(Used by Permission )

Memories of Mongolia

Cheryl Doss

Institute of World Mission

Mongolia.  Just the name conjures up images of distant lands and exotic cultures and awakens in me the impulse to get on an airplane.  So you can imagine my pleasure when an invitation to do missionary training in Mongolia recently came my way.  As part of a trip to train Pioneer Missionary Mission Movement (PMM) couples for the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, we would go to Mongolia to meet with the four PMM families serving there. 

 The Adventist church in this largely Buddhist country is young.  In the early 1990’s Adventist Frontier Missionaries Brad and Kathy Jolly restarted the Adventist work in Mongolia that had languished during the Communist era.  The General Conference followed with the establishment of a mission office currently directed by Paul Kotenko, a missionary from Australia.  Recently the Division sent four Korean pastoral couples, (Park NoYoung, Lee YongHo, Park SangBum, and Shin HyunChul), to do church planting.

Visiting a ger and tasting mare’s milk was exciting but the high point of the visit came on Sabbath as we worshiped at the store-front church begun by Pastor and Mrs. Shin in a middle-class section of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city.  The Shins had made amazing progress learning the language in the seventeen months they had been in the country.  They lived in one of the Soviet-style apartment blocks in the community and had made friends among their neighbors.  When the group outgrew their apartment they rented a room under a cybercafé.   Of the forty of so people in attendance that Sabbath, most were baptized within the last six months.  All were new believers from a Buddhist background. 

Even a visitor could sense the joy of the group.  During sharing time at Sabbath School, a man stood up and said, “The best thing I ever did was get baptized.  That was the best day of my life!”   A woman agreed, “Yes, the best thing I ever did was come to this church.  Here I have found Jesus and a family.”  A year and a half ago these two believers had little or no idea who Jesus is.  They probably didn’t personally know any Christians.  But their hearts were receptive and when someone moved to their community, learned their language, became their friend, and introduced them to Jesus, they were ready.   

Few of the nearly two-thirds of humanity who are adherents of non-Christian world religions have a witnessing Christian community in their midst.  (In fact, a recent Barna study found that only a few Hindus, Buddhists, or Muslims in North America have a friend who is a Christian!)  For those billions of people living in countries dominated by another world religion, usually someone from the Christian world has to move to their community, learn their language, and become their friend, in order for them to meet Jesus.  No one part of the Adventist church has the resources for the challenge of the world religions.  In fact, the task is too big for all of us.  But as evidenced in Mongolia, by working together— church organizations and supporting ministries, lay and clergy—through the power of the Holy Spirit, lives can be changed. 

What if we as a church were to focus two-thirds of our energy and resources on reaching adherents of non-Christian religions?  What if we doubled or tripled the number of missionaries who are willing to live and witness in those communities?  What if we could forge new ways of building relationships between all those engaged in the church’s mission to optimize our effectiveness? 

And, what if I make friends with the Buddhists who run the Chinese restaurant down town?