Isaac's picture

The thing would only let me upload 5 pictures on one article, so Isaac got left out.  Can't have that!  I am putting 2 pics up, the second one I am trying to get him to take out his thumb, the big thumbsucker!

Family Photo Shoot

This is purely for fun.  We had to have new pictures for our Missions Office, so I took pictures of all the kids too.  Thought it would be fun to post them on here for everybody to see.

Goodbye Summer

It was good while it lasted, but it's gone.  Summer that is.  Last Thursday it rained all day, and then summer went away with the rain.  The high today was 52, and get this, they are saying it is supposed to snow tomorrow!!!!!!  It is August.  If it does snow that will be the earliest we have seen it in the 4 years we have been here.  Then joy, joy, yesterday the hot water went off, and should be off until the end of the month.  The fun never ends.

Amdermaa

There is a young, 17 year old girl who attends the Bible Study.  She is relatively new, she didn't attend before we went on furlough.  Anyway, she is enormous, and the first time we saw her I told Tony she had a tumor on her pituitary.  We told them that we wanted to help them get her tested, so this week she went and had an MRI, and sure enough, she does have a tumor on her pituitary gland.  So on Friday the mother ask Tony and I to go with them to talk with the doctor about treatment options.  The doctor is Mongolian, but trained in Germany, and speaks very good (German accented) English.  SO we learned that Amdermaa's pituitary gland is twice the size it should be and her Human growth hormones are so high that they are suppressing all her sexual hormones.  She is 17 years old and has never had her period.  The doctor gave them a prescription for a drug that will suppress the growth hormone, and should then allow the sexual hormones to do their job, but that drug is not available in Mongolia.  The doctor is not sure that surgery is necessary.   She is sending all the scans to a German doctor who comes to Mongolia every year to perform surgery, and he will help her decide if the removal of the tumor is needed.  The down side to that is that if the pituitary is removed, she will have to take hormones the rest of her life, and they AREN'T AVAILABLE HERE.  I will have to get a picture of this girl.  She is almost at least 6'2".  She wears a size 12 shoe.   Her hands look just like a man's, her fingers are as large, wide as Tony's.  This doesn't sound so abnormal for American girls, but for a Mongolian, it is very abnormal.  She is probably 18" taller than most all other Mongolian women.  She is very shy, and awkward because she is so different.  I asked the mother if she had always been large, and she said, no it started when she was 5, she noticed that she could run very fast and her hands grew so large that she couldn't hold on to things and became very clumbsy.  She took her to a doctor then, but they couldn't find anything.  (No MRI machines were available then, they were still under Communist rule)

Heartsick

This week has been a difficult one.  We have been working with a Bible Study group here on an off the whole time we have been here, Tony has spoken there several times in Mongolian and we have truly tried to befriend and get involved there.  The charismatic movement is very big here, the prosperity movement.... all that jazz.  Anyway, Tony has spoken to the bible study about how dangerous this is, but apparently they have made a their own decision.  Tony attends a weekly, Tuesday night Bible lesson during the week, and everything was normal on Tuesday, and Tony was scheduled to speak on Sunday.  So then Wednesday night Tony gets a text message saying that there was a "seminar" being held on Thursday.  This had never been mentioned earlier in the week.  Then on Thursday he gets a call from the leader asking if Tony could postpone his scheduled speaking engagement until the next week because there was another speaker for this Sunday.  SO on Thursday Tony went to the "seminar" (here seminar is the code word for a charismatic "show") And there it was, a team of 4 Holy Rollers who came to slay in the Spirit, speak in tongues, the whole 9 yards.  Tony was just sick, and left as soon as he heard and confirmed that this was what was being taught.  It just makes us heart-sick that this is the decision that has been made.  Tony has talked so openly about how wrong this is, but this is what draws people, this is what they want to hear.  The men openly said, " If you are poor, Jesus will make you rich."  These people are desperately poor, of course they wan to hear this.  yep if you just fall to the floor, maybe you will wake up with a million Tugrug (Mongolian currency) in your pocket.  So these idiots just come in here, spread their lies and leave, go back to their cushy couches in the States, never caring how many lives they have destroyed in the meantime.  It is infuriating.  We really want to help these people and truly care about them, but will have to separate from them if this is truly the route they are going to take.  Please pray for them and us.  It is draining and depressing to think that all this time and effort has been poured into a group of people for what?

We smell better now

We finally gave in a bought a new washing machine.  The repairman still insists that it can be fixed, but he is in no hurry to get it done, and it has been 3 weeks now......... a family of 7 goes through lots of laundry, especially when you throw a good stomach bug into the mix.  If he ever gets it repaired, we will just sell it to recover some of the costs of the new machine.  Anyway, it is such a relief to have my washer back, and my laundry room back in order.  I have been able to catch up on some of those things that had to be put aside, like sheets and rugs.  So I am putting in a picture of my new machine and my "dryer"- drying racks.

Funny Picture

I was looking through my pictures last night, and found this one and knew I needed to blog about it.  This man wore this big, pink, floppy hat all afternoon and didn't act like he had on anything but a plain, old, man's hat.  No one else seemed to notice it either, except me.  I mean if a guy in the states was at a weekend retreat with his work, there is no way he would be caught dead running around in a big, pink, floppy hat complete with a flower on the front.  And then if he did dare to wear it, he would be endlessly ribbed by all his fellow workers.  Here things are different.  Pink and blue are just plain old colors, not gender distinguishers.  You see baby boys wearing pink, flowery stuff all the time, and in little girls with blue, ball covered clothes.  Sometimes it just strikes me as funny. 

Go Mongolia

Yesterday Mongolia won it's very first gold medal in the Olympics.  The only other medal they have ever won was a bronze.  So this was the first time the Mongolian National Anthem was ever played.  The guy won in Judo, he did some really cool 100 point flip (technical judo lingo) and won the match.  It was truly touching to watch his face when the anthem played, he almost cried, but caught himself, Mongolians are very reserved when it comes to emotions.  It was really funny because outside we could here people cheering and screaming "You're the Man" (in Mongolian, of course) and then after the sun went down there were fireworks and all the news stations kept replaying the award ceremony.  In the TV studio when the anthem was being played the anchormen even stood up and put their hand over their heart while it played.  They are all so proud, I am proud for them. 

Never Look A Gift Horse in the Mouth

The washer saga continues.... we are going on 3 weeks now with a broken washing machine.  It turns out that the whole computer board was fried in a power surge.  SO the repairman said to Tony, You should probably get one from America.....this is NEVER a good sign.  Tony has searched for hours online to find this part, and it is not available in Asia.  SO we went to the place where we originally bought the washer and found out where there repair center is, (we were excited) We walk in and talk to them and they tell us that no they don't have one, and that it is too much trouble to order only one, so Tony says Can I order one?  No, just talk to the engineer (repairman) and see what he can do, but, by the way, he is not here today.  AAAAAAGGGHHHH!

   So in the meantime, our upstairs neighbors had an extra washer that belongs to someone else on their team, that hadn't been used for 3 years.  This washer takes over 4 hours to wash a load of clothes, leaks water all over the floor, and the spin cycle is broken.  (hence the gift horse title)  But, as totally frustrating as this is, at least I am not having to hand wash the clothes in the tub.  

  This morning Tony took the computer part to the repairman and they will prayerfully be able to fix it today.  If not, we will have to buy a new one, either way I will hopefully be washing clothes again normally soon!  

Baking Lessons wanted

The Mongolian women at the bible study we attend have ask me if I will teach them to bake.  Baking is a mysterious, magical thing to these women whom have only owned an oven for 5 years at the most.  They sell pretty cakes here, but they taste like a sponge smeared with Crisco- absolutely no flavor.  So, this is a fun opportunity, but very challenging also as I am met with the lack of availability of ingredients and supplies.  For instance, lets get down to basics, in order to bake a cake you need cake pans -not available.  We have the ingredients for a basic, yellow cake, but not cocoa for chocolate.  Next, the icing, this is s biggie, no powdered sugar, and still, no cocoa.  SO cakes, pretty much out of the question.  Move on to cookies.  We can make sugar cookies, but one major ingredient that they can't get is shortening, this is a major ingredient in most cookie recipes.  These ladies are POOR.  Most are not married, or married to a drunk who doesn't have a job.  I am trying to come up with ideas that use ingredients that they might have or can easily get for a reasonable price.  This is REALLY difficult......I haven't even factored in the fact that I have to change any recipe from English to Metric measures, and then translate it into Mongolian.  The fun never ends.  lets get cookin.

Authentic Olympics

We watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics on the only channel that was playing it here, the Chinese channel, of course.  So it was a truly authentic experience, almost like being there, but much cheaper, and on my own couch!

No CLean CLothes

The washer is still not fixed.  The repairman called yesterday and said he would be rite over........so Tony called him today and he is supposed to come at 4pm.  I am not holding my breathe.  SO I finally gave in the the huge mounds of laundry, and  the girls repeated "Mom, I have nothing to wear" and washed a load of clothes at the neighbors.  At our building they just evenly divide the water bill amongst us anyway, so it's not like I am running up their bill.

  Baking bread is also on the agenda for today.  You might ask "WHY".  Well the answer is simple and goes back to the fact that there is no FDA here,  absolutely no standards to be followed by the companies selling food.  Last week our neighbors, who usually don't buy the bread either, bought 2 loaves of bread, and there were flies baked inside both loaves!!  SO there is the answer.  Baking bread makes the house smell so good anyway.  The tricky part is baking it at a time when everyone isn't ravenously hungry, and devours it as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Then I would have to bake bread every day!

The Little Things

Did you say a quick Thank You to God this morning when you took a hot shower?  I did.  Every summer about this time the hot water goes off so they can clean the pipes at the power plant.  The first two summers we were here the hot water was off for 8 weeks, but thankfully now that we have moved into an apartment it is only off for 2 weeks. We have no control over the water here, the city controls it.  There are no hot water heaters here in every house, so when it is off, it is off.  But now it back on Praise God.

  My washer went out on Sunday, so yesterday (Monday) we called a repair guy who said he would come in the afternoon, so when he showed up at 10 this morning, :)  He found it was an electrical problem that happens quite often, so he should bring it back this afternoon and I will be able to wash clothes with hot water... Thank you God ....He gives us all the little things, we just have to open our eyes to see them.