Mongolian Version

English Version

Merry Christmas!

Greetings from Darhan.

I have just came back from a 10 day trip to South Gobi, from November 27 to December 6, with 2 other leaders : Dawaa from the Shinchilel (Darhan) and Eunice (Tsensuren) from Erdenet. Below are some details of the trip.

We visited the CAMA people in Zamin Uud and Hanbogd (South Gobi). We conducted medical clinic there at church meeting places where I examined and treated about 25-35 patients a day. The team members and other local leaders shared good news with those who never heard it before (33 of them), and prayed for each patient before they leave the clinic. We also made a few home visits to see those who could not come to the clinic due to their disabled conditions. In Zamin Uud, Dawaa hold a 2 hour seminar on Financial Freedom for about 7 leaders there. Eunice taught 4 women on how to sew quilt products.

It was a long (about 2,900 km) and rough trip since we traveled from Darhan to Ulaanbaatar by taxi (212 km) then by night train to Zamin Uud. (600 km, 14 hours one way). We had to return to Ulaanbaatar in order to take bus to Hanbogd (632 km of mostly bouncy dirt road, 16 hours one way). The weather was quite cold with temp -10/-23 C daily but thankfully there was no snow storm during the trip. We are glad for the opportunity to visit and minister to these 2 churches.

The Zamin Uud group is lead by Munkherdene and a group of several active women. They are involved in community service. They run a kindergarten dedicated to the care of 10-15 disable children for the past 2 years. They hold weekly training classes for their members, and the leaders are active learning in the CAMA leadership training program. They meet in Munkherdene’s home, a small two room apartment. We donated funds to buy more stackalbe plastic chairs since they have only a few chairs and 2 small benches. They are praying about a building on the land that they have acquired. The leaders are committed growing. They have small groups in 2 cities, Choir and Ulaanbaatar.

One couple moved to Hanbogd in November 2010. By December 2010 they had a group of 5 families at their Christmas celebration. A young woman helped our team in the clinic work. We visited her home to minister to her granmother who had stroke in the past and recently was hospitalized with Parkinsonism. We also visit 2 other families to minister to their need and pray for the whole family.

We sense that growth here seems stalled. One leader commented that the people’s hearts are harden. During the summer, he was sick and was hospitalized in Darhan for a while. He has since recovered and has a job as a guard for the kindergarten at Hanbogd. Their ger is on the kindergarten premise now. So we stayed in their ger and held a clinic there as well. A few teachers, and the kindergarten principal were seen at our clinic. At least 4 patients prayed in Hanbogd. Two are commited to do the follow up visit with these new folks. Some funds were given to organize the Chrismas party. They usually have their own meeting in their ger on Sunday. But this time they held a joint service with the other group in Hanbogd,  established in 2005. The total attendance of the 2 groups for Sunday was 15 persons including our team members. They took us to the hill overlooksHanbogd to pray for the whole community.

Our medical and support trip was a great encouragement to these 2 new groups, especially to the Hanbogd group which is struggling. We give praise for grace, protection and strength given to us for this trip. We pray that the people whom we came in contact with and ministered to will come to know God more intimately and to grow deeper in their faith.

The total cost for the above trip was about 1,100,000 Tugrik (about 800 USD).

Below are the pending needs for our CAMA Health Project:

1. The CAMA Health Project is planning to published 2 important tracts : “The Hand of Good News”, and “The Human Heart” (in color), each 1,000 copies. The printing cost will be about 1,000 USD.

2. From January 2012, I would like to add a staff to CAMA Health Project in Mongolia.
This staff will function as Chaplain / Health Educator for our Health Project. The salary for this staff will be about 200-230 USD per month.We may have a new staff person beginning in January.

Your help and partnerships is greatly appreciates.  Contact us if you are interested in partnering with the CAMA Medical project.

Merry Christmas!

Many folks have inquired with me what Christmas is like in Mongolia. For our family, and other foreigners we know, Christmas looks similar to the celebrations when we lived Stateside. Soon after the Thanksgiving holiday, we decorate with a Christmas tree, Advent candles, and prepare gifts to give among ourselves as we ponder the greatest gift that was given to us in the birth of our Savior. The Mongolian church is beginning to celebrate the Christmas season as they learn about the Advent. In recent years, they’ve devoted a special service to remembering the Christmas story on the 25th.

In every other area of Mongolia, the celebration of Christmas is absent. Mongolians celebrate the New Year, so there are New Year trees that become available in some of the main stores in late December. The New Year trees come in a variety of colors from pink, purple, red, silver or green. They usually decorate their New Year trees with small bills of Mongolian money. The New Year is celebrated on the 31st, with parties, fireworks, and a grand speech from the Mongolian president televised at the midnight hour. But, on December 25, Christmas Day, you will awaken to an average day in Mongolia. I vividly recall our first Christmas when I looked out our 4th floor apartment window to see children walking to their schools, men and women beginning their normal workdays, and all the little stores opening as they would on any other day of the year. The Mongolian man was standing outside by his horse, echoing the same phase he does day after day, “Sue avi, sue avi.” Our offer to buy fresh milk was before us as it is every other day. As an American who has grown up with the traditional Christmas memories, it is an odd experience. I would expect to peer out the window and see the streets quiet and peaceful with only a few travelers going to and from their relative’s homes. All the schools, businesses, and stores would be closed on this sacred day.

As I reflect upon the differences of Christmas in America and in Mongolia, I experience a stark reality that we, as Americans, celebrate Christmas day because it is indeed a sacred day to remember our Lord’s birth. I realize not all Americans celebrate for that reason, and in fact, many are celebrating for very different reasons as the American society has departed from its Christian foundation. I wonder what Christmas would look like if all the commercialism of Santa Claus and the gift giving that is so prevalent in the American culture were taken out. If indeed Christ were the ONLY aspect of Christmas that was celebrated this Christmas season, would your community look much more like mine in its present state? Would there only be a few devoted Christians on your street celebrating the true meaning of this holiday season? Would your streets that are usually lit with Christmas lights suddenly become dark? Would you awaken on Christmas day to folks going to work and children headed off to school as any other normal day? Think about it. If that is the case, then you are in the same place as me. Your heart must be burning to share the Truth with your neighbors as you see them lost in darkness without the true knowledge of the birth of a King that changed the world forevermore.

From CAMA Mongolia to all of you, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

In a land of democracy and hardship, competition is fierce and oppression is rampant. All of our “freedoms” are killing my people – a humble family paying 560% per month for a $5 loan, a young man harassed by the police and afraid of taking it to court, children learning English from rap music, unemployed men who turn to drinking, employed men who drink as soon as they are paid, foreign companies who mine our country’s resources or delay on paying salaries, families who have not saved a single cent for the long winter, a prime minister who resigns suspiciously, neighbors who build higher and thicker fences, a handicapped boy who stays home and plays video games instead of going to school, crumbling roads and a faltering river system, officials who are convinced their people are poor and helpless, families who never turn off their TVs, two neighbors who have had their electricity cut off, other neighbors who can’t pay $1.50 to paint their own fence, people who pay back loans in order to get bigger loans, the gradual loss of cultural skills and pride, young people having children before marriage, plastic bags like tumbleweed across the steppe, increasing thieves who take whatever is not locked up, coal sellers who cheat their customers with rocks, drunk men fighting or laying in the street, couples threatening separation, toddlers with rotting teeth, citizens with no hope, no ideas, and no unity whatsoever…

If only the Father of Heaven would send us another khan – one who would rule with a rod of iron and whose empire would never crumble, one who would bring justice to the afflicted and light to the stumbling, one who would cause the righteous to flourish and the land to abound with good things, one who would restore glory and respect for his people among the nations, one who would have mercy on the weak and rescue them from enemies, one whose name would endure and all would call him blessed by God… full of wisdom and authority and power… forever.

Oh, if such a khan existed my people could hope once more. We wait, in desperation and tears, for Your anointed O God! We cry out for Your chosen to teach us fear and obedience, that we might be free from the plagues of our own freedom! How long must we suffer for lack of order and community?! There is no one to help, there is no one endowed with holiness and authority to lead us. Answer our prayer and send us Your khan, with signs and wonders, that all the nations might see and be glad this Christmas…

Psalm 72 (plus 100s of years of history, both from ancient Israel as well as Mongolia here and now).

Jeremy Fields is working with his family in Darhan, Mongolia. The Fields family will be moving to Hovd in western Mongolia sometime in 2010 to begin community organization work in preparation for the Coming King.

Happy Thanksgiving and a Joyous Holiday Season to all!