ULAANBAATAR (UCAN) -- For some young Catholics, collecting cow dung and searching through rubbish go hand in hand with reciting the rosary and keeping their heads cool in summer.

"We walked over three mountains before finding cow dung," UCA News was told by 18-year-old Batjargal, one of nine young men determined to help a poor family.

His group promised to collect 100 sacks of dried cow dung from pastures around Zuun Mod, about 25 kilometers south of the capital, and give it to the family to use as its fuel supply in the coming harsh six-month winter.

Collecting dung was just one activity that engaged youths of Ulaanbaatar-based St. Mary's Parish during their mid-July summer camp.

The young men set out to work one early morning as they prayed the rosary. "We managed to collect 50 sacks," Batjargal reported, "but the family was disappointed because they had hoped to get enough fuel for the whole winter."

The task of five young women who formed another group was to build a small brick storeroom adjacent to a ger, a traditional round felt tent, where an old lady, her daughter and granddaughter live.

"Four times that day, we went to the town's rubbish dump over the mountain to collect broken bricks," one of the women, Bayarmaa, 20, told UCA News.

"We cleaned the bricks and worked until 9:00 p.m. to build the room," she said. "We never did such work before! We're mostly city girls, 20 years old and younger, so it's not perfect. Even so, the old lady was very happy."

In all, 36 young parishioners and five visiting Korean seminarians spent four days in Zuun Mod, capital of Central Province, for their summer camp.

The summer camp had three rules: Do not get angry, pray always, and do the most unpleasant task first. “The first day we were able to follow the rules, but on the second some of us started getting tired and angry,” said Enh Oyu, a camper.

Solongo, a youth leader and Sunday-school teacher, pointed out to UCA News, "In previous years, our summer camps were all about us -- having fun, learning things -- but this time it was all about other people."

According to Solongo, who has been a Catholic for four years, the youths first asked local Catholics and St. Paul de Chartres nuns in Zuun Mod if they knew of poor families. "Then we visited those families, introduced ourselves and asked them what we could do for them," she said.

"They all needed something, such as fuel for the winter and a storeroom adjacent to their ger," Solongo said, "Others needed a fence to be fixed, their yard weeded, firewood chopped or stable cleaned."

Besides helping poor families, the youths also spent half a day harvesting carrots on farmland belonging to Church-run Center of Love, and then went into town in groups of three to offer help to whomever they came across.

For Munkhjargal, 19, this was the camp's most satisfying activity. "We met an old man washing his coat at the river," he recalled. "We washed it for him, and then gave him some cookies. He was quite hungry."

Munkhjargal's group also helped an old lady carry water home. "At first, she was afraid of us," he admitted, "but we told her we are Church children who believe in Jesus and want to help people. She accepted our help but did not want to ask for anything more."

In the process, he added, he came to realize that "most townspeople know the Church-run St. Paul School, so they have some idea about the Catholic Church."

For Baigalmaa, another camper, evaluating each day's events and reflecting on their spiritual value at night was most meaningful. "The most wonderful evening was when we all went to a mountaintop and spent several hours adoring the Blessed Sacrament," she told UCA News.

Baigalmaa said "Do something for Jesus" was the aim of this year's camp. With that in mind, the four parish youth groups -- one in the city, the others at sub-stations in Niseh, Yaarmag and Zuun Mod -- went about working together and gaining support for the Church in Zuun Mod.

Catholics in Zuun Mod, she noted, "still lack official permission to have religious activities such as prayer meetings and Mass."

Father Stephen Kim, St. Mary's pastor, told UCA News what he hoped the camp would achieve. "I want the young people to understand that the Church is more than a youth club," he said. "We come to the Church to meet and serve God."

END