Weekly update: unloading the container

This week is a mixed bag of news. I know I missed an update last week: that is part of the good news. But I will start by telling you the bad news. Sunday morning, we started the church meeting with three adult Mongolians! We had more adult foreigners when we started; seven Americans were there and only three Mongolians. But the numbers picked up and by the end of the meeting we had 29 Mongolians. Maybe we should start the service later …

The good news is that the container for which my father and I had been waiting finally arrived last week. I received a call Tuesday telling me that it would be here soon which I mis-interpreted as a call that the container had arrived. I then spent half of Tuesday preparing to take possession of a container that still had not come to Ulan Bator.

On Wednesday, I received a call stating that the container was in the rail yard. I picked up the paperwork after lunch and spent the rest of the day trying to list and categorize all the material that was in the container.

It took us most of Thursday to finish categorizing the packing list. Then there was the expected customs duty and value-added tax to pay. What was unexpected was that it would take me several hours to pay it. The first bank branch I visited was closed because the computer network was non-functioning. While attempting to visit the second closest branch we became snarled in a traffic jam. We were the last customer at the bank. In fact the teller was in such a hurry to close her window that she gave us the receipt for a payment before we gave her the money.

We spent all day Friday at the rail yard jumping through various hoops (some nearly flaming) to have our container inspected by a customs official. First, we had to get a crane to move our container into a position where it could be inspected. Then, we waited for the customs official to inspect it. Then, we waited some more for the customs official to decide that all was in order. Less than an hour before the yard closed for the day we received the last of the stamps we needed.

Knowing that it would take all day to unload the container, we decided to begin Saturday morning early rather than Friday evening late. Early for Mongolians means 9:30 in the morning, hardly an early start. Needless to say, we did not finish until dinner.

Now, however, all the materials and tools are in the shop, and the men are eager to get started setting things up. Already we have had several people ask about ordering furniture. It is a good start. This week I would ask you to pray for safety as we set up the shop.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is our opportunity to remember the soldiers who fought and died to protect our freedoms. Don't forget to read a story of someone who gave his life for freedom this weekend.

Some pictures of the wood

Here are some pictures of the wood that we unloaded yesterday. According to the packing list the wood alone weighed almost 22 metric tons. We had to unload it all from the container and put it on trucks, then we had to unload it from the trucks to put it in the garage.

The picture above is the hardwood dimensional stock. That is, it is solid hardwood. It will be cut up into smaller pieces to face the veneer and to make doors, etc. There is hundreds of board feet of lumber. My dad gave me the money, and I bought the material sight unseen. I am grateful to Matthew Patenaude who made the purchase possible. My dad was excited when he saw the amount of raw lumber we had purchased. I told him it was about 7 cubic meters, but meters don't mean much to my dad.

This picture is the hardwood veneer. Similar to plywood in that it has many "plys" of wood that compose each board, it is different than plywood because both "faces" of the board are a thin layer of high quality, hardwood veneer. We received it in the three standard sizes of 1/4" (6 mm), 1/2" (12 mm), and 3/4" (18 mm). Two Mongolians asked me specifically what it was yesterday when we were unloading the container. There must be limited quantities of such material in Mongolia, but I've been unable to find any.

My dad starts on Monday to place the machines that we received. We need an electrician to do the wiring of the machines. More pictures are coming when all is set up.

The container is unloaded

The container that is an important part of our plan to stay in the country indefinitely arrived on Wednesday. After three days of dealing with customs—no problems to speak of, just normal stuff—we finally unloaded the container today. We started at 9 this morning and finished about 4:30. Not bad for a days work.

I'll post some pictures here soon. And come back to see some more pictures after the shop is set up.

Quote of the week

"God does not waste suffering, nor does He discipline out of caprice. If He plow, it is because He purposes a crop." — J. Oswald Sanders

On applying for residency permission

For the last several years we have been required to apply twice a year to the Mongolian immigration office for permission to reside in Mongolia. While the process is not terribly complicated it always involves hiring someone with more time than I have to visit various government offices over the course of two weeks and demands that I spend some hours filling out paperwork. Usually, the registration process also entails a day-long, personal visit to the immigration office. Sometimes the officials at immigration act as if they will not continue to grant me permission to stay in Mongolia. Other times, the officials seem almost eager to issue me a renewal of my residency permission. For some years now, I pray all year for my residency permission to be granted when the time comes to re-apply.

This past occasion when I applied for residency permission, I had a new assistant with me. Initially, I had a lawyer who legally established my company and obtained residency permission for us. He died several years ago. Then for a few years, some fellow missionaries, who had a legal assistant, were kind enough to share his services with me. This past year, my company hired an accountant with experience dealing with the immigration office. Bolormaa (pronounced Ball•or•mah') worked in a job previously where she was required to handle the company’s employee’s requests for residency permission and visas.

Despite our diligent efforts to prepare everything the day before we went to the immigration office, Bolormaa found out the morning we planned to request an extension of our residency permission that we needed another tax document. Now obtaining a single tax document may not seem like a daunting task—especially if you pay your taxes as I do. However, waiting to obtain the tax document can be challenging. Sometimes people wait hours to meet the tax official who can give them the stamped document that they need to show their payment of tax liabilities. When Bolormaa told me that we would need to stop by the tax office before we went to the immigration office, I thought briefly of panicking.

Rather than panic, we prayed before we left for the tax office eventually headed to the immigration office. When we arrived at the tax office a few minutes before they opened we found a parking lot that was already filled with vehicles. We had prayed, and I determined to leave the timing of our day in God’s hands. As Bolormaa left the car, I told my father that we should go ahead and wait outside the car because it might be some time before Bolormaa returned with our certification of tax payment.

But within about ten minutes Bolormaa returned amazed that our request had been dealt with so promptly. We hopped back into my vehicle and set out for the immigration office.

The first thing everyone does when they enter the immigration office is to take a number to wait for service. The next step is to purchase the forms needed to apply for residency permission, a visa, or whatever service one is requesting. Then while we were waiting for our number to be called we began to fill out the forms. There were nine forms that needed to be filled out. Within a few minutes of completing all the forms, our number was called. Again it was providential: we completed the forms just in time to be called to the window.

As the conversations swirled around me I noticed some officials were asking many questions of the people at the windows. In the past, I would get nervous as I imagined all the questions that they might ask and what my answers would be. But this time as we filled out forms, I prayed for patience and wisdom, peace and calmness. The Lord was good to answer my request, and during the entire time we were at the immigration office I was at ease.

Our number was called. Bolormaa and I went to the window to present our forms, letters requesting an extension of residency permission, bank details, a letter of domestic registration from a local government official, a tax document, passport pictures, passports, registration documents of two types, and copies of our apartment deed. (There may be a few more items that I have forgotten.) All the pieces of paper made quite a stack. The immigration official flipped through the stack, asked two straight-forward questions, and approved our paperwork.

Again, Bolormaa was surprised at the ease with which we obtained residency permission. I assured her that it was because we prayed.

Bolormaa is not a Christian although she has attended several church services. These clear answers to prayer are an important witness to God’s power and care for His servants. As you think of her, please pray for Bolormaa’s salvation.

Quote of the week

"Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness ultimately comes from being weary of pleasure." – Ravi Zacharias

Deans' weekly update

It has been a blessing to have our parents in Mongolia for the last few weeks. Because Kristie has once again struggled with her health, my mother has been an essential help to the family.

There are many prayer requests to mention this week. Let me focus on the changing of the guard, so to speak. In the next two months, two missionary families will be leaving Mongolia to take a furlough. Also, three missionary families will be arriving in Mongolia though not necessarily to take their place.

Living in one's country that is not one's own can be like that: expatriates come and go as health, family, finances, and other pressures and purposes interact with our primary desire to be God's ambassadors to a dark land. Please pray for us to have wisdom as we direct our ministry to both Mongolians and expatriates.

Some pictures from a Sunday

Quote of the week

"Every person thinks. It is the fundamental nature of our brains to produce thoughts. Sometimes these thoughts occur randomly, with no apparent connection to the moment we’re living in; sometimes spontaneously in response to the stimulation of our immediate surroundings; sometimes in a detached, reflective, stepwise form of internal ‘dialogue,’ registered in our acquired native language. The challenge we face is not producing thoughts, it is producing useful thoughts. These are thoughts that are capable of analyzing the formidable but fascinating complexity of the world in order to guide actions to yield the most appropriate or best result." — Michael LeGault