All good things must come to an end...

Greetings again dear fans!
Today is our last day here in Erdenet. In a mere 4 hours, we shall be collecting our valuable belongings (our belongings seem to have grown and doubled in weight... How very odd) and head on up to UB. UB, by the way, is the cool way to say Ulaan Baatar, just in case you were wondering how to be cool, saying "UB" is a surefire way. Our time here has been absolutely fantastic. We have had so many great experiences. All of our preconcieved notions of Mongolia have been put to shame. This experience has been so much grander than any of us ever could have imagined. We have been so blessed to be working with Jonny and Marina. They are the peachiest, keenest people, and we owe them so much thanks. Everyone say thank you to Jonny and Marina! We like them, we think you would like them too.
So let me fill you in on some of the experiences...
We have been able to go to three different Mongolian churches, and all of them have been completely different! Mongolian worship is exhilerating to watch, they pour their whole heart and soul into it. They are a people who, when they believe, are extremely dedicated and on fire for God. We have also grown used to seeing random wildlife all about the city, there is a cow roaming about outside the internet cafe as I speak. There are wild dogs everywhere, and we have the great honor of being here during their dog extermination season. Not even a week ago, we were walking back to our apartment, and were startled by this horrendously loud gunshot! We spun around, and not 100 yards from us, a man was walking away from the corner of a schoolyard with his rifle, and a dog lay a couple of feet behind him. That one was a shocker.
There is no way to starve while you are in Mongolia. Every time that we visit a Mongolian family in their home, they immediatly put on food. Food such as mutton, meat dumplings and milk tea. Lovely, lovely! Mongolians get 100 points for hospitality! Oh yes! Here is a piece of exciting news, we have all had a taste of a famous Mongolian drink called "fermented horse milk". What an experience that was! It is off season right now, they always make it in the summer, so it was very strong. I must say that I have never tasted anything like it! That was a swell time. Hmmm, anything else that I can tell you??? We love Mongolia. It has been well worth it. We have enjoyed every minute of it. We love all the people we have met, and it has been such a powerful thing to see how God is working in Mongolia.
So thank you everyone again for all your prayers and support! We look forward to seeing you soon, so we can share our adventures and experiences with you all!
God Bless

Kayla Marie

New Arrival Date

A little birdie whispered in my ear that people back home are buzzing about our new flight plan. So here's the info. We will be arriving at Edmonton International Airport Wednesday 28th at 11:00 pm. I believe that the team is required to debrief the next day at school, and then we are probably free to see our families.
You can e-mail your beloved Mongolian child for personal arrangements.

-Team Mongol.

More mutton for the mushin'

Well today was quite the cultural experience. Our whole team was treated to a day at a Ger ranch in the middle of nowhere. We left about 11:30am and drove well out of town down till the Pastor told the driver to back up and take the road that leads into the mountain side. A little argument ensued about where exactly the road was, but shortly after we dropped down off the roadside and began making fresh tracks on our way to the ranch.
Our host were so nice, and fed us sooo much mutton. It is Mongol tradition to feed anyone who visits your Ger. Even the van driver and his friend (who didn't know anyone there) spent the whole day feasting and laughing with us. Mongols are so friendly, it's so amazing to see how people just welcome anyone into their home. It really isn't an inconvenience, life around home just continues on, you can pretty much let company entertain themselves.
Us boys jumped in and helped out with the sheep a little, untying feed sacks off the snouts of the sheep. It was great, trying to get under the fur to untie the knot, while that sheep is trying to run away with his food, and all his friends and jumping all over you to get at the sacks in your other hand. We ended our time with the family in a prayer for them and their friends and family, it was really nice. The pastor prayed real hard and I'm sure accurate over them. The day really was a blast.
The ride home became very exciting. As we came to the end of the country trail, where we get back onto the highway, we had a nice incline to drive up. Well the first try was fruitless. The second, same. So then they figured they'd try to take it from a different angle. well we pushed hard a a wider angle and just about flipped the van over with all of us in it. So we all piled out and the guys got to pushin the stuck van out of the snow. When we finally got unstuck the driver took the empty van and made a long distance run up the hedge and cleared it triumphantly. It was so much fun. We got the whole thing on video. The best part is that the driver never got angry, he seemed to be totally into the challenge of getting up that hill. It may have helped that we were all excited the whole time too!

We never did get to try the fermented mare's milk, but I guess things could be worse, we could have had to drink fermented mare's milk.

Well that's our exciting Wednesday in Mongolia.

Peace and Love.

Team Mongol.

Baayre Khla, (Thank You)
Baayre Tei. (Good Bye)

Greetings Fans and Followers!!!
I bring news to you from the future. We are doing great here, we made it past the half way mark and have not severely injured anyone. Today we traveled up into the ger district to a small place that the church owns where they feed the orphans that live there. The girls helped make lunch and the boys chopped wood, we played with the kids, and they took Kara's camera and took many many pictures. It was a lot of fun. We will be returning there everyday this week. This weekend was the YTP(youth training program) retreat for the cafe. There were about 40 high school students that attended, they had worship and devotional time, all of it in Mongolian of course, and then we planned a couple of games for them to play. We all had a great time, and we were well fed with three heavy meals inbetween the time of 10am-6pm, it was awesome. Tonight Jordan Eric and I will be leading a game and devotion for the YTP weekly meeting, and the other three will be on their own. We are doing great and appreciate all the thoughts and prayers, we will write again soon. Until then, Bye!
-Genaya

mongolia, its like something one would read about in a national geographic. the way of life is very different, it seems that their society tends to put people first, and profit and industry second. punctuality is not something that is too important here. indeed, this is a refreshing outlook on utilitarianism. why isnt our culture more people-oriented, i suppose wealth is too important to us.

Keeping It Real

Hello devoted fans and followers!
Today is our third day in the glorious land of Erdenet, where you can see the sky, this is the very place where dreams are made. On our first day here in Erdenet, we got the chance to go to Eagle school where we helped out in an English lesson. Each of us got a group of 2 or 3 students, and they had to interview us in English and then stand up and intoduce us to the class. It was top notch! It was a really great experience working with the children, we even got to hear them sing their national anthem! Delightful. Erik is a superstar over here. I can't even count the amount of times that people will point and "ooh" and "ahh" at the massive height that is Erik. Every time that we go to the market, the locals will whip out their cell phones and line up to have their pictures taken with him. It keeps the rest of us wildly entertained. Yesterday, we went to youth church, where we performed a skit, and then tried to teach the chorus of "Hosanna" in English. We also sang "Blessed be your name" because they all knew it in Mongolian at well. It was such an awesome thing to be singing the same song together, but in different languages. Well, this is the extent of our adventures thus far, but this week we have a pretty busy schedule, so I'm sure that there shall be many more stories to come! We're hoping to go out to the countryside and the ger districts at some point, which we are all eagerly looking forward to.
Thank you all for all your prayers and support. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, and this experience has already been such a blessing.
Until next time....

Christmas Day in UB

Well, not actually but it felt like it for us since we received our bags today! Praise the Lord. Well, we heard they had come yesterday but because the airport crew was done for the day we couldn't get them, I think it was about 4 o'clock or so. They are crazy here, the Mongolians kind of do whatever they please. It's awesome. So yesterday, we figured out our cancellation problem. We will come home two days early and won't have to stay long in Beijing, which is great...we hope at least, it is a 3 hour layover so pray everything goes well. We met some nice people that work at the JCS office here, they have opened their homes to us and today one couple brought us to a really tiny restaurant for real Mongolian food, our first and very greasy.

So we are heading to Erdenet tonight on the train, we leave at 8:30 and will get there sometime in the morning, we are all very excited to get there and start doing things. It will be an interesting time on the train for sure. We have been learning a lot about the Mongolian culture also which is really special. So for now, we are doing wonderful and so thankful things are falling into place. Take care and we will talk to you soon!

Fresh Laundry...

Praise the Lord! After 6 days of the same socks, underpants and everything else we finally have our luggage and all the clean clothes that come with it! It was like Christmas morning opening up our suitcases and picking out something clean to wear.

Big, big thank you's to Roger Osness, Rob Lewis, Joint Christian Services, and a huge thank you to our Mongolian Travel agent who worked the phones hard to arrange our new travel plans and find our luggage. We thank you all so much for pulling all the strings you could for us, it was so reassuring to see all the support for this team!

We will finally be heading to Erdenet tonight on the 25km/hr night train for 12 hours. UB has been a blast but it's time to chew the meat of this here mission.

Now for all of you who may be asking, "What exactly is Mongolia like?" Well it feels like Canada but looks and tastes a lot different. The air is rather thick with coal smog, and it does create a nice cough and smelly clothes. Ulaan Bataar is very icy, and really quite dirty. It's a very busy city, about 1,000,000 people. It really isn't a pedestrians world over here. The the drivers use the horn as an extension of their body, basically letting every one know, "I'm coming, get out of the way!" It's a real life game of frogger, bobbing and weaving vehicles to cross the street.

It's a crazy place, but would'nt rather been anywhere else in the world right now, it's been a blast!

-Eric Ryan Nordstrom

Happy New Year!

Hello there people of the past. A hearty hello from us people 15 hours into the future.

Good News on our luggage. It sounds like it will arrive in Ulaan Bataar to, and then we can catch the night train to Erdenet. It's been a spiderweb of phone calls, paper work and travel agencies, so it's hard to know if everyone truly is on the same page, but were hoping it all comes together today, our clothes are getting pretty stale.

We got a phone call from the local travel agent who told us our return flight from UB to Beijing has been cancelled on account of Chinese New Year. Air China has canceeled all thier flights until Januray 30th apparently. But they say they will get us on a flight with another airline, but we will then spend two full days in Beijing. Hopefully we will be able to leave the airport and see the city a bit, we hope to have that all figured out today.

All in all, we are still very happy to be in this new land, we have wandered the streets here a bit and had a lot of fun doing it. We went for pizza at a cafe, and went for Chinese food last night. This morning we ate chocolate coffee bean cereal, caramel crocodiles, sticky buns with mystery centers, and cows cream. And all that only cost us 18,000 Tugruks!

We just want to thank you all for praying for us, and supporting our way to Mongolia, it has been so unique this far, and we are anxiously waiting to start teaching and serving in Erdenet.

God's Love and Peace.

Eric Ryan Nordstrom,

Team Mongolia.