General update

A sincere prayer warrior recently asked me for an update about some people, and I decided to expand it into a general update. The original plan was to post some pictures with this update. But my current internet connection has not allowed me to do that. Rather than delay posting this while I wait for some pictures to upload, I am going to post this and add pictures and perhaps some more content later. If I update the post, I will move it to the top of the list so that you won't have to go back through previous posts to see if there are finally some pictures.

Also, let me say that I don't expect that a good prayer warrior ought to pray for all these individuals by name although you are perfectly welcome to do that. Instead, I am trying to put a "human face" on what otherwise can become a rather impersonal duty. Perhaps God would lay one or two of these persons on your heart and you would be burdened to pray for them regularly. Then as you read my updates you will notice the prayer requests of those for whom you are burdened to pray and come to identify more closely with your brothers and sisters in Christ or your prospective spiritual siblings.

Buren and Sonin: Buren has been coming faithfully on Sundays although it may be for ulterior reasons. Sonin has responsibilities on Sunday that keep her from coming. Two of Buren's three daughters also come regularly. Buren is in the hospital now. The doctors say that problems with his liver is causing his nose to bleed. Both Buren and Sonin need salvation. His two daughter's were baptized recently based on their public profession of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

Ganpurev and Ulzee (Bilgoon): Ganpurev and Ulzee continue to grow. Sadly, one 0f Ganpurev's brothers has reduced his contact with Ganpurev (because, I believe, Ganpurev's testimony puts his brother to shame). But another relative recently moved closer to Ganpurev because his father recommended it. Bilgoon's eye situation is the same as far as I know. Unfortunately, the Mongolians doctors all claim that it's not his eye that's the problem. Ganpurev seems satisfied with the Mongolian way of handling things.

Ganaa: Her husband Bob still needs salvation. Ganaa herself seems to continuing the struggle. But she has been very busy and therefore tired. Also, her husband sometimes discourages her from coming to church. It seems to me that the ideal resolution is for her husband to be saved and be eager to grow spiritually. But we know that God also brings Himself glory through our tribulations. It is just difficult to watch someone else - especially a young Christian - struggle on with such opposition.

Bilgee: I'm just not sure where our relationship is right now. Several months ago I had to confront him on a matter, and ever since then it seems to me that he has gone out of his way to keep his distance. Since I've not had as much contact with him recently, I cannot say exactly how he is doing. However, the fact that he seems to keep his distance is troubling.

Enkhee: I've seen Enkhee once seen my return. He works a lot and does not go out of his way to meet with me. His family is struggling, and he is not cognizant of their needs and situation. For example, in my meeting with him I asked about when his daughter would graduate from school. He was unable to give me a definite answer. Instead he had to ask his son when she would graduate.

Mandaa and Bayambaa: I've been focusing some attention on Mandaa since he is another spouse of a church member that needs salvation. He has agreed to come to our special Christmas service on December 23. Please pray earnestly for his salvation. His personality is so quiet that it has been hard for me to get to know him. For example, I asked him once, "What is your hobby?" And he responded, "Don't have one." Where do you go from there? Actually, I asked that question and got that response last week when I visited their home. Before then he would just give the "uh-huh" type answer. Bayambaa on the other hand has been experiencing some ridicule for being a Christian. The ridicule is coming from her in-laws and another family that has been living with them. Again, we know that "all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." Still, it is difficult to watch it happen to someone else. We do know and trust that God knows best.

Dashgaa and Tunga: Dashgaa seems to be doing well. He is currently looking for work, not an enviable thing in this country. His wife is expecting their fourth child. She needs to recognize the Jesus Christ is her Savior and in repentance and humility turn to Him. Recently, Dashgaa has begun to bring his children some Sundays. In the past, his wife has been opposed to this. So we are seeing some evidence that she may be softening. Her extended family is Buddhist and pressures them to resist the "foreign religion."

Ganbold: I have not seen him since I returned. In the past his busy schedule made it difficult for us to get together.

Enkhamgalan: I have not seen him in some months. I have tried calling, but he does not answer. As far as I know, he still is not a Christian.

Ayaa: her health seems to have stabilized since her stay in the hospital. But she still is not improving. She is frail and does not have a good appetite. I am concerned too about her spiritual condition.

Tamiraa and Khongoroo: They were married in September and Khongoroo is expecting her first child. In an effort to be a help, I gave her some translation work to do and paid her up-front for the work. I have not heard from her since. I am not sure what to think. They both claim to be Christians but show no evidence of saving faith.

Prayer update

I've noticed that my language ability seems to come and go. That is, some weeks I feel as if my Mongolian just comes out and some weeks it feels as if I am pushing my language through cheesecloth. I don't know how else to describe it. But starting yesterday my Mongolian language attempts began to feel forced and unnatural. It's a difficult time for my language progress to take a step back because we have been invited folks to come this weekend for special Christmas services. So for those of you who are reading this before December 23 please pray for my language ability to come back.

"The sound"

I told you recently about the interesting sound that Mongolians make when they are agreeing with someone, and how making that sound caused me to choke. Unfortunately, I don't have a video of the actual 'incident' while I was eating rice; but I do have some video of me making the sound while interacting with Mongolians one Sunday. I've looped it three times so that you can get a better idea of what it sounds like without playing it over and over. Right about the middle of each section, I quickly suck in air. Notice the sound that I am making. It approximates the sound that Mongolians make when they want to say their version of 'uh-huh.'

Sunday debriefing

This post is a debriefing instead of an update because I want to cover many things besides the events of Sunday.

Our attendance was down yesterday. Still the singing was good, and I felt that the preaching was strong. Roland preached from I Timothy 6, and my sermon focused on Peter's question, "We have left all to follow you, what will our reward be?" Many Mongolians purposely say that they will follow Christ in an effort to gain some material benefit: a job, food assistance, the prestige of being with foreigners. I want to teach the Mongolians that God has entrusted to me that we follow Christ not because we believe that we will receive some material benefit but rather because we love the Savior and realize our debt to our Creator and Redeemer.

Buren was in the hospital, and one of his daughters did not come; I am not entirely certain why she did not come. I had known that Buren was in the hospital but had been unable to visit. So on Sunday afternoon, I went to visit Buren.

He told me that Thursday night blood was gushing from both nostrils so profusely that a handkerchief that he held up to his face quickly became soaked with blood that it began to drip. Two of his daughters that were with him were very afraid. They called an ambulance at 7 PM. When it did not come immediately Buren's brother drove him to the hospital. (The ambulance ended up showing up at 10 PM, but hey, it's free because they have nationalized health care here).

Doctors finally cauterized a blood vessel in Buren's nose on Friday. But Sunday when I visited, he still had some minor bleeding. He has taken many tests, but the doctors cannot seem to determine the cause of the bleeding. Please pray that this strange medical problem would help Buren realize his own mortality and bring him humbly to our Savior.

In other news, on Thursday night I was visiting Bayambaa and her husband Mandaa. We had a chance to talk briefly about Jesus Christ, and I invited both Mandaa and his brother Manlai to our special Christmas-oriented service on December 23. By the way, I met Manlai for the first time on Thursday night while I was at Mandaa and Bayambaa's house. I had been at their
house for about thirty minutes when Manlai came in. He came in not sober at all but a very talkative drunk. He claimed that he had seen my car outside of Mandaa and Bayambaa's hashaa and came to meet me. He knew enough English to say, "Hello, my name is Manlai. How are you?"

We made some conversation and talked about Christians. He asked me to teach them all (Manlai, Mandaa, and Bayambaa) English and said that he would come to a church service. But I never place much confidence in anything any Mongolian says while he is not sober.

Later, I found out that Manlai had come by their house not because he saw my car and wanted to meet me but because his wife had kicked him out of the house because he was drunk. He spent the night at his brother's house. In the morning after the others had left, he stole some things from his own brother's house probably to buy more alcohol. Needless to say, we did not see Manlai on Sunday.

Several of our church members and regular attenders are facing serious pressure from their families not to identify themselves with other Christians. We know that this opposition is from the Enemy and that if our Christian brothers and sisters respond to it appropriately they will be stronger for it. Please pray that God would pour His grace upon these young Christians, enabling them to be a bright light for Jesus Christ in a very dark society.

Children's Christmas Party

Having a party around Christmas at our home for Mongolian children to attend has become an annual event for us. This year's party was held on December 15. Although we invited about a dozen children including children from families at our church and neighbor children, only five of those showed up along with two toddlers that were too young to really enjoy the party - or so we thought.

This year we added teaching the Biblical story of Christmas which gave us an opportunity to be a witness for our Savior. (Last year we gave out tracts for the children to take home.) I taught the story extemporaneously - that is, without notes. The children seemed to understand. I used some flash cards but maybe will not do that in the future. At the end of the story one Mongolian child asked if Jesus was hot when he was born. I was stumped by the question because I could not comprehend why he would think Jesus was hot as a baby. As I tried to inquire further about his question one of the other Mongolian children told me that Jesus must have been hot because his face was "red" in the picture. I wonder if the pictures distracted more than added to the account of Jesus' birth.

Along with the Biblical story of Christmas, we decorated sugar cookies again at this year's party. That always seems to be a big draw. Our neighbor's children will often ask as Christmas approaches, "When are you going to have the party where we decorate cookies?" Mongolians do not have any baked item that they spend time decorating. Some families make a type of hard cake with a decorative shape that Mongolians jokingly call sole cake because they say the decoration looks as if someone stepped on it with his shoe and left the imprint of a sole on it. But as far as putting on sprinkles or cutting cookies out in shapes - these things are unknown to the Mongolian children. Strangely enough, the Mongolian children seemed to tire of the cookie decoration time more quickly this year than in past years. Perhaps they are getting too used to making sugar cookies.

The children also exchanged gifts. Like all children that I know, Mongolian children enjoy opening gifts. We concluded the party with a game of musical chairs which the children also seemed to enjoy. The two little toddlers who came did not play musical chairs but would get excited when the music stopped and cheer. I guess they liked the excitement. As the other children were packing up their cookies and preparing to leave, the two toddlers started pretending to shoot each other and everyone else and laughing. I think perhaps they had as much fun as anyone else even though they really could not participate in most of what the other children did.

Who said that speaking Mongolian couldn't kill you?

The Mongolians have a way of agreeing with something that is said similar to the way that we say, "Uh huh." The best way I can describe it is this: put your tongue way up near the roof of your mouth and make sure that your mouth has lots of spittle in it. Then quickly inhale. Mongolians make this sound many times in conversation usually subconsciously I am sure. I asked someone one time what it meant, and he did not even notice that he had been making that sound. But it is just one way that Mongolians quickly and unobtrusively express their agreement.

Several years ago, I decided that if I wanted to speak Mongolian like a Mongolian person, I would have to learn how to make that sound. The first few weeks that I made that sound, my tongue close to the roof of my mouth and with a quick intake of breath I always expected the Mongolians to laugh at me. After all, to American ears such a sound seems odd in speech. (One American described it as a cough.) But the Mongolians did not react at all. They just kept right on talking.

With time, it has become second nature when my mind is in Mongolian mode to simply make this sound whenever I want to unobtrusively express agreement. Well, let me tell you that speaking Mongolian in this way can be hazardous to your health.

Last week, I was eating rice at lunch with some Mongolians. I do not even recall what the conversation was about but remember that subconsciously I wanted to agree so I did the little quick inhalation thing. But one should never try to inhale quickly while eating, especially while eating rice. The result was several pieces of rice heading down my windpipe. I briefly choked, coughed, and tried to be dignified in it all.

Fortunately, the rice did not get lodged in my windpipe; and after some coughing and hacking I was able to breathe again. But I'm telling you, speaking Mongolian can kill you.

Clear reversal

One of the interesting things about speaking Mongolian is that so much of what is said in Mongolian is said in a different order than it is said in English. (I'm not sure if it's English that is backwards or if it is Mongolian).

Here's an illustrative example from Psalm 119:11. In English it reads, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

A wooden English translation would read, "You against sin to not do your word I heart in saved." And grammatically it's good Mongolian.

Speaking this language effectively in the power of the Holy Spirit is one more reason that we need your prayers.

Sunday update

It's cold here. The type of cold where any exposed skin starts to hurt after a while. Of course, that's no surprise when the temperature is below zero. Sunday the high was 3 above. (The low was -18). But our apartment is cozy and warm.

We seem to be stuck on about 10 Mongolian adults in attendance. The number of children seems to fluctuate. Sometimes we have as few as two, yesterday we had six. But there has been 9 or 10 or 11 Mongolian adults in attendance, I think, for the last month or so. I'm not complaining. During that time we've had some Sundays where many of our regular attenders were out with sickness or something and visitors have come to make up the difference. At other times, we've had no visitors and all our regular attenders have come. It just is interesting to me that we have had 9 or 10 or 11 every week for a while.

I would like to see us break through this plateau and begin to see an increase in the number of people who come. Not being from a nation with a history of Christianity, Mongolians do not have a tendency to come out for a church service in Christmas and Easter. Despite that fact, we are planning to have a special service on the Sunday before Christmas to explain the Good News that Jesus came to be our Savior from sin. Please pray that many would come out to our service on Sunday, December 23.

Where have I been? Why I'm glad you asked ...

I know that some of you are wondering why I haven't written more updates recently. You may even be asking, "Where has Scott been?"

I've been out tasting goat's head; and believe me, it's one of those things that you just have to experience. Most Americans don't like to be able to identify the animal's body part that they are eating. (I consider myself to be one of those Americans.) If you want to eat liver - I like liver, by the way - you want it chopped up with onions. No one that I know wants a whole liver to be brought out to them on a platter. One should view animal's body parts at a dissection not at a dinner.

So I was a little bit taken aback Saturday night when I went to visit Bilgee. When I arrived something was boiling covered on the little stove that serves both to warm their shack and cook their food. (As an aside: I really wish that I could post pictures of the interior of their tiny shacks, the Mongolians huddled around a metal box, a few chunks of coal their only source of heat when the weather outside is below zero. But I feel awkward taking pictures of such primitive conditions because Mongolians know that these conditions are primitive and feel ashamed. If you want to see such poverty, you'll just have to come to Mongolia yourself.)

Bilgee happily announced that they had a delicacy on tap for that night: goat's head. Sure enough, when his mom whipped the lid of the pot, there sat two goats' heads. Bilgee pulled one out and placed it on a platter. There was the head of a goat; his eyelids had swollen in cooking and covered his eyes, so you couldn't really say it was looking at me. The tongue was slightly hanging out of his mouth as if the poor creature was slyly sticking his tongue out at me. I fought back the urge to stick out my tongue at the now lifeless beast. Bilgee made some cuts along the side of the head from the edge of the mouth back and, with a mighty crack, pulled the head into two pieces. He cut of the ears and offered me some with the advice that they were a little chewy. I passed on eating the ears. He then cut the tongue up. I've had tongue before and was happy to eat that. Goat's tongue is a little strong for my taste but at least it can be chewed. Bilgee looked as if he was chewing shoe leather as he worked on one ear.

I tried a few other pieces but missed out on the eyes. I guess you have to dig those out of the eye sockets with a knife. All in all, my first experience with goat head went rather well as I was able to chew and swallow everything I took without mishap. And my stomach felts fine the next day. Happy times indeed.

An evening with Ankhaa

On a hillside overlooking a thin trickle that passes for a river in Mongolia sit a variety of small brick homes, wooden shacks, Mongolian felt tents, and a diverse assortment of other structures that constitute Mongolian ger districts. Dividing the hillsides and river valley into a patch work of properties are fences mostly of rough wood. Each fence encloses an area called a hashaa. These hashaa's rarely include just one family. Most hold several tents or shacks and each tent or shack may house a family or more. Within Ganpurev's hashaa (the fence around his property) is Ganpurev's small house and Ankhaa's ger.

Ankhaa is Ganpurev's nephew. About a year and a half ago he was married. The first year of marriage Ankhaa and his wife lived in the countryside and only moved to the city this last summer. When he moved to the city his dad told him to pitch his ger in Ganpurev's hashaa. Ganpurev immediately saw it as an opportunity to be a witness to Ankhaa and told Ankhaa's father as much in his summer visit to the countryside.

Soon after Ankhaa arrived in town, I met him at Ganpurev's place. Ankhaa has spent several weeks off and on in the countryside with his father and mother. It is shaping up to be a hard winter in the Mongolian countryside. A very dry summer left behind drought conditions on the steppe. Then an infestation of rats (in some parts) killed off much of the grass that the animals need to survive the winter. (The rats eat the roots which kills the grasses). One consequence of these conditions is that Ankhaa has been in the countryside helping his father and mother move to another part of the country for the winter.

Ganpurev has taken many opportunities to preach Jesus Christ to Ankhaa, his wife Otgoo, and his wife's younger sister who lives at their ger some of the time. Ankhaa has been eager to hear and seems to be understanding. His wife Otgoo comes from a very Buddhist family and is hesitant to listen and is sometimes antagonistic.

A prior engagement kept me from reaching the hashaa that they share until after 9 on Friday night. Last night when I went for a visit, Ganpurev and I spent over an hour talking with Ankhaa about the Creator God, sin, righteousness in Jesus Christ, our Savior's death on the cross in our place, and other Biblical topics. Actually, Ganpurev did most of the talking. It is so thrilling to see Mongolians speaking about the Truth to other Mongolians because, in the end, it will be Mongolians and not foreigners that will effectively evangelize their country.

Please continue to pray for Ankhaa and his wife. I would love for them to make professions of faith together and grow together as Christians. I have already told Ganpurev that should they be saved, I want him to work to disciple them. Ankhaa and Otgoo are expecting their first child in February. Would it not be fantastic to see this young couple saved, growing, and raising their children to serve the God of the ends of the earth?! Please pray with me to this end.