February prayer letter

We have a couple in the church who has only been out to church as a family once since the new year began. People make choices, work and family, that prevent them from attending the church meetings. It is not that they cannot come; they simply choose to do other things. So many of these Mongolian Christians are young in the Lord.

Just as a baby cannot feed himself, clean himself, or make intelligent choices, a spiritual baby Christian cannot feed himself, clean himself, or make intelligent choices. This particular couple should have been spiritual teenagers; however, they had allowed themselves to regress to spiritual infancy. They no longer were reading their Bibles or praying—no spiritual nourishment. They were wallowing in sin unable to clean themselves even though God freely offers His forgiveness if we will confess our sins. Consequently, their choices were wrong, which only furthered their feelings of spiritual inadequacy.

So I made a trip out to their home to see them. I did much listening and not much helping. After prayer and preparation, Kristie and I returned to their house to meet with them. The verse that comes to mind is, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). Except that instead of preaching the Word from behind the comfort of the pulpit in a public place, I was preaching, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting them in their home. If they will not come to hear the preaching on Sunday, I must take the preaching to them.

God was pleased to grant us some progress. This past Sunday they were both in church. The exhortation that I had given was an encouragement to them and reminded them of the value of

allowing God’s Word to impact their lives. This is not something that was new to them, but they needed to understand it afresh.

This is a pioneer ministry in Mongolia: feeding and cleaning spiritual babes, reproving wrong decisions, and rebuking sinful thinking that leads to sinful actions. Sometimes it seems that we are not making much progress; but then, we have a 14-year old daughter who still needs reproof, rebuke, and exhortation. None of these Christians are even 14 years in Jesus Christ yet. It is to be expected that they will need extra care and attention.

Pray earnestly with us for the spiritual growth of these young ones. We need a season of God’s revival to encourage, energize, and inspire us. Pray with us for revival.