April prayer letter

I really enjoy teaching. I have taught at a Christian high school, taught English as a second language, and have taught American Literature in a college. But I love to teach the Bible best of all. Since founding the Bible institute of Faith Baptist Church, I have taught a variety of Bible institute classes. More than simply giving Mongolian Christians knowledge about the Bible, the goal of the institute classes is to impart to them a love for the Bible and a desire to pass on the knowledge that they gain to others. The classroom environment with homework and assignments also gives Mongolians an opportunity to develop self-discipline. In the end, I purpose to develop godly men who know how to study the Bible for themselves and have a desire to teach that Bible knowledge to others.

Teaching a Bible institute class in Mongolia is a challenge. It starts with materials. A teacher does not simply go down to the Bible bookstore and pick out a book. Usually, there is not a textbook on the subject he wishes to teach, because Mongolian, as a language, has few speakers. There are dozens of languages in India with more speakers than Mongolian has around the world. So while there is a growing library of theological and Bible study books available in Mongolian, it still is a very small amount. A second issue is that often books here are given one (very small) print run. Which means that once a book is sold out, there is not another opportunity to buy it. Even in cases where I have found a book that would work for a class, by the time I arranged a class and returned to buy the needed books, they were gone. That means that for my Bible institute classes, I am translating material from English into Mongolian. Diagrams, charts, maps—all of these must be recreated and translated into Mongolian.

A chart of the Hebrew calendar I re-created in Mongolian for the class

This spring, I am teaching on the life of Christ. The focus on our Savior, His teachings, His miracles that prove His deity, His substitutionary death, and His marvelous resurrection has been a welcome one. I have four books from which I am pulling material and a variety of extra materials which I have prepared and been giving to my students. At the beginning of the class, I gave them a small notebook in which to keep the material that they have collected. Recently, two of my students told me that their notebooks were almost full. In addition, they are memorizing verses every week and outlining the book of Mark as we go along.

Students of the Bible institute class

It has been gratifying to hear that students notice the amount of material that they are learning about the Gospels and the life of our Savior. Several of the students have commented that they did not realize how much there was to learn. But I am excited to know that regardless of how much they may learn from this class, there is always more that they can learn.