Big Deal

We sure wish you would send all the Global Warming our way.  A lot of people are worried and complaining about climate change throughout the world.  Well, here in Mongolia we are having a cold snap, a week of 20 below zero, with even a couple of days 30 below, and it is only the middle of November!  When you look for winter clothes the selection is different than home. Gloves and socks come in camel, yak, wool, and horse.  Hats come in felt (wool), mink, yak, and rabbit. Coats come in down, mink, rabbit, wool, yak, goat (cashmere).  Boots come with camel, yak, and wool linings inside and reindeer and goat out. We saw a man with a mink hat the other day at the bus stop that was as big as a small bushel basket.

From this letter and last weeks letter you can see what is on our minds -Winter in Mongolia.  Mongolia is down wind from Siberia.  Siberia generates the cold and then blows it over Mongolia.  In the winter you do not have to check the forecast or the temperature.  Just put everything you have on and hope it's enough.  We have been told that Camels can take the winter cold better than any other animal. When you touch them you find out they have a fur coat that is 4 inches thick. It doesn't look like it but they are heavily insulated.  Yaks look like they are covered with 6 inches of long fur, which they probably are.  Just imagine a cow with a fur coat that hangs clear down to the ground and you have a yak.  We were also surprised to learn that the one animal that has a very hard time in the winter in Mongolia is sheep.  All this makes for a very interesting world. The meat consumption goes up in the winter, especially meat with lots of fat.

We bid out a water station this week.  It looks like we will be doing 4 more water stations before we return home in May.  We will be having a big meeting with the National Rehabilitation Center to bring several hundred (500) wheel chairs to Mongolia next spring.  We are also meeting with the National Federation of the Deaf to consider helping them develop and print a National Sign Language for Mongolia.  We are doing good and hope we are making a difference.

We are so grateful that we have this Gospel. Living it makes us so truly happy.   We pray for you all every day.