October 20-27 2013 A visit from Elder and Sister Lasson, Our Asia Area Welfare Supervisors

This week we had Elder and Sister Lasson here from Hong Kong. They are our Asia Area Welfare Specialists and are our supervisors.  They served in Mongolia from 2009-2011 doing the same calling as we now are doing.  They know a whole lot of people and we visited with some of their old contacts to see how those projects are doing and to see if there are some future contacts possible with these people.

Elder and Sister Lasson, Muugii and Sister and Elder Nay

We visited some of their well projects and they were still operating well

We also visited the Child Welfare Center of UB which is operated by the Police Department.  They pick up children that are living on the streets and either try to get them back with family members or put them in different centers located around UB.  They only stay in this facility for around 3 days.  They are looking to expand this facility to not only help children but to help families who may be homeless or need help in abusive situations.  DIC helped them several years ago with the purchase of a large refrigerator, blankets and kitchen cook appliances.

The man who is in charge has a huge heart, full of love for these children and is great friends with the Lassons.

 We met with Batbaatar who is over the water dump stations for Ulaanbaatar.

The Lassons were also great friends with him and did five dump stations with him.  We tried to get some answers from him about what UB's policy now is in regard to water.  He says they want to pipe in water to all of the Dump stations, they have new directors and want to move away from driving delivery trucks.

We have approval for one dumpstation in Chingeltai area.  I guess we will proceed with that one, we wanted to make sure that they would deliver water to it.

This is Dr.Munkhzaya.  He worked with the vision project with the Lassons and is working with our vision project now.  DIC paid for his training in India to do retinal surgery.  We are providing supplies for continued retinal surgery and hopefully his hospital will get the required equipment.  He has been operating at a private hospital instead of the public one.  The private one has been good enough to let him operate there.

We went to Darkhan to see one of our latest projects.  Sun Child Orphanage.  They needed a new fridge, theirs was no longer working and  other cooking equipment which also was not working.  We were very impressed with this orphanage.  They have 40 children; 20 boys and 20 girls ages 8- 16 (They stay here until they graduate from Secondary School).They had 10 graduate last year and all 10 received scholarships.

The operator/owner of this orphanage knows the importance of training the children in life skills and also training them in the arts.  They give the children music lessons, dance lessons, art lessons,whatever they excel in. They are sponsored by a group in Japan which pays for them to bring 20 of their children over to Japan in the summer and they then tour Japan giving performances.  The money they earn from these tours goes to financing the orphanage.  

Elder and Sister Fredley are missionaries in Darkhan and were sponsored by this orphanage to be able to get into Mongolia.  The Fredley's teach English here and they were thoroughly impressed with this organization. They were the ones who referred them to us.  The Fredley's have been an invaluable resource in managing this project since we are so far away from it. (4 hrs travel time in good conditions)\

 The orphanage was well maintained.  It had four buildings and a spacious yard.

 One of the boys dorms

 The Fredley's translator Nyamod and the owner of the orphanage.

They are explaining that when the children come here to live, they get to have a doll (like the ones hanging

in the background.  The write what their dream is on the doll. Some of their dreams included: "To be a good father", to be president or to get a good job. Very touching.

 Elder Fredley and one of the children

 They are painting some of the rooms in anticipation of the turnover ceremony we will do soon.

Notice it is the children doing the work. 

This orphanage believes the children need to know how to work. So the children 

work in the garden, cook the food, wash their cloths, clean etc.  Plus 

they go to school, learn english and take music or art lessons.

The owner says that the children are happier if they have something

to do.  She used to have a problem with children fighting, now they are happier 

when they are learning, working and growing.

What a great plan!

 We bought them a new washer also.  Theirs was broken and with

40 children, they needed someway to wash their clothes.

They also had running water in the facility which greatly helps.

 Children making dinner

 Elder Fredley and the new soup pot and cook table

 Dough making machine

 Girls Dormitory,  They are all princesses!

 Sister Fredley and a friend

 Study Hall

 Music Room

 Some of the children's art.  We couldn't resist and bought some.

Sewing Class.  The older girls sew the costumes for their performances.

They also sew special orders to help raise money for the orphanage.

Scripture of the week,  (I love this scripture)

Helaman 5:12  12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.