Travel update

There's a lot of excitement in the Dean family right now. Kristie and I leave Tuesday, July 25, for a trip to Alaska where I am scheduled to speak in a church on Wednesday night. The children are staying with friends and family. It is especially hard on Caleb and Elsie to be away from us for so long. Please pray for them.

When we get back from Alaska we will have less than two weeks before we leave for Mongolia. We are eager to be back in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, to see all our friends and pick up the work where we left off. God has put into our hearts a desire to be in that place. There will be fewer missionary families for us to work and fellowship with in the capital city when we return. Some have left Mongolia permanently, others are taking a year long furlough, and some have health issues that have brought them back to the States indefinitely. That is one reason why your prayers for our health are so important to us.

I know that our Mongolian friends are eager to see us. I dreamed that I was in Mongolia and speaking Mongolian this last week. A friend of mine who speaks two languages tells me that dreaming in another language is a good thing. Our other major prayer request is for ability to speak the Mongolian language fluently and well.

Short biography of Ganpurev

Ganpurev was born in 1972 as the eighth of eleven children. His father was a herder in central Mongolia in the Ovorkhangai province. The thirteen of them lived in a one room ger. In the spring the thirteen family members would share their ger with the newborn lambs that were struggling.

His primary and secondary education was at a boarding school in the provincial capital many miles from his family’s home. Once he was so homesick that he walked all the way home, only to have his father immediately take him back to school.

Later, he studied carpentry and other skills at a vocational school in Zhavkhan province. About this time, the socialistic policies of the Communist system were replaced when the government began to pursue free-market policies. Ganpurev had skills but no job. For a while he lived with relatives in Darkhan. His oldest brother was there serving in the Mongolian army. While he was there he met Ulzee who later became his wife. They moved back to Ovorkhangai to and established their family there. Their two children were born there - Bilgoon in 1996 and Nyamkaa in 2000. Ganpurev became a herder like his father.

As their son neared the age of six, Ganpurev and Ulzee began to wonder about his education. Because they did not want to send him away to a boarding school as Ganpurev had done, they moved back to Darkhan to live. It was 2002, and jobs were very difficult to find in Darkhan. They survived doing odd jobs.

A year later Ulzee found work in Ulan Bator. Ulzee’s cousin was our Mongolian language tutor, and she introduced us to Ulzee. I asked Ulzee to introduce me to her husband. At that time, he was working a construction job some distance away. It was several weeks later when I finally had an opportunity to meet him. Several months later Ganpurev made a profession of faith in Christ.

It has been exciting for me to watch him grow in faith and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is eager to learn all he can from his Bible and to apply the principles to his life. Because of the economic situation in Mongolia, Ganpurev has had difficulty finding a good job. He is always working but sometimes does not receive much money for his labor. Please pray that he would continue to grow in his faith. Ganpurev is constantly sharing his faith with others. Pray that the seed he plants will bear fruit.

Update

Dear praying family and friends,

We are working down to the last month before we leave. The current project is sorting everything that is in our apartment. It's like moving only more intensive. When a person moves normally, everything is boxed up and put into a truck. When we move, we are restricted to a certain amount of stuff. So everything must be organized into the following categories:

1. what goes to Mongolia, all of which must fit into 12 suitcases weighing less than 70 lbs. each
   
2. what stays here in the U.S. to be brought to Mongolia later
3. what needs to be given back to someone who loaned it to us for the year
4. what needs to be given away
5. what needs to be thrown away
   

But if you're paying attention, you heard all this stuff several weeks ago. Well, we're still at it, trying to fit packing in along with a busy schedule that includes visits to family and friends and speaking engagements. Except for the clothes, most of the packing is done. We'll take a break from it the rest of this week. Because many of my wife's relatives will be in town for her brother's wedding, we have many opportunities to be with family this week.

Last Sunday night, I spoke at a church in Salem, Oregon. Before I even began to speak, the church voted to support us financially. That is the first (and probably) last time that will ever happen. It was another reminder of God's care and provision.

This Wednesday, I spoke at an assisted care facility. The people of that facility who meet for a Bible study have been so faithful to pray for me. As I took some questions, it became apparent how much they have been praying for me! Again, another reminder of God's provision.

Grateful for your prayers,
Scott Dean

Preparing to Return - Prayer Letter from June 2006

As I travel and speak in churches, I tell them of my decisions as I make them. Then I forget that most of you are not in those churches, but are in some other church where I have already been. So it may be that some of you are not aware of my plans.

Our first plan is to return to Mongolia in August. We have tickets to fly on Monday, August 14, 2006. We are very eager to be back in Mongolia, ministering to Mongolians, and speaking the Mongolian language. Many churches have generously provided items for us to take back. Because of luggage restrictions we will be hard-pressed to get it all back to Mongolia. What a wonderful blessing! We are so grateful to those of you who have given so generously to us. Between now and our departure date, I only have a few more meetings with churches, but I have several meetings with individuals who pray for us and love us. Also, there are several opportunities to preach at my home church and to serve there in other ways.

Once in Mongolia we plan to pick up where we left off–evangelizing and discipling Mongolians. We talked to Ganpurev and Ulzee on the phone in late June. They are doing very well, but Enkhee and Bayambaa seem to be struggling. We cannot say thank you often enough for those of you who faithfully pray for us and our friends in Mongolia. We know that your prayers have an effect on what happens in Mongolia. This year of reporting back to our churches has been a wonderful time to strengthen our friendships, remind people to pray for us, and report about the progress of the work in Mongolia.

Several months ago while preparing to write a similar letter, I mentioned to my wife the fact that I hoped people read our prayer letters. It would be discouraging to spend so much time and effort trying to communicate if there was no one with whom to communicate. The next month, several of you from different churches mentioned what a joy the regular prayer letters were. It was as if God was saying, “There are people who notice your efforts to communicate.” Those who read our letters and pray for us faithfully are an encouragement to us.

Prayer update

I finally will be in one place for a while. During the next month, I only have one meeting away from Westgate Baptist Church. I will be speaking several times at Westgate during that time, meeting with several families and individuals, and packing for Mongolia.

By July 23, we must be moved out of our apartment. So the challenge in the next month is to sort through the stuff that we have amassed in the past year. It's amazing how much stuff one can accumulate in one year! In some cases, churches have given us things to take back to Mongolia. For that we are grateful. When I returned to Mongolia for three weeks in the winter, I left behind two footlockers of stuff. Korean Air allows us to check a total of twelve items. We have clothes, school books for homeschooling, books for my library, new games, toys (from the four kids spending a year with grandparents), kitchen items that cannot be bought in Mongolia, and a host of other small odds and ends. We have decided to pack the essential items, set non-essential items aside, make a third pile of useful things that can be brought to us later, and then get rid of everything else. So pray for wisdom and that God would multiply our time during the next month. We'll need every minute.

Goals for this blog

Those of you who are reading this blog obviously care enough to keep track of what we are doing. I hope that means that you are also praying for us. The goal of this blog is to post information, news, and pictures about our ministry in Mongolia and occasionally to post other information about Mongolia that will be helpful to you.

My prayer updates will be posted here as they come out. Also, I write a weekly update for family and home church that will be posted here. My plan is over the next few months to include some biographical information about my Mongolian friends. Along with their pictures such information will give you a better idea of how to pray for them. Eventually, I would like to make a calendar available to you so that you know how to pray in a timely manner. Check back weekly for new information.

Perhaps you have suggestions about items that might be posted on this blog or ideas about how I can make this blog more useful, or maybe you have comments or questions; do not hesitate to send me an e-mail. My contact information is on the back of our prayer card. I like to hear from you all.