Hello Living Stones Family!

It is hard to believe that four weeks have already come and gone for our team! It seems that just yesterday we were leaving the church parking lot to jump start our journey here in Mongolia. We miss you all, but God is doing amazing things here, and we are having the time of our lives!

This week was full of fun adventures for us. To start, we added a new member to our missionary club. Benny from Germany (or Hans, as we nicknamed him before he came) arrived this past Thursday. With lessons from Caitlin on a few German words, we all did our best to welcome him to Darkhan. He is 20 and wanted to spend some time on the missionfield before beginning college. He is an extremely talented pianist and graduated from a School of Worship back at his church in Germany (which Pastor Dick has shared at!). It will be fun getting to know him better and to have an extra friend on our team. Yeah for Benny!

Another very exciting thing for our team is our new schedule. We met with Pastor Mark and Ginny this week, and we decided together that we want to maximize the remainder of our time here. So, that is exactly what we are going to do! We came up with new ideas for evangelism and ways for us to really pour into the Mongolian youth. Each of us was assigned a cell leader from the church to pour ourselves into during our time here. We will begin to attend their cell, get to know their cell members, and help them find ways to evangelize and see fruit in each of their cells. We are so excited to see how God is going to mesh our hearts together even more with the people.

Our Fourth of July was very fun and exciting. There is something so unique about celebrating a holiday in a foreign country, but it's even more unique when the holiday is specifically an American holiday! The day started out how many 4ths back home do: RAIN. It rained and was, of course, cold (because in Mongolia, there is no such thing as a "warm summer rain"). But toward the afternoon, God heard our earnest prayers and allowed the sun to come out and dry everything up. Around 4:00 PM, the girls went over to Pastor Mark and Ginny's and got cooking. So, for dinner that night, with three different countries being represented (Mongolia, America, and Germany), we had a barbeque complete with hot dogs and potato salad. Thanks to the Imbrone family, we even got to finish off our night with poppers and sparklers! It was such a fun night of fellowship and laughs, and a memory that I think all of us will keep with us for many 4th's to come!

As a team we are all healthy and happy. We are even being taught how to cook traditional Mongolian food thanks to Xlaavga, the cook. Oh, how she is testing our Mongolian though! She came to teach us how to make Serhvan, a very traditional and tasty pasta dish, and we spent 15 minutes trying to figure out what an onion was! :) Needless to say we are FAR from fluent!

Continue to pray for all of us. We truly feel it in everything we do. May God bless you, and may your mustache grow like brushwood (Mongolian proverb)!

Hannah (for your fab five)

Hey Everybody!

Your favorite five are still here in Mongolia and loving every minute of it! The internet has not been working well, and last weekend was the church's big summer camp, so i have not had a lot of time to sit down and write. But we are doing great and miss all of you!

We are finally moved into our little house and are making it as "homey" as we can, complete with candles and junk food, Mongolian style :). We have Mongolian lessons every Monday and Thursday morning, or if you want to master the language (like Hannah and Kelly), you can also have advanced classes on Wednesdays. We are cheering them on! Mongolian is sooo hard! They make sounds out of their mouths that I never thought was humanly possible! As a result of these lessons, our English is getting worse, and our Mongolian pretty much stays the same! But we aregetting very good at interprative dance as we try and point to and describe the things we want. :)

The church summer camp last weekend was a lot of fun. We were prepared for hot days sleeping in gers and being outside, but it ended up thunderstorming most of the time and was freeezing. Don't you love falling asleep to the sound of rain? Then how ‘bout pounding Mongolian rain on the roof of your ger in the middle of nowhere?! Quite an unforgettable experience! So the Mongolians the whole weekend were giving us different peices of their clothing to wear, because they felt bad for us. Seriously, all we had was shorts, tank tops, and flip flops! We worshiped, each of us taught a lesson, and we ate A LOT. On the last day, Paul, Hannah, Caitlin, and I wanted to conquer a mountain in the distance, so we set out on our three hour mountain climbing journey. (Kelly stayed back and practiced her baseball skills, which I heard amazed everyone!) So we finally got to the top, and what was there besides the incredible view? A high place where they worship false gods! So we wasted no time destroying the altar and throwing it off the side of the mountain shouting "Mongolia is the Lord's!" All in a day's work! Haha!

We really do miss all of you and appreciate how much you are thinking and praying for us. Continue to pray for our strength and joy in every situation. We will talk to you again soon at the end of this week!

Much love,
Harvest (for the team)

Hello Living Stones Family,

It's Sunday late afternoon here in Darkhan, Mongolia. We have had a great time of ministry over the last several days. Friday and Saturday our team held an Encounter and Re-Encounter for Pastor Mark & Ginny's church. It was an incredible time for their church and for all who ministered. They were approximately 60 attendees for the Encounter and 20 for the Re-Encounter. One highlight was that the opening session of the Encounter, 10 people got saved! And it ended with a big bang as well. The Re-Encounter team was ministering "revival fire" and came to the Encounter final session to impart and pray for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. It was powerful. One thing we have definitely seen and learned first hand is that our prayers have the power to transcend the language. Many times, most of us, didn't have an interpreter so we just had to pray in English and in the Spirit. It was amazing see them weep under the power of God.

Debbie and her children's ministry team did last-minute children's ministry for 60 children! They did incredible as well! Cathy had a great time during all of this cooking for 150 people in her Mongolian kitchen. And in the midst of all of that activity, the construction crew was able to finish the addition to Pastor Moogie's home. It looks amazing!

One of the highlights for me today was praying for the Mongolian worship team after their Sunday service. The Holy Spirit fell as I was praying and nearly all of them were on the ground under the power of God. This is quite unusual for them, but they are so hungry for more of God. I have truly enjoyed working with them. They definitely went to a new level in harp & bowl worship & prayer this morning as our team of John, Andy, Selah, and myself joined them as they prayed and sang. We also had the wonderful opportunity to pray and place Pastor Mark's assistant, Moogie, in place as his associate pastor. Pastor Mark & Ginny, Pastor Dick & Susie, and Charlene and I were able to minister to he and his wife and set them aside officially as pastors and anoint them. It was great to be a part of this as this church is one of our Living Stones Global Network churches.

Tonight we have our final time with the Mongolians over dinner and gift giving. It will truly be a bitter sweet time. Part of our hearts will be left behind here.

Please keep the entire team in your prayers . . . the final leg of the trip often is the most difficult because the intensive part of ministry is over. Please pray for us. We're headed to Ulanbataar tomorrow to catch our flight to Seoul, South Korea. We'll spend a day there and be able to visit Prayer Mountain. From there, most of the team will fly home to Chicago. Our family along with John Staub has a wonderful opportunity to make a short stop in Beijing, China, for three days to take the girls to their homeland! We're really excited about that!

We love you all and can't wait to be home and share all that God has done. This is just a short snip-it and all of it can't be included in one small update.

See you all soon!

Pastor Jon (for the entire team)

Hello from Mongolia!

This morning we woke up to see snow on the hills surrounding Darkhan, and those that came to breakfast dressed for summer weather quickly ran back to their rooms to exchange shorts for sweatpants! By noon it had warmed up, almost like a gorgeous, crisp, October day. The beautiful, blue Mongolian sky and sunshine had replaced the grey, rainy skies from last night. Even though we have had much needed rain on several evenings, our days have been perfect weather for construction and VBS outside games. For those of you who have been praying for us to have great weather, thanks for your prayers. Keep them coming!

There are hardly words to adequately describe the synergy and excitement of the team as they experience all that God is doing here! Each person is fulfilling a divine purpose and knows or is discovering the reason that they came to serve. They have all been totally in good health, unified, and doing everything with such excellence. God even blessed us yesterday with hot water for the first time since the team left home. There was a definitely a shout in the camp last night!

It's Friday afternoon here, and we are finishing up four days of intensive ministry. The medical team saw about 140 patients yesterday, and when Pastor Mark came to meet the team at the hotel at 6:15 AM, there were already patients lined up, even though the clinic didn't open until 10 AM. I heard that Dr. Brent even performed brain surgery, but I think that story has expanded slightly from what really happened (although the surgery did have something to do with the head)! Today the medical team multiplied, as Dr. Brent took several people with him to a countryside village where he had shared at a cell meeting last night. Over 30 patients were treated in a church member's house. Davga's yard is also home to the two cows, Marion and Susie, that our Kid's lifeGROUP Network bought for the Mongolian church last Christmas. It is reported that both cows are happy and thankful for their new home and performing their expected duties well!

The roof is almost on the extension of the church, and Tim and the construction team have been working 12+ hour days. They plan to continue working through the day tomorrow, with the hopes of finishing late tomorrow night or Sunday afternoon. The extension is looking GREAT! Tim is amazing, having to improvise with whatever supplies are available. He has also had an awesome team of Paul, Pat, Rex, Ed, Vince, and Ben working with him.

Speaking of Paul, he celebrated his 26th birthday yesterday, complete with a surprise lunch of a hamburger, french fries and a strawberry shake (from the only semi-not Mongolian restaurant in town - the Nomad). Later, several of the Mongolians dressed up in their dells (the national dress) to present him with his very own Mongolian hat and several gifts. Following dinner, the youth played baseball and ate frosted, strawberry birthday cake, which Caitlin lovingly baked using ingredients she had brought from home. The rest of the team went to the cell meeting in the village, while Pastor Jon and Charlene, Pastor Mark and Ginny, Pastor Muggi and his wife, Nara, and Dick and I had dinner together and were able to talk about "church stuff" and laugh a lot together. Yes, Pastor, Dick did tell some stories . . . !

The VBS team had over 100 kids at last count, and I don't know how Debbie continues to do such an incredible job as kids appear from all over the neighborhood, and God stretches the supplies that the children's team brought in. Today to close the session, they all sang "Our God is an Awesome God" with hand motions. It was also really touching to hear them repeat the lessons that they had learned all week. I am not sure of the exact amount, but I believe there were over 30 kids that gave their hearts to the Lord. Debbie graciously volunteered to organize children's activities all weekend for the Encounter/Re-Encounter, so please pray for her!

Tonight we begin our Encounter/Re-Encounter and are expecting about 30 people in the Encounter, and over 100 in the Re-Encounter. We have decided to release all of their cooks and staff to attend, so please pray for Cathy and her kitchen team as they feed over 150 people for two meals tomorrow. She has had a great time every day, helping what seemed to me like endless chopping of things, grinding meat, and kneading dough. This morning she and Hannah went off to the local "birch" (market) to buy things for tomorrow's meals. She is definitely in her calling!

Pastor Jon is falling in love with the Mongolian worship team and has been such an influence in their lives already. Yesterday they wanted to learn "Great Big God," as they are all still wearing their Chicagoland Outpouring T-shirts that we gave them last year. Selah has been helping their drummer become adjusted to the new, electric drum set that we were able to bring them. They are learning many new things, including how to flow from one song to the other, how to harmonize, and how to go deeper into God's presence with Harp and Bowl. It is a major blessing to have him and John with us here!

So, that's the good report! We can feel your prayers sustaining us and moving the Kingdom of God forward in Darkhan. We love you and thank you for being part of this successful mission.

Pastor Susie (for the team)