Sprechen Sie Монгол?

It's been two weeks and Ulaanbaatar is starting to feel like home. God has blessed me with an incredible community of believers. It is amazing to me how much they remind me of my community back home. We pray every morning from 9am until 10am. Afterward they have a missions training school that ends around 12:30. I can't understand much Mongolian so I help with children's ministry during that time. In the afternoon we either go on outreach or do practical work. If you've spent much time in Godtown this schedule should sound familiar.



Learning Mongolian has been slow work. I need to learn a new alphabet. The most confusing part is that some of the letters look like English letters but they have different sounds. 'H' is 'n'. 'P' is a rolled 'r'. 'U' could be an 'm' or an 'e'. Fortunately there are several Germans and Mongolians who have been able to translate for me. Sometimes they accidentally translate in German and it's not unusual for a Mongolian to greet me with "Guten Morgen!" My limited German has been surprisingly useful. The children all speak the universal language of silliness and shenanigans so we get along really well.

As I was preparing to come to Mongolia I heard many people say that just as Chengis Khan conquered so many nations, God will use Mongolia to reach the nations. I'm finding that the Mongolian people do have a special gift and a heart for evangelism. One of my roommates is 14 years old and she has been praying for India for three years. Agi, who also lives with me, has been to China and Germany and feels called to bring the Gospel to the Middle East. Ive gotten very close to Nara and she feels a call to Russia. Many of the youth have specific countries the Lord has placed on their heart and I believe He will send them.

On Wednesday evenings I go to the shelter where we take in the drunk and homeless. We provide them with tea and a warm place to sleep. Toward the end of the night we have a time of worship, prayer, and testimonies before everyone goes to sleep. People encounter God in desperate places. People coming in ask "are we going to sing tonight?" They all know the songs. The other night I was sitting with a woman who is in an abusive situation. She had a massive head injury and it was badly infected. We were waiting on an ambulance, but in Mongolia that could take hours. She was lying down and in terrible pain. But when she heard the music she smiled and started worshipping! I saw her the next day and she looked much better. She was saying "Thank you, Jesus" in Mongolian. I know I will see her often during my time here.

Location:B.Dorj Street,Ulan Bator,Mongolia