It's a long flight to Korea …

We leave for Mongolia tomorrow. We fly from Portland to Seattle, have a short layover, fly from Seattle to Seoul, and then Seoul to Ulaanbaatar. It was often a long trip taking over 30 hours from the time we left our American residence until the time we arrived at our Mongolian home.

The layovers have been shortened for this trip. It will be almost 24 hours from the time we leave our home in Oregon until we arrive out the place we will stay in Ulaanbaatar. Much of that time is spent waiting to check baggage, waiting to go through airport security, waiting to board planes, waiting to go through immigration, waiting to collect luggage, and waiting to have our luggage inspected. My children often asked me why we are in hurry to get to the airport when once we are there we do so much waiting. I told them traveling to Mongolia required us to "hurry up and wait." It is just one of those requirements of international travel!

The longest flight is the segment from Seattle to Seoul. From gate to gate it is about twelve hours seated on a plane. Not a particularly long international flight, but it certainly seems long.

Kristie injured her tailbone some months back. When we scheduled tickets she felt fine. Later when she realized it was injured she began to see a chiropractor to alleviate the pain. So far her visits to the chiropractor have been without much success. We purchased an unusual pillow that is designed to help avoid pressure on the tailbone when one sits for extended periods of time. However, twelve hours is a long time. Please pray for Kristie to be relatively pain-free on this trip.

The next update will probably come from the airport. So many of you have already mentioned that you are praying. Thank you!

Prayer request for Ulzee

Kristie, Caleb, and I leave in two days for Mongolia. First, I need to finish up Neighborhood Bible Time and Westgate Baptist Church. It is an exciting & intense week. I am glad that I can be here for it.

Please pray for Ulzee, Pastor Ganpurev's wife. I heard an initial report that she has hepatitis C. I will check while we are in Mongolia and post an update to confirm that report. Hepatitis C is prevalent in Asia and especially Mongolia. (See this map on worldwide prevalence of Hepatitis C.)

Upcoming trip to Mongolia

It has been about five years since we returned from Mongolia to the United States. Kristie's health remains about the same, stable but little energy. For the last five years I have served as assistant pastor at Westgate Baptist Church and principal of its Christian school.

In the past five years, I have visited Mongolia three times. My fourth visit is coming up this July. I beg for your intercessory prayers on our behalf as Kristie, Caleb, and I travel to Mongolia. During our trip I will be updating this blog. Please follow the details of our trip from July 1-14 here.

On Wednesday, July 5, we will be holding a dedication service for the Mongolian New Testament. I had a small part in the translation of the text but a much larger part in praying for and supporting the translation work. This is the culmination of our work over a period of more than 10 years! When we bought our tickets months ago to travel to Mongolia in July, I did not know about the dedication service. In fact, I once considered traveling to Mongolia in June. The Lord intervened and caused me to buy tickets for July instead. After I purchased tickets Bill Patterson informed me about the dedication service. I thank the Lord for arranging the dates of our trip providentially.

The church we planted in Mongolia has struggled. Pastor Ganpurev has had some difficult things happen in the church and in his own family that he has allowed to discourage him. We hope this trip will be a reminder to Pastor Ganpurev that God is faithful! And that from this visit, he will take courage and press on.

The carpenter shop that my father and I founded in Mongolia has also seen hard times. Despite difficulties, the company is still a going concern after 10 years. Recently, the shop heard about an opportunity to build ger furniture for six months and send it to the United States. This would be an excellent job for the Mongolian craftsmen. Please pray that they would be able to obtain this work and do it well.

During our time in Mongolia, the company provided a visa and residency permission for my family. Since our departure the company has provided a visa and residency permission for another independent Baptist missionary family. My father and I are glad that the work God gave us a vision to start 10 years ago continues today and still makes it possible for missionary work to continue in Mongolia.

This has become critical recently for the family whose residency is through the company we founded. The government has made it harder for foreigners (including missionaries) to reside in Mongolia. They are happy for foreigners to visit; they just do not want foreigners to live in Mongolia. Recently, the missionary who has his visa and residency permission through our company told me that he knows of two missionary families whose residency permissions were not renewed. Both were forced to leave Mongolia and have not yet returned. A third missionary family who arrived in Mongolia before we did using another means may also lose their residency permission soon. He has approached my friend about using our company to obtain residency permission. As you can see, the company's provision of residency permission has increased in value since we left.

This trip has several goals. First and foremost, we wish to encourage Faith Baptist Church, its pastor, and evangelize the lost nearby. My wife and I have a particular burden to strengthen Pastor Ganpurev and his family. Second, the business we started may be even more profitable if we make some changes to its structure. Those changes require my physical presence in Mongolia. I will be taking some time during our visit to make those adjustments to the company's structure and enable it to provide residency permission to more independent Baptist missionaries. Third, our son Caleb is eager to renew old acquaintances, practice his Mongolian, and eat some genuine Mongolian food. Finally, it is an incredible privilege to be even a small part of the translation of the Bible. I am grateful to God and to Westgate Baptist Church for making it possible for us to travel to Mongolia and be a part of the New Testament dedication service. We will enjoy the opportunity to see many old friends.

Please intercede for us, for Faith Baptist Church, and for the Mongolian New Testament to be used powerfully in Mongolia. We have seen the Lord work mightily before and look to Him to work mightily on behalf of His people in Mongolia again. Through the middle of July please check the blog daily for more information. I can be reached by email at sdean@wbc-wcs.org. Thank you for your prayers.

Prayer requests

I believe that God wants us to pray specifically and fervently. But it is impossible to pray specifically unless one knows the needs. So let me share with you some of the needs of Faith Baptist Church in Ulaanbaatar.

1. Pray for Pastor Ganpurev to have a vision for where God wants to lead the church
2. Pray for a spirit of unity around the truth and a desire to work with Pastor Ganpurev to accomplish the mission of Faith Baptist Church: reaching the lost, baptizing believers, teaching them to live God-honoring lives, and fellowshipping with one another
3. Pray for Mongolians to have hearts that are turned to the true God and who are responsive to the Gospel

I am truly grateful to those of you who pray.

A strange situation

Later today I intend to post some prayer requests for those of you who are praying for me, for the Mongolians to whom I ministered in Mongolia, and for Faith Baptist Church of Ulaanbaatar. But I wanted to share quickly a strange thing that I saw in Mongolia.

As I was walking along a street early in my visit, I saw a man riding a bike. Now, I saw more bikes on this visit to Mongolian than I ever remember seeing before, so I was not surprised at that. This man riding the bike was obviously talking on his cell phone. I wasn't surprised at that either. What surprised me is that he had both hands on his bike's handlebars and was holding the phone between his ear and his shoulder as some people do when they are talking on the phone in the office and need both hands free to get a pen and paper.

He was doing this while riding down the middle of a busy street with cars passing him on both sides. If he suddenly had to swerve to avoid a pothole or car or if he were to hit a pothole, he would have seen his phone go flying to the blacktop. But he didn't seem bothered by any of that. He calmly was riding his bike down the middle of the street, trapping his phone between the side of his head and his shoulder, talking as if he were in his own home.

Last day in Mongolia

Today is Elsie and my last day in Mongolia. We have already had our last night in Mongolia. Our plane flies out just after midnight tonight.

Saying our goodbyes to dearly loved ones is always difficult. Just this morning I received a text from Byambaa who wanted to see us so badly and say goodbye; however, she is sick and cannot go out today. Regrettably she lives some distance from the city, so I cannot go see her before I leave.

I said good bye to several yesterday whom I do not anticipate seeing again for some time. Already some, like Aya, have gone before us to glory.

I'll post some prayer requests to this blog later today or tomorrow depending on when I find some free time. Thank you all who prayed for us on this trip.

Growth takes time

On Wednesday night after my last post, I went to the home of Togsoo & Gantuya. Gantuya was saved some time before Togsoo. But they both were baptized towards the end of our ministry here in Mongolia. Trying to work with Togsoo has always been an exercise in patience. He will seemingly being growing, reading his Bible, attending church services, making decisions that align with the Bible, then suddenly regress in his Christian walk.

However, I found him this last Wednesday eager to spend time with me. He shared with me how he has been growing in Christ. Gantuya told me that he has been getting up early every morning to read his Bible and pray and that he has been leading the family in daily prayers. Despite being sporadically employed for the last year, he has learned that God will provide all of his and his family's needs. It is exciting beyond words to see these people grow in the Lord. He also recently went with a group of Christians to the men's prison to preach to them the Gospel. So good things are happening in this precious family.

Yesterday, I visited Byambaa. She has moved to a remote part of the city, one to which I had never been before. She missing Kristie and asked if Kristie would visit next year.

Also, I visited Bob & Ganaa's home yesterday. The visit was very friendly, my friendliest visit in a long while.

As an unimportant side note, I remarked to Kristie as I talked to her today that I have only had buuz twice during my time in Mongolia. I have had a different Mongolian food at each of the other Mongolian's homes that I have visited. I even had pizza at the Whitener's home, but they are Americans.

A visit to Mongolia

When I left the United States a few days ago, I intended to send short snippets to my blog everyday. Each day of any visit to Mongolia is usually packed with activities. I was able to post an update on Sunday but since then have been busier even than normal for a visit.

I planned for Monday to be a day off. Elsie and I would do some souvenir shopping, get lunch, and spend some time with the Ritchie family. Elsie and the Ritchie's oldest daughter are dear friends. Although we did have a chance to go shopping on Monday, a couple of unexpected (though not unwelcome) things came up and we found ourselves at Enkhtuul's place with her two girls past 10 PM.

Now, I understand that 10 PM is not particularly late for Mongolians–many families eat their evening meal about that time–it is late when you are still recovering from jet lag and have been out since 7:30 that morning. So we had a long day, and I didn't write.

Tuesday, we started visiting again. I dropped my daughter off at the Ritchie's place and met several Mongolians. Following that I went to the Whitener's home. They fed me delicious homemade pizza–by the way, I have given up on trying to lose any weight on this trip. We had some wonderful fellowship. Then Jason, Zachary, Pastor Ganpurev, and I headed out to Terelj. We had several reasons for going. In short, Jason introduced me to some people to whom he has been ministering, and I made some new friends. But again, I returned home past 10 and didn't find time to write an update.

It is now Wednesday afternoon. Working with Jason & Pastor Ganpurev, I have had some opportunities to make some contacts for their company. This was an important goal of my trip. The shop could be doing better.

Tonight Elsie & I will visit two (maybe three) more Mongolian families and continue our efforts to encourage and strengthen the believers in Mongolia. Of all my trips to Mongolia, this one has been the most successful so far in meeting with those whom we want to encourage. Continue to pray for us.

Sunday's good news

Elsie and I had a wonderful Sunday with friends. It is encouraging to be with people that you have worked with, to see them grow in the Lord, and to watch them serve the Lord with gladness.

The English service meets at 9 AM. Jason Ritchie who normally preaches at the English service asked me to preach which I gladly did. My jet lag was not too bad in the morning. I enjoyed re-establishing old acquaintances and meeting some new ones.

Afterwards, I preached in the Mongolian service. My Mongolian was a little rusty. Several times I started laughing at myself because I knew I was not pronouncing a word correctly but could not get my tongue to frame the word correctly.

But what was most gratifying was to observe the Mongolians serving. Ganpurev did the Scripture reading and made some pertinent comments about the passage that he read. Then I took his preaching session and preached from John 7:37-39. After that, Baysaa led the music with his wife Ganchimeg accompanying him on the piano. We sang a variety of songs, and all were well-done.

While Baysaa preached the second sermon, Ganchimeg taught the children's lesson. I was so proud of them for taking the various parts of the service.

Baysaa had recently accompanied some other people to Khonkh, a town not far from the Russian border. While there Baysaa was the primary preacher for the week that they spent there. His fellow laborers mentioned that he did a good job preaching. They even had one person there make a profession of faith in Christ.

This afternoon, Elsie and I visited Baysaa's house. He shared with us that his wife Ganchimeg had led her sister-in-law to the Lord. It was exciting to see people we had led to Jesus the Savior leading others to that same Savior!

This week I will be working diligently to encourage people and spur even more efforts for our Lord. There are also several people who are looking to me to assist in making some decisions. Please pray for God to bless our week here.

Traveling to Mongolia

Elsie and I will be traveling to Mongolia tomorrow. Pray for us.