Today's activities

Emily and I went over to Pastor Ganpurev's house today. Kristie was not feeling strong, and Ulzee was away. But Emily and I had a good time. I took a picture of Nanda reading to her doll.

This evening Kristie & I took Jason & Mary Ritchie out to dinner while Emily watched their children. We had a very enjoyable time with them.

Tomorrow I will be preaching in English and Mongolian again–this time I will be preaching two different sermons. Be praying!

Update from Mongolia

We have visited many people during our visit to Mongolia with several more to come. Tonight is our visit with Bob & Ganaa our oldest friends in Mongolia. We met Ganaa within a month of our arrival in Ulan Bator. She was a great help to us.

The Ritchie's have generously opened up their home to us so that we can host Bob & Ganaa. The Ritchie's are a gracious family and have made our trip more productive than it would have been without their help.

As always, there are spiritual needs to be addressed. Pray for our visit tonight. I desire a spirit of friendship, open conversation, and a willingness for Bob to consider the Bible as the source of wisdom & Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

Meeting with Faith Baptist Church on Sunday

Kristie and I enjoyed our time with Faith Baptist Church yesterday. Emily was unable to come with us because she had been sick the night before.

Being with Faith Baptist Church felt comfortable and familiar. The church has taken very good care of the facilities. The rooms were clean and well-maintained.

When Kristie took her place at the piano and we began to sing, I felt a surge of joy; I was so grateful to be again with these people that I love. The time of prayer was sweet. Pastor Ganpurev is doing a fine job of leading the church.

I preached in English & then preached again an hour later in Mongolian. Following my sermon in Mongolian, Pastor Ganpurev preached from I John 3:4-10. It was a good expository sermon.

What Kristie and I noticed most about the service was that everything was just done. There was a nursery for the littlest children and a Sunday school class for the other children. Two men counted the offering. The church was functioning without us. This is a missionary's goal: to work himself out of a job in one location so that he can serve somewhere else. I think of James Fraser's quote: "On the human side, evangelistic work on the mission field is like a man going about in the dark, damp valley with a lighted match in his hand, seeking to ignite anything ignitable … here a shrub, there a tree, here a few sticks, there a heap of leaves take fire and give light and warmth long after the kindling match and its bearer have passed on. And this is what God wants to see … little patches of fire burning all over the world." There is a little patch of fire in Mongolia today that was not there ten years ago and that is still burning without our aid.

Keep praying for Faith Baptist Church.

Checking on the shop

One of my goals while I am in Mongolia is to see how the shop is doing. On Friday, I was able to visit one of their installations. They were building some cabinets for a restaurant. Here's a picture

Goals for trip to Mongolia

I have some goals for this trip to Mongolia. They are as follows:

• to bless Faith Baptist Church with a visit
• to strengthen Pastor Ganpurev and Ulzee to do the work of the ministry
• to witness to Mongolians of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• to check on the work of the carpenter shop
• to change the signature on bank documents for the work of the carpenter shop to proceed more easily
• to assist in documentation of the church building

Already we have made progress on two of these. Yesterday, Kristie and I were able to visit Pastor Ganpurev and his wife Ulzee for about four hours. We had much to talk about.

Today, I will be preaching at Faith Baptist Church in English for one service and in Mongolian for another. I also look forward to hearing Pastor Ganpurev preach.

Welcome back to Mongolia

I have noticed immediately that I am back in Mongolia: pot-holed roads, overly warm apartments, cramped living conditions, and cold showers.

When we arrived last night Pastor Ganpurev was there to meet us. We were some of the last ones out the door of the plane which made us some of the last ones through immigration which meant that we passed through customs as one of the last people.

Pastor Ganpurev had arrived early and found a parking spot right near the door. But then he had to wait some time for us to arrive, pass through immigration, and show our items to customs. He was waiting patiently and faithfully. Those two characteristics describe Pastor Ganpurev well: patient & faithful.

We had an interesting chat on the way to the Ritchie's house. Pastor Ganpurev talking in his best slow, patient, easy-to-understand Mongolian; I kept remembering the words I had forgotten. Both of us eagerly trying to understand one another.

We arrived at the Ritchie's house about midnight, right on time. They were kindly waiting up for us and welcomed us in warmly. They had water, offered us food, showed us a comfortable room, and generally made us feel at home.

We actually found a full night's sleep. A little after midnight, we put our heads on our pillows and were soon asleep. I was up from 5:00-6:50 and read my Bible & prayed during that time. My devotional time always is slower when my head is groggy from jet lag. But after that I returned to bed and was soon asleep again. It was after 8 a.m. when we finally woke up.

Then came the quintessential Mongolian experience. I rose, gathered my things together, and went to take a shower. Unfortunately, there was no warm water. After allowing the water to run for about five minutes, I eventually submitted to a cold shower. Nothing like a cold shower to cap off a 24 hour journey! But it brought back to my memory all the vagaries of Mongolian life.

We are in Mongolia! (The cold shower was an unnecessary reminder). I wrote out a list of people to visit and goals to accomplish while I am here. I will probably post the goals tomorrow. Today's goal is to get set up to live in Mongolia for a few weeks and begin the process of discovering what will be required to accomplish my banking goals.

I will try to post once a day with a prayer request. Today's prayer request is for help with my Mongolian.

Arrived in Mongolia

We arrived safely in Mongolia. It is a bit after midnight here, and it's been 24 hours since I slept in a bed. I think I'll write a fuller update later.

The hardest languages to learn

We should be in the air about the time that you read this. I wanted to share with you something that I found interesting. It is about the hardest languages in the world to learn. Mongolian is not listed (it's spoken by too few people) but it's near relatives are. There is some dispute among linguists whether Japanese and Korean belong in the same language family as Mongolian. But all agree that the grammar and syntax is very similar. Those two languages are listed among those hardest to learn.

See the post at the other site for yourself. http://voxy.com/blog/index.php/2011/03/hardest-languages-infographic/

Another trip to Mongolia

We leave for another trip to Mongolia tomorrow. I'll try to post things as they come up. You can certainly look for updates the next three weeks as we travel and return.