pray for us

We find our time in Mongolia rapidly coming to an end. Our items to be shipped back to the United States were taken from us today. Our tickets are for next Monday's flight. By this time next week, we will be in Seoul, South Korea. Lord willing, by next Wednesday we will be able to see those of you at Westgate Baptist Church.

Just this morning, Bro. Delaney, Baptist World Mission's director for Asia, and his friend, Ronny Marino left Mongolia. We had a wonderful visit with these two brothers in Christ. They were able to meet several of the church's Mongolian families and the fellowship was so encouraging to all of us. We only wish that they could have stayed longer.

Kristie has had trouble sleeping. There is certainly some amount of stress and tension whenever one makes an intercontinental move. That is part of it. Now today they took our bed to be shipped to the United States. I suspect that it will be hard for her to sleep in our temporary bed. Please pray for Kristie to sleep well.

Living with another family's stuff

Our neighbors bought our apartment, and we are preparing to move out. But our neighbors had to move out of their apartment before we left ours. So they asked us if they could put some boxes in our entryway. Feeling sorry for them, I agreed that they could. 

Have you ever heard the parable of the camel who put his nose in the tent? Well, I should have taken that lesson to heart.

The next day they asked if they could put a couch and a TV stand in our house. But we ended up with a whole lot more than a couch and TV stand. So now we are sharing our apartment with many of our neighbors household items. I've included a picture of our living room filled with stuff.

I've highlighted my office in the corner (ringed in red). I'm trying to maintain my work while working out of a literal cubby-hole. We leave in nine days so I hope to have a regular office soon.
Keep praying for us.

Quote of the week

"To be broken means to have no rights before God and man. It does not mean merely surrendering my rights to Him but rather recognizing that I haven't any." —Roy Hession

Deans' weekly update

What a week it has been! Last week, I wrote to ask you to pray for the shipment of our items to the United States. I had contacted five shipping companies. But as of last Tuesday when I wrote that, I only had an offer to airfreight some of my items for an exorbitant amount or to ship by ocean freight to Seattle. From there it would be up to me to move my items through customs and to collect my household goods. I asked you to pray. I, too, was praying that God would lead me and give me clear direction by last Friday.

Thursday, three companies contacted me. I followed up with them, and it worked out that one of the companies would ship our things by ocean freight all the way to Portland. They also claimed that they could pick up those items in the next week or two.

Today (Wednesday) they came by to create a packing list. That involved weighing all the items and coding them. They are now working with Mongolian customs agents to export our household goods out of Mongolia. Please pray that everything would go smoothly and quickly. In two weeks time, Lord willing, we will be with you.

Which leads me to remark on a Biblical understanding of prayer; that is, our prayers do not change God, our prayers change us. Last Wednesday when we prayed, we did not alert God to a situation with which He was unfamiliar. Nor did we convince Him against His will to help us. Nor did we change His all-knowing, perfect mind. Rather, God knew all along about the timing of this shipment. He allowed the companies to delay and delay until I finally asked you all to pray. Once we agreed in prayer about this subject, God had aligned our wills with His. With our wills now aligned with God’s, God acted. And now He gets the glory for arranging all the details.

Recently, I read this verse in my personal Bible reading: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” What a promise! Within that verse is also a command to glorify the Lord. So join with me this week in praise God for His goodness and thank Him for answering our prayers.

Picture of the week

Many of you have been praying with us for Aya. Kristie and I visited last Saturday and took this picture while we were there.

Deans' weekly update

You all have been so faithful to pray for us, and we are grateful for your thoughtfulness. Your prayers are an important part of our ministry in Mongolia. Keep praying for us as we wind up our affairs in Mongolia and re-establish ourselves in your part of the world. It is hard to believe but three weeks from the time you read this, we should be in Oregon once again.

God blessed us again this past week with a reasonably good turn-out both in the morning & evening. The Pattersons are back, Ganpurev is growing into his position as pastor, another translator recently joined the translation team, and people keep asking us what we have for sale (but more on that another time).

This week we would ask you to pray that we can find the most efficient and cost-effective way to ship some of our books, valuables, and sentimental items back to Oregon. I have contacted several companies. One company wants to ship it to Seattle. One company has offered to ship it by air—you can imagine the cost. So pray for the right company and right time to ship our items.

Mongolia 52 years apart

This picture is from 1960. I found it in a book about Mongolia. Notice the pink building that dominates the left-center of the picture.

This picture I took last week. The pink building is now dwarfed by the new Central Tower.

Prayer request

This morning, I was planning to take a walk. However, we had a hard rain falling about the time I would normally leave on my walk. It was our hardest rain all year. I knew that the church building's roof was having trouble. But I guess there was a mess at the church. We were planning to start on the repair of the building's roof on Monday. Evidently, we are a few days too late.

Bill's desk after his Bible and computer were removed

Bill Patterson's office is on the top floor of his building. The hard rain caused a significant of water to flow from the roof into his office. The worst of it seems to be were Bill's desk is. Unfortunately, his Bible and computer were located on his desk when the rain happened. 

Bill's Bible and computer with plaster from the ceiling

It seems like there are too many examples of these type of "freak" accidents that hinder the work in Mongolia. Of course, there are hard rains around the world and plenty of leaky roofs. I'm not referring only to the leaky roofs. I am saying that it seems that there are constantly little (or big) problems occurring with the work here. 



We are not discouraged, I don't think Bill is discouraged. But please pray for the Pattersons as they re-adjust to life in Mongolia. And pray for God's glory to be revealed to the Mongolians.

Quote of the week

"A leader will help your organization through tough times; a good leader will have a plan in place already to react quickly to change; a great leader will have corrected course long ago so that you will never know what dangers were in your path." —Tom Williams

read the full article here http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/07/10/how-to-be-a-great-leader/

Mongolia in the news

A couple of recent news articles about Mongolia:

lots of mining going on http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/nyt/20120627_Mongolias_coal_deposits_draw_neighbors_attention.html

good news from the recent election http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303567704577514142979652810.html

enjoy

Deans' weekly update

We had a good day on Sunday. After some months of low attendance, there were 54 people out on Sunday morning. Seventeen of those were Americans; still, that meant we had 34 Mongolians in attendance. So many of these Mongolians only come when it is convenient, when there is nothing else to do. I long for them to understand that the Christian life is a daily relationship and a life-long commitment to a God Who loves us.

In the evening, the crowd was slightly smaller but included three first-time visitors. We had our yearly visitor from Taiwan, Gregory Hincklen, who brought two Mongolians who had been exchange students at his university in Taiwan. He has such a burden for souls that he comes to Mongolia each year to try to integrate his Mongolian exchange students into a good church in their own country.

This is our last day with a vehicle. I have been driving other missionaries’ vehicles during their time in the United States. But today the last of them returns to Mongolia. After I return their vehicle, I will be without one until we leave. It is summer, the roads have been clogged with traffic anyway. I don’t anticipate needing a vehicle as much as we do during the winter, and I believe we can borrow a vehicle when necessary. Still, it will feel funny not having a car in the garage.

Please pray for Kristie. She has been unwell again. The Lord knew that she would be unwell and planned in His wisdom and sovereignty for the shipment of our items back to the United States to be delayed. I have been just as busy as always with church and work responsibilities so it has also been hard for me to give my attention to the logistics of moving. Please pray that Kristie would feel better, regain her strength, and be able to direct our packing.

This week is the Mongolians big, summer holiday: Naadam. During Naadam, Mongolians participate in the three manly sports: horse-racing, archery, and wrestling. Because the Mongolians will be busy with other pursuits, I should have an opportunity to focus on our preparations to return to Oregon.

Our schedule is something like this: Naadam this week, church camp next week (the Mongolians are organizing), the Baptist World Mission Field Director for Asia’s visit the following week, and then less than a week later our departure. As you can see we’ve packed many events, too many events, perhaps into this last month. Pray for Kristie’s health, for all of us to have energy, and for a smooth transition for the church and my family.

We are always grateful to think that you pray for us. Without God’s help, we are hopeless.

Picture of the week

Mongolians like to use a styrofoam-type product as insulation. If you want to buy it, you can stop at one of these roadside suppliers.

After purchasing it, you can load it up on a truck and take it wherever you want to go. It's light so load it up!

Good turnout on Sunday

They all came out of the woodwork on Sunday: we had 54 on Sunday morning, including some folks that hadn't attended in a long time. Thirty-seven of those were Mongolians along with 17 Americans.

Quote of the week

"Mongolian archery today is not what it was, having been robbed of its power by three centuries of Chinese rule. Though archery is still one of the three 'manly sport', today's bows are sloppy things, with pathetic range and arrows tipped by fat pads that are fired at, would you believe, nothing more than rows of wickerwork baskets a few down metres away. The bows I have tried send their arrows wobbling like a reed in a gale for not much more than 50 metres. I have not heard of anyone in Mongolia making bows in the old style, or of anyone backing a revival of old-style archery." —from a modern writer

Deans' weekly update

We had some good services on Sunday both in the morning and evening.

The Pattersons returned to Mongolia last Thursday. I picked them up at the airport with their 18 bags. You have to carry a lot with you when you come to Mongolia to stay. They were able to move back into the apartment that they occupied when they were here before. They are buried in obtaining residency permission, getting phones set up, and all the details of moving to a new country.

We had a good group Sunday morning and Sunday night was even better. We had twenty first time visitors. Sixteen of those were a group of Ukrainians who came to visit our services. Though they did not speak English Enkhtuul did an excellent job of translating from English to Russian/Ukrainian even though her native speech is Mongolian. The group from the Ukraine also blessed us with a set of songs and a short challenge which was translated from Russian/Ukrainian into English again by the faithful Enkhtuul.

Please pray for us as we continue to prepare to leave Mongolia. There are many things that we need to do and it’s not always clear the best way to accomplish them. Our neighbors all pitched in and helped us dispose of much of the little items that we were looking to get rid of: books, clothes, small furniture pieces, some children’s bikes. Now we need to sell the bigger pieces of furniture in our home. Update: everything large in the house is sold!

Great Sunday night service

We don't usually have a crowd this large on Sunday night. They must have heard that Bill was back to preach. Many of these folks are from the Ukraine. They were traveling through and wanted to join our service.