There are a few things I've noticed about the church members here so far. They are all young and enthusiastic, and they vehemently reject the things that have been tearing apart Mongolian society (i.e. drinking, family problems, and utter disregard for welfare of the system). I have been surprised at how they avoid anything that has to do with alcohol. I asked one church member what a certain restaurant was like, and she said that the food was ok, but that it had a bar so she didn't like it. Is it possible to find a restaurant in this country that doesn't have a bar? I'm not sure it is....
This is not to say that they are all extremely conservative. We ordered some pizza, and one pizza had pepperoni on it. Though everyone in the group was a church member (or at least attended) both pizzas disappeared entirely. Still, one issue at a time.
I have been teaching (or trying to teach) a Sabbath school for the past two weeks. The thing that really surprises me about the people who attend is how original their views are. They aren't necessarily better or more biblically sound than opinions one would hear in a Sabbath school in the US, just more original.
The atmosphere of the church is really relaxed. Most of the people wear jeans, except for the people who are on the platform (who wear more formal clothes) and the poor people who attend (who wear whatever they throw together).
Song service takes up almost half of the church service. Several people play guitar, and there's also a keyboard. People sing with enthusiasm, especially one poor guy, who sings at the top of his lungs and only marginally off key.
I really wish I could master the alphabet and sing along. I'm getting there, but it's slow going with no one to teach me. My mom said it should only take an afternoon, so I'm slightly embarrassed that I still haven't figured everything out. However, I recently realized that I can't read the English alphabet either; I just read words. Starting from square one so to speak.
Today I taught Sabbath school and preached. The sermon went well, except for one key point that I had meant to include but left out. I was terribly nervous before the sermon, and I could feel my heart pounding so hard that it made my tie feel too tight. This lasted until I sat down after a prayer, when everyone else remained standing. I stood back up again, realised the whole thing was ridiculous, and wasn't nervous any more. Speaking through a translator is great: it gives you the opportunity to carefully construct each sentence before you say it.
After church I was supposed to 'teach' a Bible study. No one had told me what the Bible study was on, and I wasn't too confident. When I got there I found out that they really only wanted me there to define terms, and that 95% of the study was in Mongolian. I have a hard time following Mongolian for anything other than everyday topics, so I wasn't looking forward to the idea of spending an hour and a half in there, picking out random familiar phrases and trying not to fall asleep.
Fortunately Brandon showed up at that time and offered to define stuff for them and give me the afternoon off. I thanked him, went to my room and slept. Really, they aren't kidding when they say that preaching a sermon makes you want to participate in 'lay activities' for the rest of the afternoon.
In case anyone is wondering, this donation button is now automatically generated at the end of each post. Also, I've discovered that the hit counter doesn't count me when I view the blog to check for errors after I post. That means that almost all of the 230+ distinct hits are people other than myself viewing. Thanks for reading!
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