FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2006

Today we worked all day on getting the church ready for dedication Sabbath and the beginning of meetings. We cleaned and installed 11 door locks—all chiseled by hand.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2006

Today we held the church dedication and first night of meetings with the church full to overflowing. The Govenor of Bulgan, chief building inspector and chief architect, plus Peter Koolik construction manager, and the construction crew from Ukraine and Australia were all present. At the evening meetings - Mike did the preaching, Deborah Rodman, the health talks, and Deborah and her mother, Donalea Strunk, the children’s meetings.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2006

On the second night of meetings we had 33+ children at the children’s meetings with Deborah Rodman and Donalea Strunk; there were approximately 50 adults in the church hall. The local church organized greeters, did health screening of blood pressure checks, weight checks, and also did massage therapy.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2006

Dear Friends,

It is Tuesday morning here in Bulgan which would be something like late afternoon on Monday there in California.

The work continues on the pastor’s apartment and various finishing touches on the church as well.

Hopefully in a day or two you will have more pictures and movie clips to see a bit better what we’ve been up to here.

Bulgan is a small community of around 11,000 people. It is located along a small river in beautiful hilly country. Karen and I took a short walk to the top of one of the knolls nearby just before she left yesterday morning. The weather is perfect and we’re so far away from populated areas, that about the only noise one hears is the occasional barking dogs, bleating sheep, mooing cows, or whatever noises the yaks may make. There are very few vehicles here. We are located nearly 1,000 kilometers from the capital city. It is a picturesque place to be.

The other day, a young girl who came to the meetings asked for an appointment to talk. She and her girl friend showed up for a visit and we spent about 45 minutes talking. Turns out she was an exchange student in Arizona for a year so speaks quiet good English. She attended some meetings last year but has not been baptized. She asked if she could help out with interpreting and so today she will join us in visiting homes. The church members here are all very new members and are active in doing their best to make the meetings a success. Last evening they agreed that they would all pray at 10 p.m. for the meetings. Please join them and us in praying for God’s leading.

In the mean time, we will also pray for the meetings in Costa Rica.

It’s time to go visiting so I’ll sign off for now.

Mike