first few weeks...

hey everybody!

boy has it been busy over here!

right now we're preparing to head to the countryside with some of the guys at Eagle television. when we first arrive in Ulaanbaatar one of our contacts (a long term missionary family who has been living here for around 8years!) invited us over to meet with this seemingly random American... turns out the man we met with works for Eagle Television and heard about us. Eagle TV is christian tv station in capital city know for their slogan, "The channel that tells the truth" they have all sorts of programming, like local news, and kid friendly programming. "Juan" (obviously not his real name) is head of the Two-by-Two's Team, a special department at Eagle TV. they're a group of ten men that head out into the countryside every month for two weeks at a time. they have the whole country strategically divided into strategic areas of need. the teams go out and advertise "free history movies" and show a few of ten evangelistic movies, and open the time after up to questions, and from their setup house churches and disciple people in the area... and we get to go with them!!!!!!!! Aaron an i are going with one team plus a translator (so 5 all together) and we're gonna be out for 10days. we're going to the region with the highest mountain, were there's already snow and ice, and a huge Buddhist influence over the area. So please be praying for good communication as our translator only speaks a little English, strong guts as we eat and drink crazy foods, and patience as we travel over 3,000km all together in a Landcruiser through and around the Gobi desert!

Here's what else we've done in the weeks prior:

the first week we were in beijing and just rested and recouped from traveling, then we had a slow start getting into Ulaanbaatar (the capital of Mongolia). when we finally got things situated, we spent a week with a mongolian family working on an organic farm just out side of Ulaanbaatar by Gachuurt. It was super cool!

This guy started building his own organic farm five years ago, and now has almost twenty green houses all of which were almost entirely handmade! It's pretty amazing, a few of them were newer "kits" from Korea, but his originals were just brick and mortar with plastic over the top!

We worked a lot and found ourselves blessed as equally as we hoped to be a blessing. We worked for most of the day primarily painting and harvesting/ bagging/ weighing lettuce, and the last day we tilled some of the new land in the greenhouses. Everyday they blessed us with a huge lunch in the middle of the afternoon, and made us eat till we could eat no more- the awesome part tho was truly spending time with their whole family

Pueggy (dad) and Nik (mom), and their two daughters Atsa (5-7?) and Sia (3?), and Nik's mom (???) stayed on the farm for most of the year, they also have three boys that stay in the city and go to school during the week, we got to meet them our last day- I don't remember their names, but they were 14, 14, and 10.

The whole family was super nice and cool, they were all just learning English (their boys started learning over the summer and teach their parents) and they're really eager to learn.

It was really cool to see the last night we were there, they were asking us a ton of questions about what we believe- stuff I would've had no clue how to answer without firs going through the lecture phase- stuff like, how can you know the bible is true, what makes it different from other religions, and how do we have a relationship with God... And they were the ones asking all the questions!!!! We stayed up really late, and no decisions were made, but it was super awesome just being able to plant that seed.

Please be praying for Peuggy and his family for their salvation and realization that Christ is the ONLY way to have a relationship with The creator!

After we left the farm we jumped straight into a camp retreat for "a few" of the missionary kids (MKs) in the area... "A few" turned into 35, and we ran the whole thing! We had some if the long term leaders set up all the logistical details for us like food and location, but we were totally in charge if the schedule and everything that went on- it went super great! The kids had a blast and it was cool to see the impression we got to make from such a short amount of time! The four of us all got to share a devo/ message/ testimony, and it was amazing to see how God moved through each one of us!

Please also be praying for the kids and their youth group that they would stay re-focused and passionately pursuing God in their own lives... Not just their parents.

Also, the thursday we were at the farm, Lillian and I traveled into the city and Got to share a short devotion at Eagle Television. We were praying about who we should send, and it was really hard for me. I could hear God telling me to do it, but I was scared and felt like I wasn't ready for it, so I said I won't go alone, maybe if we decided to send two people, I'll go but I won't speak... And again I felt God saying it's your time to go and Lillian will go with you, and I thought oh great, no way! If I'm going with ANYONE it's gonna be Aaron, and I really felt God pushing "you and lillian" and I said well MAYBE.. if no one else will, but not Lillian... And so I was thinking all this in my head as we were praying about it yesterday and guess what. Zach speaks up and says, I really feel like God wants us to send to people, and Aaron confirmed it saying, yeah like when Jesus sent the disciples out two-by-two, and I thought "oh great..." but I said, "yeah! I got that too..." and then Zach said, "and I feel like it's really suppose to be Paul and Lillian" and I thought, "wow." but I said, "yeah, I got that too"

So... That's what we did, me an Lillian came down and gave a dual devo to the Christian ministry team at eagle television. And it was really good. Really. We couldn't figure out what we were gonna share, and I really felt like God was saying "relationships" so I started thinking about that and about us and I prayed some more, and I still had nothing. I was just gonna go through and point out different relationships in the bible, and then let Lillian talk about difficulties in our team, so we got to the tv station 45min early and all of a sudden it jumped at me. The relationship God triangle! God wanted me to share the God triangle, and he it effects our relationships. So that's what I did. Lillian really liked it and tied hers in with the triangle. And it just felt like we were ready, right on time too! So we got in there and it was awkward cause we were speaking through a translator cause none of them speak English, and I was sweating and nervous, and I prayed and, and I shared, and just like that it seemed like it was done. The funny thing about speaking to people from a different country is you can never really tell what they're thinking, I saw some head nods, but I couldn't tell if it was something they already heard or if it even made sense or what. So afterward, some people came up to us and and shook our hands and said "bi-yer-shla" (?) which means thank you. And then Mike came up and shook our hands and said, "thank you, that was totally what our guys needed to hear. We've had some strife between some of the guys and we've been going through a study in drawing closer to God, but we haven't touched on how that affects their relationships with others yet, and that was just what they needed to ear"

!!!!!!!! I was like wow! Good work God! He is crazy and I can really tell he wants me to drawn loser to him and he's tugging on me as much as I try to pull away, so I'm really trying to get closer with him, thank you so much for those two emails, they really made me smile, I'll talk more about it in my next email, but I wanted to tell you god is moving, and it's great! I've been praying for you and praying that you would be comforted, I'm so overjoyed to see you relying on God, I know he will bless this!


anyway..... after all that we traveled down to Bayankhongor to help another missionary family living down there. They've been there for two years, just finished building their house, and hope to stay for 15years!

we were busy the whole time we were down there: we dug a 3meter (that was supposed 5meter) outhouse hole through rocky terrain, split firewood, we worked with concrete building up barrier walls, we built a green house and plantar box for the family, we did brick work for one of the church buildings in the area, and we even got to go to a Mongolian wedding! that was a really awesome experience! after the whole week, we all slept the full 12 hours on the busride back, and then half the next day :-P we said before hand, that our biggest strength as a team was physical strength and God is really putting us to work!

Please be praying for the Spence family as they're heading back to the states on home assignment now, and for the work God will use them for in the many years to come.

friday, we went and hung out with the Mk's that we took camping . they were hosting a carnival/bake sale for their home-school co-op and it was soooooo much fun!

So, all in all lots has been happening! and i'm only looking forward to all that's going to happen next!