We have packed our 10 days here so far with much exhortation and encouragement. Usually visiting two, sometimes three families in a day, Mongolians and Americans, we have reached out to bring a message of hope.
One important reason for this trip was to encourage and strengthen Pastor Ganpurev and his wife Ulzee in order to energize Faith Baptist Church. I cannot say how much we energized Faith Baptist Church (more on that in a moment), but Ganpurev and Ulzee are noticeably encouraged. Our good friend, Jason Ritchie, remarked on how encouraged and positive Ganpurev has been this past week that we have been here.
Two of the families whom we saw saved and baptized during our time in Mongolia have started to grow in ways that we did not see when we were here. Gantsetseg came to us when she was estranged from her husband and had no where to go. God arranged a meeting between her and my friend Bilgee. Bilgee brought her to a church meeting on an unusually wet Sunday. I have often wondered if Gantsetseg came to the meeting because she wanted to know more about Jesus or if she came to the meeting with her little daughter to stay dry.
She kept coming because our family aided her when she had no place to go. Eventually, she became a Christian. I baptized her, and she became a member of Faith Baptist Church. In the last few years she has begun to change. One evidence of this was that she has stopped drinking alcohol despite the pressure at work to drink. (She is an elementary school teacher.) Recently, she had an argument with a Christian woman who attends another church. After the argument, she called the other woman to admit her fault and apologize. This is a huge change for her. Unfortunately, she has been attending another church that is geographically closer to her.
We also visited Togsoo & Gantuya. You may remember their little son who when still a crawler stuck his arm in a pail of just-boiled water and was severely burned. The Lord providentially used that experience to bring Togsoo to saving faith in Jesus some time later.
Three years ago when my wife and I visited their home to encourage them they had quit attending church. When we left Gantuya started crying. At the time, my wife and I both considered it and thought that it was perhaps a melodramatic reaction to our visit. She told Kristie during this visit that she was crying because she knew that at that time she was doing wrong. She was sinning and knew that we would not approve. She was under conviction but did not want to talk about it.
About a year later after Elsie and I visited their home, her husband became serious about his relationship with God. They both confessed to God and to one another their various sins and agreed to serve God. How they have grown since that time! They still admit that they have their problems but not like they used to have.
Pray for a massive project of gers (yurts) to be shipped to the United States to come through. It would provide about six months of work for the carpenter shop. If that order goes well, it may initiate another order. All told, it could mean much work over the next few years for these men. But it starts with this first order. Pray by name that our carpenter shop would have favor with Bill, the Mongolian side liaison, and Richard, the man in the United States to place this order with our shop.
Pray for Mary Ritchie. She has been quite sick since before we arrived. We brought a few things to alleviate the symptoms, but nothing seems to help. When we visited last night, we really enjoyed our time with the family, but Mary was unable to join us.
We leave on Friday. I have a couple more important events yet. Today, we will visit a former friend who is at the hospital with his daughter. Then we have a dinner scheduled with Ganpurev and his family. Tomorrow, Jason and I will have a meeting with the carpenter shop. We also have a farewell fellowship with anyone who wishes to join us on Thursday ahead of our departure the next morning.
Thank you all for your prayers.
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