Hiya Family and Friends!
As I sit down to write this letter, I am a bit embarrassed I have not written sooner. There is so much to share, which makes me wonder why I waited so long to write. I have called Mongolia home for two months now. I am settling into my job and life here. Mongolia is a beautiful and intriguing place. I am humbled daily by how Mongolians survive as poverty is all around. They are some of the most resilient people in the world. The nomadic herdsmen care for hundreds of animals and pack up their ger to move where grazing is good. We asked a nomadic family how long it takes to pack up and move their ger and they said about two hours. How many of us could pack up all our possessions in two hours? The rains have been very good this summer, so we pray for a moderate winter so livestock survives. Two and three winters ago were very bitter cold causing some herdsmen to lose many if not all their animals. The Mongolians who live in the city face a very expensive life. Everything is expensive from food to household items because few things are manufactures here and it is difficult to import anything. As mining has a greater influence on this country, I pray it reaches Mongolians on all levels, not just the wealthy. The one thing that encourages me so much with this country is the hope in Christ many are coming to know. The church just celebrated it’s 20th anniversary and Christianity is taking hold and growing. My biggest prayer for the church is that it matures and continues to grow and be solid in their Biblical foundation.
These past two months have been shaped by learning a new job, settling into a new community, and learning to travel Mongolian style! I had two weeks of orientation and then jumped all in. There is so much to share with you about my work, but I think the highlight for me this summer is to see the Lord’s hand at work within our Heart Camps. Over 70 children attended our three camps. Our camps program centered on The Greatest Journey, a discipleship program that teaches kids about Jesus, how to accept and follow Him, how to study God’s Word, along with how to share about Him to others. Each day was packed full with two large group sessions full of skits, worship, and games, small group studies that focused on a specific story in the Bible, games, crafts, and special activities. The Heart Camps were great follow up to the families we have served the last 11 years here and I feel a great encouragement for these families to grow in the Word. We are already thinking and praying about next year’s Heart Camps. Some parents attended the camp and here is what one mom wrote about CHP and Heart Camps:
“I live with my husband, two sons, and two daughters. “D” is my youngest son. Even though my son started to have symptoms when he was one year old, it was because of certain problems that we started to go the hospital when he was four years old. At that time I heard about Jesus through CHP and soon my son was accepted to have surgery in the States. Through this event my whole family heard about Jesus. Through the love of God my son’s surgery was successful and my son’s healing happened through all the people who prayed for my son. My whole family and relatives are so thankful for this. Even now I am still feeling God’s blessing that He sent me to this great camp and let me meet these nice people. I thought I want to thank God for everything He did for me and I love all the people in this camp.”
Your prayers for these camps and this ministry are vital!
These past few weeks, I have focused my work on knowing our waiting list. We have so many children on it and just added 11 last week when an American pediatric cardiologist came in town to screen children for heart defects. I desperately wanted more time with each of these families to encourage them that we care deeply for their child and are concerned with them about their child’s heart defect. Many asked how much our program costs, and we would say free. That blew their mind, but it was a great prelude to sharing that the greatest free gift of all time is Jesus. God gave us the free gift of salvation through His Son’s life, death, and resurrection. We just need to accept and believe in this truth and we will forever be a part of the Lord’s kingdom. Our work through Children’s Heart Project is not solely about mending physical hearts, but a complete spiritual repair through faith in Jesus Christ for the entire family.
My work as program manager of Children’s Heart Project encompasses many things. I manage the staff of three Mongolians who work for CHP, use my nursing skills to understand and help prioritize the children on our evaluation list, work to keep records organized, plan post visits, educate families on their child’s heart defect, know our interpreters who go with the children abroad, and keep our Mongolian team focused on the vision and accomplishing our goals. Many of you know I love numbers and statistics, so here are some about that last two months:
· Traveled over 6,000 miles to get here
· Assisted (I say assisted, but really our Mongolian staff and intern did all the work) with 3 Heart Camps where 75 children attended
· 2 trips to the countryside (so thankful for good Land Cruisers)
· Helped screen around 40 children for heart defects
· Assisted with hosting a group of Australians (for a week) and 6 visitors from the US over the last 2 months
· 1 cup total of fermented horses milk drank, but thankfully have not eaten horses meat or marmot yet
I love my apartment and feel so spoiled to have electricity, running hot water, a washer, an oven, tv, and internet. This is a huge step up from the standards in Tanzania. I can walk to work and am learning where to get all my groceries. You can get almost anything here, but you have to hunt around town for it. With the weather being good, I can walk anywhere, but come winter, I think I will depend on taxi’s and buses. I have found an international church that I really enjoy and am beginning to meet people. My roommate this summer was a young lady who came to work on Heart Camps. She was such an asset to this ministry, but also became a dear friend. I was sad to see her go this week. I started Mongolian language lessons a few weeks ago. Let’s just say it is a challenging language, but I have a great language teacher. I will finish up a 20 lesson survival course and then move to lessons a couple days a week.
These next two months are sure to be just as busy. In the next few weeks, I hope to have a vision meeting where we can see how the Lord is guiding our ministry. I have some ideas, but I need to see what our team comes up with. I am truly so blessed to have such amazing coworkers here in Mongolia, but also at Samaritan Purse’s headquarters in North Carolina. I feel each person is uniquely gifted to balance this ministry. I feel my gifts of administration fit it well, but sometimes I think I drive them a bit crazy with planning and preparing for all variables. I am learning and seeing how the Lord intervenes and takes care of details in amazing ways which is a blessing from not planning so strictly. Lessons I have learned while living in Mongolia have really helped to grow and stretch me. My faith is getting stronger every day, but let me tell you many things bring me to my knees. Our staff has been busy traveling across this country doing follow up visits for our children who have had corrective heart surgery. That is no easy task, but they sure do it well. I have been on two countryside trips and they wiped me out. The roads can be awful. A 500 kilometer trip took us 12 hours. I need to learn to just enjoy the ride!
In a few weeks, I will be heading to Korea for a few days to settle my visa issue. In September, a team is coming that partners with SP to screen children for heart defects and then will do a week of operations and cardiac cathetarizations here in Ulaanbaatar. And I will be accompanying a child, his mother, and an interpreter back to the US September 30th so the child can have surgery. Then I will get to be in St. Louis for my brother’s wedding which I look forward to very much. Following that I will spend some time at Samaritan’s Purse’s headquarters for meetings and orientation.
Would you please join me in prayer for the following:
· For the continued growth of the children following camp, may they read and study their Bible’s, and share with their families and neighbors
· For hospitals in the US and Canada to continue to take our children and that new hospitals would be connected with our program
· Safety in travel with all our staff’s trips to the countryside to visit children
· For the upcoming surgical team that comes in September to operate on many children
· My management skills-that I would learn to manage and guide the staff well so that we can be effective in our ministry
Thanks for reading such a long letter. I will do my best to make sure it is not two months before I write again. I dearly appreciate your partnership in prayers for this ministry.
Blessings,
EmilyPS-If you want my address here, just email me and I will get it to you. It’s tricky with the Cyrillic alphabet.
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