Ganpurev's and Ulzee's Salvation Testimony

It has been some years now since Ganpurev and Ulzee were saved from their sin, raised with Christ, and set with Him in heavenly places. Still, remembering their child-like faith and the struggles that strengthened it are a great encouragement to me. I share them with you to urge you to pray faithfully for Mongolians by name.

Kristie and I first met Ulzee in the summer of 2003. She was the cousin of Ganaa who had been our language tutor since we had arrived in Mongolia. I wanted to meet her husband Ganpurev as well; but at the time that Ulzee came to our house to meet us, Ganpurev was in another place working on a construction project. I feared that Ganpurev was the kind of husband that only lived with his family when it suited him. Some Mongolian husbands seem to come and go like that: sometimes living with their wife and children, sometimes traveling about, sometimes working in another part of the country.

It was not until late summer that I finally had an opportunity to meet Ganpurev when he came home from his construction project. I had determined to speak of Jesus Christ the very first time that I met Ganpurev. Ulzee had mentioned to me that Ganpurev had returned home. I went to their home to visit them. At that time they were living in a ger. As I entered their ger I was surprised to find nothing there. There was a small chest or two and several coarse rugs on the floor. But their ger lacked the beds and chairs that most other Mongolian families had.

Ganpurev listened politely as I tried to explain that Jesus Christ was the Savior of mankind to him in my broken Mongolian. However, it was as if I was speaking about a completely new topic to him, and he had no point of reference with which to understand what I was saying.

A few days later, one of Ganpurev’s jobs paid him with a truckload of logs. Ganpurev needed some help picking up the logs from another part of town and asked me for help. I agreed to help and spent much of a day with him. We rented a truck and moved the logs from the train yard where they waited to Ganpurev’s ger.

At the time because Ganpurev’s father was in poor health I began to pray for his father’s health and more earnestly for his father’s salvation. Soon after my first meeting with Ganpurev, his father went into a coma. Ganpurev hurried away to his home aimag (province) to be with his father. During that time, I prayed that his father would be preserved until he had heard about Jesus Christ. I wanted to see Ganpurev saved and then for him to have a chance to witness to his father.

Ganpurev’s father was in a coma for some time and then amazingly seemed to recover completely. He came out of his coma, started to talk and eat, and left the hospital to be with his family. Ganpurev came back to Ulan Bator excited about his father’s recovery. I redoubled my efforts to pray for his father’s salvation.

Several weeks later, I was home when a call came that Ganpurev’s father had suddenly died. Ganpurev was in the city at the time and had no opportunity to see his father before his sudden passing. Ganpurev left immediately to be with his family for the funeral and was gone several weeks.

During that time, winter came. His plan was to cut the logs up to use to heat his ger, but his father’s sudden passing meant that he had left his family with some large logs. When I asked Ulzee how they planned to cut the logs, she replied that the family had a small handsaw with which they were cutting off chunks of firewood from the logs. I knew another American missionary in town with a chain saw and asked him to help me cut and split the wood for the family. The two of us and his two sons went over one day and within hours and completed the task of cutting the logs into rounds and splitting most of them into firewood. The family was very grateful, though I found out later that we had not split the firewood the way that most Mongolians do.

Ganpurev took the death of his father really hard. Since moving to the city, Ganpurev’s work had not been steady. Some times he had lots of work and other weeks he would have none. During the weeks that he did not work, he often drank heavily and spoke of his sorrow.

I started to visit about once a week. Usually I could turn the subject to Jesus although occasionally I was thwarted. Once when I went over, Ganpurev had been drinking with another Mongolian. By the time I arrived he was drunk. That day he did not want to talk to me at all. Another time when I visited, I found Ganpurev already lying down with the blankets tucked around him while the rest of the family was awake. Since it was only early evening I could not

Ganpurev's family in 2003
figure out why Ganpurev was in bed already. Was he sick? Not long after I came in, he rose from his bed and began to help his wife with dinner. He did not seem to be sick or unusually tired. We had a very pleasant evening together. Later, I heard from his wife that they had experienced an argument just before I arrived. A ger is a one room dwelling with no privacy. With winter raging outside and the temperature below zero, Ganpurev had nowhere to go. So instead he went to bed and pulled the blankets around him.

At the same time, I was teaching Bible stories weekly to Ganpurev and Ulzee’s two children as well as some other children that lived nearby. Often Ulzee would come, and occasionally Ganpurev would come, but Ganpurev did not seem as interested in the Bible as Ulzee did.

Because my goal is to reach Mongolian men while not neglecting women and children. My desire was to see Ganpurev saved not just his wife and children.

One day Ulzee came to me to ask me for help. I was more than willing to help but wondered exactly how I could be a help to them. Ganpurev seemed uninterested in truth and was drowning his sorrows in alcohol. Ulzee asked if I would ask Ganpurev not to drink so much.

This was an awkward request for me in several ways. I tried to explain to Ulzee my apprehensions. First, I was a foreigner who had only known Ganpurev for a few months. Why should Ganpurev listen to me: a foreigner and an acquaintance? Second, in Ganpurev’s mind, he had a very good reason for drinking. Also, I did not see Ganpurev privately very often. It would be considered rude for me to scold or rebuke Ganpurev in front of his family. Last, Ganpurev made no claim to being a Christian; what could I say to him that would make a difference. His wife, however, shrugged off all my objections. According to her, he would listen to me because he respected me. I felt like pointing out the time that I had visited when he was drunk and he would not even talk to me. Did he respect me then? I realized that I was only making excuses and that indeed God had pointed out to me a way that He wanted to use me to love Mongolians.

Several days later, I was taking a few friends to the airport. The airport is some distance southwest of town. We live in the eastern part of the city as does Ganpurev’s family. At the time, I knew that Ganpurev was working in the western part of the city north of the airport. He was traveling for about and hour and a half one way on public transportation to reach his work. After dropping off my friends at the airport, I thought I would go by Ganpurev’s place of work, see if he was ready to leave, and if so take him home. It would give me a chance to talk with him privately about his drinking but more importantly be an excellent opportunity to tell him that Jesus Christ was the only answer to his sorrow.

His work was not quite finished when I arrived, but he asked for and received permission from his boss to leave work early. Providentially, on the way to Ganpurev’s home traffic was terrible and the trip took twice as long as necessary. The long ride just gave us more time to talk.

I mentioned to Ganpurev that his drinking was a bad example for his son, was stressful to his family, and was not about to heal his sorrow over his father’s death. I told him that there was a God who loved him and cared deeply about his sorrow. His response was interesting to me, “My family worshipped many gods when I was a boy.” He did not say this in a way that was critical or skeptical. He seemed to be trying to put me at ease and tell me that he indeed did believe in the gods. Only I was not trying to strengthen his faith in the Mongolian gods but trying to teach him about the one true God. Today, I think about the verse in the Gospel of John, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” In a monotheistic society, that verse may not mean much but here in polytheistic Mongolia, it is a verse packed with truth. There are many false gods but only one true God.

That led us to a long discussion about Who the true God is, His absolutely unique position as the Creator and Lord of the universe, and His free offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. Ganpurev again listened carefully, but as with his comment about worshipping many gods, it seemed as if we were talking on different topics: I was talking about one true God and he was talking about many false gods.

My weekly visits after this took a more serious turn. The visits became more focused on the core message of the Bible: Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world. Ganpurev was a quick learner, but my teaching seemed only like so much head knowledge to him. He could parrot back to me without any compunction that man was a sinner and deserving of hell. I realized that pray and the power of the Holy Spirit was the only way that he would ever come under conviction and turn to Jesus Christ.

This continued for some time. One Monday morning I met Ulzee and told her that I did not think that coming to her house to teach them the Bible was profitable for Ganpurev. Although Ganpurev was listening, he only treated it as so much head knowledge.

Now, the previous day, my family had listened to a sermon in English on Matthew 9:36-38. It says in part that Jesus had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So that next morning, Ulzee came to our house and began to talk to me about various troubles that they were having. Their main trouble is that they built their ger on poor soil and now their ger is sinking into the mud. After telling me about a recent episode when all the furniture in their little ger fell over because the ger is sinking, she said (in Mongolian, of course), “We are like ownerless sheep.” The Holy Spirit immediately brought the phrase “shepherd-less sheep” to my mind. I took the opportunity to show her Matthew 9:36 and point out that Jesus had compassion on those people who were as shepherd-less sheep.

Before I went over to Ganpurev’s house on Tuesday, I prepared a lesson from John 10. Jesus said that He was the door of the sheep and the Good Shepherd. Since Ganpurev and Ulzee come from the Mongolian countryside, they know more about raising sheep than I do. I thought that Jesus’ parables about sheep might have a singular effect on them.

So it was that Tuesday night I was able to arrive at Ganpurev’s earlier than I expected. I arrived about 6:30, played a few games of UNO with Ganpurev and his son Bilgoon, and then ate dinner with them about 7:30. Having eaten at home, that was my second dinner. After dinner, the children left and the three of us – Ganpurev, Ulzee, and I – sat down to talk. I taught from John 10 about the role of shepherds and the role of sheep. Ganpurev echoed his wife’s remark of the previous day that they felt like ownerless sheep. I picked up on that and said, “Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He was to take care of you.” We came to the conclusion that Jesus loves us and calls us by name, but that the Bible teaches that we must respond to His call and follow Him. Then I asked, “How can we follow Jesus?” Both of them said, “We don’t know. How can we become one of Jesus’ sheep?”

Let me take a moment to explain about sheep and Mongolian sensibilities. Because Mongolians are much closer to animals than the average American, they are much more aware of various animals’ characteristics. Sheep are considered the stupidest and the most difficult animal with which Mongolians deal. One way to insult a Mongolian is to say, “You’re a sheep.” Because they are ignorant about sheep Americans usually are not offended when they are called sheep. But Mongolians know! So I am always careful to begin by saying that the Bible teaches that we are like sheep. “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). Even saying someone is “like a sheep” can cause offense. I have found that when a Mongolia is humble enough to receive God’s gift of eternal life, they realize that indeed they have been like sheep.

Therefore when Ganpurev and Ulzee said of themselves “How do we become Jesus’s sheep?” I knew that they had overcome that cultural obstacle and were willing to humble themselves as a little child (Matthew 18:3-4). We actually looked at many different parts of the Scripture, but I used the book of Romans as a guide. I gave them a brief explanation of Paul’s arguments in each chapter. I especially concentrated on several verses. First, we looked in depth at Romans 3:10 & 23. We went back to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and talked about sin. We decided that they had broken just about every command – especially in light of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5 which we also looked at. We talked about God’s holiness. I emphasized that our sin offends God; it breaks His righteous law. Then when we arrived at Romans 6 we talked about the penalty of sin. After a brief explanation of that verse, I asked them, “What does Jesus save us from.” Ganpurev immediately answered for both of them, “Jesus saves us from bad things.” I was heartbroken. Time and time again, I had told them that Jesus does not save us from all trouble or even most trouble. I had taught them that Christians have trials and trouble. But at least now I knew what misunderstanding needed to be corrected (again). I said, “No, that’s wrong. Believing on Jesus does not mean that your problems will go away. If you believe on Jesus, it does not mean that your ger will quit sinking or rise up out of the mud.” That seemed to get their attention.

I asked again, “Then what does Jesus save us from?” Ganpurev tried a second time, “He saves us from death.” That is good, but still not quite accurate. We looked at I Corinthians 15:55-56. We talked about the “wages of sin is death.” If Jesus saves us from our sin, we do not need to fear death! They understood that clearly. Then Ulzee said, “Don’t we become God’s children?” I responded by showing them John 1:12 and Romans 8:15 (we were almost there anyway). One of them made a comment about knowing the Bible well.”

We made it to Romans 10. We looked specifically at verses 9 and 10 that deal with believing with your heart and confessing with the mouth. Some more discussion followed to discern, as best I could, if they understood the Scriptures. Then Ganpurev said, “Before I understood what you said but did not comprehend its significance. Today, I am beginning to perceive what the Bible says.” You cannot imagine the rejoicing in my heart as I heard him say that. I saw that it was not anything that I said – I had said most of those same things before – but it was the Holy Spirit revealing the importance of these truths to him.

When we looked at Romans 10:9-10, I said, “If you believe in your heart, do you want to confess with your mouth what you believe in your heart?” Then Ganpurev hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said. His wife immediately said, “What?! Do you have doubts?” He replied, “Well, I have doubts about myself. What if I believe now but tomorrow or the next day, what happens?” I think he thought that he somehow had to make himself continue to believe or he would lose his salvation. What a joy to take him back to John 10 (remember we had started out there) and assure him that the permanency of his salvation rested not on what he would do but what Jesus already did!

After another half hour or so of discussion in which we recapped much of what we said before, Ganpurev said, “I’m ready to believe on Jesus.” I asked Ulzee, “What about you?” I think Ulzee had been ready before, but I thought it would be best if Ganpurev as head of the family and more contemplative than Ulzee made the decision first. I knew that Ulzee would follow her husband. So I was not surprised when Ulzee said, “I’m ready.”

Then it came time to pray. I am a firm believer that a person’s first prayer to the true God should be from their heart. That means that I do not need to lead them in prayer. They can pray for themselves. If their heart is truly repentant and they believe on Jesus then the Holy Spirit will direct their prayer. Further, they will be less likely to wonder later if they meant it since they prayed themselves. So I asked them if they believed on Jesus in their heart to pray out loud so I could hear – and thereby making confession with their mouth. Ganpurev just stared at me, and I did not bother to look at Ulzee. I knew what they were thinking. We have never prayed before. How do we do it?

I took a few minutes for a brief lesson on prayer. Considering their Buddhist background, I felt it important to emphasize that prayer is not a pre-determined set of words that must be prayed in an exact order to be effective as Buddhist prayers are, but rather that prayer is a verbal reflection of what is in our hearts. Then I told them that I would pray first; and after I had completely finished my prayer, they could pray and tell God what was on their heart.

You cannot imagine my joy as they prayed much like little children, confessing their sin, accepting Jesus’ death on the cross was in their place, and asking God to forgive them for breaking His law. I have been with people before when they prayed to ask God to save them but this was the first time that I had heard someone pray that prayer in Mongolian. How sweet it was to hear their prayers and knew that our merciful God was thrilled to adopt two more children into His family!

After we had all prayed, we had a brief discussion about daily Bible reading and prayer and set up a time to meet each week to study the Bible. My first priority is to disciple them. Then since it was 10:45 it was time to go to my second visit.

When I arrived at Bilgee’s house, they were just preparing to eat. So I ate with them my third dinner meal of the night. Bilgee and I talked until about 11:30 when I finally left for home.

Next week I will try to post their post-salvation testimony which is remarkable in itself ...