Deans' weekly update

Last week I was in Oregon. I preached at Westgate Baptist Church and met with a variety of people. I found great encouragement in my trip. But I was scheduled to come back to Mongolia on Saturday night which is always a hard night to return because of responsibilities at church the next day.

My plane landed in Ulaanbaatar at 10 PM, Saturday, September 10. After passing through immigration, picking up my bags, and going through customs, I arrived home just before midnight and was scheduled to preach the next morning. I had prepared a sermon, but jet lag and weariness from my trip made speaking Mongolian a mentally taxing task.

This was compounded by an unexpected phone call from the church's song leader about thirty minutes before the service was scheduled to start. "I'm sorry," he said, "I'm going to be late. Please start without me." That may be fine and good when you do not have any responsibilities, but when the song leader calls in at the last minute the backup needs to be ready; and I was the backup. So it was a long morning as I tried to lead songs and sing with enthusiasm and preach with energy. Praise God! He always gives grace to meet every task that He places upon us.

Tuesday night about 6 PM (Tuesday about 3 AM for those of you living on the West Coast), I am scheduled to meet with two young men. Enkhamaglan has been to our services both Mongolian and English before: he comes perhaps twice a year. Usually he comes when he needs some help with an English translation.

He came this past Sunday night and brought a first time guest with him: Oudou. When they requested to meet with me, I inquired bluntly, "Do you need some translation help?"

"No," Enkhamaglan replied, "We have some questions about your ministry."

I am not certain at this point what will come out of the meeting. Please check my blog tomorrow to see how the meeting went and even if it occurred at all. If they do not show up for our meeting, it will not be the first time I have waited for someone who was not coming.