Baysaa's bad news

On Wednesday Baysaa received a phone call about 7 AM. It was an acquaintance from his home area calling to tell him that he should call to the border and talk to a Mongolian whom he had never met. He called and found out that his father had passed away.

I did not even know that Baysaa’s father was still living. Baysaa never talked about his father; I knew that he had grown up without a father present but didn’t know the details. Had his father died? Evidently he did not die when Baysaa was young; indeed, he just abandoned his wife and children when they were young.

People in Baysaa’s hometown knew both Baysaa and his father though he father had moved to the Gobi many years before. Baysaa anticipated meeting his father someday. Like many dreams that we have, he did not have a clear plan to meet his father; he just expected that one day it would happen. And then Wednesday morning he called a stranger in the southern Mongolian town of Zamyn Ud and heard that his father had passed away. His father had been sick for some time, but no one ever thought to call Baysaa.

Baysaa took the news very hard. Without telling his wife the news he had heard, he left home and was gone all day in the rain. He didn’t report to work and didn’t take his phone with him. People tried to call, but his phone was unreachable was the only message that they heard. He returned home late in the evening soaked from the rain and his tears reflecting his sorrows. If only he had tried to see his father earlier! If only someone had called to tell him his father was sick! If only … if only …

Wednesday night after the prayer service and Bible institute class, Ganpurev, Dashka, and I visited Baysaa’s home to comfort him. He had a wracking cough and was quite hoarse. I watched with a mixture of admiration and joy as Ganpurev and Dashka comforted their brother in Christ and gave him verses and promises to encourage his heart. I almost felt as an unnecessary appendage to the visit. I said a few things myself but let the others do a majority of the talking.

Pray for Baysaa. He has so much to learn, so much growing up to do. And God is trying to teach him so many things. Pray that he would learn to rest in the sovereignty of God, not put off doing those things that he knows he ought to do, and be the father to his children that he never had.