Religion in Mongolia

Religious freedom is alive and well in Mongolia. According to advertisements, there are three different “holy” men in Mongolia currently. One is the leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, one is a Hindu holy man, and the other is a Christian. There’s been something of a battle of the billboards here. There are two competing billboards at a major intersection near where I live. I’ve posted them for you. The Buddhist billboard is more subdued; I think “A long live” is meant to be “May he live long.”

The Christian billboard is more dramatic. After giving the man’s name and details of the rallies, it states, “The blind see … the deaf hear … the lame leap … came see miracles. Everyone is welcome.”

There have been some articles in U.S. newspapers along these lines. USA Today has a write-up in their religion section. There's an article in the Deseret News. I even found one in the UK. Check it out here.

Ministry since returning to Mongolia

I returned to Mongolia to find that only Ganpurev's family had been faithful to continue to come to the meetings on Sundays. Since no one else was coming, I made the decision to continue to meet with Ganpurev’s family on Sunday: last week, we met in my home, this week in his. Next week I have already begun to invite people out to a meeting on Sunday. Also, I have plans to visit unsaved, unchurched families in the coming weeks to begin home Bible studies with them. Several families have expressed an interest in seeing me again though not necessarily to study the Bible with me. Here are some specific prayer requests.

Please pray for Bilgee. We are planning to visit his older brother Ganbold to preach the Gospel to him and his family. Two of his children are already grown and married. They live in the same fenced area with their father. Pray for Ganbol's family to be receptive to the Gospel.

Please pray for Moogii and his family. I intend to visit them this week. In the past Moogii has been uninterested in the Bible though not antagonistic. His wife is expecting a baby, and that provides an opportunity for me to stop by and congratulate them. I have already mentioned to Moogii since my return that I would like to teach his family the Bible.

Please pray for Mendee (two e’s at the end of a Mongolian name are pronounced ‘ay’ as in day). I mentioned my desire to study the Bible in their home when I was with Mendee in February. I have not met him since I have returned but heard through Ganpurev that he is looking forward to seeing me. He lives on the far side of town.

Enkhee also lives on the far side of town. He works seven days a week sometimes until midnight. He wanted to come to Ganpurev’s house Sunday when we met to study the Bible but could not because of work. Pray that he would have the time and desire to study God’s word. I believe he is saved but is putting his job before our God. That is easier to do when you are living hand to mouth.

Daimkaa called me on Sunday and talked to me for a while. I need to get by and see him. I have been praying for him the year that I was in the States. He thinks his greatest need is money (and that I can get him to the U.S. to work), but I know his greatest need is Jesus Christ. Please pray that he would realize that his greatest need is a right relationship with his Creator God!

I met with Bob this last week. He seems very cold to truth. He continues to believe that there is some secret meaning or code in the Bible that he needs to de-code before he can understand it. I tell him to take it literally. Please pray that the Spirit would take the veil from his eyes and show him his need for Jesus Christ.

Buren’s job has kept him busy. I’ve met with him twice, once briefly. Please continue to pray for his salvation.

Please do not hesitate to write to me. I would love to hear from you. Also, if you’ve taken time to read this blog entry and will pray for some or all of these men and their families, please send me an e-mail at jdean@baptistworldmission.org.

The Missing Bag

Here's that "later" post when I promised to share details of another instance of God's providence.

We knew almost as soon as we landed that we were in Mongolia. I had
called Bob, my Mongolian friend for whom I have asked you to pray, and asked him if he would pick us up at the airport. When he said that he would, I also mentioned that we would have a lot of luggage and asked him if he would bring a truck or other large vehicle to load our stuff. He agreed to do that.

As soon as I walked out of customs into the waiting area who should be waiting for me but Mickey Cofer. You might remember Mickey. It was his son who fell from the horse and was in a coma for thirteen days. Anyway, I had not talked to Mickey about picking me up and was surprised to see him at the airport at midnight local time. He told me that he had three taxis waiting to take me home.
I thought to myself, where is Bob? One of the taxi drivers took the cart I was pushing which was loaded with luggage and began to push it to his car. I turned around and took the cart that Kristie was pushing. Then I saw him – there was Bob a little bit further back in the crowd. He greeted me and looked at me as if to ask, “Why did you give that stranger your cart?” I told him that Mickey had come to the airport unexpectedly and said he had three taxis waiting.

“We don’t need any taxis, I have my jeep and a brother-in-law’s minivan,” replied Bob.

“Okay, but that taxi driver just took my luggage.” It was an awkward situation with Bob and Mickey both there.

I turned to Mickey and explained that we didn’t need any of the taxis. While I was doing that I lost sight of the taxi driver that had taken my luggage. When Bob asked me where the other cart was, I told him that taxi driver had taken it. Bob and I went to find the taxi driver. By the time that we found him, he had already put all the luggage in his car. We told him that there had been a mistake and that we no longer needed a taxi. Then we took the things out of his car. I looked through the car carefully to see if we had left anything in it. It looked empty to me and to Bob.

I took the luggage back to where Kristie and the children were waiting. Mickey found me and asked me to explain to the other two taxi drivers that were waiting why I no longer needed any taxis. I did that and then turned my attention back to my family and luggage. I counted the bags. All the bags were there except for one small bag that had a portable DVD player in it. We had brought it to Mongolia expecting to use it for home schooling videos … and now it was gone. I told Bob that one of my bags was missing and described it to him. Again Bob and I took off looking for the taxi driver that had loaded my stuff in his car. I belatedly remembered the first rules I had learned in Mongolia. In public, never let any possession out of your sight that you hope to see again.

Of course, the taxi driver had left, and I had no illusions that I would ever see him or the DVD player again. When we returned to the other luggage, the other taxi drivers were still standing there. Bob asked, “Does anyone know that taxi driver’s phone number.”

“No,” they all lied as if they really had no idea what their best friend’s phone number was.

I prayed something like, “Lord, could you bring back the DVD player to us,” and started to pack the rest of my belongings into the minivan. Soon everything was packed. As we were packing, Bob had taken off to find someone who knew the taxi driver’s phone number.

He was gone for some time. We had finished packing and were waiting for Bob to come back so that we could get moving toward home especially since it was about 1 AM local time.

Then a policeman blew his whistle and told us to get moving. Bob’s brother-in-law was driving but was stuck behind Bob’s jeep. So we sat there wondering if Bob would come back before the policemen wrote us a ticket.

Having lived in Mongolia for four years, I had no hope that the bag would ever be returned. I had accidentally left things in taxis before and never received one of them back. If I had known where Bob was, I would have told him to forget it and come back.

Several minutes later, Mickey drove up in a taxi and said, “They found your bag. We’ll get it and bring it to your apartment.”

I was shocked and so was Bob’s brother-in-law! But in finding the bag, I saw the providence of God.

Seeing the Hand of God

Webster’s 1828 dictionary describes providence as “the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures.” I believe that every day and indeed every second of every day that God is in control. So often He is working in ways that we do not perceive because we are too busy. So I wanted to take some time and tell you about some ways that I perceive the providence of God in our lives recently.

We left the United States to travel to Mongolia on August 14, 2006. Just the week previous, the British government arrested several people accusing them of planning to blow up ten planes on trans-atlantic routes. Their method was to be a bomb using liquids that would be mixed together and detonated by a common electronic device. The result was increased security the day that we were scheduled to travel. The TSA workers even confiscated the peanut butter that we were planning to feed to our children while on the thirteen hour flight from Seattle to Seoul, South Korea.

In the past we had always flown from Portland to Los Angeles, changed terminals, boarded a plane for Seoul, and then changed planes for our flight to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. This time I had bought tickets in February for a Seattle to Seoul flight, followed by a Seoul to Ulan Bator flight. It involved a drive from Portland to Seattle. However, on August 14, I was glad for the drive. It meant that we only had to go through security one time, that is, in Seattle. Our old route through Los Angeles would have meant a second trip through airport security in Los Angeles when we went from one of the domestic terminals to the international terminal. So God providentially protected us from that situation when He directed me to buy tickets for a different route in February.

In a second act of providence, God arranged for me to meet Moogii when we arrived in Mongolia, but first, let me give you a little background. Moogii is a Mongolian man for whom I have been praying during the last six months that I was in the United States. (Strangely enough, Moogii in Mongolian means “mushroom.” I shared this with one church in the States and said that I was uncertain as to why Mongolian parents would name their son “Mushroom.” A witty friend remarked to me later that the parents named their son “Mushroom” because they wanted him to be a “fun guy” a play on word “fungi.”)

Anyway, I knew Moogii during our first term in Mongolia, but he said he was a Buddhist who was not interested in Christianity. I met him again, providentially, in the home of a friend during Tsagaan Sar during the trip that I took to Mongolia in February. I had the opportunity to spend some time with him and again approached the subject of teaching him a Bible lesson in his home. He was not as adamant about not being interested this time. Since that time I have been praying for an opportunity to be a witness to him.

I had asked Bob, my Mongolian friend for whom some of you have been praying, to pick me up at the airport. I told him that we would need a second vehicle to get all our luggage from the airport to our apartment. Bob chose to bring Moogii with him. I was not even aware that Moogii had a vehicle. So I rode with him back from the airport and had another opportunity to talk with him. Please pray for Moogii’s salvation as you pray for us.

A third act of providence happened at the airport when we lost a bag. But I’ll share more on that story in a later post.

A fourth instance of God’s care was the arrangements for the sale of our vehicle. I wanted to save my parents the hassle of finding a buyer for our vehicle. However, I also wanted to use the vehicle up until the day that we left for Mongolia. Those two goals seemed mutually exclusive until God provided a buyer who was willing to guarantee to buy the vehicle and wait until after I left for Mongolia to take possession of it.

God is good all the time even when we are in the midst of difficulties. But these four instances of God’s providence have reminded me that my trust in God is not unwarranted.

Blogging from Mongolia

It's official! I am writing this blog from Mongolia. We arrived last week after two uneventful flights. Everyone has been healthy, and we've met with several Mongolians already. Internet access has been a little tricky which is why it has taken me this long to write a post. Look for more posts more often now that I am back in Mongolia.

Looking forward to our return

The day of our departure draws nearer. On August 14, we will board a plane in Seattle taking us to Seoul, South Korea. From Seoul, we will board another flight taking us on to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. This is a shorter route than the one we have taken in the past. We are not eager to spend a lot time on a plane with four children, but we are eager to be back in Mongolia.

It may be that we do not return for a long furlough until a church is established in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and led by nationals. If that is the case, it may be some years before we are with you again in person. We earnestly wish we could work in Mongolia and see all of you every couple years. But the amount of focus needed to be effective in Mongolia, and the cost of tickets to return to the United States mean frequent travel is difficult.

In 1894 Jonathan Goforth and his family took their first furlough and returned to Canada. When they returned to China it was to a new location, Changte in central China. Soon after their arrival God blessed them with a Chinese national who worked alongside Jonathan as an evangelist. It was not long before thousands of people were listening to their message. The change in the effectiveness of their ministry from their first term to their second is nothing but the power of God unleashed through the prayers of people praying in Canada.

We too hope to see even more clearly in our second term the amazing and powerful hand of God at work in Ulan Bator. During this past year, many of you took prayer cards and some even told us they would pray for us. We know that your prayers enable our ministry. As all of us stay faithful to the ministry to which God has called us, we are excited to think that God will do great things in the future!

Finding our apartment in Mongolia on Google Earth

Have you ever wanted to see where we live in Mongolia? Through the amazing abilities of the Internet, you can now see the city and even zoom in to see the building in Ulan Bator, Mongolia that we call home.

First, you'll need a broadband connection (cable, DSL, or similar) to the Internet. Next, you'll need Google Earth which is a free program that let's you see satellite views of the world. Not all computers can run the Google Earth program. This page provides more information on Google Earth and a download of the free program. Once you've downloaded and installed Google Earth you can follow these steps to see our building.

1. Type "Ulan Bator, Mongolia" into the Google Earth search bar.
2. Zoom out to about 10,000 feet and you should see a picture something like the first picture above
3. Notice the arrow. It's pointing to Sukhbaatar Square which Mongolians consider to be the center of town. Grap Sukhbaatar Square by clicking and holding and pull it from the bottom right to the top left portion of the screen. You should see a picture something like the second picture.
4. Grap the round building that has an arrow pointing to it and pull it to the the top center of the screen.
5. Notice the empty land at the bottom of the screen; grap the round building again and drag it down until you can't see the empty land anymore, only the road at the bottom of the screen.
6. Zoom in until you are at about 5500 feet. You should now see a picture that looks like the one below.
   
7. Our building is the one with the arrow pointing to it.

Can't see it? Don't worry, I can't seem to get my computer to do what I want it to do half of the time anyway.

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