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

A Look at Housing in Hong Kong

Hi everyone,

Before I get into house stuff, here's a quick recap of the past two weeks since school began.  Shannon is glad to be teaching 6th grade again, Josiah is in his second year of preschool, and Ava just started school! She was very eager to go to school like her big brother, and on the first day of school she held hands with another friend and walked right in.  The kids go to school every weekday for three hours and a lot of people have asked me what I do with my free time.  So far I've done exciting things such as laundry, washing the dishes, getting started on dinner, grocery shopping, and running errands. :P  It is nice though to have that time, and I am looking forward to seeing what else God will do this year during that time.

First Day of School!

We've lived in our new home for almost two months now, and we love it.  For those of you that don't know why we moved, the school Shannon works for provides on campus housing for the first year. After that, people look for a place to live.  One of the first things you learn when looking for places to live is that housing here is small and expensive.  Many people live in estates, which are groups of tall apartment buildings.  Some of the ones I've visited have amenities such as pools, landscaping maintenance, playgrounds or playrooms, and security guards. A typical apartment in our area costs about double what we paid to rent our condo back in Prospect Heights for half the space.  In real numbers, that would be around $2000/month for about 500 square feet of space.

Typical Estate

Out in the New Territories where we live, there is more space than on Hong Kong Island.  So here and in some other areas of Hong Kong you can find villages, which sound really funny when you've lived in an African village and associate that word to mean something completely different than what it means here.  A village in Hong Kong is basically a neighborhood cluster of three story apartments.  Typically a family lives on one floor, although bigger families may have two floors or even the whole house. Villages can be cheaper than estates because they're a little more rustic and don't have the amenities that the estates have.  However, they do tend to have more space than the estates for a lesser price.  We live on the middle floor and our place is the standard village apartment size, seven hundred square feet.

Our Home! We're on the middle floor where you see the washer and dryer

We live in a beautiful little village next to a mountain.  It's the coolest thing if you're from the flat lands of Illinois because even hills look like mountains to me!  We live at the end of the train line and it takes 10-15 minutes to walk to our village from the station.  We often find huge snails, toads, lizards, butterflies, and dog poop (there are lots of dogs and not a lot of pooper scoopers) on the way home.

Entrance to our village

Some days it's very sunny, other days it pours! The kids are walking to school from our village 

We are fortunate.  While our place may be considered small by some American standards, it's still big to some of our friends.  We have the space to host people at our place for get togethers and also to take them to neat places nearby like the ocean.  A couple weeks ago we invited the youth from our church over and showed them around our neighborhood.  Some of our friends live with their families in public housing estates, which are generally three hundred square feet.  So you can see why our place feels so spacious and why they enjoy hanging out here.  Well, and they love our kids too. :)

Having a "hot pot" night with some of the youth in our new home

Enjoying the little rocky beach by our home 

Our neighbors are also very friendly.  The first day we moved our new sets of keys were inside our new home, so we couldn't get in the main door downstairs.  One of our neighbors noticed our problem and told us she could call her friend who lives in our same building.  She then walked and took the train all the way and back from where her friend was (which was a half hour away) and brought her keys so that she could open the door for us.  It was such a kind gesture and made us feel so welcomed into our new home.

About a month ago Josiah and I took a walk and stumbled upon the beach in the picture above where we took our friends.  We saw lots of people digging for clams and crabs, as well as plenty of kite flyers.  When I asked a woman if we could see her catch, she not only showed us all these large crabs she had caught but then proceeded to dump five or six of them into a plastic bag for us to take home.  We declined (I didn't want to take her dinner!) but it was so sweet of her.  These are some of the wonderful interactions we've had in our new neighborhood and we look forward to getting to know our neighbors better.

Look at that catch!

A serious kite flyer with his little red kites, wooden knee pads to roll out his spool, and a chair so he can do it comfortably too

We live in an area with so much natural beauty, but there are other parts of Hong Kong where the housing situation is so bleak.  I thought some apartments I had seen here were really small until I read an article that opened my eyes to just how big the gap is between the poor and rich in Hong Kong.  I posted this article on my facebook page awhile back, and it's a must read if you don't know about the realities of Hong Kong housing.  Nobody should have to live in a "cage home" and I can't imagine living with my family in a tiny apartment that has been illegally subdivided to make it even smaller and still have to pay exorbitant rent for the minuscule size of the place.  

I was disheartened after reading that article but then I found out about a great organization called Hope of the City which partners with local organizations and churches to empower the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in Hong Kong.  I had the privilege of taking part in two of their programs this summer.  I taught a beginning English conversation class to a small group of elementary school kids in Sham Shui Po once a week at a local church.  My goal was to make English learning fun and to give the kids confidence to speak English.  I had a blast and the kids were enthusiastic learners. The summer program went so well that I'll continue to teach English twice a month at the church during their free after school homework help program beginning in September, when the local schools start up again.

Some of my students! Teresa, the lady behind the students, helped me with translation

I've also had the opportunity to meet an amazing family in Sham Shui Po through a different Hope of the City ministry called Adopt-A-Family that partners with another church in Sham Shui Po and the YWCA.  This church seeks to help families that aren't supported by other NGOs and are amongst the more needy in the low income bracket.  These families are on waiting lists to live in public housing estates, but the average wait is three years.  The purpose of this ministry is to show Christ's love and instill hope by extending friendship, care, respect, understanding, and support to the family.

A building in the neighborhood where I teach my English class

I had the chance to meet the family I was assigned to for the first time last month with three other volunteers.  The four of us will always visit the same family so that we can really develop meaningful relationships with them.  It was so wonderful to finally meet the family for the first time. The family consists of a middle aged man, his wife, their high school daughter, their elementary school daughter, and toddler son.  They live in a subdivided apartment that holds two bunk beds and just enough space to walk from the beds to the door.  It's easily half the size of my living room.  I don't want to dwell on the size of their place but it's very, very small for five people. The four of us were able to squeeze into their apartment by sitting on their beds.

While their place was tiny and cramped, their hearts were filled with joy.  I wasn't sure what to expect, especially since I don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin, but the husband and wife were just so happy to see us.  I spent the first couple minutes listening and asking people to translate conversations for me.  But then I was able to utilize one of the lessons I've learned from living in different countries.  You can always play with kids even if you don't speak the same language. :) I started to play peek a boo with their toddler, and he slowly overcame his shyness so that by the end of the evening we were able to see his smiles and laughter.  I slid over to the younger daughter's bed and noticed that she had checked out several books from the library.  She was very bright and eager to read with me, and I promised her on my next visit if she checked out more English books that I would gladly read them with her again.  They may have very little in material wealth, but they are very generous.  During our debriefing back at the church after our home visit, the pastor's wife shared how the wife sews clothes for others, even when they have very little themselves.  They began attending their church as the love of Jesus was shown to them, and the joy of knowing Him is just so evident on their faces.  I am blessed to have gained new friends and I can't wait to visit them again at the end of this month.     

This summer I definitely gained insight regarding housing in Hong Kong more than just a move from one place to another.  I really thank God for the opportunities I've had to meet people from all walks of life in Hong Kong.  Just the other day I heard about a great book called Where Children Sleep by James Mollison.  It's a book of photographs that shows how and where kids all around the world go to bed each night.  I plan on sharing pictures from this book with Josiah and Ava to give them some understanding of poverty, wealth, and the world around them in a way that they can comprehend.  You can see snippets from this book here.

It's been a year since we came to Hong Kong, and I have just been blown away by how God is always "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..."  And so to Jesus be all the glory for this wonderful job that he's provided for Shannon, for a great school for the kids, for a home next to a mountain, and for bringing us to Hong Kong.  But more than these enormous blessings, I thank God for the incredible people he's put into our lives.  My prayer request for this year, especially as I have a little more time while the kids are in school, is "to make the most of every opportunity" (Eph 5:16) because I know that I am so dearly loved by Christ.  This summer was full of opportunity and each encounter, each friendship, and each lesson taught and learned from my new friends was a meaningful one.  I am humbled by the love that comes from being a part of the body of Christ, the joy that comes from loving others, the hardships that cause you to cry out for others, and the faith of people shown and demonstrated as a reminder to me each day that God is always, always at work.

Thank you for reading and for your prayers!  Please keep them up.  We are thankful for you too!

Summer Break Part One- Korea!

Hi all,

The summer has flown by and school will begin again this week.  Shannon had six weeks off from teaching for the summer and it was full of all kinds of blessings.  We spent the first week of summer break moving and settling into our new place, which we'll write about in another post.  Then we spent two weeks in Seoul, South Korea with my brother, his wife, and their two kids who flew all the way from Chicago to meet us there.  I took far more pictures than I should have and tried to scale it down to share with you what these weeks meant to us.  Here's a rambling recap of what we did during our time there. 


We explored Seoul neighborhoods and had fun at popular sights and attractions.    

Water fun at Grand Children's Park

Camel rides, courtesy of Aunt Katherine, in the zoo at Grand Children's Park

Namsan Park, an enormous public park full of greenery

In front of Seoul Animation Center and Cartoon Museum

Took a cable car to Namsan Tower, known for the "locks of love" that people leave here 

Early birthday fun at Lotte World, thanks to Uncle Charles and Aunt Sunny

At Oido Beach, where there were lots of tents but very few people wearing swimsuits

A walk along Han River in the evening

We enjoyed the history and culture of Seoul.  

The War Memorial of Korea, informative for adults and fun for kids

On Gyeongbokgyeong Palace grounds where we also found grass!

Peering out of an old traditional home, Gyeongbokgyeong Palace grounds

Learning how they transported things in the olden days at a folk museum

Playing dress up in traditional clothing, National Children's Museum

Pottery at the National Museum of Korea

Loved these truck sellers that would set up shop on the sidewalk and sell anything from fruit to jewelry

In the Insadon neighborhood, which had traditional souvenirs, antiques, calligraphy shops, and other folk art 

We savored the food.  Shannon wasn't so keen on eating at low tables where you have to sit on the floor and the sheer amount of red (which equals spicy) food he couldn't eat on the table.  But to me, the food was delicious and our family and friends generously treated us to yummy meals.  We also got to indulge in American food that we hadn't eaten in awhile because Seoul had a number of American restaurants that we don't have in Hong Kong.  

Koreans love their garlic, especially for kimchi! Taken at an outdoor market

This was the biggest basin of seafood and noodles I've ever seen.  We ate it at a restaurant by the beach and clearly ordered too much.

The low tables that gave Shannon so much trouble :P

Here's my favorite Korean sweet treat, called pat bing soo.  It consists of shaved ice, sweetened beans, and toppings such as ice cream and fruit.  So, so good on a hot, summer day

We got to catch up with old friends!

B

Out out of all these wonderful things we got to do, the best part of this trip was that we got to see these people and do all these fun things with them.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Charles, Sunny, Colette, and Remy.  The time you get to spend with family is pretty precious when you haven't seen them in a year.  The kids especially loved spending time with each other and picked up right where they left off with their silly games and laughter.

The most meaningful part of our trip was getting to see my grandmother, uncle, cousin, and other family members that I haven't seen in over ten years and that Shannon and the kids met for the first time.  My grandmother got emotional each time we saw her because she was so glad we came and valued this special time together.  I loved that I got to learn more about my grandmother, her childhood, and past.  My uncle enjoyed giving the kids rides on his shoulders and spoiled them with treats.  We made fun memories with my cousin and his family as the twelve of us packed together in a minivan for a day trip to the beach.  We got to know our family better and see how much we've changed and grown.  

Ava and Josiah meeting my grandmother and uncle for the first time

Dinner with some extended relatives on my mother's side

Get together with my mother's cousin and his family

Cousins, including Sunny's brother's daughter, piling up on Uncle Charles

Family picture with my cousin and brother's family

We are so thankful that we got to go to Seoul this summer.  I thank God for bringing us to Hong Kong all the more because we gained better opportunities to reconnect with old family and friends that are now much closer than they were.  The sights and attractions were a blast, but the memories made together with those we love were the most unforgettable parts of the trip.      

Part Two of our summer and some awesome stuff God has been doing will be coming soon!  Thanks for reading and for your prayers!