Service

As a member of the Branch Presidency, Alan was able to go with President Bayarjav to deliver coal to those who needed it in the wintertime. 

Visiting Echka at the hospital with the sisters.  It's interesting in Mongolia, almost everyone takes a 10-day visit to the hospital every year.  That's what the insurance covers and so they all do it whether they are sick or not.  Many times it's just R and R.  However, Echka was having trouble with her blood pressure and we went to ask her questions about the garden project during the visit. 

This is Dorjdamba. He is confined to a wheelchair (one that has a rope for a backrest), but is very faithful in attending church, even in snow storms!

We were able to help Elder and Sister Fredley deliver this wheel chair to a man who lives on the 3rd floor of his apartment building.  His wife also is in a wheel chair and they only had one for both of them until this one was delivered.  The man is a handy man by professions, and his sons carry him up and down the stairs every day so he can go to work.  While he was at work with the wheel chair, his wife was confined to either her bed or a chair.  They really needed that 2nd wheel chair!

Sister Fredley, the wheel chair recipient, and Elder Fredley.  These two missionaries did so much in the area of Humanitarian service while they were in Darkhan.  They had a great translator and so were able to discover needs and how to meet them. 

Alan was able to help this man get some genealogy put into Family Search.  He had a book showing 14 generations back to one of the wives of the great Chinggis Khaan. 

The Garden Project was probably the biggest and most time consuming service project we did while in Darkhan. And it was a head ache since it was not started early enough and the plans kept changing and DIC kept requiring more and more forms to be filled out and submitted. We thought Alan was going to go bonkers before it was finally submitted.  But it did get approved!

Our garden coordinator, Echka, planning for the summer.  She had a great garden including berry bushes and fruit trees. 

She had a green thumb for inside plants as well. 

She had an ingenious system for collecting rain water for her garden. 

 Other gardeners had to carry the water from the well houses throughout the ger districts to water their gardens.

Alan spent numerous hours and a number of trips to the Zax (which included the Mongolian Home Depot) trying to find the tools and make deals with the vendors to provide what was needed for the project.  The Zax is an amazing place.  Most things were available there.  These are parts of a ger, the center circle, doors, felt, carpet and stoves.  Quite the place...you just had to know where to find everything!

This is the store that sold the water barrels that were used to haul water for the gardens.

This vendor was willing to agree to the arrangements required to provide the tools. 

Looking for irrigation  hose

This is a very active part of the Zax.  Men who don't have jobs would come here and play pool on nice days.  Alan said they didn't stop and join....but I'm not so sure!

This is a delivery option, but the projects to the church were delivered by truck. 

There were also horse and cart deliveries in addition to truck porters. 

The seeds for the project were acquired from the Agricultural Institute.  This is an old Russian bomb shelter used as a root cellar to store the seed potatoes. 

There were 100s of bag of potatoes.  Alan and his crew got only 6 bags. 

One of the sisters approved for the project lived in Habitat and walked with difficult with a cane.  She received a barrel and some tools and so we were able to help deliver them. 

This is one of the water houses where people in Habitat get their water.  They are generally pretty centrally located and this one was about 2 blocks the home of the project recipient.

We and the sisters went out to help this sweet sister plant her garden.  It was planted in a way that I had never seen before  They plant the seeds really close together in rows really close together in a spot about 3 feet by 4 feet.  We won't be here long enough to see how it grows, but I sure hope it does.  Maybe that method is easier and more efficient for water usage. 

She had quite a large area for her garden and planted lots of potatoes.

The church was cleaned every week by branch members.

This picture was taken after a big snow storm.  The wind blew so hard and the ground was pretty bare prior to the storm, so the window was plastered with gritty sand and dirty snow. 

The youth were always willing to help with cleaning. 

One day after church, the branch president asked members to stay and clean  up the outside of the building.  We had great participation.

The members were very willing to help keep our beautiful building clean inside and out.  Most community members knew where the church was because it was such a nice building.  The members always wanted it to be a positive community building.