Sunday update

It has been busy around the Dean household with an extra baby about. Sunday morning was no exception. I usually try to make Mother's Day a more relaxing day for Kristie. But today that was difficult. First, Uyungaa's (paternal) grandparents decided to come visit Uyungaa in the morning. It was a little disconcerting since Uyungaa has been at our house since Monday and they have not made an effort to visit her before now. We told them that we had a church service to attend, and they were gracious enough to cut their visit short.

Almost immediately after we returned home from the church service, Mandaa came over to visit his daughter. Then the baby did not sleep much this afternoon which cut Kristie's rest short. Maybe I will try to get Kristie some quiet time tomorrow.

Numbers were down at the church service today. The number of adults was about right but there were only a handful of children. Because of the hand, foot, and mouth disease kindergartens and elementary schools are closed this week. I think many parents have taken that to mean that their children should be kept at home.

Health update

You have probably heard about the hand, foot, and mouth disease that is ravaging parts of China. Doctors here in Mongolia say that there are now cases in Mongolia too. It does not surprise me since much of our produce comes from China.

Kindergartens have been closed and many first and second grade students are staying home from school. Bayambaa who is at the National Infectious Disease Hospital with her son Ermune told us that 250 beds have been prepared there for hand, foot, and mouth cases. Ermune will probably be discharged this week, maybe sooner if they need more beds.

Ulzee was not doing well on Friday. We will see how many stay home tomorrow from church because of illness or the fear of illness.

Health update

Kristie and I visited Ermune's mother Bayambaa in the hospital. Ermune must stay isolated so we were not able to see him. According to his mother, he is doing fine. They are giving him some medications now. He probably will be in the hospital another week or so. He is scheduled to have another test next Monday after which they will evaluate his condition.

Also, we heard today that when Aya recently visited the local health clinic the doctor there said that she should see a cancer specialist. There are two growths on her abdomen that are causing some concern.

Aya is Ulzee's mother. (That is Aya in the picture with a table prepared for Tsagaan Sar in the foreground.) I am still not certain about Aya's salvation. Please pray for her.

Update on Ermune

Ermune definitely has hepatitis A according to the Mongolian doctors. He has a mild case and is expected to recover without trouble. His mother Bayambaa must stay with him for the two weeks that he is in the hospital. I believe that he is mainly staying in the hospital to isolate him from others and prevent the spread of hepatitis. When I asked what treatment he was receiving, his father told me that he was observing a regimen but receiving no medication.

Since his mother must stay with him for the two weeks that he is in the hospital, someone needed to look after their daughter Uyungaa since the father Mandaa cannot get time off from work. Uyungaa is ten months old and a sweet, usually calm baby. (That's Uyungaa sitting in the chair with me).

She had been staying with one relative, a bachelor who obviously did not know much about babies. Ganpurev and Ulzee took the initiative to investigate the situation and found that it was not a healthy situation. Since this relative as a garbage collector the baby was literally living among garbage. He brings home things that have been thrown away that he thinks may be of value and keeps them in his small, dormitory-style room.

We made the decision to take care of the baby ourselves since no one else besides the bachelor wanted to watch her. Ganpurev and I went to see Mandaa to see if there was someone else who might watch the baby and if not to get his permission to watch his daughter.

When I arrived at the relative's place to take the baby, she was sitting on a pile of old clothes (there was no bed) and there was a pile of garbage nearby. I will close the curtain of compassion on the scene of squalor. Suffice it to say that when Uyungaa arrived at our house, Kristie and Ulzee promptly gave her a bath and washed all her clothes. We had a few things of Elsie's that Uyungaa wore until her clothes were ready.

It's been a busy couple of days. Kristie has not been sleeping well at night. Uyungaa gets her up several times a night crying, probably because she wakes up and does not know where she is. Either way, Kristie is pretty tired and trying to keep up with her normal work as well as have a baby around. Please pray for strength for all of us.

Also pray for Mandaa. He is not a Christian and though he has heard about Jesus Christ in the past has always said that he is not interested in religion. His mother is very set in her Buddhist ways and exerts no little influence on him. My desire is that this labor of love would give us new opportunities to witnes and would open his ears and heart to the message of a loving Savior.

Do we believe in prayer?

In a small mid-western conservative town, a new tavern started a building to open up their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed, however right up till the week before opening, when a lightning strike hit the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the buildings demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made it's way in to court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing and commented, "I don't know how I'm going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that doesn't!"

I don't know if this story is true or not but it seems to illustrate a common problem among Christians. We pray and pray and as soon as one prayer is answered we move on to the next request without stopping to thank God for His answer to our prayers. Whether we intend to do so or not, our reaction speaks volumes. It is as if we pray as if we are dependent on God, but once we have our answer we act as if God's intervention was unnecessary to the solution of our problem.

Sunday update

This past Sunday was an interesting one for me personally. Ganpurev preached from Psalm 23. Now I have heard many sermons from Psalm 23, but I have never heard a sermon from Psalm 23 preached by a true shepherd. Ganpurev has not read books about shepherds and sheep; he has been a shepherd. It was very interesting for me to hear a shepherd preach on Psalm 23.

Mongolians are easily offended when they are compared to sheep because they know how stupid and defenseless sheep are. You can say, "All we like sheep have gone astray," and emphasize "like sheep." But the unregenerate Mongolian hears, "All we like stupid and defenseless animals have gone astray." The end of that statement just reinforces in the Mongolian's mind the first part of that statement. He thinks, "Of course they've [he does not want to admit this about himself so ...] of course they've gone astray - they're stupid animals." You see a Mongolian knows that a good part of a shepherd's time is spent trying to find lost animals. It is a frustrating task because the animals have become lost through their own stupidity.

So I followed Ganpurev's lesson eagerly as he explained the roles of a shepherd and how they matched the roles of our Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. His explanation of sheep and our resemblance to sheep was also fascinating. He did an good job of using the sheep illustration to work in man's need for a Savior.

For those of your wondering about attendance we had nine Mongolian adults this past Sunday which is a down day for us. One member was in the hospital with her son, another told me that family matters would keep him from attending.

Please keep praying for Ganpurev as he grows in his ability to preach.

News

Ermune, the little boy that we have watched a couple of times in the past, is in the hospital. The complaint seemed to be a particularly bad bloody nose. However, the the local government health clinic did not seem to be much concerned.

Bayambaa then took him to a private hospital. The private hospital diagnosed a liver problem and sent him on to the National Infectious Diseases Hospital which is near our apartment. He will be there for fourteen days.

Strangely enough to the American mind, his mother is required to be with him 24 hours a day every day until he is discharged from the hospital. So not only is Ermune in the hospital, his mother is as well for the next eleven days. She had a baby that she was nursing but had to give the baby over to her father to take care of because she could not bring the baby into the hospital with her.

Meanwhile, her husband Mandaa continues to work while they are in the hospital. His birthday was over the weekend, and he chose to go out and get drunk with his buddies while his wife and son were in the hospital and the baby is with grandpa. I'm still a little confused about the situation - not the facts of the situation which I know quite well, rather I remain confused about people's reasons for doing what they are doing.

It seems to me that because it is liver related, the doctors think that Ermune has hepatitis. The symptoms that have been described to me are the bloody nose, jaundice, and trouble with his liver. They think that he caught this disease from his environment because the disease is often spread in Mongolia by mice and cockroaches - both of which are very common.

Still, the doctors have not yet started a regimen of treatment. Ermune was admitted to the hospital on Friday, and some tests were taken. However, the pathology department does not work on the weekends so Bayambaa must wait until Monday to find out what the tests show. Then the doctors will prescribe a course of treatment. She has asked us to pray, and we'd ask you to join us in prayer as she and her son are in the hospital. I will give you more updates as I am aware of them.

Expressing our gratitude

This blog is especially written to thank those of you who send us things. Some of you send us big things. Others of you send cards and notes. Regardless of the size, we are thankful for the things that you send us.

As an example that even the small things matter, I've included a picture of Elsie holding a card that she recently received for her birthday which is later this month. Inside was a single dollar bill. Elsie was so excited: first, to have a piece of mail all to herself. She opened it, pulled out a cute card and the dollar bill, and said, "Look, they sent me money." The whole thing made her day.

So a big thanks to all of you who write and send things to us. It makes our days exciting especially for the children.

I woke up to snow this morning

It has snowed every May except one in which I've lived in Mongolia. So I should not have been surprised to wake up to a snow storm this morning. Yesterday afternoon was warm enough (63 degrees). But in the evening the wind came and brought with it a cold front (or should that be the other way around).

By this morning it was cold, and the snow was falling.

So much stuff: the American predilection to accumulate things

As Americans we seem to have an innate desire to accumulate possessions. I recently moved into a new office. Part of the move involved going through all the things that I had accumulated in the six plus years that I have been in Mongolia. I found things that I had brought over from America with me but have not used in the years that I have been here. I hold onto those things thinking that someday I will use them ... someday.

We live in an apartment that is about 1000 square feet and have to resist the "let's save it, we might need it someday" mentality. A constant source of friction has been the need for more storage space. As soon as we have a new cabinet or bookshelf, it seems to fill with "things," and there never seems to be enough room for the next item. Kristie and I have been discussing whether we really need more storage space or whether we really need less things.

With four children and widely varying weather, it seems that we have lots of clothes, shoes, boots, and coats. We have the heavy winter boots that are not quite warm enough when it is below zero outside, but that are too heavy for springtime wear. Then we have sandals for the summer and slippers to wear about the house. (Mongolians do not wear shoes inside the house.) There are dress shoes for formal events and work shoes for working outside. Multiply all these pairs of shoes by four children and two adults - not to mention the shoes that are not anyone's size but will eventually fit the next child - and the house seems to be overflowing with shoes.

Just within the last two years we were finally able to get everyone their own closet. Each closet seems packed with clothes yet the children sometimes complain, "I can't find anything to wear." I myself probably have enough sweaters to last for the rest of my lifetime, and I've probably given away about a third of the sweaters that I once had.

Mongolians will often wear the same outfit two or three times in a week. If they have three pairs of shoes besides their slippers than they are doing well. Why do Americans need a pair of shoes for every occasion?

Most of the American families that we know in the States have nearly two times the space in their homes that we do (and half the kids). They have a two car garage but cannot even park one car in it because of all the stuff that they have. Still, they are so proud of themselves when they find a bargain at a garage sale. Something else to stick in their garage among the other once useful items, I suppose.

Meanwhile, many Mongolian families that I know can fit the family's entire wardrobe in a small closet and a single chest (that also doubles as a table). If it were true that American families were much happier than Mongolian families perhaps this accumulation of things would be a worthy endeavor. But it seems to me that our ability to amass things only makes us eager for more.

Perhaps the next time that you are tempted to buy a pair of shoes, another sweater, or snap up that really good deal at a garage sale, you can ask yourself: "What if I just did not spend the money this time?"