Training Week

Training Week began just as the team sent from T Bar M drove into the gates. Drew Eubank was the leader of the four, being on staff as the director of missions. Levi Johnston, Amy Wately, and Erin Dubose came along as seasoned veterans to the motions of camp. They were all once coaches, on leadership team, and on Timothy Team at one point. Currently, they are all in teaching positions giving them the time off this summer to help us. I was an All Star at Sports Camp while Levi was a coach, and I was in my first year of being a coach while Amy was on leadership team. I had never met Erin before, but she certainly fit well into the picture as they set out to reach the goal of creating a Christian sports camp here in Khongor on the Life Qwest property.

I had began to regret not going to work at camp this summer like I had the past two years right at the end of the school year. But wouldn't you know it, the moment we started training the Mongolian coaches (including 8 Mustang Boys, 3 girls from the church in Darkhan, and Jerry's currently oldest girl, Rose), I felt as if God had really brought the camp feeling to me. Even in the place where He had specifically called me. It was such a comfort. All the sessions of training were quite similar to those which I have sat through in the past years in New Braunfels. The four most important aspects of camp was one of the first lessons being 1) Relationships, 2) Service, 3) Safety!!!, and 4) FUN!!!!!!! Each of these aspects had to be practiced in ever event ever planned and executed during the camp's schedule.
One interesting obstacle we ran into was the translation of campism into the Mongol language. One thing to note is that, Mongol sounds like a mix of Russian and Korean; it is not easily learned. Some phrases were just accepted into their meaning such as FUAGNEM, which is an acronym for being Fired Up And Going Nuts Every Minute. Those which were changed are as followed:
1) Batter's Box - Nigendawa (the morning Bible study, Nigendawa stood for the first round of wrestling, similar to what we mean in Batter's Box being the beginning place of every play in baseball).

2) MAC - Bic-h (boy's meeting time, Men After Christ, translated into Mongolian acronym sounds, insert flem at the end)

I can't think of anything else that was changed from the cookie cutter of T Bar M style. We did want them to be able to take camp as their own. We encouraged them to create their own campisms and acronyms and names for things which apply to their camp and country.
Speaking of translations, pray for some of our translators. We have a few who go to class with some of the Mustang Boys. Bazo, his girl friend Shanae, Toome, and her sister (also Toome) but also called Julia. Bazo mainly translates for Mom and Dad, the Toome's spend their time translating in the kitchen and with Kari, another teacher who has come for many past summers here. I worked with Shanae a lot during camp and training week. After the first day, she had translated a lot of Bible verses and encouragments to the coaches for me. I asked her then if she understood what she was translating. She explained to me that she had no religious beliefs but thinks that all people should do good things and be tolerate of what is for the good of others. Luckily she spoke and read English very well (she's a translator, duh!) so I looked up John 14:6 for her to read herself. I told her more about how the Bible says that Jesus is the only Way and Truth. I told her I'd be here if she ever had any questions of anything she translated for us. Bazo was also not a believer but as he spoke with Dad and Mom, he asked if he could have an English Bible and a Mongolian Bible. His brother is also a shaman, which makes any other religions hard to accept since shamanism is deep in their Buddist culture. He's been reading both of the Bibles though and Dad questions him every time he's sees him about what he read. Toome (the former) asked me about the 5 colored beaded bracelet that all the coaches wore and what it symbolized. So I got to share her the gospel through it, but she hasn't askd me anything since. Pray for their salvation. I told Shanae that I didn't think it was an accident that God put her here to translate.
Some amazing successes that occurred this week was when the Mustang Boys and Baagi, the camp director, put their heads together to get the rope to the top pulley of the rusty, already bending flag pole. Flag is the first scheduled event of camp so they thought it was very important. They began with Igor climbing the pole military style, until he reached the middle and the pole began to wave him in the wind. We told them it wasn't a big deal, they could just hold the flag. They did that for the first 2 days, but then Baagi said that they really wanted their country's flag to fly for all the country to see where camp is. So Drew gives them the idea of a human ladder where two guys squat at the base, two more guys squat on those below them on their shoulders and one guy on the top two men. As they extend their legs, still the top man was only half way up and as he leaned on the pole, it began to bend more. Amy, Erin, and I have about soiled ourselves with what was coming next. They ran and rolled up the 10 ft. portable basketball goal up to the pole and tied two ropes extended to pulled to hold the pole steady. Then Boogie, the Mustang who had just graduated from Bible School stood on the goal hoop, while Suki, who recently graduated from Medical school, got on his shoulders so he can climb up three pulls to weave the rope through the pulley. It seemed backwards for me to send up the Medical graduate the highest so if he were to be blown off the pole to the ground, who could help put him together again? But God was so good. It was successfully accomplished and all the Americans were in awe of the strength and engineering of these young men.
One struggle found among the coaches however were the girls. The 3 from Darkhan were all 15, and Rose is 17. The age alone was a little shaky to start, but it took a while to teach them some simple camp mentality. Things like not just walking away from an activity without a word of explanation, take apart in what the team was trying to accomplish, and giving their opinion. By the end of the week however, they began to understand the reality of their job. Rose, who has always been a little quiet has begun to open up, and Gabby has definitely led the way of creating the dramas for each team meeting at the end of the camp day. Crystal is becoming a great helper and servant. Pray for all of them, but also pray especially for Luna. She still has trouble understanding that she needs to always find ways to interact with her kids and others. Most of the time she seems to act like the campers more than the coaches, in the not so selfless way. She gets better with each week, but that is still a struggle for us. Our boys have always been great, ready to serve, and always pointing back to God. I would love to see the girls at that same level. They are working on it, and some of us are there to watch and correct with love.
All in all the bulk of Training Week went very successfully. Drew said he had never left a new set up on the first trip and felt so confident as he did with this team. Pray for this to be a dangerous tool for the expansion of Christ's Kingdom.

~Caitlin