November 26, 2008  was the 10th Anniversary of the Nikdovnihon Church in Darhan.  This is the first church started by the Alliance in Mongolia and is the mother church to many of the other churches in the surrounding area.  Dennis had the privilege of bringing the message during this celebration.  Our Mongolian brothers and sisters expressed their Thanksgiving to God for His faithfulness these past years.  It was a joy to celebrated with them.

Field Forum 2008 was held at Terelj National Park.  Four new families and a single woman joined our team this summer.  We now have 26 staff and 28 kids.  Our speaker this year was John Kitchen from Stow Ohio.  His wife Julie accompanied him, along with his son Joe and nephew Alex.  A short term team from Franklin TN did our children’s program with the help of Joe, Alex and Kristen Yu.  It was a great time of fun, fellowship and spiritual renewal.

     Dawaa, Pieter Theron, Dennis Maves, Nghia Pham, Jeremy Fields

June 16 to 26 the CAMA Mongolia Field Leadership Team made a research trip to the western most aimags of Mongolia, Hovd, Bayan Olgii and Ovs.  Our purpose was to determine ministry opportunities and research the conditions for possibly placing a team there in the future.  We drove 3,500 kilometers in 11 days.  The road conditions were horrific, with long hours of travel each day in the car.  However, we did enjoy camping along the way and the opportunities for team building that took place.  There are many opportunities in the west, Mongolia’s least reached provinces.

TuyaGerel has completed one half of her studies for a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership.  She returned home to Mongolia for her summer semester break.  It was great to see that she is doing so well in her studies.  It was great for her to reconnect with the church here and see how she is going to fit into the leadership training program when she completes her studies.  It was also helpful for her to be home this summer to serve on the Educational Consultation Committee, preparing for the launch of our leadership training program in the fall.  She returned to the Philippines June 11 to continue her studies at Alliance Graduate School in Manila, Philippines. 

May 20 was the last day of our Spring English Classes.  All students who completed the course were given Certificates of Completion on May 24, 2008.  Both Dennis and I taught this course together every Tuesday night during the spring quarter. 

The Mongolian Lunar New Year is called Tsagaan Sar, or White Moon. This is the most important Mongolian holiday of the year and is a three day national holiday. Tsagaan Sar is a time when Mongolians celebrate together with their family. It is also a time when they honor the elders in their family and community. They have white food like their milk tea, fermented mare’s milk, dried yogurt, salads. On the center of the table they have a special Tsagaan Sar cake made from their special baked goods as well as the rear quarter of a sheep. Mutton is the Mongolian staple meat. We were invited to celebrate Tsagaan Sar with the family of our office assistant/translator Bayarmaa. She is pictured here with her parents. It is wonderful to learn more about Mongolian culture and family traditions at Tsagaan Sar.

Today for my language class I learned baking terms by baking a cake with my language teacher, Odnoo (on the right) and Bayarmaa (center) our office assistant.  They wanted to learn how to make a carrot cake, so this was a fun lesson with them.  We divided the cake in thirds so they could take some home to their families.  Dennis said it tasted great. 

On Sunday Jan. 13, 2008 we visited our Alliance Church in Northern Mongolia near the Russian boarder.  Tom Alexander from the Central Pacific District Office in the US and John Schmidt the senior Pastor of the Santa Rosa Alliance Church were our guests.  They were here in Mongolia for 9 days on a vision trip exploring ways that CAMA Mongolia could develop a partnership relationship with the Alliance churches in northern California.

The Sukhbaatar church is being led by lay leadership.  Tsogi is presently providing leadership for this small growing community of faith.  The attendance was a little low that day because of the cold weather.  Many of them walk to church from outside the city about 7 kilometers.  The temperature Sunday morning was around -30F.  Click on the map below and a pin head will show the approximate location of the Sukhbaatar church.

We recently had a video team here from our National Headquarters. They produced the following excellent production for our Ministry in Ulaanbaatar.

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Sunday December 23 the youth church in Ulaanbaatar gathered to celebrate Christmas. Dennis had the opportunity to share the meaning of Christmas from God’s Word to a packed room of Mongolian College students. A fellowship time followed the service. .