NEW HOME IN HOVD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT24GRxVUks

After a few months of renovations, we present our new house to you! This past summer, we added red bricks, insulation, and a new roof to our adobe mud block home to get it ready for winter. Recently, we added a garage style fitness room out front and have been fixing up the inside. Thanks for your support and prayers during this time of building up and setting down roots here in Hovd!

We are featured on CAMA's website as a Priority Project!

Priority Project: 4-47407-46-87

If you were to come to Mongolia and attend a church, it wouldn't take long to notice the lack of men. CAMA worker Larry Lain proposed a creative way to reach young men in the community by providing a way to draw men in. If God shows up in song and dance, why not while pumping iron?

Twenty men are regularly working out at the Mighty Men fitness club, a 170 sqft room. With 75 potential names on their list, Larry and his Mighty Men want to expand the little box they are using. By building a 15'x30' brick gym with mud room, coal room, and a heat wall the Fitness Center has room to accomodate more men.

Your gift of $11 will buy a bag of cement, $25 will buy 200 bricks, and a gift of $200 will provide the front door. A total of $7,300 is needed for this project. Your gift will provide a place for young men who are tomorrow's fathers, leaders, and believers in the good news.

http://www.camaservices.com/priority/mighty-men.php

Kazakh New Year

This past week our team has been celebrating "Naoriz" - the local Kazakh New Year. I had the pleasure of "hosting" a pair of Lutheran brothers and showing them around the various Kazakh communities in our province of Hovd. David, the fellow shown here, has been working in Kazakhstan for several years and was able to pull out his dombraa (Kazakh 2-stringed guitar) and wow each household with a popular song as well as a traditional worship song or two. This in itself was quite a ministry, as many Kazakhs cannot play the dombraa themselves. Their situation calls for Mongolian culture in their socio-economic lives and Arabic culture in their spirituality.

We were able to visit a countryside town and this new growing house church. Although most of them are Mongolian, the woman on the right (and her daughter) is a faithful Kazakh believer and was thrilled with the worship and Bible we gifted to her in her own language. We went with her to various neighbors' and brothers' homes that day - sharing good Kazakh food and fellowship and engaging in many great discussions about God's glory and Christ our King. There was a great deal of openness and reserved searching, and it was en-boldening to see the early fruit of God's Kingdom in that place.

The next day we visited some households in our city and then traveled to another countryside town where they were hosting a "county fair" - wrestling, horse and camel races, a small concert, and the Kazakh tug-of-war with a goatskin. It was a fabulous cultural experience! Unfortunately we only had time to visit with two households there, and pray for a Kazakh family with a sick child which seems open to God's Word. There is much for us to learn and do... happy Kazakh New Year!

Radical in 2011

As Mongolians are getting ready to celebrate the new "White Moon," we are busy working with local Kazakhs to build a new community! Please pray with us this year to:

RE-BUILD THE WALL
- Our field director, Dennis, arrived for a couple days and we inspected a potential central facility. This year we want to re-build a "home" for the scattered Kazakhs and establish deep roots in this community. We will check some other lot locations this week and choose a site hopefully by mid-month. Pray for discernment and a good price (less than $41,000 plus $20,000 if we restore the existing facility - 61k for Isaiah 61... check it out).
- This last Saturday we called a meeting to gather many prominent Kazakh leaders, teachers and business folk in order to discuss a proposal for a "Kazakh Culture & Information Center" and establish a steering committee. Praise God for bringing together 9 active leaders (we were hoping for 20 ;). This is a key step in unifying and mobilizing Kazakhs for community development, not only here in our central "city" but also for the 10,000 Kazakhs spread across our aimag in 4 other small towns. We cannot partner on ANY community projects until we identify some partners! Pray that God will bind their hearts and raise up these key people to lead this community with passion and righteousness. Our next meeting is Feb. 11th to plan the steering committee objectives (registration, location, funding, services, etc. etc!) to be present to the community late March during Naorez (Kazakh New Year).

STAND IN THE GAP
- Prayer isn't easy when you're busy... and it's not much easier when you have lots of free time. It just seems to fall in the cracks. We want to make prayer a priority - in our personal quiet times, in our fellowship, and in our daily encounters with neighbors in need. Kazakhs may not be very open to "help," but there are certainly a host of health and economic needs. We have dedicated a ger wall for use in intercessory prayer - hanging requests from it until they are answered - and will be using the Manchurian Wall as an anchor point for doing monthly prayer walks through the community (first one on Feb. 3rd). We are also fasting together every Thursday-Friday and invite you to join us. Pray for God to shield this community from temptations and disunity... pray for Him to break through powerfully with healing and reconciliation.


PROCLAIM THE WORD
- Our team has read and testified from the book of Matthew this month, and Krista and I are starting each morning with prayer and a Psalm. Praise God for giving us a Word that fills and provides for us a foundation that never collapses (as opposed to buildings or economies!).
- Some Kazakh guys have been too busy for a Bible study the last few weekends, and another has gone to the countryside temporarily. Pray for God's Spirit to give us hunger and understanding of His Word as we finish up a study on Adam and start the next one on Noah... every Sunday afternoon.

GO TO THE PEOPLE
- We are pushing ourselves to meet new families and follow-up with our project contacts (visit 100 households this year!). This past week especially I met a host of new business folks (mostly ag related) to invite them to our planning meeting. Pray for open doors, discernment, and the words to inspire vision and participation as I follow-up with these busy people. Pray for Krista's courage and time to grow a couple Kazakh friends!

AND BUILD ONE ANOTHER UP FOR SERVICE
- Our team is meeting every Thursday and Sunday for worship, planning, and fellowship. The three guys are also meeting every Tuesday lunch for accountability and encouragement. Pray that we would grow in character, relationship, and fruitfulness!
- Of course our "team" also includes YOU, and we want to not only intentionally communicate but even equip you to serve as our partners... and to become better supporters of the call God has placed on your heart. Please feel free to inquire about any of the above goals and activities... we really want you to JOIN us!

2011: We are currently raising funds for this year's ministry budget of $37,000 - which includes a growing economic project in Darhan as well as establishing a brand new team and ministries among the unreached Kazakh people in Hovd - as well as another $61,000 to re-build a "home" facility here in Hovd.

Yours in Christ, and His on your behalf among the Kazakh people,

Fitness Club's Winter Comp.

The "Mighty Men" Fitness Club has been meeting for approximately 2 and half months. Our small room has turned from house to gym. We meet in the morning from 9am to 12pm and in the evening we meet from 5:30 to 9pm. We have 30 names, 20 attendees, 10 dedicated, 5 that come to both sessions, and 1 that is here from 8am-9pm with only a 3 to 4 hour break in the middle of the day. It has been an amazing opportunity to get to meet the young men of the neighborhood!

During winter things seem to be moving very slow, including myself. It does take a minute to get moving in the morning when there is no daylight until you have already been up for many hours. This has decreased our regular attendance a bit, but I am always surprised when people show up! For example, today was a -40 C and youth were still knocking on the door at 8am to begin working out.

I have been thinking a lot about 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

“Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last;”

The Guys above are the dedicated whom competed in our winter competition. Many said they would come and compete, but didn't show up. Those above trained hard for the last couple months to receive the gold medal, but only one received the honor.

“But we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Now it is amazing to see these young men pushing themselves, getting stronger and more excited about our meetings, but it is all for a crown that will rust and fade! We hope to lead these young men toward a crown that will not RUST. That will not FADE! To see them in the Kingdom as Champions!

Please pray that we live what we teach so that we will not be disqualified. That these young men see Christ in our lives and in our reflections. That they will run the race worthy of their dedication!

Larry J. Lain

Setting Up Shop

We are slowly getting established in the Hovd community. Here is a picture of the storefront we have recently rented, located very near our host families and in a fairly central area of the Kazakh district. We hope to make this into a community "training room" where locals can get to know our organization and discuss local issues. We plan to have a small "prayer chapel" in one corner.

Next to the storeroom is where the former owners used to live. We will hang a banner and start rennovating it this week to house our Fitness Outreach. We hung posters around the area and announced in the district meeting, now it is up to God to bring the men!


Our families also recently moved out of the gers and into houses. Here is the main room of the Lains' 3- room house, which is located directly behind the store. There is certainly a lot of work to do around here! Although it is still temporary, we have already begun exploring some possibilities for purchasing a central CAMA facility in the Spring. Pray with us!

Darhan Trainings

In June we launched a 12-week series on family finances. One of our goals is to help people (especially in ger communities) design and implement income generating activities... but first they need to learn how to manage the money and resources God has already given them! There are many small business supports in town, but nothing like this.

Three of our classes are dedicated to helping people start neighborhood savings groups. They will need encouragement, accountability, and help from others in order to start things like emergency funds and budgets. Plus this will give their group a good foundation for working with other NGOs and government agencies. These are some of the students from District #1 in Darhan.

Another one of our major goals is to help people to manage their public "wealth." This will hopefully include street improvements as well as social activities, but it will take awhile to establish good leadership and trust between members! These are some of the students from District #2. Altogether we have about 30 students for our first course.