Invited for Coffee

Written by Denise

Wednesdays are special.  We don't open the coffee shop until noon.  We spend the morning gathered around a coffee table.  After everyone has a hot cup of tea or coffee, and sometimes a snack to share, we study and discuss a small passage from God's word.  We sing.  We share about what's going on in our lives and pray for one another.  We live LIFE together.

There's a new coffee shop in UB called Cafe de' Amor.  It's a small coffee shop nestled in to this big city next to the Cuban Embassy.  The front has two large trees, and they built their deck around these trees, so you can sit and sip your coffee under the shaded bows of two large Pines.   UBean has been helping this small coffee shop get set up and running, and supplying them with the best fresh roasted coffee from UBean of course.

UBean works hard at establishing friendly relationships with each new coffee shop we supply with coffee.  If I have learned anything from living in Mongolia this year, it is that trust and relationships have to be earned.  A relationship takes time, effort, honesty, trust, patience, and care.

Last Wednesday we were invited by the owner of Cafe de' Amor to come hold our weekly staff meeting and study time at his cafe.  He wanted all of us to come see the newly opened cafe and enjoy this peaceful little oasis in the middle of the big city.   It really is a great cafe, and the coffee is wonderful!  We admired the cozy furniture, artistic decor, and menu choices.  

The owners daughter has gotten to know UBean's Roaster, Garid, from his frequent visits and immediately grabbed onto this hand and didn't let go.  School is out for the summer and she now spends her days at the coffee shop.

After we finished our short study, I noticed that she was rather bored sitting at a table starring out the window. I'm sure she'd rather be out playing on a playground with her friends then sitting inside on a nice summer day.   I asked her to come over and join us.  She immediately came over with a big smile.  She told me her name was Nandin Erdin.  Her name means, "Special Treasure", and I'd say her name suites her well.  Nandin is a delightful 8-9 year old girl, with long black hair, and a big toothy smile.

Garid, Mashka, and Nandin Erdin

I told Nandin that we were about to pray together and asked if she would like to join us.  She shook her head yes eagerly.  When we asked her what she would like us to pray for her, she surprised me.  Most young children ask prayers for things, like...I hope we get to go to the movies on saturday, or  I find my lost stuffed bunny named fluffy.  Nandin didn't ask for anything for herself, rather she asked us to please pray for her father's cafe.  This little girl has an understanding that her family has put everything on the line starting this business and that it needs to succeed.  She folded her hands and prayed with us for God's blessing & provision upon Cafe de' Amor and her family.  I hope you will pray for them too, and pray for the relationship we continue to nurture and develop with this family.

Our time in Mongolia is ending soon, less than 3 weeks till we leave.  I try not to think about it because the tears well up and it starts to hurt knowing how many people I am going to miss.






I will miss this beautiful country and their beautiful language.  I wish I could speak more of it.  Here's a sample of Mongolian worship and praise songs.  Even though we can't understand the words, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.


Click Here to listen to Mongolian Praise & Worship Music

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Written by Jim Manchester

Changing Direction

These past months have been a time of major transition for me, and for our family. For some time now, I have been questioning if and when it would be the right time for me to transition out of the business that I have co-owned for the past 17 years.

Over the past five years or so, as I have been involved with ministry in our church back in Evanston, I have been sensing that God wanted me to pursue a more active roll in the church. When I first sensed this call, I didn't feel like I was in a position to do so. My business depended on me significantly, and I didn't want to leave the business in such a way that caused its collapse, and the livelihood of my business partner and employees with it. So, over the past five years I have been working to train employees to be able to take over those things that I had sole responsibility for, while I worked on continuing my education in international business. I was also fortunate that God provided the opportunity for me to become the new Worship Director at our church during this time, working on a part-time basis.

Last year, when the opportunity came up to be able to come to Mongolia as the bookkeeper for CAMA Services, I was able to arrange for the business to continue in my absence, with me providing financial oversight and programming support remotely over the Internet. With Skype, I could check in as often as necessary, either over the phone or attending meetings over Skype video conference calls. As the year has gone on, I have been able to continue to work at the business less and less each week. As spring came around, I knew it was time for our family to make some decisions on what the next step would be when we returned to the States in the summer.

Although this time in Mongolia has been a blessing to us in many ways, there are a number of factors for our family personally that do not make full-time service overseas possible, at least not at this point in our lives. We decided that whether we are to do this type of work overseas in the future or not, that we wanted to be involved in making a difference in other people's lives.

Based on my desire to make this transition, and with the support of my family, I began discussing my transition out of the business with my business partner back in March. I also began the process of applying for provisional licensing with our church denomination at that time. Over these past two months, I also did some searching for opportunities in ministry within our church denomination. Of the positions that were open, one in particular stood out in Iowa that would put us a lot closer to Denise's family in Minnesota and Illinois. It meant huge changes for us, with a lot of uncertainty, but we really felt like this was the time for our family to make this transition.

Since March, a lot has happened. At the end of April, I signed the share transfer agreement for my half of the business. Last week I was able to complete the provisional licensing process with our denomination when I was interviewed before a board here in Mongolia. With the provisional licensing in place, at the end of this week we were extended a call from that church in Iowa to become their new associate pastor for youths and young adults, with responsibilities in tech and worship. There are a number of reasons we feel like this opportunity is a really good fit for us, and are excited to start this next adventure.

So, we will be returning to Evanston in two months, on the evening of July 13^th, but we will be beginning the process of moving to Iowa so that we can be there in time for Elise to start school at the end of August. We are sad to be leaving our home and friends in Evanston, but we are excited about this new direction in our lives. And we are also hopeful that the lower altitude will be beneficial for my Mom's health, since she will also be relocating with us.

Much like this time last year, we are on the precipice of another major change in our lives. Our experience this past year in Mongolia, and in the time leading up to our coming here last year, has taught us that we can count on God to provide for us in these weeks and months ahead. We're excited about what comes next, but apprehensive about our transitions as we say goodbye to friends both here in Mongolia, and back in Evanston. We have formed some very close relationships

here in Mongolia, and we know it will be really hard for us when it is time to leave here. We'll have about a month to reunite with our friends when we get back to Evanston, and then unfortunately we'll have another series of difficult goodbyes.

Some very busy days are ahead, and big changes and adjustments are coming as we re-integrate into American culture, and as we get settled in a new community. We would sincerely appreciate your prayers over the coming weeks, and we are looking forward to sharing with all of you the details of our continuing adventure!

A Shoe Box In Mongolia

Written by Denise:

It is May in Mongolia, but lately we've been celebrating Christmas.    Wait....did she just type Christmas?   Yep! Christmas!  

Let me give you a bit of back history first ~

Every fall at my church in Wyoming, Evanston Alliance Church, we filled empty shoeboxes and plastic tupperware containers with school supplies, tooth brushes, t-shirts, socks, matchbox cars, chap stick, stickers, baby dolls, combs, and other items that children between the ages of 5-14 would enjoy receiving. Each gift shoe box was unique and created with love, carefully and thoughtfully put together for an unknown boy or girl.

After all the boxes were gathered, wrapped and labeled, we would pray for the journey it was about to go on, and for the child who would receive it.  These small shoe boxes demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children all around the world.

Together with the local church worldwide, these boxes share the Good News of Jesus Christ, and that is the mission of Operation Christmas Child.

Listening to the Good News story.

Steve, After-School Sports Coord.

Learning new games

This spring I was personally blessed with the opportunity to go to a school in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and help distribute Christmas shoe boxes.

After many years of making shoe boxes, I never imagined
getting to see the end result with my own eyes!  I invited my friends Zaya and Zolo to come with me, and together we joined along with an after-school sports program to teach the school children new games and laugh with silly clowns.  The children even sang for us and performed dances.  It was a wonderful time for everyone.

Going on this box distribution made me realize just how loving and amazing God truly is.  I use to make one box each year.  My church use to collect and donate around 100 - 200 boxes each year.  This year I learned that 70,000 boxes were being distributed in Mongolia alone!  That's just one country!  My head begins to swim thinking about all the boxes that people worldwide donate annually!  And then realized.....that is ALOT of LOVE!!!!

Operation Christmas Child Distribution Center

Here are some statistics from Operation Christmas Child:

I hope you will take 3 minutes to watch the video my friend Zolo edited for me showing our day with the school kids.

Major Tom to Ground Control

I have commented to friends that somedays I feel like I followed Alice down the rabbit hole, somedays I've felt like I'm in the middle of an old Twilight Zone episode, and lately I've begun to feel like "Major Tom," the fictional "Space Oddity" astronaut drifting farther and farther into space, as we continue to live here in Mongolia. 

For some reason, lately, it has been particularly surreal. We've been here over seven months now, and in some ways it feels like as time passes, we drift farther and farther away from life as we knew it before we left for Mongolia last June. It's hard to explain - life continues on back home, people are changing there, and we know we are changing as we experience life here and adjust to the home we have made here.

We are so thankful that we live in a day when it is possible for us to so easily stay in touch with our friends and family who are so far away. I can remember as a child, thinking that the concept of video phone calls was something that was science fiction, in the far off distant future. Yet, here we are, thousands of miles from home, able to video chat with people back home - for free, no less. We are thankful that I am able to stay in contact with my business back in Utah, and even work on accounting at the office, and make programming changes to customer's homes from across the world. I've always been a bit of a tech-geek who loves a good science project, so I am taking the opportunity to test the limits of what I can do remotely. When the Internet is working here, which has been more reliable lately, it's actually pretty cool what we can do remotely.

While we have been able to keep up with all that goes on, there have been some interesting oddities that we have experienced. In these days of social networking, we learn of all of the latest "goings on" of close family members, friends, old acquaintances, and even some new friends whom we barely know, from Facebook and the Internet, long before we are personally contacted about the news. Over the past few months, we've learned of new engagements, pregnancies, births, deaths, and several friends moving away. It's a bit of an odd experience, sort of like watching a reality show about your friends and family from some alternate reality.

A few months after we got here, I shared with a friend here about the difficulties we anticipate when we have to leave this July. We are building relationships with the people we work with and with others that we have met since being here, knowing that we will have to leave this summer. In some ways, it might seem easier to not let relationships grow too deep, because of the pain we may experience when life takes us somewhere new. But when we do that, we may avoid that future pain, but we miss out on what God had for us in those relationships.

We said a lot of good-byes before we left last June, which wasn't easy, and now we recognize we will be facing it again this summer. We've already had to say a number of good-byes here, as many people have left Mongolia since we've arrived here. Yet, the time that we shared with those who have left Mongolia has left us better for having shared life experiences with them - and the time we continue to share with our teammates and friends who are here continues to enrich us.

I am truly grateful that my attitude towards relationships with others has changed so dramatically over the past several years. I've always tended to be a bit of a loner, preferring to do things on my own. I can honestly say that I feel like God did a major work in my heart to make me want to experience a greater depth of relationship with others. And while more relationships and deeper relationships will likely mean a lot more difficult good-byes in our future, we are grateful for how our time spent with others has changed us and opened our eyes to the myriad of blessings we have taken for granted in life. Perhaps the greatest blessing we can take for granted - the opportunity to live life together with those around us: to rejoice together, mourn together, and bear one another's burdens.

UBean Staff Christmas Holiday Get Together at the Apartment