It's been a while since we last wrote on this blog.

Between the last message and this one, many things have happened. 

In short.... A few months ago Aphrezo broke a small bone in his knee and Sylvia found out that she has multiple gallstones in her gallbladder which, at times, causes intense pains. She needs surgery.

At the moment we are in India, together leaders in Mongolia we decided it would be better for Sylvia to have the operation outside Mongolia. 

So, we find ourselves in Medziphema Town, hometown of Aphrezo. We are staying with his family.  

Our life has changed quite a bit. I, Sylvia, find myself outside at 5 in the morning chasing Reuben who wants to have a look at the pigs or the chickens. It is good to be with family. 

Aphrezo's knee is still not fully recovered, so he is still seeing a doctor. 

I have to wait for my surgery, but hopefully that can happen soon. Fortunately I haven't had any more pain attacks, I am very grateful for that. 

Just wanted to let you know how we are doing. We do appreciate your prayers for us. 

 

Kids and parents diner

Last Monday Aphrezo organized a diner for the children of the footballteam and their parents.
It was a very good evening and many people came. We also invited a lady to share something with the children, she told the story "You are special" written by Max Lucado. We also had a team from Holland (a.o Rene en Danielle Bruinsma from our church in Holland). They had prepared a drama and it happened to be exactly the same story as the lady had told. The children and their parents know now that they are special, because their Maker loves them and thinks they are special
We had some great food, Aphrezo made a big pot of curry and others prepared nice food too.
The children all got a present, a bag for their football shoes. They were very happy with it. Aphrezo told them they were all very special to him and he is happy that he can be their coach.

Coming weekend the senior team of Levit FC will participate in a competition, please pray for this.
They will enjoy and have a good time together.

Next week the training will be inside again, as it is getting colder and colder. Tonight it will still be outside with around 10C. Aphrezo will be outside for 4 hours, a long time especially with the cold wind. Please pray that they will get the gym.

We are all doing good. We enjoyed a beautiful autumn and had some amazing, cloudless blue skies for which Mongolia is known. And with the trees having beautiful yellow leafs.... Just great!

Reuben can climb and he does it all the time. He is such a blessing to us and we love him so much.

From Mongolia,
With love

Just us again...

When we went to bed last night, it was just the 3 of us.
When we woke up this morning, it was just the 3 of us.
And it stayed like this the whole day....just the 3 of us...

This was strange since we have had visitors from the Netherlands for 1 whole month, Sylvia's parents arrived in the middle of July and stayed for 2 weeks. Two days before they left, Sylvia's brother and his girlfriend arrived in Mongolia. We have had a great time with all of them and we felt like tourists all over again.

We went to the countryside, slept in a ger, rode horses and Sylvia even rode a camel for the very 1st time!






The 3 of us are all not feeling too well, all down with a bad cold which we caught after sleeping in a ger last weekend.







The work has been going on even though we had visitors. It is fun to see the children and also the older guys play football and enjoy it. They enjoy the nice weather and are still playing outside. We hope it will stay warm for a bit longer, but we don't know for sure. This weekend the temperature all of a sudden dropped to 6C. Fortunately today it was a bit warmer again.


Last week we celebrated Reuben's 1st birthday!!! We had a great time, even though Reuben had no idea that all the fuss was about him.

Please pray for our health and for our work.
We just wrote a new newsletter, if you would like to get that one, please let us know!

What's new?

This week has been a busy one. Some of the football boys have been coming to our house to play computer games. This was really fun and a good way of building our relationships with them. Aphrezo has been doing the weekly football trainings and on Friday evening they had a match with another football team....Levit FC won! 

An Australian young woman has started a "Mom & Toddler playgroup" and Sylvia and Reuben are going there now once a week. Reuben enjoys playing with the Mongolian children there and it gives Sylvia the opportunity to keep up with her Mongolian language :-) Reuben has grown a lot and instead of a baby we now have a real toddler who walks around the house exploring every nook and cranny. He is the joy of our life.

Coming Tuesday Sylvia's parents are coming for a 2 week visit, we are looking forward to have them here! 

lots of love from Mongolia

Goodbye

Saying goodbye is one of the hardest things to do and in our work it is something we have to do quite often. Today I (Sylvia) had to say goodbye to one of my closest friends here in Mongolia. She and her family left Mongolia for good. Over the last few years we have become very good friends, we talked together, drank coffee together, laughed and cried together. She saw me when I was just 1 month pregnant and saw Reuben grow and change. It will be strange to not have her close anymore. I know it is ok, but still...saying goodbye is not an easy thing to do. On the other side there is saying hello and getting to know 'new' people. This evening I met Hanneke van Dam. She has been working in Mongolia for 12 years. Every time I went to the Netherlands people would ask me whether I knew Hanneke. We had never met, because we live pretty far away from each other. But tonight we met and we had a very nice time together and I really enjoyed talking with her. It is funny how life works....on one side you have to say goodbye and on the other side hello.

Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today

Fortunately our building manager,Degii, already warned us last week that soon we would not have hot water for one month.So when I tried the hot water tap last night and no water came....I wasn't too surprised. It takes a little getting used to this situation. Boiling water when we want to do the dishes...boiling water when we want to clean the house...boiling water when we want to take a shower...or make a bath for Reuben which he loves so much. But, at least we still have water. There are times here that we don't have any water at all, try to flush the toilet then! Next week people from our homechurch in the Netherlands will come to visit us and as it looks like now they won't have hot water. Well, this is Mongolia, these things happen here. For the last few days I have started to see the saying 'don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today' in a new light. -Don't decide to have a shower tomorrow because you are too tired now...you might wake up with only cold water. -Don't postpone doing your laundry till tomorrow...you might not have power the next day. -Don't leave the chicken breast in the shop when you need it the following day...it might be sold out by then. This is the first entry on our new blog. We will try to write here regularly and so keep you up to date of our life in Mongolia. For now it is only in English, but if there would be people who would prefer it in Dutch to, please let us know.E