jeff with some local partners visit multiple times a year and are committed to working with them for at least 5 years. While they are building a few greenhouses in the province capital the focus is in the soums (villages). Last year they had a good harvest in the two greenhouses that were started. This year they are planting 3 more greenhouses and continuing to work with the first two.

As we have been working in a soum we are working alongside the local church leader. He is a young man and has a heart to spiritually lead his community. As we have gotten to know each other it is exciting to see him invest in relationships with other believers as we are investing in him. He visits the families in the evening when they get home from work. Sometimes he has a word from the Bible to share, other times they play chess and pray for each other.

In order to know that your plants need a little more nitrogen or water you have to be there. You need to spend time in your garden. The same is with relationships, you need to be there. And as life happens, whether it is bugs, or dealing with a difficult child JCS is there giving a little TLC wherever it is needed.

2013 Winter Forum

Every Year HAB holds a winter forum for all our leaders throughout the province.  We had a really good meeting this year with good reports from countryside leaders who shared honestly how they are doing.  It was good to see them talking with each other and learning from one another.

We were also able to have an afternoon of fellowship with praise music, dancing, and games.  Thank you World Vision for helping make this possible.

Green House Project

The green house project is going very well. We have built two green houses. One of them is here in Bayankhongor City and the other is in Shargozood. Here are some photos of how the project is coming in along in both cities.

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Home Ministry Assignment Schedule

This is our schedule as of now but it is subject to change. If you want to see us please email us at sleighspence@gmail.com.

Oct. 31st fly to U.S.

Nov. 1st arrive in Chicago, IL-Jeff's parents picking us up

Nov. 4th Molly's Church Tremont, IL

Nov. 5-8th Indiana for doc. Appointment and voting and South Bend, IN visit

Nov. 11th Grandma Muick's church Eureka, IL/

Nov. 14-15th going to Little Rock, AK to visit Ken and Peg Hartter

Nov. 15-19th going to Weatherford, OK for cousins wedding

Nov. 25th The Oaks Community Church Dahinda, IL (S.School and short 5 min. update in 2 services)

Dec. 2nd Groveland Missionary Church Groveland, IL (message and update)

Dec. 9th Eureka Methodist Church Eureka, IL/P.M. Service Mound Chapel, Decatur, IL 6 p.m.

Dec. 12th Debbriefing at World Partners at 9 a.m.

Dec. 14-15 visiting Spence cousins in West Lafayette, IN

Dec. 30th Midland Miss. Church Midland, MI (S. School Q & A, 30 min service time)

Jan. 5-6th Colonial Woods Port Huron, MI (Sat. night service and short interview in Sun. a.m. service)

Jan. 20th Dunfee Missionary Church Fort Wayne, IN

Jan. 27th Grace Missionary Church Celina, OH

Feb. 3rd Mom and Dad McCune church Geneva, IN

Feb. 9th baby 3 due!!

Feb. 10th Union Chapel Lima, OH

Feb. 17th West Berne Miss. Church Berne, IN (evening services)

March 10th Vandalia, IL United Methodist church S.S. and 5 minute update in service

March 17th Bedford, Iowa New Life Church

March 24th Spring Lake Miss. Church Manito, IL (morning service)

March 31st First Miss Church North Pekin, IL S.S. and message along with report

Ger Makeover

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You know the show "Home Make Over" well the churches of Bayankhongor were able to do a "Ger Make Over" Mongolia style. Early this past summer we took an offering amoung all the believers for the poor of Bayankhongor. From people giving around $1 we had 1,000 USD to help the poor. We decided to help one family really well.

The family we chose has been living in a wood house with no insulation. A few years ago the Husband's brother got married and so they gave up their ger as a wedding gift. He works with his hands making ger furniture, the wife helps him when she can but has no strength in her hands. They have 3 children.

We first bought some wood and ordered some ger furniture to be built by the Husband. The local church donated a used ger that we cleaned up and bought new coverings for. From the 1,000 USD we had the ger furniture built, ger coverings, refridgerator, washing machine, and kitchen things. (No matter what you say the Mongolian ger is by far the most cost effective way to live here in BH)

That morning we took the family around town where a shop gave them a TV and another one gave them some clothing. When they came home they found they had a new place. They were very surprised and it was a huge blessing to them. When the Church acts like the Church is supposed to Amazing things like this happen.

Praise God

Celebrate Recovery Center in Bayankhongor

We have recently started a Celebrate Recovery Half-Way House in Bayankhongor. This is a live in situation for individuals (usually men) who are looking to escape their addictions. Four men moved into a ger a month ago to begin studying, living, and encouraging one another. A church leader has begun this as his ministry. He was able to get some help from World Vision in the form of a large truck of wood that the guys are cutting up and selling in bags. The money they are making from this is covering the cost of the food. JCS was able to help get the building ready. JCS bought a new fuel efficient stove, electrical wire, lights, and other odds and ends to get the building livable. The local churches helped with cups, plates, and other furniture items. Whenever begining a ministry like this it is always 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Now only 2 of the men are still at the center. They are half way through the Celebrate Recovery course, but more importantly they are sharing with each other and determined to get dry. Makaranz, the church leader, spends everyday with them. Join us in prayer for these men and Makaranz.

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OCC Shoe Box distribution

We are getting finished with all the Operation Christmas Child gifts. We had over 4,000 this year! It has been a great blessing for us to be able to bless the children of Bayankhongor with these gifts. We were able to distribute gifts in all soums (countryside towns) in Bayankhongor. We also visited some out of the way locations this year. One church leader traveled an extra 100 kilometers to distribute gifts to individual herder family groups in his area. The Regional Leadership Team (volunteers) are planning a trip to an oasis in the Gobi desert in a few weeks. This is over 200 km away from the province center, and no roads to get there. Praise the Lord for the oppotunity to share "The Greatest Gift" with these kids.

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February Wood Cutting

This February Jeff broke out the Stihl chainsaw and with the help of Bayankhongor church leaders (HAB) cut wood for people before the Lunar New Year 3 day festival. A lot of people in Bayankhongor buy 7 foot long logs and cut them up for fire wood. This is usually done with a 2 person cross cut saw. We wanted to show God's love to the community by cutting enough wood to see them through the holiday. With the chainsaw we were able to cut 4 families wood and split it for them.

Operation Christmas Child

The shoebox's have arrived!!! Just these last few weeks they have arrvied in a big container and we are now getting ready to take them to the different locations. Even now someone is going to be able to hear about the greatest gift!! Jesus!!

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Women's Retreat in China

I had the great pleasure to be able to attend a women's conference this past February. I had a wonderful time meeting other women who worked overseas. We shared in each others triumphs and struggles and prayered for each other daily. So many people had encouraging words over different experiences we each had during our time overseas. Our speaker had worked overseas in Korea for many years and had lots of stories of God's providence and the joy in serving. I would recommend this experince for any woman working overseas!

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Dream House ceremony

All five houses that were built with World Vision and HAB are technically finished. They had a ceremony today and small open house for people to come and see the work that was done. Here are a few pictures of the ceremony and hopefully soon we can have some inside shots in a week or two.

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Winter drink give away

In January for HAB's project they gave away a common Mongolian winter drink called Artz. It is made from yogurt curds and milk with a little sugar. Jeff likes it a lot Shauna is still not used to it yet. The church pastors meet every Friday and one Friday they went to the goverment building, World Vision, YWAM, and JCS and passed out this drink to the people. This is a way for us to show the love of Christ in our community.

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New People Party

Between Christmas and New Years all the church's had a party celebrating all the new people who have been coming to church and to encourage those who had been sharing the gospel. There were 50+ new people at the party in the past month. They played Wii, sang karoke, played group games, danced, and had an all around good time.

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dream house

This Summer we had two teams come from America to help us build 5 houses for the Dream House Project. They were such a huge blessing to us and the Mongolian families that they served. They worked with Jeff and 2 Mongolian teams to build these houses and one of the teams is now building our friends Ahior's house. During the time that they worked with Jeff they asked some questions about Christianity and now that they are working on Ahior's house. His family has been sharing with them about Jesus.

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Here is Ghana and his fiance Tsetsgee. They really learned a lot about building a wood frame house and doing a great job!!

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Our House

This summer we have been doing some work on our own house but Shauna has been working really hard on our garden. We also know we haven't posted any new photos of the house being finished so here we go.

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Missions Conference

This past April HAB put on a mission conference for the state of Bayankhongor and the state of Hovd. They talked about meeting the western states for Jesus.

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Mongolian Happenings

This spring Jeff has been mentoring two men from our church. During one of those meetings they went through the process of how to share about Jesus using the Roman's road passages. He challenged them to share this with their unbelieving friends. A few weeks later Aagii and his wife went out on a young people's outreach to a different town and shared the Roman's road with an unbeliever and the person accepted Christ as his savior. We are so excited for them as they share their faith and see how God is working in their lives and the lives of people around them. Another Story... Just this past week our friend Boldoo's mom passed away. She was a believer but some of her family and friends were Buddhist. Jeff had performed the funeral for the family since none of the other pastors were around. Just yesterday Boldoo came to our house to share about what had been happening in his life. He had been taking a lot of ridicule from his neighbors and his aunt for not a lighting Buddhist candle in their ger to signify his mother's death and her mourning. He came to us looking for a way to substitute the Buddhist tradition with something from the Bible to help explain to people his faith in Christ. As they were talking Jeff thought of the verse in the Psalms, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Jeff said to Boldoo, the Bible is our candle, it is our light and instead of placing the candle on the table place the Word of God on the table with this verse circled and share with people about how this is our candle, the Word of God.

Baby Ava

If you have not heard we are expecting our second child come Dec. 1st. We are very excited about this new addition to our family. We just found out we are going to be having another girl, so now are Kaylee will have a younger sister. She still doesn't always understand what that means but we know she will be a great big sister.

HAB Camp 2010

We had a great time at HAB camp this year. We went 100km up into the mountains, it took us 3 hours to get there crossing 6 rivers and only 1 truck got stuck. (Not mine praise the Lord) We had a good time talking about discipleship and reminding ourselves about the basic things we need to focus on as the Church of Bayankhongor.

As you can see above we also played volleyball, table tennis, and chess. Had a good time going to a close hot spring (that smelled like rotten eggs) and hiking up the near by hills.