Horizons. JCS International. Jul/Aug 2011 Our Vision is to See Mongolians Building and Restoring Families, Churches and Communities

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1 JCS International Jul/Aug 2011 Our Vision is to See Mongolians Building and Restoring Families, Churches and Communities Horizons 2011 Naadam: The Nomadic Olympics by Dr. Kwai Lin Stephens Executive Director One of the best ways to learn about and know Mongolia is to attend and celebrate Naadam: the Nomadic version of the Olympics. For centuries, Mongolia has been celebrating Naadam festival as a national holiday. The main events in the celebrations are the three manly sports (as Mongols call it) of overland horse racing, archery, and wrestling. The three days events are highly competitive. The three games have existed for centuries and require warrior skills. It can be describe as the Nomadic Olympics! Every year, over 1,000 wrestlers will compete for titles such as hawk, falcon, lion, elephant, etc. Thousands of horses will be dashing across the Mongolian steppes, ridden by children ages 5 to 12, in six categories based on the age of the horse. Archers will try their arrows and see who can best hit the targets. This July, the annual Naadam National Holiday will be unlike all in the past 20 years since the transition to Democracy. The Naadam celebrations in 2011 commemorate the various anniversaries of the Mongolian State throughout history. The government has declared it to be a Fivefold Celebration and will be celebrated for five days instead of the usual three day celebration. First, 2011 marks 2200 years of the Khunuu (or Hun) Empire by Emperor Toumen in the 3rd Century B.C., the beginning of statehood on the territory of Mongolia. Second, this year is the 805th anniversary of the Great Mongol Empire; Chinggis (Genghis) Khaan founded the Mongol Empire in Third, Mongolia declared independence from Manchu-China (Qing Dynasty) rule in 1911, thus some see this as the 100th anniversary of national freedom. Fourth, it is the 90th anniversary of People s Revolution in And last, but not the least, this is the 21st year of Democracy in Mongolia. In the last 100 years, the nation has changed from a traditional society to a socialist nation, and then a free market society. For seven decades, the Naadam festival began with military parades praising Communist rule. Today, medieval warriors bearing the Nine Banners of Chinggis Khaan will begin the ceremony. If you are visiting Mongolia in July, do not miss these Nomadic Olympics. One can learn much from centuries-old tradition. verse, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever was a powerful reminder for the Mongolian Church to stay true and faithful to Him, His word, and His commands. These celebrations

2 Projects Updates ArtisAltaï Project by Nicolas Minjat (YWAM short-term team) An Oasis of Pearls Ulaanbaatar Station: you ll find a short-term missionary team ready to board the bus. Tucked in with their belongings are five boxes filled with raw materials to deliver to a workshop in Altaï. A 25 hour journey is undertaken before finally arriving at their destination. There, we are welcomed by Edith, project leader of ArtisAltaï. She brings us to the workshop. After experiencing hours of heat, dust and being jostled about without any personal space (even if the view via the window was extraordinary) this place feels like a haven of refreshment and color. In her studio, a grand table is set with fruit juices and candies. There is a small adjoining room, the office, which doubles as the stockroom for her finished pieces of art: necklaces, rings, bracelets. But there isn t just jewelry; we also find crèches in the style of a ger, complete with all of the nativity figurines, mobiles of hanging camels, horses and even fish. As we join this project for three weeks to help where we can, we get to know the employees little by little. During the work day we share bits of our lives and worship God together with the nine project participants. They love being with us and have such a deep thirst for God. Some come to the Sunday afternoon church service and to mid-week Bible studies. We have the opportunity to visit many of them in their homes, to plant trees in their yards and to encourage them, watering their faith through our God s marvelous acts. ArtisAltaï prospers, like every project ordained by God and carried out by his servants. Recently, three Mongolian women have begun working here; they have discovered the Lord and are drawing ever closer to Him. The growth of this project would not be possible without God, and without faith in Him to overcome difficulties like the delivery of supplies to a distant location, the electricity blackouts and the lack of a sewer system. In spite of the challenges, I am touched by seeing the constant good cheer these women have, as they pour their creativity and gifting into producing beautiful pieces of art. Here, pearls are made of felt, their vibrant variety of colors shine. For this reason, demand for ArtisAltaï s pearl products is strong, despite the market challenges and today s economic situation. God has made a way for us, His workers; therefore our purpose is one of life in abundance, filled with equality, cooperation and peace. After being here just a short while it is clear that for these women, this small city, and even this region, ArtisAltaï is a precious joy, as much an economic blessing as a spiritual one. 2

3 Projects Updates Mongolian Children Foundation Project by Sylvia Krose During the past 2 years, I have been working in Mongolia with an organization called Mongolian Children Foundation. This project was started around 10 years ago by a Dutch woman. At first she came just in the summer to help the street children. After her retirement she came to live in Mongolia and started this organization. This organization helps street children, children who cannot live with their parents anymore due to problems, and orphans. At the moment we have 3 foster homes with around 22 children. We also have 2 hashaas; one for teenage boys and one where teenage girls can live. After they finish their schooling we try to help them find a job and prepare them for life. What is my role within this project? I started a small kindergarten in a ger in one of our hashaas in the ger district. Here children from poor families could come and play while their mothers learned how to make Mongolian felt slippers. This way the children had a fun-time with their friends and the mothers could earn some money. The children were ages 2 to 5 years old. Half way through the morning we would give them some tea with biscuits or milk rice to eat. I really enjoyed this time with the kids, playing with them, but also trying to teach them some things like colors and numbers, but also learning to play together in a nice way and to say sorry when they did something that was not so nice. Especially this last thing was very hard on some of the kids, but I was so proud of them when they did something wrong and then later came to apologize to me or the other children! I hope that they have learned some things; they definitely taught me many things about how to work with children! This work was like a window into the lives of these children. They don t have a lot, sometimes not even food to eat. It really touched my heart to work with these kids and to provide a place for them where they can enjoy life and play. journeywithus@jcsintl.org

4 Open Sharing Forum Reflections on our time in Mongolia by Daniel and Joan Parker Cold, gers, the countryside, my home, my childhood... When we asked our girls Naomi, Heidi and Marty what came to mind when they thought of Mongolia, this is what they said. We first arrived in Mongolia in August Marty, our youngest daughter, was about to start kindergarten. Now, as we leave Mongolia in June 2011, Marty is finishing High School. Whatever we do and wherever we go, our families are important. Our love for our family is often the very testimony that touches the hearts of those we live amongst. For us it has been a privilege to live and work in Mongolia. We have enjoyed having our home open to both Mongolians and foreigners for fellowship, meals, Bible studies and overnight guests. At times it seems like we have been running the Ulaanbaatar Hotel 3! Daniel leading a seminar on Community Development In his work in JCS, Daniel has facilitated many projects, indirectly helping: families grow vegetables; women make handicrafts; disabled children enjoy life; boys and girls play football; men build better homes. In his free time, Daniel has also enjoyed helping Habitat for Humanity and others with their building projects. Joan is a teacher. In the early years when we lived in Darkhan, Joan taught our girls. Since we moved back to Ulaanbaatar, Joan has taught English as a Second Language. During the last few years we have been attending a church in Sharhad. For such a little group of about 20 people, they have a wonderful music group. Each Sunday a few people give a brief testimony of the blessings they have received. Home Group As we go, we leave a little part of our hearts here in Mongolia and although it s sad to say goodbye, we rejoice that we will meet many good Mongolian friends again when we go to be with the Lord! Daniel and Joan Parker worked in Mongolia between and

5 Open Sharing Forum 20th Anniversary of Good News in Mongolia by Bill Stephens Imagine some hungry people needing food, and different cooks from different countries all rush into a kitchen to prepare some dishes to feed the people. The cooks speak different languages and have different ideas of which food should be cooked. You can imagine what a difficult situation this would be Mongolia opened up to the outside world, and there was spiritual hunger. Christians from around the world came with the good news of Jesus, and began to start churches. To our knowledge, the first churches, notwithstanding the ancient Nestorian churches in Mongolia during the Mongolian Empire, began in In 2011, on behalf of Mongolian churches, the MEA (Mongolian Evangelical Alliance) is organizing a celebration of Christ s Mongolian Church, also known as 20th Anniversary Good News in Mongolia. The first major event was in May: Mongolian Christianity Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Speakers included some of the early Christian volunteers in Mongolia, such as Hwang Pil Nam of Korea and Rick Leatherwood of the USA, who started churches, and Otto Farkas of Hungary, the first director of World Vision. Otto was not a Christian when he came to Mongolia as a cultural anthropologist, but he became a Christian, influenced by the loving care of foreign Christians. One of the first Mongolian Christians was O. Ariunbold. After hearing passionate preaching from Rick Leatherwood, he immediately rose to leave. Surprised, Rick asked, where are you going? Ariunbold, a new believer, replied that he was going to spread the good news of Jesus in Bayankhongor, and immediately he travelled there. As Laura Leatherwood said, God was accomplishing amazing things through ordinary people. Some of the people on stage 20 years ago had very different ideas of how to serve Mongolia. And yet they shared the stage in unity and love. Nobody could have predicted what the Christian Church in Mongolia would be today. journeywithus@jcsintl.org

6 News and Notices Welcome: Hayley Bagnall is coming back in August from visiting her family in England. Magda Verboom plans to return mid-july. Welcome short-termers: Dustin and Mary Baker (JCS ) are visiting with a team in August. Anthea Cin Wah Lai and Dennis Baluyot (OMF Canada) are visiting mid-july. MMN group from USA are visiting in July. Alun and Marion Price-Davies (IS UK and Wales) are visiting JCS again this Fall. Marlow and Vicky Ramsay (JCS ) are visiting from Canada and hosting an 11-person MMN team from the USA in July. A 5-person SIM team from England are visiting JCS in July. Matthijs and Kim Van Staalduine from Holland, are visiting JCS in July. Vivienne Young (IS Australia) is returning again in August for several months. YWAM team of 7 who are helping the Streams, ArtisAltai and Eternal Springs projects for this summer. Goings: Christof Oesch leave end of July. Graham and Nicola Aylett leave on Home Assignment early in August. Sylvia Krose went to Holland for the birth of their 1st child. Aphrezo will go to be with her in early August. Garry and Lynette Sedun - Canada. The Seduns come each year to advise projects and new businesses. Spencer and Pat Garner are leaving for 6 months in July. Alastair, Byambaa and Abigail Hill will go to Singapore then visit family in New Zealand. They plan to return to Mongolia in August. Jimmy, Jennifer, Joseph and Janice Khoo will be in Singapore for a couple months. Shawn Delehoy will be in the USA until December. Shino Yada will be away for a few months. Urgent Needs: English Teachers Papa Café Volunteers - Trainers or Assistants for cooking and baking (short/long term), Business Trainers or Consultants (short/long term) Events Calendar JCS Annual Picnic: 2 July IF Meeting: 5 July JCS Annual Retreat: 9-12 August Vision Casting Tour: 5-14 September 20th Anniversary celebration of the Mongolian Church: September