Preparing to Return - Prayer Letter from June 2006

As I travel and speak in churches, I tell them of my decisions as I make them. Then I forget that most of you are not in those churches, but are in some other church where I have already been. So it may be that some of you are not aware of my plans.

Our first plan is to return to Mongolia in August. We have tickets to fly on Monday, August 14, 2006. We are very eager to be back in Mongolia, ministering to Mongolians, and speaking the Mongolian language. Many churches have generously provided items for us to take back. Because of luggage restrictions we will be hard-pressed to get it all back to Mongolia. What a wonderful blessing! We are so grateful to those of you who have given so generously to us. Between now and our departure date, I only have a few more meetings with churches, but I have several meetings with individuals who pray for us and love us. Also, there are several opportunities to preach at my home church and to serve there in other ways.

Once in Mongolia we plan to pick up where we left off–evangelizing and discipling Mongolians. We talked to Ganpurev and Ulzee on the phone in late June. They are doing very well, but Enkhee and Bayambaa seem to be struggling. We cannot say thank you often enough for those of you who faithfully pray for us and our friends in Mongolia. We know that your prayers have an effect on what happens in Mongolia. This year of reporting back to our churches has been a wonderful time to strengthen our friendships, remind people to pray for us, and report about the progress of the work in Mongolia.

Several months ago while preparing to write a similar letter, I mentioned to my wife the fact that I hoped people read our prayer letters. It would be discouraging to spend so much time and effort trying to communicate if there was no one with whom to communicate. The next month, several of you from different churches mentioned what a joy the regular prayer letters were. It was as if God was saying, “There are people who notice your efforts to communicate.” Those who read our letters and pray for us faithfully are an encouragement to us.

Prayer update

I finally will be in one place for a while. During the next month, I only have one meeting away from Westgate Baptist Church. I will be speaking several times at Westgate during that time, meeting with several families and individuals, and packing for Mongolia.

By July 23, we must be moved out of our apartment. So the challenge in the next month is to sort through the stuff that we have amassed in the past year. It's amazing how much stuff one can accumulate in one year! In some cases, churches have given us things to take back to Mongolia. For that we are grateful. When I returned to Mongolia for three weeks in the winter, I left behind two footlockers of stuff. Korean Air allows us to check a total of twelve items. We have clothes, school books for homeschooling, books for my library, new games, toys (from the four kids spending a year with grandparents), kitchen items that cannot be bought in Mongolia, and a host of other small odds and ends. We have decided to pack the essential items, set non-essential items aside, make a third pile of useful things that can be brought to us later, and then get rid of everything else. So pray for wisdom and that God would multiply our time during the next month. We'll need every minute.

Goals for this blog

Those of you who are reading this blog obviously care enough to keep track of what we are doing. I hope that means that you are also praying for us. The goal of this blog is to post information, news, and pictures about our ministry in Mongolia and occasionally to post other information about Mongolia that will be helpful to you.

My prayer updates will be posted here as they come out. Also, I write a weekly update for family and home church that will be posted here. My plan is over the next few months to include some biographical information about my Mongolian friends. Along with their pictures such information will give you a better idea of how to pray for them. Eventually, I would like to make a calendar available to you so that you know how to pray in a timely manner. Check back weekly for new information.

Perhaps you have suggestions about items that might be posted on this blog or ideas about how I can make this blog more useful, or maybe you have comments or questions; do not hesitate to send me an e-mail. My contact information is on the back of our prayer card. I like to hear from you all.