| Who wants to be a missionary?
"ooh, ooh, ooh....i do! over here! ::arm flailing and stretched so high that body is tilted to one side:: pick me! pick me!" ok, so not quite how it happened...here's a little about my trip...
Mongolia
-or-
What I want to be when I grow up.
as told by Amy
So, this was my first trip to Mongolia...and Asia...and anywhere outside the United States of America for that matter. The day before the trip was my best friend's wedding, where I was the maid of honor...lots of fun, so beautiful. Anyway, got home at 1am, started packing for the trip, finished at 3am, check email, parents wake up, take a quick shower, load up the car and off we go to LAX.
Back up a sec...the original plan was to meet the team at 7am to be ready to fly by 9am. So, me and two of my friends are getting in the car to drive back to Bakersfield and I get a call from the team leader, Jonny. It's 11pm mind you. He says, "hey how was the wedding? Good, good. Well, it turns out our flight leaves at 8am, not at 9am...."
Blah, blah, blah...ok, let's skip to the better parts of this trip.
It's hard to describe 12 ministry-packed days into a single entry without it turning into an essay or a novel, esp. when it took up at least 50 pp. in my journal. So, here's how our schedule was:
Tue-Fri. 4 days of camp/conference for 120 college aged church ppl
Sat. Youth service
Sun. Church services (2)
Afternoon prayer walk with college ppl.
Mon. Ministry to the poor, including evangelism.
We're on Mongolia Nat'nl TV!
Tue-Wed 2 days of evening evangelism meetings,
Hand out invitations and evangelism during day
Thur. Orphanage;
120 students to lunch, talent show, movie, and hangout
Fri. Mongolia Hotel with 14 college/church leaders, including
horseback riding and games
6-hr prayer meeting 12 to 6am;
Sat. Youth service; pack up
Highlights and Thoughts:
The first day of camp was overwhelming with this new language that I had never heard before and sooo many new faces and hard to pronounce Mongolian names. This gradually became easier and familiar.
The food and drinks at camp were another adventure altogether. Right off the bat I got a taste of a traditional (and well-liked) Mongolian drink: hot milk tea. Not too bad at first, but it was served at almost every meal...not too good for my stomach. The food mostly consisted of meat (either beef, mutton, or goat), some kind of noodles, very few vegetables, milk broth if in soup, and bread on the side. Really not too bad...until you have it EVERY meal...
The second night of camp, we start the meeting and my stomach's feeling a little upset. I make a bathroom trip and get back. I stay in the back praying and worshipping, still not feeling too good. So I have a great idea!...I'll get on my knees and commune with God there. Hmm...not so great of an idea. I get down and my stomach feels kinda queasy. Man, I really don't want to miss this meeting...maybe I'll make another bathroom run. I get outside just in time to throw up all over the cement...better yet a few of the leaders are outside and see the whole thing! At this point I still don't really know them too well, but they are so sweet! The youth leader, Soto, comes over and comforts me a little and one of the pastor's wives gives me a wet wipe. Someone else had gone inside to get Pearl, one of my team members, and she took me upstairs to our room. Man, I threw up A LOT that night and didn't really feel too great the next morning, but felt quite a bit better by the end of that day.
::sigh:: i'm not gonna get through my entire trip in one entry, I guess I'll just write about the camp for this one....
One of my favorite memories of camp is the third evening. Jonny gave the message and afterwards gave a call to repentance. He told them that the members of our team would be available for them to confess their deepest darkest secret sin that they had never told anyone about. The beauty of it is that we couldn't understand them since we didn't speak Mongolian, so it would be a safe place for them. It was such a sweet, sweet time. I felt God's heart for the women as they came and weeping, poured their hearts out to God as I prayed over them. I could see the beauty that God sees in them and I could feel Him smile over them as they were so open and vulnerable and giving Him everything. I only wished that they could understand English better, so that they would know what was prayed for them.
They are such energetic and passion-filled worshippers, as well as pray-ers! It was sooo refreshing to worship with them. There was such freedom and joy!
Man, I love and miss them SOOO much! It was the most wonderful experience of my life and there's so much more I have left to talk about. I will have to write more later though, because it's my bedtime...and you're probably ready for a break...If you can't wait, just give me a call...I'd be MORE than willing to talk with you about it. TTFN...Ta-ta-for-now! |
. That's it for now...hopefully I'll get to update more often...like every month or something 
. 
am i crazy?? i think that is a possibility. hmm...if anyone from the team reads this, can you give me some info? thanks a ton! 