Ohh...beautiful Mongolia. We have spent about a week in Mongolia and will be leaving tomorrow on the long train ride back through the desert and grasslands to Hohhot China. There have been many things we have learned since being here about the history, culture, and how God is working here. I am trying to read a book on Genghis Khan and how he changed world history (very interesting and a workwhile read) and that has been very eye opening to the culture. Mongolian culture is still very centered around herding, horses, and their past. It is very expensive in the capital city to do most things, even more expensive then America at times, and with the high inflation it seems even worse. Patty and I bought a frozen pizza for 7500 turgets ($6.50) and it was good but expensive. There are many foreign restaurants and many foreign workers since opening up in 1990 after the Soviets left. The Soviets did bring many good things to the country though such as a better education system, the cyrillic letters that Mongolians can read, and many technological advances. Mongolians in the countryside are very friendly, we just stopped in to see a family yesterday and they provided us the traditional foods, milk tea, curdled milk candies, and other milk products (all very gross). The main food is mutton (lamb meat) that is also an acquired taste. Many people still live in gers (pronounced gair like hair), even in the capital. Only 12% live in apartments or houses. We went to two National Parks (Terelj and Hustai). They were truly beautiful places with lots of mountains and grasslands. We got to ride horses, see the folk dances and songs (Patty is now addicted to their music especially the throat singers and horse fiddles), seen wild horses (they are hard to find but we tracked some down and chased them around the mountains). Our greatest joys have been in seeing how God is moving among the people though. We have met many family members and friends and been able to hear their stories and attend their church today. What a blessing. There is a lot of history of Christianity and Mongolia. Marco Polo was asked to bring priests to Kublai Khan and he promised the country would become Christian but there were only a couple takers so the country became Buddist. Ghengis worshipped the Eternal Sky and Shamanism which still remains here as he is revered very highly. We have been very fortunate to be able to stay at our friend Beth's apartment while she is gone in France and to be able to have a wonderful guide, Gany during our travels. Yesterday, we went with a driver on the crazy bumpy roads of the countryside out exploring Hustai National Park which is co-funded by the Minnesota Zoo (yippee). There are few true roads so we took a Land Cruiser and followed paths and made a few of our own, over rocks and rivers. It is such a beautiful place with green everywhere!! We hope your summer has been nice and green but without all of the mowing that comes from it...maybe you need to get a few hundred sheep or goats so cows to mow your lawns!?! Love you all tons!!