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.

Life is a bit crazy

I have not been able to update the blog in a while. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. It means we have been keeping plenty busy actually living life rather then writing about it. But that is just a nice sounding excuse :)

I have decided to expand the content of this blog. It has mainly been a way to update people on our family, I now want to add a few posts on what God is teaching us, and how He is working in our ministry. So you can look forward to those posts as well. As for now here is an update on... well Kaylee.

Kaylee is doing good, she has an occasional cold/cough but pretty healthy. Her bottom two teeth have broken through but still pushing up. They no longer hurt as much. She is now eating dinner with us. Thanks to a handy food grinder we were given she eats what we eat.
We had a good Christmas. Kaylee was sent a lot of Toys. Of course all the toys from America have both English and Spanish. I'm not sure why parents can't find Mongolian language toys :) Shauna's big gift this year was a rocking chair that has been set up for a few months. (It makes those few middle of the night crying sessions better.) I, Jeff got enough money for tools that we should be set once we start to build the house. Meaning I should be able to buy 2 cheap Chinese tools of everything I will need. I figure most will burn up by the time the house is finished. With most tools I figure I can buy 3-4 Chinese one's compared to the cheaper American tools.

Headed for the Big City

Well we had an interesting trip heading into Ulaanbaataar.  Kaylee needed her 6 month shots and we were going to watch our friends two teenagers while they went on a trip.  We were supposed to be gone about 12 days but it ended up being 14.  That is life in Mongolia.

Our trip started out the day before as Jeff was putting on a heater thingy on the radiator.  He put a little hole in it.  So, he went to have it fixed and a  Mongolian welded the hole.  Jeff said it was fine.  He didn't tell me before we left he gave the weld a 50 % chance of staying together or breaking.  Not good odds for Mongolia. We left the next morning and the first 2 hours were okay.  Jeff noticed the heat was high and took a look.  Needless to say the weld did not hold.  I was really worried that we wouldn't make it into town.  We trodded on as we put water in all along the way.  We got to the next big city Arawahare and bought a bunch of water. 

Jeff went to the bank and when he came out and started the car it would not start.  I fretted because I didn't really want to take a microbus into town.  Jeff took a look and noticed the cable to the battery was loose.  He was able to fix it easily enough.  I thank the Lord it wasn't any more serious than that.  From Arawahare to Lune it is a paved road and so we did really well.  It didn't leak much at all.  Right before we left Lune we filled up all the bottles and topped of the engine fluids.  70 km. from Lune to UB is really bad road and the hole got much larger and we lost water faster.  We stopped and asked a herder where some water was because we were almost out and not near civilization.  I prayed so hard that we would get there and that people would be praying that we would arrive safely in UB.  Jeff taped up the hole using electical tape and duct tape.  We put the last of our water in and about 5 km later we hit the paved road.  Another 5 km and we hit a hotel and they had plenty of water.  The Mongolian worker was so helpful and let us have as much water as we needed.  The engine had gotten really hot.  I was thinking of ways to get into town without the car because I didn't know if we would make it.  We were about 50 km from UB. 

Well now we are back in Bayankhongor, so as you can see we made it back.  You never know what to expect when you live and drive in Mongolia.