Tsagaan Sar, Day 1

Today is the first day of the Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.  Traditionally, Mongolians will go and worship their gods or sacred trees early in the morning on the first day.  The church generally has a prayer meeting every Wednesday, so taking those two things into account, Pastor Dean decided to have the prayer meeting in the morning.  He set the time for 7:00 a.m. and announced it in church this past Sunday.  Well, John and I went to a missionary's house last night for dinner.  We had a great time, but didn't get to bed until just before 1:00 a.m.  I set my alarm and John set his at 6:20 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. respectively.  We woke up at 7:40.  So I haven't had a very good start to Tsagaan Sar, but I'm sure it'll get better... I hope.  Please pray for all of us.  We will be eating so much buzz and other Mongolian foods it's not even funny.  I really don't mind the food, but this holiday generally doesn't bode well for foreigners and their stomach health.  It's a really interesting holiday though, because more than any other time of the year, this is when the older Mongolian traditions come out in abundance.  I'm really anxiously looking forward to this next week!