Resurrection Sunday

Reading through the book of Acts recently, I was reminded again how often the preaching of the apostles focused on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I determined to make the resurrection of Jesus the point of this year’s Resurrection Sunday service.

Remember that since Mongolia has little history of Christianity, Easter (Resurrection Sunday) has no significance to the average Mongolian. He is no more likely to come to church service on a Sunday in March or April designated Easter than he is to come to a meeting at any other time of the year. So the church made inviting people out for Resurrection Sunday a priority.

God blessed us with many visitors. Let me tell you the most interesting story about our visitors. Two elderly men had been invited to a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses which is near the place where our church meets. About the same time that they were headed that direction Tsendee, the most elderly man in our church, received a call on his cell phone and left the building to take the call. Incidentally, I strongly encourage those who attend the services to turn off their cell phones during the service. It has been a long time since the ring of a telephone has interrupted the message. However, some people leave their phones on vibrate and will occasionally take a call during the message. This was one of those times.

Tsendee went out on the stairs to take the call. After his call was finished these two men were walking by and asked Tsendee if this was the location where Jehovah’s Witnesses met. He explained that it was not and invited them to join us for a Bible lesson.

The two elderly men came in with Tsendee and sat down. One of the ladies graciously helped them with a Bible. They listened intently to the entire sermon that I was preaching about the resurrection of Jesus.

Afterwards, as I greeted them, they expressed that they enjoyed the good lesson. Many people besides me invited them to join us again.

I was glad to see that our regulars were very friendly and warm to all the visitors. Especially since Resurrection Sunday set a new mark for attendance for us.

In the evenings is our English service. Again, I was able to preach that Jesus is alive, that His resurrection proves His victory over death, and that He now offers us eternal life. Again, we had several visitors present including a Japanese man that I had visited five years ago. He remembered me, and I remembered him. It is amazing to me how God sometimes brings people out who crossed my path years before and seemed closed to attending a church service.

Also attending Sunday night was Enkhamgalan, another man for whose salvation I have been praying for some time. He had not come to a church service for many months when suddenly he showed up again.

I so strongly desire to see the seeds of the gospel that were planted on Resurrection Sunday to grow to be fruit that will remain! Please pray that the Holy Spirit would work powerfully in Mongolia.

Picture of the week

This week's picture is of the prayer meeting that we held on Wednesday night. As you can see from the picture there are five foreigners and five Mongolians. One of the Mongolians was a first-time visitor that had never been to a church meeting of ours before. She came with a friend.

We spent some time looking at gratitude and its relation to prayer and then mentioned requests. Afterwards, we broke up into two groups and spent time praying. Our focus on Wednesday nights is to pray for each other. After all, as was once said, "The greatest thing that anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing; but it is the chief thing. The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray."

May God bless you as you pray for us this week!

Weather report from Outer Mongolia

The weather here has been wonderful recently! The high on Wednesday was 77° F. It has cooled down a little since then.

In previous years, they did not turn down the heat even as the weather grew warmer. This year they have been turning down the heat. The heat in the rooms where the church meets was off on Wednesday.

The children have been outside playing. I have been throwing a baseball with the children in the warm sunshine and walking in the morning to have a cup of coffee with a friend. He usually pays for the coffee.

A talk with Bob

I had a talk with Bob today. Bob is one of those men with many human advantages: he has many friends, is very personable, knowledgeable, a good teacher. But as far as I can see, he is lacking the two qualities that he needs most: humility and teachability. We had a long talk today and he helped me translate a sermon illustration for Sunday.

I challenged him to be baptized. The one obstacle is that he wants to continue to live in the world and keep the other foot on God's side of the fence. He does not want to be totally committed to Jesus and he does not want to be completely in the world. I told him that it is not possible to straddle the fence for very long. He said he would like to see if it is possible to straddle the fence. Let's pray that he would develop a spirit of humility and teachability that will allow him to be used of God.

God answers prayer

Almost a year ago, Gantsetseg came for the first time to one of our services. She came once in a while until about August when she began to come regularly. She was saved and then baptized. But there was one problem. Although married and with a two-year-old daughter, she had been estranged from her husband since before she came to our church for the first time.

We have been praying that God would reconcile Gantsetseg with her husband. Two weeks ago when I was talking to her about it, she said she thought it was impossible that they were ever be reconciled. Tonight she told us at our prayer meeting that her husband had suggested that she move back in with him.

Now those two still have a long ways to go. The husband still needs to confess that he is a sinner and ask for the forgiveness that is found in Jesus Christ. However, this is a good first step.

Reaching another milestone

There are certain milestones that a missionary reaches in his ministry: the first time preaching in the language, the first national who makes a profession of faith, the first time a national preaches, and other milestones such as this.

Today's milestone may not be as significant as the ones mentioned above; however, it is significant to me. Today was the first Sunday when all the teaching and preaching was done by Mongolians. Ganaa taught the children as she normally does, Ganpurev preached as he usually does, and instead of me preaching, Bilgee did the preaching. I praise the Lord for providing Mongolian men and women who are competent to preach and teach.

We also had a good turnout. I bowed my head to pray near the beginning of the service and when I lifted my head, it seemed as if another 5 or 6 Mongolians had appeared during the prayer. We had three first-time visitors and another two ladies who had not come in months. So I was very happy for the turnout. God is good all the time.

Another picture of me teaching

This week's picture is from the third Bible institute class. I'm teaching in Mongolian. I still wish that I spoke Mongolian better.

It's a fight to pray!

A missionary does many difficult things: learn a new language, travel around North America speaking in churches, trying to reconcile nationals when one is unaware of all the cultural implications. But perhaps the hardest single thing a missionary does is to pray. Hudson Taylor must have experienced the same thing in his ministry because he wrote, "Satan will always find you something to do when you ought to be occupied about that [prayer and Bible study], if it is only arranging a window blind."

I have noticed myself that I should keep a pen and paper next to me whenever I pray because I seem to remember a myriad of different things that need to be done, people who need to be called, or great sermon ideas. I write them down and then immediately get back to prayer.

I schedule my prayer time for early in the morning that allows me to avoid the calls and text messages that seem to come my way. It is amazing when I try to pray at other times of the day the interruptions that can occur.

Practice time and game time

Growing up I played basketball. Even through college I played basketball. My least favorite part of being on the basketball team was conditioning. Especially in college, we spent a large part of our time running. My next least favorite part was the drills: passing, dribbling, shooting, more running. If I were to compare the amount of time spent playing basketball to the amount of time spent in practice, I am certain that the amount of time in practice would be more than the amount spend playing in games by a factor of 10 or more.

Why spend so much time practicing? The games are what count. But it is in much practice that we prepared for the games. A team that practices together can overcome teams that have more raw talent but that have not spend as much time developing it.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. Times of prayer, Bible study, meditation on God's word - these all prepare us for the times of discouragement, trouble, and obstacles that crop up occasionally. If we wait for the obstacles and discouraging circumstances to come before we begin to pray, study God's word, and meditate then we will be ill prepared to face our seemingly impossible situations.

In fact, my observation tells me that failure to "practice" is the mark of an immature Christian. He only sees the need for Scripture and prayer and fellowship when life is difficult. When life is going well, he seems content to read his Bible occasionally if at all, to pray only when publically called on to pray, and to miss fellowship with other Christians when something else comes up.

We can never be prepared to be used of God until we have practiced so that when game time comes, we are ready.

Weekly update

I am so grateful to know that you all pray for us. When obstacles arise or illness strikes or people disappoint, we rest on God's unfailing grace. But it's encouraging to know that you pray for us too.

I cannot share the details of one recent disappointment with you at this time. However, I would ask you to pray for wisdom and patience for us as we seek to do God's will and work to accomplish His will.

The Bible institute program has turned out better than I expected. We had seven Mongolians show up again last night. It looks like the Bible institute will consist of a core group of three Mongolian men and two Mongolian women. Let's pray that these three Mongolian men would grow to be men of character, mighty in spirit, and bold to preach God's word. I find great joy in seeing the Mongolians serving and studying to serve.

And to update those of you praying for Mandaa and Byambaa: there is still no word on him leaving the country. It seems to us as if the offer to work in Russia did not work out. I will keep you updated as I know more - Mandaa is not talking to his wife about it. However, let's also take time to thank the Lord for answering our prayers!