US BOY TO SPEND SUMMER HERE, BUILDING HOMES

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A 14-year old teen from Lebanon Township, New Jersey State of the USA, Joshua Burd is going to Mongolia with Teen Mission International, the nj.com website said last Saturday. He is just finishing seventh grade at Crossroads Christian Academy in Franklin Township. He is a member of South Ridge Community Church, of which the school is a ministry. Joshua, son of Jennifer and the late Richard Burd, poured sidewalks in Belize with Teen Mission International last summer. His mom says although his first choice for this year was Spain, he's willing to do good works a little farther away. Mongolia is a large, sparsely populated, landlocked nation between Russia and China. It shares the Gobi Desert with China. Its primary religions are Buddhism, shamanism and Islam. He is leaving home for Florida on June 18, where he will meet the other members of his roughly 20-member team, which will include four adults. They will be building yurts - indigenous, portable homes - and sharing their faith via puppet shows and skits in towns. Then they will go to South Korea to give English lessons to children for a week. Joshua's friends can expect to see him again in Aug. 11. His mom says Joshua wants to be a missionary when he gets older. She went on a mission trip to France when she was 17, but "this is all his idea".