Mongolian in California

I have been searching for Mongolians in the United States for some time now. I know that there are pockets of them. Until today, however, the only Mongolian I had met in America was in Utah. He had comverted to Mormonism in Mongolia and was doing his “mission” in Utah. But that was before I knew much Mongolian.

Yesterday at church some of the members told me about two Mongolians who run a Japanese food restaurant in Fairfield. So today, Caleb, Elsie, and I took a quick trip over to Fairfield. There we met Bat, a common Mongolian name. He did not want to talk about religion and could not comprehend why we would want to live in Mongolia. But we told him that we were Christians and left him with the Gospel of John.

Another prayer request for Mongolia

Please pray for the Mongolians to be a witness. The key to the evangelization of Mongolia is not missionaries but Mongolians.

Pray for Ganpurev to have work

I am grateful for those of you who are praying for our Mongolian brothers & sisters. Please pray for Ganpurev to have work. The last few months have been very slow.

Pray for the Mongolians to grow in faith and grace

Mongolias often seem like children when it comes to spiritual matters. Perhaps it is that most Mongolian believers are so young in the Lord. If a Mongolian has been a Christian – and living like one for 10 years – then he is among a handful of Christians who are. I recently met a woman at a church where I was speaking. Her first service in the church building where I was speaking was Easter 1946. She has been attending there ever since. In 1946 most Mongolians still could not read and write. So it is a major difference.

Please pray with me that God would cause the Mongolians to grow in their faith. So many times Mongolians fail to act on the Bible because they do not comprehend how biblical principle works. Take tithing as an example: humanly speaking, if a family is having trouble making both ends meet on their current salary, how is reducing their income by 10% going to make it possible for them to meet their financial obligations. In such circumstances, the Mongolians, lacking faith, just do not tithe.

In an American church if most families did not tithe, the church would find it hard to meet its financial obligations. But in Mongolia most churches obtain primary support from outside the country. It is very possible, even normal, for most Mongolian Christian families to be tippers not tithers giving when they think they can rather than giving by faith. So pray with me that in this area and many others, God would develop in the Mongolians the faith that they need.

Second, pray with me that the Mongolians would grow in grace. Grace is the desire and the ability to accomplish God’s will. Many Mongolians do not ever recognize that they must be seeking God’s will. Rather, they want to know the reason God is not more interested in their will. It is a maddening conundrum at times.

Another prayer request

As you pray for Mongolia, pray for wisdom for Jason, Chuck, and Bradley as they work to start a genuine Bible college with the government's permission. Starting a Bible institute in Mongolia is no problem. But obtaining permission to start a college or university, much less one that is overtly Christian, is another thing altogether. As Jason and I talked, I could tell that he was burdened to start not merely a Bible institute to train young people but a Bible college with the government's express permission so that he could grant degrees.

There are four things that he desperately needs. First, he will need unusual favor with the government as he pushes forward. The current president of Mongolia is intensely Buddhist. He is also a nationalist. Getting permission for a foreign run college much less a Christian one is going to be difficult. But I believe that God can do the impossible if we will pray.

Second, he will need a building where the college can meet. Perhaps in Africa, you can start out underneath a tree or in a grass hut. But in Mongolia where winter temperature are below zero (below -15 for those of you who deal in Centigrade), you need a warm building and a supply of heat.

Third, he will need a curriculum. It is possible to take English Bible textbooks and give them to students for whom English is a second (and not well understood) language. It is another thing to give them textbooks in their own language. Initially, someone will be doing much translation.

Fourth, he will need teachers, ideally again, teachers who can speak Mongolian.

So those are some prayer requests for the Bible college project.

Prayer requests

Over the next few weeks, I plan to post some specific ways that you can pray for Mongolia. Bradley Kubik and his family just arrived in Mongolia. Please pray that they would settle in nicely. Also pray for them as they begin to learn the language. Pray too for Chuck Webber and his family as they learn Mongolian.

I remember that learning Mongolian was one of the hardest mental challenges that I ever faced. Certainly, some people learn Mongolian more easily than I did (shout out to Bill Patterson); but for most of us, learning Mongolian is a daily struggle that lasts for the rest of one's life.