Inspirational Short Film

If you have 15 minutes, I recommend watching this when you need a little lift in Spirit.  It was filmed at their home in beautiful NW Montana.  Beauty in Life - In Between the Message and the Man

Lydia Class Fall Trip to France

Fall Party for Girls' Dorm

Lydia and Johanna with their dorm sisters at the themed fall party.

 In front of their dorm still in costume.

Maggie in a lab coat on the left side?

STEAM Class at EdIT Office

Our colleagues opened an Educational IT service to train kids in...

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math.  

There's Josiah on the right learning how to use a mouse and 'code'.  

Clara is 12 Years Old!

Twelve years ago this week, we carried Clara out of this Hospital in Ulaanbaatar.

Here are the healthy mother and daughter on our visit the her place of birth. 

And here they are with Josiah, celebrating with home-made cake...

 at the same apartment we took her home to when she was just one day old.

Happy 12th Birthday Clara!

After opening presents...

Her sisters called in to say Happy Birthday too.

And birthday cake afterward.

Happy Birthday!

Basketball Coaches Camp

At Mongolia International University

We started training coaches in the classroom.  

Leading with our faith, the foundation of team is trust.

Getting in the gym and practicing our coaching techniques on basketball students.

Meeting to talk about how it went.

Letting the coaches train the next generation.

Giving out souvenir wristbands with inspirational messages.  

Celebrating with the ones that made it happen.

Team success!  A good time was had by all.  The good news was proclaimed and demonstrated.

"For the love of God and the game of Life"

Big Family Hike with Team

We drove an hour around the south side of this mountain from Ulaanbaatar.

 And started walking up the back

Until we were finally in the clear.

They said we could see the city from up there.

 And there it is behind Clara.

 We all tried to catch a gaze of our home through the haze.

Our teammate and his colleagues enjoy a snack with the view.

And happy we are to be back at the trail and car ride home.

It was quite a 5+ hour tour, sign says 6 km each way.

American School Scenes

We climbed the hill behind Clara and Josiah's school last weekend.

That's it in blue and yellow behind them.

Clara was invited to run the mile with a select few of the middle school girls.

She ran strong, taking 15 seconds off her previous time!

Black Forest Dorm Fun

Maggie Lydia and I have been at Black forest for about two weeks. We have been very busy! Her are some picture explaining our activities.

This is all of our dorm sisters together for orientation day where we all got accepted into the dorm.

This was a few days ago when a couple of us decided to take picture with our different brightly colored umbrellas.

This was at a local festival in town where we ate funnel cakes, Sauer Kraut, and more.

American Man Makes Good in Mongolia

Did you ever hear about the 600 mile Mongol Derby?  A 70 year old man from Idaho won it last month!  You can read about and see video here: 

https://idahonews.com/news/local/boise-man-wins-worlds-longest-horse-race-in-mongolia

Nice Day at Mongolia's National Bike Park

Send Off Scenes

Four BFA high schoolers and two ASU middle schoolers play 'Sushi Go' before leaving for Germany.

After dropping off the girls and Renee at the airport...

'and then there were three'

Oldest in Germany

My sisters and I have started school here in Germany! 

These are our dorm rooms in our dorm Palmgarten

Maggie Joins Seniors' Flag Parade

Representing Mongolia among her senior class peers at BFA, Maggie carries the flag.

They carried them into the school assembly for the opening of the school year.

I think I heard there were kids from around 50 countries.

Josiah's New Favorite Song

He attends the American School of Ulaanbaatar.  But most of the students are Mongolian.  So instead of the pledge of Allegiance like in American schools, they sing the Mongolian National Anthem.  It is a really great song I think.  I think it's getting in his head too.  Here's a video with the words and translation if you're interested.  It's a little old but really vintage message:

Mongolian National Anthem Song with Kids and Words

First Practice in New Gym

Monday afternoon I got invited to help coach the youth team for the Hasax Huleguud pro basketball club, in partnership with Athletes in Action. 

It was my first touch with coaching in Mongolia this term. And it was the first ever practice in the new gymnasium of Mongolia International University.

Back to School

Josiah and Clara started school today! They are going to The American School of Ulaanbaatar.

Josiah's allergies were visible on his face.

 The rest of us going to Germany for school this fall will leave for Frankfurt of Saturday. We are all thankful for the last few days to be with our siblings before we head to school!

Here we are outside an apartment nearby their school.  We are thinking about moving here.

Mom and the sisters made cupcakes for Clara and Josiah after the first day of school.