Evangelistic trip to Ovorkhangai

Many people in Ulan Bator leave the city and travel to the countryside during the summer. Of course, lots of Americans travel to see nature in the summer too. The difference is that many Mongolians spend September to May living in the city and go somewhere else during June, July, and August. In some cases, they are college students who have come to the city to gain an education and are now returning to live with their parents for the summer. Many of my neighbors have a “summer home” some distance from town where they live during the summer. Their summer house has no running water, no heat, and in some cases no electricity; but that is better than staying in town where there is no air-conditioning, no grass, and lots of pollution. Many government employees have an entire month of vacation each year and choose to spend it living with relatives in the countryside. Many of the children are sent by their parents to live with grandpa and grandma or an uncle or aunt. It is not that the city becomes completely deserted; people still do live here.

One consequence that we have noticed is that our attendance during the summers often goes down. Coming back from our furlough in August 2006 we found that an attendance that had reached a high of 25 a few months before was down to four! Bible studies that started so well in the winter seemingly peter out in the summer as the members leave for the countryside or have extra work or just think playing while the weather is warm is a better idea than studying God’s Word.

So far this summer has been different. There have been a few Sundays when attendance was low. Generally speaking though, the losses of summer have been made up for by visitors. For example, this past week, though we did not have any first time visitors, we had three people who are new to our group.

I decided this summer to travel to the countryside myself during the week to see some of Ganpurev’s family and have an opportunity to witness to them. Many of them I have met at one time or another during their visits to the city. However, since my Bible studies had slowed, I thought I could best use my time by taking the Gospel to Ganpurev’s relatives. Ganpurev, his son Bilgoon, my son Caleb, and I decided that we would all go together.

We had a good visit. Our trip out to the countryside was uneventful. The first 60 miles or so of paved road outside of the city had been torn up to prepare it for repair which forced us to drive on newly created dirt tracks that meandered through the fields.

It can be a lonely road in Mongolia

Occasional holes or drive river beds would open up before us suddenly and more than once we wondered if we had broken something on the car. But all went well, and we only changed one flat tire on the way to Bayan-Ondor which is the sum (similar to a county in the U.S.) where Ganpurev’s relatives live.

Interestingly enough, his family claims that there are no churches and not one Christian that they know of in the entire sum. The sum center (like a county seat) has about 1000 inhabitants and no Christian witness. We spent our time not in the sum center but with Ganpurev’s relatives in the summer pastures.

Some of the gers where Ganpurev's relatives live

Ganpurev and I had the specific purpose of witnessing to his relatives and friends. Some of his relatives live year-round in the countryside. Several family members spend their summers in the countryside and live the rest of the year in the sum center or aimag center. (Aimag centers are similar to state or provincial capitals in North America.)

When we arrived on Monday evening, two of Ganpurev’s brothers and several of his nephews were working on stripping tree branches to be made into poles situable for ger walls. Ganpurev and later I joined them.

I join in their project

The next day, Ganpurev continued to help his family with the chores: watering the animals, sending the animals to pasture, stripping the branches, and making repairs to items. Ganpurev’s brother Ulzeet saddled a horse for me and encouraged me to ride over by myself to see some of the other family members. I spent the morning visiting with some of Ganpurev’s sisters and their husbands. It was frustrating to me to be unable to witness to them as effectively as I wanted to. One brother-in-law in particular remarked later to his sister-in-law that he could not understand half of what I said. To which the sister-in-law expressed surprise and stated that she understood what I said.

Ganpurev waters the flocks

I returned to the family members with whom Ganpurev was staying and was soon invited to Tomoo’s son’s ger where there was a gathering of people related to his son’s wife. When I refused to drink the vodka customarily given to visitors, Tomoo explained that I did not drink because I was a Christian. It was a great opportunity to preach Christ to them.

Shatar, one man who heard the Gospel for the first time

The discussion was continued later after Ganpurev joined us at his brother’s wooden shack. A visitor asked Ganpurev and I to explain our “religion.” I preached that we do not have a religion but a faith and that the greatest need that we have is to be reconciled to our Creator. About an hour of preaching from Ganpurev and me followed along with questions from our listeners. In the end, Tomoo and the visitor thanked us for a clear “talk” about our Savior in Mongolian. I was excited about the fact that about eight men and seven women along with children were gathered to hear about Jesus Christ. Several mentioned that their only familiarity with Jesus was from some relatives who are Mormons. None of them probably had ever had a clear presentation of the Gospel outside of visits to Ganpurev’s house.

Later that evening we traveled to visit some of Ganpurev’s sisters along with Ulzeet. We spend about two hours preaching Jesus Christ. As we ended our preaching, Ganpurev left briefly. During his absence, Ulzeet observed that Ganpurev was a different person since he had believed in Jesus. He no longer visited the Buddhist lamas or temples, he had quit doing Buddhist rituals, and even though he had experienced many difficult times he remained peaceful. Hearing this, I added that the peace that Ganpurev possessed came from knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him.

On another day, Ganpurev and I visited two other homes and preached Christ to them.

Yuri, one of the men to whom we witnessed on this trip

There is much misunderstanding in Mongolia that all religions lead to the same place (wherever that might be). Ganpurev and I were very clear that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to our Creator God and that without Jesus Christ we will be cast forever into the lake of fire.

Although no decisions were made while we were there Ganpurev and I know that the Holy Spirit was at work. We left a Gospel of John and Gospel tract with every family to whom we had witnessed and encouraged them to read the booklets that we left. My goal is to return to Bayan-Ondor within the next four or five months and continue to witness to these folks. After all, how many of us were saved after hearing one time or reading a tract. Please pray especially for Ganpurev’s brothers and brothers-in-law. If they were to be saved, I believe it would have a tremendous impact on the rest of the family.

The four I would especially ask for you to pray for by name are Tomoo, Ulzeet, Bold, and Bysaa. These men are perhaps the key to seeing the rest of the family members saved.

Ulzeet, Bold, and Tomoo: could you pray for these men?