Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - Wednesday, August 8, 2001


This time everbody made it to the church in time for prayer walking (though I myself was there for the prayer meeting anyway), so the groups again needed to be fine tuned. Tony, Helen, and I were grouped with Baigalaa and one other girl whose name I forget, but she was the leader. When we arrived at the apartments again, we split into two groups (Tony, Baigalaa, and me; and Helen and the leader) but I, being the heroic gentlemen type, refused to leave two girls by themselves, especially since we were actually going inside the apartments, so I went with the leader (argh, what is her name?) and Helen instead.

Each of us had ten packets, each packet containing some tracts, flyers for the church, and other information. After we had been in about two of the buildings, our leader was running empty while Helen and I each had seven or eight still left. I mean, all we could say to them was (I know spelling is incorrect, but this is how you pronounce it, so bear with me) "san-ba-no" (hello), "o-duch-ben" (welcome), and "ta-nic-uch-ben" (I invite you). Plus, those door ringers were freaking scary (to Helen and our leader, of course; not to me), and every door Helen and I knocked on seemed to have no one home. Really.

Eventually we cleaned them all out, so we took our final ride downstairs in those tiny, creaky elevators (actually, the final "ride" was the stairs because the elevator in that one building was broken) and met up with Baigalaa and Tony, who had finished and had been waiting for about half and hour. Taking the bus back to church, we continued with our children's program, where did some face painting (including our famed moustaches) and popsicle stick frames for Polaroid pictures. I also made myself a cross since I didn't make one the other day; my Mongolian name is 3apaa, which means "hedgehog."

In the evening, I was suddenly alerted that I had to come up with a testimony for the meeting. Jonny, Wayne, and I took a bathroom trip to the Hotel Ulaanbaatar and tried to come up with something. Nothing particularly profound arose, but when it was time, it all came to me and a lot of people said it was great. Immediately after, we performed our now-classic drama, "The Family" (hitch: a lens popped off Wayne's sunglasses for no apparent reason. I know, it boggles my mind too).

And that wrapped up the Family Conference. We were planning to go shopping a little bit the next day, but we figured, why not just shop for an hour now, since that was all we needed, so we could spend some more time with the church tomorrow? So we went to the department store and bought ourselves a few little things. I got a t-shirt that had the old name of Ulaanbaatar on it, in the language of the original Mongolians and not in the Russian alphabet.


During face painting, I asked Leedah to paint a moustache on me, and now I look like Edward Norton in "American History X." I am trying to do the squint but I just look like I'm blinking.
Here is a group of young 'uns making and decorating their popsicle stick frames for their Polariod pictures.
We are the Moustached Ones: Charles (played by some French guy), Leedah (George Clooney), Gloria (a male), and me (Edward Norton).
Tulga, Tuya, Tseegi, and someone I don't know talking around in the church office.
This is Dembee talking to Seegii in the other office room. The flash on my camera doesn't have enough distance.
After eating some really spicy rice at that Korean restaurant, I took this picture of the evening sky. How nice.
A heroic low-angle photo of the Liberator of Mongolia (trumpet sounds), against the bright evening sky (where the sun sets at about ten o'clock at night)!
A blurry picture of some of us being suckers for this guy's paintings (they are nice paintings, but are they his? Who knows?).
What happened here? I don't fit into the picture, I have the dumbest face possible, and the Liberator is all stretched. Leedah, what did you do?
Leedah and Pastor Ricky wear those bizarre fur hats that Leedah bought at the department store. Fur is murder (especially when they wear it)!



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