Thanksgiving Day thought

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience. - Adam Smith

A man in good health by the blessing of the Father of lights from whom all good things come. James 1:17

A man out of debt, not bound by his covetous passions, living contentedly with what God has given him. I Timothy 6:8

A man blessed with a clear conscience knowing that his sin has been forgiven and the price of his sin paid by the blood of Jesus Christ. I John 1:9

May all of you who read this enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving Day and rejoice in the good things that God has given us.

Pictures of the new rooms

On Sunday there was finally enough room for everyone to spread out. Too bad most people want to sit in the back rows.

Our new entryway so people who come late do not disturb the children's class. Lots of coats mean lots of people.

We have put all the chairs out; now we just need to take the plastic off and wait for Sunday.

Here is Ganpurev working to put up one of the walls. Ganpurev, John, and Kevin were mostly responsible for the walls in the new rooms. Another missionary, Don McIlvain, did all the electrical work for us.

Quote of the day

Let us depend upon it, that nothing but real faith in Christ, proved to be genuine by a holy life, can support us at last. That faith which consists merely in a correct belief of the doctrines of grace and prompts self-denial – that faith which allows us to spend all our days in serving self, content with merely refraining from outward sins, and attending to the ordinary duties of religion – is not faith at all. – Adoniram Judson

Picture of the week

These are four Mongolian men with Roland Gay. Roland spent some years in Mongolia learning the language, translating the Gospel of John, and assisting us at Faith Baptist Church. Health problems forced his family to move back to the States. However, he has such a love and burden for the Mongolian people that he has determined to visit Mongolia twice a year as the Lord allows. During his recent visit he preached some special meetings for us about the Word of God.

The four Mongolians in the group need your prayers. They are from left to right: Bob, Bilgee, Dashka, and Ganpurev. Bob recently made a profession of faith in Christ and now needs to grow. He really struggles with pride and a critical spirit. Please pray for humility and a teachable spirit.

Bilgee is not yet married but has a girl in mind and discussed marrying her. Pray that God would give him wisdom about this decision.

Dashka's wife and four children are not Christians yet. Pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Also pray for Dashka to be a God-honoring husband and father.

Ganpurev's mother-in-law has cancer. Because of the medical system here it is difficult for us to know exactly how well or how poorly she is doing. However, her poor health has been weighing heavily on Ganpurev and his wife. They need your prayers for peace and comfort and strength.

These men represent the core of Faith Baptist Church. Please uphold them in your prayers this week.

Dean's November prayer letter

“Not every Christian is called to the mission field, but every Christian ought to wrestle with the possibility.” I heard this quote many years ago from Ron Brooks. I have often thought that it appropriately sums up the responsibility of every Christian to consider missionary service. For those of you with God’s call on your life to serve Him in a culture that is not your own, Mongolia may be the place of God’s adventure for you.

The opportunities for ministry are many and varied. If we had two more missionary families serving with us, we could put them to work immediately upon their completion of language study. One area of service that weighs greatly on my heart is teaching Mongolians the Bible and training them to serve God. I have plans to start a Bible institute as a part of the ministry that we have here in Ulan Bator, but who will serve with me? Who will teach the classes when I am gone? Frankly, I need someone with more Bible knowledge than myself and a passion to impart that knowledge to Mongolians.

There are also some great opportunities for service in areas outside of Ulan Bator. Already, Ganpurev and I have been laying the ground work to plant a church in Ovorkhangai’s Bayan-ondor area. Ganpurev, who is from that area and knows many of the inhabitants personally, is not aware of a single Christian in an area larger than most U.S. counties. The three men with Ganpurev in the picture are all people who live in the Bayan-ondor area to whom we have witnessed more than once.

However, Bayan-onder is a good day’s drive away from Ulan Bator and desperately needs someone to go and live among them. Mongolians who live there tell us that evangelistic groups have come through before, but there is no one living there working to plant a church. We would be willing to go, but who would take our place in Ulan Bator?

I envision an American missionary, perhaps even my family, moving out there with a Mongolian family from Ulan Bator’s Faith Baptist Church to witness and labor among these people. For that to happen, there needs to be someone in Ulan Bator to labor among the million inhabitants of this city and hold the ropes for those in the countryside.

A further benefit to having three families is that as one family is away for health reasons or furlough the other two families can cover for them. I have often heard from those who know about missions that the best ministries are those who have teams of missionaries who work closely together.

Some may be worried that in these time of financial distress that it would be difficult to raise the funds to go to a foreign country. Who is it of whom it is said, “The earth is the LORD’s and the fulness thereof”?

Others may be concerned that the language will be too hard to learn. God told another of His servants who was worried about a similar difficulty, “Who made man’s mouth? Have not I the LORD?”

Maybe you fear adjusting to a new culture. I have claimed the verse, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” If God can take His people through the waters and the rivers and the fire, surely He can lead his people in a new land.

"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." (Matthew 9:38)

Don't talk so loud

Kristie and I were out shopping recently. Our normal supplier for gouda cheese has been out of cheese for some weeks. It's no crisis; but we do like cheese. Here in Mongolia Gouda cheese from the Netherlands is one of the least expensive cheeses we can reliably buy. (And I like Gouda more than cheddar).

We found some cheese at one of these indoor markets where there are some 30-40 vendors many of whom sell the same things. We noticed that several of the vendors were selling gouda cheese. I expected the price to be well above the price we normally pay since this indoor market is known for having hard-to-find items at hard-to-believe prices. (Would you believe over $12 for a single avocado? I like avocados but I've never had one in Mongolia.)

I asked one lady from whom we often buy mozzarella cheese how much the gouda was. She said a price within a few cents of the price that we pay normally. I was surprised and wondered if I'd heard her correctly. So I repeated the price. She quickly protested, "Be quiet!" Then she leaned over her counter and whispered, "Yes, that's the price but I don't want the other vendors to hear. They'll scold me for selling it so cheaply."

So we bought the reminder of her block and thank the Lord for His goodness. I believe that he gave us favor with the vendor to sell us her cheese at a price not far above what she paid for it.

Weekly update

This past week has been a busy one. The church voted to rent some new rooms; we have simply outgrown the rooms that we were in. This past Sunday evening at the English service we had 49 in attendance with a couple of American families from Russia joining us.

Kevin and John have been a big help in building walls in the new rooms. The walls are now done, and the two men are learning along with Ganpurev how to tape and mask the seams in the walls. The plan is to be in those new rooms by Sunday. Please pray for the men to complete the project in time. We simply do not have enough space in the old rooms for 50 people.

Also, last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night the church had special meetings. Roland Gay, whose family used to work with us in Mongolia, returned for a visit and preached for those three nights about the inspiration and preservation of God's word. There was a good response to his preaching. We hope that he will be able to return again and preach a similar series of sermons on God's word.

The cold weather arrives

The weather here in Mongolia has turned cold. I woke up this morning and checked the temperature. How does 26 below zero sound? Actually, that was the temperature in Celsius; the temperature in Fahrenheit was only 15 below zero. Although those two temperatures are the same, fifteen below just sounds more comfortable to me.

Special meetings

Having special meetings in Mongolia can be problematic because there are simply not very many special speakers who speak the language crisscrossing Mongolia. We have been blessed to have Roland Gay visiting for the past few weeks.

His family who previously lived in Mongolia, but health problems forced them to move back to the States. However, God has given Roland such a burden for Mongolia that he is determined to come back as often as he can to strengthen churches in Mongolia. Even while he is in the States, he continues to work on the Mongolian Bible translation work that is being sponsored by FirstBibles International and the Trinitarian Bible Society.

Because of Roland's unique language ability, his burden to preach, and his desire to strengthen churches, I asked him if he would preach to us during his time in Mongolia both on Sundays and during some special meetings during the week.

We have been pleased to have a good number of folks turn out. Roland has been preaching two messages each night: a message about the Bible, Its importance, preservation, and translation; and another shorter message to challenge the people.

Last night, we had a 95 year old first time visitor attend with some other visitors who have been coming somewhat regularly. Bob has come every night so far too which has been an encouragement to me.

New rooms

On Sunday the church voted to move to new rooms and to accept the extra financial responsibilities that will come with the new rooms. The current rooms that the church has been renting comprise three rooms that together equal about 600 sq. feet. One room which is very narrow is used for storage and as a nursery (not an ideal situation but one that has been forced upon us).

The largest room is used as the sanctuary. It can only seat 35, packing people in tight and not giving the preacher much more space than a place to stand. Since we have the children and adults meet together for the first hour of the service and attendance has been around 40, this room has been overflowing.

The third room is used for a classroom primarily for the children. Because there is no entryway or hallway everyone who wants to use the restroom, enter or exit the building, or simply get to the storage room has to pass through this room. This can be very disruptive.

The new rooms will give us a decent storage space (every church needs storage space), a sanctuary about twice the size of our current space where we plan to seat about 60 people, a children's classroom about the same size as the current one but with a better layout, and a fourth room that can be used as a nursery. There will also be an entryway, hallway, and much better bathroom in this new place. It is quite an additional expense for the church but one which we believe is necessary to allow its ministry to people to continue to expand.