Ulan Bator – my ministry to the coldest capital city on earth

Jona with his ‘morin khuur ‘- a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument.

Jona is currently undertaking „Alternative service abroad” with HELP International Mongolia instead of military services in Germany. Below he describes his recent personal experiences.

 

For now more than six month I live here - in the country of wild horses and rambling nature. But for now I mainly live in the coldest capital city of the world at its coldest time of the year:
The crazy traffic, the dust, the winter smog which fades the sun red in the morning and makes it hard to breath. The Ger areas (Mongolian round tents) with its inscrutable roads, the straying dogs digging in the garbage at the side of the road, children queuing with their canister at the water houses and thousands of corner shops – It seems I already got used to all of that. 

Than there is the ‘Зах’, a market where you literally can buy everything. But after two hours shopping, one flees because of the cold, and I ask myself how the sales man can bare that hour by hour and day by day without freezing to death.

’100-аль’ and ‚Цайц’ are DIY stores where we often buy construction material, they work like a flee market, at every stand they pile up numerous things, and if they can’t find what you are looking for, they run through the iles to find it for you at someone else's stand. There are also supermarkets like ‘Home Plaza’ where you have a familiar ring because the shelves are filled with common reasonable priced branded goods – even though they are not particular favorable here.
My every-day work is to help in our alcohol-rehab and to help to care for homeless people. I like this work. We see the thankfulness of the people and sometimes we really see, how a life is changed.

More about HELP Mongolia >>

 

Mongolia - Impressions from the Children's house

In the children's house of HELP International

Sometimes, the young people in our children's house in Mongolia come out of very desperate circumstances. Some of them e.g. lived in the underground heater duct of the capital Ulan Bator. Our staff trys to give them a better future. See this small gallery to get some impressions of the children's house. Go to the gallery >>

In Mongolia - One of the most exiting ministries of HELP

Provided with food from Germany - Jona Friede

Jona Friede is currently undertaking „Alternative service abroad” with HELP International Mongolia instead of military services in Germany. Below he describes his recent personal experiences.

It is winter time. It took quite while but now the winter has arrived. The average day temperature goes down to -5°F and at nights down to -13°F. This appears to be nothing compared to the time when there will constantly -13°F during day time. I’ll see how I am going to cope with it. Playing soccer in the snow at such a temperature is not that much fun any more, but it works. To live or even sleep outside does not seem to be imaginable any more..

There are a lot of homeless people on the streets of Ulaanbaatar, usually alcoholics, mostly men, but sometimes even women and children. Some of them work on the black market during the day, and for the night they crawl into holes in the canalisation system and the district heating tunnels. In case they fall asleep drunken on the streets, they often never weak up again. As far as I know, the government does not do an awful lot about it, anyway what can be done at all. One of the most exiting and - as I see it - one of the most challenging ministries of HELP comes in here. Three days a week they provide a place for those people.

The smell is awful and gets even worse while the room is getting crowded. Around 50 men and a few women find a place to sleep here. On mats on the floor they prepare their bed. Nobody has clothes to change but at least it is warm so they can take off their coats. I sit down with them. The best thing I can do is to talk to people, just simply show them that I care. To be honest I don´t understand much of what they say, but I get the impression that talking is some kind of a comfort for them. During the last two days there was somebody who spoke a few words of English. So we just talked about sports, horse riding and the length of my stay.

He told me that he, or was it a friend of him, once worked as a DJ in a famous club. He lost everything because of the alcohol - a great power here in Mongolia. People here know, that it is wrong how they life their live, but very few are willing to do something against it. A lot of them are happily singing along when we start to worship and listen carefully, when we tell them that people can be freed and changed by the power of God, just as it is happening in our rehabilitation centre. Only a few are grabbing our helping hand and are willing to trade their current lives. After the message they have food, people can take a shower, undergo medical treatment and then it is time to sleep. It is a short night, talking of me.

One night, my friend Sebastian an I stayed for the night. Our little room had no door and constantly people were passing by to see the bathroom. I hardy slept. As early as 6 in the morning they have breakfast, which had to be prepared. After that, people leave to disappear into the cold. Our turn is cleaning now. Even though it is tiring, there is nothing more beautiful and important than to share the love of God with those people. I would really like to talk to them properly, but I don´t think this will happen this year. Maybe I'm going to help out in a similar project in Germany.
More about HELP Mongolia >>

Live from our Shelter in Mongolia's capital

By HELP Mongolia (Silke Schurr)
Sometimes we are facing turbulent days at our emergency sleeping spot in Ulan Bataar.
A blend of about fifty homeless people – men and women, old and young, talented and frail ones, people who at some point had been “someone”in society, and those who were “nobodies” all along, come to stay overnight.
They are indeed God’s creation, every single one with a name,
a history and with a hope for a better future. Please join us for a live impression of an evening in the Shelter and a touching testimony.
More>>

Mongolia - Enerel for "compassion"

A young German serving his civil service in Ulan Bataar reports:

‘Enerel‘ is our shelter in Ulan Bataar, where homeless or drunk people can stay overnight.
Enerel means “mercy, compassion”.
“Once a week I am doing a night shift at the ENEREL. It is always challenging and tiring, however at the same time a very fulfilling ministry. We start at 7.30 pm with prayer and open the doors at 8 pm.
Our leader Bataarsuch always welcomes the freezing people into the warm rooms. Supper is already cooked. Many are drunk, but all are kind, still able to walk on their own.
This is what happened the other Saturday:
The police had already called and asked us to pick up some drunken people, whom they had collected from the huge black market.
This time it’s my turn to be the bus driver. On our way back we pick up another man.
Back at the Enerel I put all of them to bed ...that’s the time you realise how heavy a man can be!
Most of them immediately fall into a deep sleep. Before supper there is still time to take care of wounds. The bad hygiene on the streets leads to some nasty ones. Today two people had to be taken to hospital. Sadly one needs to get his toes amputated.
During supper a fight was close to spark: one of the guys got furious over a small issue, another grabed a stool ready to smash it into his face. Fortunately I am quite tall – that helps gaining some authority in spite of only being a “Duu” (little brother) age wise.
I just took the stool away and asked the trouble makers to leave. Our little devotion started. This time people were not as concentrated as usual.
After washing and disinfecting the dishes it’s bedtime.
It’s almost like sleeping next to the toilet in a train with people getting up, complaining, someone lighting another cigarette ...
Morning started with breakfast. The men we picked up last night asked what had happened and who took them here. After a while, when everyone left, I am on duty to clean up the place.
Even though I am totally exhausted, I had a great time! Some lives might have even been saved!
More about HELP - Mongolia >>

Mongolia - New alcohol-rehab

These are families on staff of our new rehab for alcohol addicted people at HELP Mongolia.

For weeks they were busy with construction, renovation and planning. Finally everything is ready and they’ve just started with the rehab. Our staff reports:

“Yesterday we took in our first rehab guest, his name is Tuwschen. He is 27 years old, was trained as a biologist and worked for some years in his job.

The booze destroyed almost everything in his life: his family, the job ...
The past months have been a sole frenzy, spent in drunkenness. He wants to quit. He seems to be honest and at ease. We are very keen to see his further development. From own experience we know that by God’s help so much is possible – even in this area.”

Mongolia - Views of the ministry

One of our staff from HELP Mongolia, who is serving Mongolians in various ways (helping the homeless, sidewalk café, etc.) has put together a little picture gallery. These depict both, impressions of the country and personal encounters between HELP staff and locals (click on the pictur to enlarge).























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Mongolia - The right people for the right time

It takes five whole days in a truck or three whole days in a car, driving over streets and grass runways to move from Ulan Bator to the outermost west of Mongolia. One of our couples from HELP Mongolia just made this move to the west to serve the Kazakhs who comprise most of the population there. They want to train them in English and handicraft. They report:

"Since the elections last year the emergency to build-up good vocational schools and to improve the quality of vocational training in handicraft is on everyone’s lips. That’s where we want to help and we actually got a hearing at the ministry of education:

Our first talk to a Kazakh professor at the university in Ulan Bator went very well. She said: “You are the right people at the right time for that place!” Our papers were sent to the city and the governor of the province was informed about us immediately.
We were encouraged once more when we called the director of the vocational school there: “That’s exactly what we need!”, he proclaimed. “Practical tutorial is exactly what we need! And, why wait with the language course till after the summer break – we can start with summer school right away!” ...

“In the Thick of it”
We believe that we will have good opportunities as teachers to not only teach knowledge and mechanical skills but will also be able to influence the students positively. We want to live out and impart biblical established values and are hoping to win the hearts of the people. We are very fond of the youth, would like to moot questions about a Christian way of life and want to play an active part in the Mongolian society – and now we got a place in the thick of it!
Who knows how many other opportunities will open up?"
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Mongolia - Help for alcoholics

Our HELP Team im Mongolia started a course for alcoholics which is quite successfull. They do it in a church in "Suchbaatar" and it is also done in several other churches in the country.

During 12 meetings, the participants learn how to get free from alcohol and get the most important foundations of christian faith.

Gerel… (30), who is a maths teacher and Osoch are two of the participants who finished the course. Now, they help others who have the same problems. Actually, Gerel... was employed in his old school again.
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Mongolia - A new kid in our house

A new entrant has been added to our kid's house: Erdenbatgal, 16 years old. He comes from a little town, 500 kilometer away from Ulaa Baatar. We met him there during a conference.

Erdenbatgal has been living on the streets for two years when he scorched his face awfully with hot water while sleeping in the central heating pipe system. Now, a year later, his wounds are still ulcerous and badly swollen.

He ran away from the first hospital, where he received skin grafting. We found another hospital which is willing to treat him. We really need to find a good place for surgery in order to see his deformed face restored to its health. During the phases without treatment we will take care of him in our kid's house.
More about HELP-Mongolia >>

1500 Participants at 'Stream 08' in Mongolia

A short time ago, we had the stream08 - conference in Mongolia. It was organized by HELP International and other christian Ministries from Mongolia.

1500 young people, pastors and church staff took part. From the beginning on, the atmosphere was full of excitement and enthusiasm. Reconciliation took place and walls between generations fell.

You will find more about the conference and more personal reports in our next HELP-Info Newsletter.