On 10 July 2008, the Catholic Church Mission in Mongolia will be 16 years old. It took all this time for it to grow to its present numbers: 65 missionaries, 560 local Church members, 4 parishes with 6 sub-stations, and more than 20 educational, social, or development projects. The Church keeps growing, and its impact is being felt and gaining recognition in Mongolian society at large. In 2008 alone, around one hundred Mongolian men and women joined the Catholic fold through baptism; others were confirmed, and a good number are being prepared for baptism Easter '09.

A growing Church also means challenges and hardships. Some people, including government officials, wonder and question our motives. They ask: Why is the Church's membership growing and are its activities expanding? What are these foreign missionaries of many nationalities up to as they carry on with their humanitarian and charitable works? And they suspect that our good intentions to "do mission" are a trick for alluring people to join the Catholic Church. These suspicions tend to create difficulties for getting a legal permit for our projects and Church activities. Another major problem is the financial support of the works. How to sustain existing projects without neglecting other pressing needs of the poor around us - this is a constant worry of the missionaries.

At times, every day feels like a struggle. But we are ever grateful that Providence is always on our side. We have been blessed by the generosity of charitable organizations and individuals, especially from Singapore, who are our partners and co-missionaries for whom we pray. Their loving concern encourages us to move on.

At the start of 2008, we launched for the first time a Pastoral Plan. It is meant to cover three years and focuses on strenghtening the vitality of our Catholic Church by building small Christian Communities. This year, we want to deepen our Christian life through reading, study, reflection, and sharing on God's Word. An English-Mongolian Christian Catholic Dictionary has just been published. It will help us all understand better the Word of God in the Mongolian world. This is a real breakthrough in our evangelization work. Street children with Bishop Wens Our usual summer activities consist in summer camps for the youth and Sunday school children. A Church Music Festival on the level of the parishes and a Sportsfest for all the Catholic Church Mission workers are scheduled as well. Summer also means the coming of visitors.

Looking into the future, I am dreaming of a formal Catholic Institution of Education, from the lowest levels to higher learning. It is our hope that the school may also serve as a seedbed for vocations to the clergy and religious life. Eventually this Church must have a Mongolian face to be rightly called a Local Church.

Children of Erdenet: Fire and Reconstruction
We did not anticipate much change for 2008 in the life and functioning of My Home Kindergarten: the poor children come - they learn and play, laugh and weep, are full of excitement or fall asleep, find new buddies and fight - and then, after two years, they move on to the world of a "real school." And new children come and join.

That's also how I expected this year to be… until fire struck our library building in the morning of 31 Dec. '07. The security guard noticed smoke and flames leaping from the roof. He called for help from people living nearby. The fire brigade came late, managed to extinguish the fire, but added serious water damage. Thank God, all damage was material only. Because of school holidays, no children were in the library. Cause of the fire was the heating system: an indoors wood and coal stove. Ironically, our extraordinary budget for 2008 included US$15,000 for another heating system, on the outside.

It was a blessing, too, that our Kindergarten building itself, standing nearby, was not affected. For our small children life could go on as usual. We were also able to save many of the books as well as the old computers. But the building itself was beyond repair. This would be the end of the study-room and library service for some 600 youngsters of the neighbourhood … unless we could rebuild. And do it soon.

Of course, the main problem was financial, aside from the fact that no reconstruction could be started until the end of winter. A local engineer made a study of what needed to be further demolished and what could be salvaged (mainly the foundations). Plans were drawn up so that we might start reconstruction as soon as weather would permit. Next was the quest for extra funds. Cost estimates, including a new and safer heating system, came to US$54,700 - not exactly small change. But I'm happy to say that help was promised - and some of it received - also from generous Erdenet benefactors in Singapore.

It's now end June. Reconstruction has started and should finish by August when the new school year will start. At present, my life is almost like that of a construction worker, without pay, but one who can count on the support of caring friends.

Good Shepherd Parish, Ulaanbaatar:
Fr. Ronald writes
No matter how dark the night,
dawn will come
and the sun will shine again.

I remember saying this many times to my parishioners when it was still winter and we were holding services and meetings in the cold and uncomfortable gers. Now that summer is near, I can see their breath of relief from a very cold winter. Smiles have come back to their faces and I would say, "See, I told you that everything would be fine soon. Put your trust in God." Parishioners begin to stay longer after Mass or class, unlike during winter when everybody was in a hurry to go home and get warm.

Now we can focus on the summer activities of the parish. We have resumed all our social and charitable activities: Sewing classes, Handicraft making, English and Korean language classes. Ever more young people want to sign up and enroll in these classes. The number of those who consider joining the Church and converting to Christ has also increased. Recently we had the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens. It was an inspiring event for both the parishioners and the new candidate-members of the parish community. After the ceremony, I could hear and see our parishioners greeting and warmly welcoming them as brothers and sisters of Good Shepherd Parish. And no more complaints about a cold church!

We thank God that he heard our call and that, after two tough years of administrative hassles, we could finally start the construction of our own church building. We signed a contract with a Chinese construction company and the digging of the foundations has started. Hopefully before winter we will be able to move into the church hall and classes, where we can worship God and serve his poor people.

Please remember Good Shepherd Parish in your prayers.