About 15 minutes ago, we left Zach Graham, Pastor Dick, and Pastor Susie at the curb of the hotel in South Korea while the rest of the team slept. We’re off to our next destination – Beijing, China. We’re really excited! John Staub is taking this short little vacation with us. We always love having him with us as he is part of the family.

Today we plan to arrive after a two-hour flight and then check into our hotel. We’re going to be visiting sights close to the Hyatt including Tiannanmen Square, the Firbidden City, and the historical part of town In a rickshaw ride. Then we’re going to be really cultural – we have dinner planned at TGI Fridays!!

Our shedule has slowed now that we are by ourselves, and our hotel should have some decent Internet access so I hope to upload some pictures soon.

Love and miss you all.

First of all, Charlene has been assisting our children’s ministry leader for the trip with Vacation Bible School. Working with children definitely isn’t her passion, but she definitely has had grace. She’s served more in an assistance role and helping with details. She also had the opportunity to teach Friday night at the Encounter here at the church. She taught on The Father’s Love and did an incredible job. She’s also been a huge blessing to me as well just helping me be able to do I’ve needed to do on this trip.

Samara has been her easy going self most of the time unless she’s extremely sleep deprived. It has been really cool to watch her help lead the other kids even though she can’t speak the language. I walked by the other day and saw her grabbing kids by the hand and pulling them toward the direction she wanted them to go. Another touching moment was one evening during worship when one of the little girls came up to her and grabbed her hand. They stood there hand in hand singing. I wish I would have had my camera in hand.

Selah is doing great. Of particular significance is that she is doing a GREAT job with the food here. We were pretty concerned because she has always been so picky. But to our great pleasure, she has embraced the culture and pretty much eating everything! She has helped me by playing the drums for worship as we’ve trained the worship team here at the church. She also had the opportunity to lead the kids in worshiping to How Great Is Our God. She played piano and sang and did a great job.

I am loving this trip. I have been on several mission trips but nothing quite like this one. The unity on this team has been incredible. I’ve also not been on a trip that had so many things going at the same time – children, worship, construction, and medical. There has been a supernatural synergy among all of the teams. I have been particulalrly energized helping to teach and train the Monolian worship team. Our hearts have been connected. It was great to see them last night and today implementing some of the things we taught them this week. They are all hungry hearts wanting to learn more.

Tonight we have our team dinner celebration with the Mongolian leaders. Tomorrow we leave for Ulanbataar and then Korea. We spend Tuesday in South Korea and then fly to Beijing on Wednesday morning. I checked out the weather in Beijing for this week and Thursday is supposed to be 100!! The whole family (including John) is really excited about the final leg of the trip. Continue to keep us in your prayers.

One of my favorite moments yesterday was Selah teaching a 20-year Mongolian how to play certain parts of the song, Great Big God, while speaking through an interpreter. I keep trying to remind her what an amazing opportunity this is for a 10-year old to be doing what she’s doing. I tell her, “While your friends are at home bored already on summer vacation, you’re on the other side of the world teaching Mongolians about worship.” I don’t think she quite gets it but her dad does!

Samara has emerged as the little leader for Vacation Bible School. I was walking down the street yesterday from one building to another and happened to pass her small group. She was grabbing the hands of the Mongolian children leading them to the “next thing.” She can’t speak the language but has found ways to communicate.

We’re about to head off and start our busy day. Below you’ll find an update that I wrote for the church that will give you more details about what we’re doing here.

Thank you again for your prayers & love.

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Hello Friends & Living Stones Family,

It’s early Thursday morning, and we’re nearly half way through our ministry time here in Darkhan, Mongolia. Most have recovered from jet lag and are now sleeping normally while you’re still awake on the other side world just wrapping up your Wednesday. Somehow, my body still hasn’t adjusted, and I’m up writing to you at 4:30 AM. It’s actually beautiful to wake up at this time of day with worship music playing in our room to look out the windows and see the sun gently rising in the distance casting it’s light and shadows on the mountains on the horizon. Words can’t really express the beauty of this country. You all must come and experience it for yourselves! We have been having an incredible time here. Our hearts have been captured with love for the Mongolian church. We will never be the same!

Yesterday, we finished Day Two of our intensive ministry. The children’s ministry team had an incredible day with Vacation Bible School. They had nearly 90 children. It was so exciting to pull up to the church 45 minutes before the start and already see children gathering at the gate eager to learn about Jesus. Debbie Aguilera and her team are doing an incredible job of loving the children with great fruit. The most exciting part was when the children were asked if they wanted to receive Jesus. Over 20 children immediately stood up and responded unashamedly. Today, they’re expecting more children and even greater fruit! Continue to pray for them.

The construction team is moving along with great leaps and bounds. Yesterday they worked over a 12-hour day but were incredibly pleased to be able to get all of the walls up. Tim Deluca, team leader, reported to our leaders last night that they’re right on schedule to completely finish the project. The weather has been beautiful for them in particular — not too hot and not too cold. Today, they’ll start on the roof. Tim also said last night that the greatest blessing has been that all of the men have incredible servant hearts and wonderful attitudes preferring one another in love. He also said that Tuesday when they started most of them didn’t have much experience in construction. By the end of yesterday, they were working independently with little direction from him. Tim has been a huge blessing and is a natural servant leader. It’s incredible exciting to watch him lead his team.

Dr. Brent and the medical team have had two remarkable days of ministry to the community. They have seen over 100 patients each day and expect to see about that many again the next two days. It’s amazing how quickly word spreads that two American doctors and a nurse are treating patients and giving them medicine for free with no strings attached. I have been on several mission trips over the years but have never been on a trip with Dr. Brent and a medical team. It really is amazing to see your own family doctor serving and ministering to the poorest of poor on the other side of the world. One of my favorite moments was going into the ger on Monday with him at the countryside and watching him check over the family crowded into that small circular room in the middle of the desert. I could see his compassion and love for these people in his eyes. It was truly moving for me personally. On Friday, they’ll be traveling to a small village on the edge of town and taking their medical clinic “on the road.”

Cathy Grabowski, our Living Stones chef, has been having a wonderful time working alongside the Mongolian cooks. Some of the dishes they have been cooking here are amazing! I keep telling Cathy, “Make sure you get the recipe for this one!” She just smiles and says, “I will.” She is an amazing servant back home and that translates very well here in Mongolia. Her heart has definitely been captured by these people. Frank, you’d better get your passport ready because I think she would love to come back here (with you) next time.

I have had the humbling privilege of working with the worship team here at Pastor Mark & Ginny’s church during the last two days. In the mornings I’ve been teaching a shortened version of the Worship As a Lifestyle class that I recently taught at our own Living Stones College. It’s been very exciting to watch their eyes light up when they understand and get fresh revelation. It’s actually very encouraging because it is very obvious that Pastor Mark has done a wonderful job of mentoring and teaching these young ones. They have a great foundation of Biblical truth. What amazed me the most is that their team is very young. They range in age from 13 to 23! John Staub has been working alongside me as well and has done a great job of serving them and teaching them small things all along the way. They couldn’t wait to get the drum set assembled that we brought from the United States. In the afternoons we’ve been doing more practical, hands-on training with them. Yesterday we taught them our song, Great Big God, which they loved, and then began some specific harp and bowl training which we’ll follow up with today. On the first day, the most amazing part was for me was to just let them begin to ask us questions. Sometimes you don’t realize all that God is doing around you until you get away from your normal routine and surroundings. One of them asked, “You don’t give all these people lessons and teach them how to play instruments do you?” I kind of sat there stunned as I began to answer and said, “Well, actually, yes we do.” From there I began to explain the School of Worship Arts (SOWA) to them. It was a moment of incredible thankfulness for me. I am realizing that God is using Living Stones to be a training ground for worshipers not only for our local church and future stateside church plants, but also to be used throughout the world. A side note — God is still raising up worship leaders here on the other side of the world. Ben Horjus is part of the construction team but also a part of worship team in Gary back home. I asked him to lead worship yesterday morning for the first time with his construction team. He did an amazing job — another worship leader is emerging!

Finally, as I close out, one thing really stuck out to me while I was teaching the worship team on the first day. As I was answering so many questions, one of the students began to look at the others in the group and tell them something. They all looked at him, then at us, and they all nodded. I asked the interpreter what he had said. She said, “He said you all are so humble.” At the moment I was speechless and could have cried. (I didn’t then but am now rehearsing the scene in my mind.) When you travel to the other side of the world and see the conditions of this country yet the amazing open hearts of the people, you really aren’t thinking much about what you have to offer. Rather, you are humbled that God would even choose you or allow you to be a part of what He is doing here. One thing that God has been screaming to me since the beginning of the year is how important a heart of humility is. He’s been really dealing with me personally and those around me about areas of pride in our own lives. I am learning that we can do NOTHING without God helping us. We are completely dependent upon him. As we’ve been learning in our lifeGROUPs, we are poor in spirit. Here in Mongolia, we are learning that first hand. We are poor in the spirit. But in our weakness, He is strong.

Thank you to all of our friends and Living Stones family for praying for us and sending us. We are blessed to have you back home covering our backs in prayer. We love you all so much.

Pastor Jon (for the entire team)

Here we are in Incheon Airport in South Korea.

On our return trip while the rest of our team heads back to the United States, our family (including John Staub) will take a few days side trip to Beijing, China. My girls are even more excited about this incredible opportunity. Please keep us in your prayers. Also, we’ll periodically try to make updates throughout the trip. Please visit this page to subscribe and automatically get notifications of updates via your email.

More later . . .