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.
