Things seem to be quieting down now. Darkhan is very quiet and there have been no protests here since Tuesday, as far as I know.

The rioting has not started up again in UB and things are relatively peaceful. There is still a lot of tension in the air and the streets are being patrolled by tanks and soldiers with guns. The government is still in talks to try and resolve the "blunders" that occurred during the elections and the counting of the ballots that followed.

I put the word "blunders" in quotation marks because I don't believe that educated adults who, on any other day of the year were perfectly capable of counting things, could be so dumb as to miscount voting ballots. The MPRP has so many tricks they use to cheat and up their numbers. My favorite one was 4 years ago when over 20,000 registered dead people voted. Figure that one out.

Anyway, the foreigners were advised to lay low, as some of the rioters were from a party known for their racism toward non-Mongolians. I don't know the translation of their party name but they wear black, shave their heads, and use swastikas as their symbol. They hate Americans, especially those who marry Mongolians and make their would-be Mongolian offspring American citizens. They urge their fellow Mongolians to "keep their blood pure" by only marrying within their own race. I'm glad nobody listens to those wacky fools.

Anyway, the other day we were watching the rioting on TV and Nate said, "These people are definitely going to hell." He caught us off guard but I told him that if they repented and helped to make restitution, that God would forgive them. Abi, who was sitting next to him, shook her head and said, "Oh no, I hope they don't repent! I think they should go straight to hell!"

It was not like Abi to say something like that and, after some probing I found out why she felt so strongly about it. With tears in her eyes she confessed that she was worried about her "Emee and Uvuu", her Mongolian grandparents, who live in UB. I assured her that they were ok, that we could call and talk to them if she wanted to. Then we prayed for them and the rest of our relatives and she began to relax. These kids keep me on my toes!

Thank you for all your prayers for Mongolia. Please continue to pray for our safety and that of the citizens and government officials in UB.

God bless you!