Until one travels to a region of need, and sees, feels, and experiences the sheer joy of helping those who exist under such impoverish circumstances, one can never know the joy I am speaking of. It is truly better to give than to receive!

 This is why over the years as Santa, I have often mentioned to many of you about your children, who are now young adults, going with Santa on a mission trip. They get to BE the Santa, bringing gifts of love, hope, smiles, life and friendship. I want them to experience the joy of helping others who are in need or less fortunate. I want them to have the opportunity and see how fulfilling it is, compared to the material things we so often fix our eyes upon. 

The summer of 2022, I had planned to go to Poland to work with contacts there who are helping orphans, and the hurting families and refugees from the Ukraine conflict. From there I was going to Mongolia to build a team and head up a program building a deep-winter greenhouses (DWG) using solar and geo thermal heat system combined with an integrated aquaponic system. Why a greenhouse in Mongolia? Because of the extreme cold and nomadic lifestyle of many people in the country, vegetables are not readily available and they are cost prohibitive. Their primary diet is meat contributing to their low life expectancy of 60 years of age. So, if the church can grow vegetables to sell at reasonable prices for the people, all benefit. The church is empowered to reach more people for Christ through outreach and the people will benefit from the vitamins and minerals in the vegetables.

Well, God had a different plan and timing. On June 11, 2022, the day before my flight to Poland and Mongolia, I was involved in a serious accident with my camper falling on my head. Therefore, I was not able to take the trip at that time. While in recovery, I learned so much more about deep-winter greenhouses and collected much more information and contacts. I now believe that God did not want me to go to Poland at this time.  

I left for Mongolia in August and returned mid September 2022, and again this past summer of ’23. The favor of the Lord was amazing. I met with the president, department chairs and various professors of the Ulaanbaatar International University and lectured about deep-winter greenhouses for students and faculty. I also have met with local pastors, YWAM leaders, NGO’s and business owners who would like to be involved in this project. This is not a one-time visit mission trip, but a long term journey involving training in basic agri, horti and aqua culture. The challenge is to design and construct a greenhouse in which to grow vegetables year-round even in the extreme -40F ambient temperatures during the long winter months. 

Building a greenhouse to stay warm enough in such climate, to grow fresh vegetables and possibly fish, and to do so using a combination of solar power, geo-thermal, rocket mass heaters, and other off grid designs makes this a very interesting challenge.  After completing the construction and operations for a year, we will collect data and consider the pros and cons of setting up an off-grid aquaponics system. This will be done in phases over the next few years.

I hope some of Santa Max’s extended family and friends will be able to join the ‘Santa on a Mission’ team. If this sounds interesting to you, please let us know so we can put together teams and plan for dates between the beginning of May to August. Volunteers are welcome to come for all or part of the summer.