A Sad Farewell

I appologize that this post is later in the month than I had anticipated.  Jennifer and I have had an interesting month, and I hope to fill you in on what has been going on.  We had an unexpected journey to the States, so I am not going to talk about our grocery shopping and class structure right now.  I will cover those things next time.

About one week before we returned to Mongolia in August, we learned that my Grandpa Milan Ruble was diagnosed with bone cancer.  It had spread throughout his body, and there was nothing that doctors could do.  The final assesment was that it was simply a matter of time.  This was very hard for us to learn.  Grandpa had battled with blatter cancer for some time before having an extensive surgery which removed several organs.  The aftermath of that operation was very hard on Grandpa.  It took over a year before he was back to the way that I remembered him.

We visited with him and Grandma in Missouri the week before he found out that he had bone cancer.  I will never forget that time.  He had already been struggling with illness and was weak, but he was still Grandpa.  He told us stories about when they were younger, many of them we had heard before, but we enjoyed them nevertheless.  Grandpa and Grandma visited three congregations with us and heard our presentation that many times.  They didn't mind, in fact, Grandpa said that he enjoyed hearing us talk about Mongolia and what life has been like.  They sat through the hour plus long slide shows at home and enjoyed them!  You know that they loved us!

It was very hard for us to return to Mongolia knowing that we may never see Grandpa alive agian.  After much consideration, we decided that when the time came for Grandpa to pass, if at all possible, we would return to the States.  Some said that he had up to six months, but we figured it would be less than that.  Grandpa was very tired from the past few years of struggle, and the cancer took its toll quickly.

The end of September, Grandpa was in and out of the hospital.  The first of October, it was determined that the only thing keeping him alive was his IV and medicines.  Knowing that death is not the end, Grandpa decided to be taken off the IV and let nature take its course.  With this decision made, we got round-trip tickets to return to the States for two weeks believing that he didn't have long left.

The day after arriving, we went to see Grandpa in the hospital.  He was very weak and in pain, but he was very happy to see us.  The trip was long and hard, but I will never regret going back.  It was such a joy to see Grandpa's smile and know that we had brought him such happines.  Both that day and the next, we were able to talk with Grandpa.  After that, he was so weak and frail that he was not able to do much of anything.  For the next week and a half, we watched Grandpa die.  This has got to be one of the hardest things that I have ever experienced.  Grandpa was always a big, strong, happy man; so it was very difficult to see him like that.  However, our Father saw us through everything.

Grandpa passed from this life to the next in the early hours of October 18th, one day after his and Grandma's 57th wedding anniversary.  We think that he was holding on for that.  Because he had lived on longer than anyone had imagined, we were getting very close to our return to Mongolia.  On the 17th, I had concluded that we would not be able to be there for his funeral, but He works all things out.  The funural was held on the 20th, and we flew out on the 21st.  Though it was a sad experience, I was very thankful to be able to attend Grandpa's funeral and honor him and his life.

Grandpa Milan was one of the greatest men I have ever known.  He had a strong faith, and he loved his family.  I would not be half the man that I am today apart from his influence.  I thank Him for the time that I had with Grandpa even though it seems all too short now.

In Memory of Grandpa Milan Ruble

1936 - 2010

You will never be forgotten.

Another Month in Mongolia

This one is a little long, but we wanted to fill in some more details of what is going on around here.

One month after we got here last year, we were still feeling lost. We couldn’t speak any Mongolian, and we were definitely feeling the culture shock. Living life drastically changed in a short amount of time. However, thanks to that time and those experiences, we have been able to readjust to our life in Mongolia well. Our Mongolian may not be great, but we can communicate in many situations. We still don’t know everything, but we know a lot more than we did. We don’t have a lot of friends, but we have way more than we use to. Everything comes in its proper time.

As promised in our last big post, we are going to tell about our current team situation, our training time, and our schedule.

Last year, we came in at the same time as another couple. It was the first year for all of us. Together we learned, made mistakes, had things stolen from us, laughed, and cried. At this time, they are expecting a baby, so they have chosen to remain in the States until after their baby is born. In returning to Mongolia, we felt like something was missing. Our teammates were not here. However, in their time of absence, He has blessed us with a new pair of teammates, Craig and Sarah. Though our time together has been short, we have already grown as a team. We are no longer new comers to this work, but we are still pretty young. Craig and Sarah have both been at this for a lot longer than we have, so they bring an experience to our team that has already been very valuable. They have faced many of the same things that we are struggling with and have been able to offer sympathy and suggestions. Our time of fellowship and work with them has truly been a blessing for both of us.

Team Mongolia as a whole looks very similar to the way it did at the end of last year. Sadly, two did not return. One young lady moved on to a new profession in the States and will not be returning to the work here. The other lady was not able to return because of financial difficulty. We all miss their presence, but He has provided those to fill the gaps. The new comers from last semester have completed their training time and have begun teaching in the other two districts. Right now, the east side team has four supervisors, the west side team has three supervisors, and the south side team (that’s us) has three supervisors. On the leadership team, we are still short one family that will be returning from their year furlough around the end of the year.

After we all returned from the summer, we met together three days for our all team training. The location for the first two days was a nice hotel in the center of town. With all three teams living in separate sections of the city, it is important for our all team get-togethers to be in a central location. These two days were filled with organizational matters, curriculum training, discussion topics, other important info, and time as a family. Though it was busy, this time was very valuable. On our third day of training, we went to a resort south of town called Nukht. It is located in a beautiful valley. Our time there was focused on team vision and individual relationship building. It was a beautiful day, so during the individual time, I climbed up the side of one of the mountains. While standing on a bare outcropping of rock about 150 feet up, two eagles began circling overhead. They were catching the updrafts and then diving at each other in play. One hovered for a few moments within ten feet of me. What an exhilarating opportunity to take in the wonder of creation! That evening, we had a team dinner at a Mongolian Bar-B-Q restaurant in town.

Our last day of training was the first day of September. We learned during training the dates of our entrance exam and first class. It was exciting to finally get this information, but we were a little overwhelmed that this time had finally come. We gave the entrance exam in our district on Saturday September 11^th. We had an impressive number of teachers come for the test, but only 9 were able to pass the test. Because of the small number of teachers that had tested into all of the districts, it was decided by leadership to offer another test for all of the districts in a central location two days before our seminars were set to begin. We did not think many would show up, but we were proven wrong by the throng of teachers that poured in. There were so many that we were scrambling to find more classrooms to give the test in, and we called nearly the whole team to come help. In the end, we counted over 130 teachers that had come, and our district had over 30 students. Though it was a headache, all of the districts saw an impressive increase in their student enrollment.

All of the district programs began their seminars on Saturday September 18^th. The other districts are changing their seminars to other days of the week, but we have chosen to continue teaching on Saturday. We had a very impressive showing on that first day. Statistically, we will have several drop out before this semester is over, but we are trusting that those whom He wants in our class will remain.

We will continue posting blogs during the first and middle parts of the month. Remember that you can check up on us any time on Facebook or by e-mail. If you have not received our last newsletter, then it should be on its way. If for some reason you don’t receive one, please let us know. If you have never received our newsletter but would like to, then we definitely want to hear from you!

In the next post, we will give you more information about our class structure, curriculum, and grocery shopping!