Beautiful Mongolia and Flourishing Futures

Beautiful Mongolia






Hi friends and family!

I've been working on this blog post for the past month, trying to figure out what to write and how to share about the week I got to spend in Mongolia with a team of students, parents, and teachers from ICS at the beginning of October during the school's fall break.  I've been telling people that it was an amazing trip and that I need an hour to tell them all about it if they really want to hear what it was like.  So bear with me if this ends up being a long post.  I hope you think it was worth the read.

Our group with some of the girls at the shelter we visited

What do I want to tell people about my trip to Mongolia?  I want to share about Flourishing Futures, the humanitarian organization that hosted us during part of my stay.  I want to share the story of Troy and Shari Tzrdik with as many people as I know, of how God basically told this family from Illinois to sell their house and move to Mongolia with their four kids.  Their testimony alone is a lesson in faith and trust in God, even when they didn't know what the next steps would be, how they would get there, or what they would do.  And I admit that their story is one that I want to focus on, to show how God uses everyday people like YOU to do amazing things each day.  If you want to know more about their family, visit Shari's blog here and sign up for their newsletters.  You will be blessed.

But most of all, I want to share that this week was really all about God, and Him showing me how He works and how He loves more than we could ever know.  Want to know what Mongolia is really like and what He is doing there?

A view from atop a hillside overlooking part of the city

It's a beautiful country.  We went during the fall when the weather is brisk but not freezing.  Almost everyday I would wake up, open the door, and see the bluest skies I've seen in a long time. (The best we can get here in Hong Kong lately are slightly hazy bluish skies.)  At night on my way to the outhouse and back I would look up and see the sky completely covered with stars.  Even though we stayed in one of the most polluted cities of the world, I never noticed it except for one morning when our team took an uphill hike that took us to a spot that overlooked the city.  It was only then that I could see the haze below.  I have been told that the pollution is worst during the winter when people need to use coal for their fires in order to survive the negative forty degree weather.

Roadside coal and wood for sale

Our nights were cold, but we were warm and sometimes a little too toasty when we had the fire going provided by the wood stove in our cozy ger.  Gers are round, single room tent homes made of wooden frames covered by felt and canvas.  About 45% of the population lives in gers.  In the ger neighborhood where we stayed, many of the front gates to the hashas (yards) provided beautiful pops of color to the landscape. I spent half of the week in the ger district in a neighborhood consisting of gers and small houses in Ulaanbaatar, the country's capital.  The rest of the week I spent in the countryside with two friends and stayed with two different nomadic families in their gers.

One of the many beautiful gates we passed by while walking in the neighborhood

The cozy ger I shared with two friends

The bed I slept on inside our ger, which was pretty hard but clearly beautiful!

Learning how to make a fire in our ger

For the first half of the week, we learned about the work that Flourishing Futures is doing in the community.  Their goal is to meet the needs of the most impoverished families in the ger district. While we were there, here are some of the activities our team was blessed to take part in.

Home visit with a very hospitable and friendly family

We visited families in the ger district.  The organization visits the families they support each month to check up on them and to make sure their needs are being met.  We learned through one of the homes we visited that alcoholism is a major problem in Mongolia that has devastated and broken many people's lives and families.  I also learned that people, especially children, are strong and resilient and can overcome harsh adversities such as these.

My new friend, one of the Desert Rose girls at the temporary shelter

We met the girls at the Desert Rose Shelter, a home for girls from ages 5-24.  We visited the temporary home for girls that have just entered the shelter and then their more permanent home in the ger district. The girls that live at Desert Rose come from very difficult backgrounds, whether it be abuse or neglect and here they are loved, cared for, and restored.  The goal is not only to providing healing to the girl but to her family as well.  Desert Rose provides counseling for the entire family in the hope that the children can eventually be reunited and returned to a healthy, loving environment with their families.

Desert Rose girls at the permanent home in the ger district

Not only did we get to chat with the girls, we also got to surprise them with new bedding.  They loved the new sheets and blankets and were so thankful that we had come all the way from Hong Kong to visit them.  We shared words of encouragement and love with them, and ICS youth and Desert Rose girls bonded despite language barriers through their love of Korean music!  I'm truly amazed at how far the Korean pop culture extends here in Asia, and also how many Mongolian people I met were able to speak Korean fluently.  We also learned about how tirelessly the house moms and director of Desert Rose work to provide and care for the girls as their own children.

So happy to have her new bedding that she laid down in it right away

Look at my new bedding!

We participated in Flourishing Future's poverty workshop, where I learned about the realities of the choices an impoverished Mongolian family must make in order to survive.  If I had to decide whether to send my son to school or drop out in order to get a job just to meet the minimal needs of our family, what would I do?  These were the type of questions we pondered as we sat in one of the emergency gers that the organization uses to house families that need immediate assistance and housing.  To summarize that experience, please watch this video that we watched while we were there. Believe me, it's worth it.  

Fetching water at the water station in the ger neighborhood

Taking water home

"You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." Matthew 5:14-15

When I think about Flourishing Futures, this is the passage that comes to mind.  As they literally share their light by providing coal to impoverished families during Mongolia's brutal winters or bringing joy and laughter to children's faces during the summer camps they run for the children of government orphanages every summer, they are flinging that light far and wide.  The community around them sees the light they share because they love the community with the same love they would give to their own families.  Jesus' love is displayed through English classes in the evenings, Bible studies in their homes, teaching women to create beautiful handmade crafts to provide income to their families, mentoring and fellowship for youth, and so many other things I don't even remember.

Beautifully handmade felt slippers that the women in the community have created

In addition to all of this work that happens at the community center, the NGO is in the process of completing a second community center in a different ger district in Ulaanbaatar.  Troy, the director of Flourishing Futures, used to own a construction business before his family came to Mongolia, and he is using his gifts and talents to multiply what God is doing there.  Our team visited the partially finished center, which is nicknamed "the Ark".

While visiting the center we got to meet some of the young men that were hard at work.  They took a break to share their testimonies with us, and we heard stories of extreme hardship and pain but also restoration and hope.  Hearing their stories and standing there inside the new community center I thought about how the new center will one day be used to create more God stories like the ones we saw and experienced that week.  I don't know what God's going to do there but it makes me excited just to think about it.  

The Tzrdiks and Wards (who led the trip) in front of the new community center

I could go on and on but if you've read this far, I think you get the point that God is doing incredible things in Mongolia and with Flourishing Futures.  It's not so much that he needs people that are super heroes (although Troy, Shari, and all the workers and volunteers at Flourishing Futures are super), but simply people that love God that are willing to follow his command to not only love Him but love your neighbor as yourself.  If there was one overarching lesson God inserted into my brain that week, that was it.

If  you would like to learn more about Flourishing Futures or support their organization, make a visit to their website here.

Thanks for reading!  I spent the second half of the week in the countryside and hope to blog about that soon.  Sorry this one took so long!  Besides the trip to Mongolia last month, we had a family birthday and Josiah turned five!  I'm so proud of my little man.  He's a thoughtful, creative, intelligent, and handsome son.  I love him to pieces and thank God for what a blessing He is to me each day.

Love,
Carol