Bruchko

  

If you are looking for an incredible story of God's power to read for yourself or to your children or for one of your teens to read, I highly recommend Bruchko by Bruce Olson. It is the story of Bruce Olson's experiences among the Motilones, a "head-hunting" tribe of people in Columbia with whom Bruce, named Bruchko by the tribal members, shared the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend it! 

Here is a summary, from Forerunner about him which is very encouraging. It's awesome to see God's hand at work!!!

Missions Report: Bruce Olson's and Colombia's Motilone Indians

By Jay Rogers

Published October 1992

Since 1961, missionary Bruce Olson has labored for the gospel of Jesus Christ among the Motilone Indians deep in the jungles of Colombia’s high Catatumbo region. But today Olson’s most exciting missionary work still lies ahead.

In the past thirty years, Olson has founded bilingual schools, medical clinics and agricultural centers among the Motilones. His Christ-like humility and work of service to the Motilones has earned him the status of a tribal member. Indian chiefs throughout the region representing 50 tribes and half a million tribe members look to Olson with great awe and respect. He has become a friend of five Colombian presidents; has spoken before the United Nations; and has received educational awards from the Colombian government. Although he completed college only through correspondence schools, his work on translating the Scriptures into the native Indian dialects has earned him honor among linguistics scholars.

Nineteen-year-old Olson first travelled to South America with only a one-way plane ticket and $70 in his pocket. A young person with a deep burden for Colombia’s hidden people, Olson set out in in search of the Motilones: a fierce, primitive tribe that no white man had ever encountered and lived. Olson’s adventures in Colombia brought him face to face with the Motilones when he was shot through the leg with a three foot arrow. He was brought as a prisoner to their camp to recover. “Bruchko” – the name the Indians gave him (the Motilones were not able to pronounce Bruce Olson) – eventually won over the hearts of these tribal people. Today the Motilones are almost universally converted to Christ.

Three years ago (1989), Bruce Olson was kidnapped in the mountain jungles of Colombia and detained for nine months as a political prisoner by communist guerillas. Hoping to win him as a valuable communist leader, the communists attempted to indoctrinate him through daily political dialogues. “Papa Bruchko” – as they called him – became a source of fascination among the young recruits in training. Many of them began to join Olson in prayer and Bible study. As many as 60 communist guerillas eventually gave their lives to Christ. His refusal to join ranks with the communists earned him death threats and he narrowly escaped execution by a firing squad.

Fearing the reprisal of a united war effort of 50 jungle tribes, the guerilla leaders released Olson in the summer of 1989. The Indian tribes of Colombia had united against the guerillas in a war-pledge to defend Olson’s cause if he was executed. The unity of the Indian tribes behind one white man was unprecedented in Colombia’s history.

After his release, Olson found that he had become a national hero in Colombia. In the major cities, articles demanding Olson’s release had appeared almost daily in the newspapers. Olson’s courageous stance against the guerillas was one of the key factors which inspired the common citizens of Colombia to take a bolder, tougher stance against the drug cartels.

Since this time, the openness of the Indian tribes of Colombia to the gospel has become phenomenal. Many tribal leaders have requested that Olson begin to set up clinics, schools and agricultural centers. Some tribes have asked specifically to be taught about Jesus Christ. Olson reported recently: “In August, I was among the Cogi Indians in the mountains adjacent to Santa Marta. I baptized more than 40 adult believers. Several Motilone pastors accompanied me.”

In America, the story of Bruce Olson’s captivity brought unprecedented financial support for the work of Christ among the Motilones. For 28 years, Olson had operated with no official sponsorship, relying on only the contributions of friends, but when Charisma magazine ran a two part series: “Bruce Olson’s Nine Month Colombian Captivity” (November & December 1989), donors gave $100,000 to help “Bruchko” continue his humanitarian efforts and evangelism among the tribes of Colombia.

In addition to providing clinical supplies, scholarships and agricultural development, Olson has built several centers for the Motilones. In a recent letter, Olson explained the uses for one of the structures he is building: “Our Tibú Community House of Twelve Cultures, which we have named in Motilone: ‘Axdobaringcayra,’ is well on the way to completion. … The house will provide lodging for visiting Motilones. Tibú is the principal port of commerce for the growing tribal economy and it is the seat of government. Here we will organize Colombia’s first native language regional newspaper and house staff personnel for the northeast Colombian indigenous cultural publications.”

The cultural center he is now building will be a base from which to reach many of the tribal groups of Colombia. Olson reports that he still needs about $60,000 to complete this center.

Bruce Olson and the Motilone believers are the key to fulfilling the Great Commission in this area of the world. Jesus Christ has commanded us to go and “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). Many of the nations – referred to by missiologists as the ETHNE, or “peoples groups” – in this area of Colombia are completely unreached with the gospel. We have an exciting opportunity to reach half a million people who have become miraculously open to the gospel in the past three years.

Eternity in their Hearts

 

Who were the Magi who brought gifts to the baby Jesus, and how did they know that a Messiah was coming?

Who was Melchizedek, the contemporary of Abraham, who was a priest of the one high God?

How did a fifteenth century Peruvian king named Pachacuti, recognize that there was only one true God, before the coming of the Europeans? In his own words, Pachacuti described the one true God, they called Viracocha: "He is ancient, remote, supreme, and uncreated...He manifests himself as a trinity when he wishes...otherwise only heavenly warriors and archangels surround his loneliness. He created all peoples by his 'word.'"

God has "made every nation of men...so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27) Think about that for a moment...every nation of men...not just the Jews or the Americans or the Europeans or the Chinese, but every nation. Paul tells us that God has made them in such a way that men from every nation would seek Him.
But do they? Is there any proof that when missionaries enter a new culture/nation with the Gospel of Jesus, that they may find a people who are already prepared to hear and receive the Gospel? The answer is an astounding YES!!!

I read a book called Eternity in their Hearts by Don Richardson. Don Richardson and his late wife, Carol, spent 15 years among the Sawi, a Stone Age tribe of Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea. Don designed an alphabet suited to the Sawi language, authored 19 primers, taught the tribesmen to read in their native tongue and translated the entire New Testament. More than half of the Sawi accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!

The premise of his book is that in every culture God has preserved for Himself a testimony. In His mercy, He has permitted every culture in the world to retain a portion of the truth. If a missionary goes into a region, searching the culture for its grains of truth, and then affirms that these ideas ARE true, and then presents the Gospel as the REST of the truth, he and the Gospel will quite often be received. The book is heavily documented with specific examples of missionaries finding and utilizing these culture keys, and seeing large numbers of people become Christian.

I'd like to share some of the many examples of this. I pray they will encourage any of you, including me, who agonize over the question of God's justice in regard to people who have never heard the Gospel.

In 1867, a Norwegian missionary named Lars Skrefsrud found 2.5 million people called the Santal living in a region north of Calcutta, India. Once Lars learned the language and began proclaiming the Gospel to the Santal, he wondered how many years it would be before he saw converts. "To Skrefsurd's utter amazement, the Santal were electrified almost at once by the Gospel message. At length he heard Santal sages, including one named Kolean, exclaim, 'What this stranger is saying must mean that Thakur Jiu has not forgotten us after all this time!'" Kolean then went on to explain that their forefathers had taught them that "Thakur is distinct. He is not to be seen with fleshy eyes, but he sees all. He has created all things. He has set everything in its place, and he nourishes all, great and small." These were people who had never met a Christian or Jew nor had seen any part of the Bible, yet their understanding of God was Biblical! Once Lars explained the Gospel to them, they began to experience "eighty baptisms per day (which) signified that young Santal churches in 'Hindu India' were growing more than 500 times as fast as churches in 'Christian Europe.'"

Before I share a couple more examples, I must admit that reading this book shattered a belief that I held. I believed that the folk religions (the native religions of a people group, distinct from the major world religions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, etc.) of the world were almost entirely pagan and held very little hint or understanding of God. But according to Richardson, "We have been wrong. In actual fact, more than 90 percent of this world's folk religions acknowledge at least the existence of God. Some even anticipate His redeeming concern for mankind."

"The Chinese call him Shang Ti - the Lord of Heaven...In Korea he is known as Hananim, The Great One. Belief in Shang Ti/Hananim predates Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism by an unknown number of centuries." When missionaries entered China and Korea, they discovered this ancient belief in Shang Ti/Hananim and used it to explain a further revelation of God. Just as Paul pointed to the altar to the "unknown god" in Athens (Acts 17:22), the missionaries pointed to Shang Ti/Hananim. Today, "more than 3 million Koreans belong to Protestant churches...and Seoul contains the world's two largest Protestant churches." I can attest to this fact after living in Seoul for two years...there are crosses on the tops of churches everywhere! And in China, more than 23,000 people come to Christ a day!

The Karen of Burma were another group of people magnificently poised to receive the Gospel with open arms when it was presented to them. They had been searching for centuries for a "white brother who was supposed to bring them a book...(whose) author is Y'wa-the Supreme God...that the white brother, having given them the lost book, will thereby set them free from all who oppress them." Their folk religion's hymns bear striking resemblances to God's character and "the Karen story of man's falling away from God contains stunning parallels to Genesis chapter 1: Y'wa formed the world originally. He appointed food and drink. He appointed the 'fruit of trial.' He gave detailed orders. Mu-kaw-lee deceived two persons. He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of the trial. They obeyed not...they believed not Y'wa...when they ate the fruit of trial they became subject to sickness, aging and death." Wow! This was a remote group of people who had never come in contact with Jews or Christians before, yet their own religion, thousands of years old, had an incredible witness of the Lord! The Karen nation was thus poised like an 800,000 member welcoming party, ready for the first unsuspecting missionary who approached them with a Bible and a message of deliverance from God." When missionaries finally brought the Gospel to the Karen in the early 1800s, thousands accepted Christ almost immediately and "almost as quickly as Karen were converted and baptized, they became missionaries to spread the good news still further among their own people" and neighboring tribes!

There are so many more examples of people groups with prior knowledge of God, being prepared and ready to accept Jesus as Savior, once He was presented to them. It is truly amazing and so very comforting. It is our job to do all we can to bring them the Good News.

Malachi 1:11  says, says "'My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,'the LORD Almighty." May this be our prayer:

Lord, You are the true and living God, You rule over all things visible and invisible. The nations belong to You, and you have woven into the fabric of every culture a testimony to Your name.

I bring the unreached people groups of the world before you now, and I ask Lord that You would reveal those things in their culture, that reflect who you are and Your son Jesus. Cause the hidden treasures of Your truth to be brought up and displayed for all to see. Lord use these keys of insight to ignite a curiosity and hunger among them to know more about who You are. Give Your servants wisdom and strategy to use these keys to promote the Gospel among this people group. In Your name we pray, Amen.

A Canaanite Woman and the Caucasus People

  

Chechen children in Caucasus mountain region

This email is from a good friend of mine who is a missionary to the Caucasus people (formerly Russia) who are mainly Muslim. A good lesson for today can be derived from this Bible story!

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. 
So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” 
And her daughter was healed at that moment.   Matthew 15:21-28

"We pray more women will be like the Matthew 15:21-28 Canaanite woman.  Though from a nationality outside the house of Israel, though an enemy of Israel, she wanted healing for her demon-possessed daughter. She knew just enough of Jesus to go find him.

She pestered the disciples to get through to see him. She rebutted with clever wit Jesus's test where he used a usual, expected ethnic slight against the Canaanites [We just learned they make these ethnic jokes/slights all the time in Dagestan]. Like one from any powerless ethnic group or nationality, she endured the deep humiliation hearing such publicly accepted denigration of her people; but her canny wit blasted through Jesus' word play and she demonstrated her faith.

Imagine the features on her face, looking towards Jesus, perhaps directly in his eyes (which would break culture code too). "You can say what you want to me to test my resolve, but I know I need YOU and I'm not moving until YOU do what I KNOW you can do."

Doubtful that the disciples caught the whole message here, but wasn't Jesus showing just how much shame and humiliation some must endure to come to Him (and soon Jesus would be the one enduring deep shame and humiliation for ALL). Her faith was great indeed! The disciples were privileged that Jesus chose them. Here, the Canaanite woman, against strong social barriers, is Choosing Jesus.
       
So we ask God to move these Caucasus women, men and families in great faith to GO FIND Jesus; to step past the mental, social, historical walls developed from 1000 years of reasons not to seek Jesus and to pester Christ's church for mere "crumbs which fall from their masters' table."

We pray Christ's Russian speaking churches and Global Church will awaken and begin sincerely INVITING Caucasus Peoples to authentically meet Jesus. He's the only one who will complete their customs and cultures towards a Biblical tapestry of faith and worship. We pray the "bread of Jesus" will be offered, not as crumbs and leftovers, but from the meal table itself [through fellowship groups they can call home]!"

God's Number One Agenda Item?

 

As we begin a new year, many of us may desire to do more for the cause of Christ in our world. There are so many good ministries and causes that Christians can be involved in today...pro-life, pro-marriage, adoption/orphan care, anti-sex trafficking, missions, persecuted church, Bible translation, VBS...the list goes on and on. But of all of these, I believe there is one that stands out as God's number one agenda item...saving the lost. Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel...the Great Commission. I believe that He desires, more than anything else on this earth, that people would know Him and spend eternity with Him.

So, I believe, that the question for each of us, as believers, becomes: What am I doing to fulfill the Great Commission; to spread the Gospel to those who have never heard His name?

Although I love my country, I am not really talking here about spreading the Gospel in America. Yes, it is very important to share our faith with our family and friends. But, as Oswald J. Smith said, “Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?” I believe that each of us has the responsibility to take the good news of the Gospel to those in other countries who have never heard of Him. How we do this may be different for each of us, but it is a responsibility that we shouldn’t ignore!

There are over 1.7 billion people, that’s 30% of the world population, who have NEVER heard the name of Jesus. How will they hear if we don’t go or pray for and support those who do? And we shouldn’t desire that they hear just so that billions of people won’t suffer in Hell for eternity, though that is an incredibly important reason. The main reason should be our desire that Jesus receives the glory He deserves when people from every nation bow before Him as Lord and Savior! These are His children that He created and who He loves. He has asked us to tell them about Him. It is the greatest responsibility we will ever have.

You know, we only have about 70-80 years out of eternity to tell others about Jesus and to gain people for His Kingdom. People are what He is referring to when He tells us to store up treasures in Heaven. People are the only things we can bring with us to Heaven.

Many of you may be members now or in the past of a church which was very world-mission oriented...that is wonderful! I was not. I vaguely remember my childhood church mentioning a missionary here and there but the lost world did not seem to be the focus of my church. After leaving home, I don't remember missions being a big focus in any church I attended until we lived in Seoul, South Korea from 2006-2008 and attended Jubilee Church. And now, I am thankful that our church, Charleston Bible Church, is very missions focused.  But why, for so many years, were the wonderful churches I attended not seeming to focus on Jesus' command to us?

More often than I can count, I sat through multiple services where the pastor asked us for money to improve our church and it's "campus." But what about money to build churches in other countries where they have never heard of Jesus? I read recently that for the cost of one of the mega-churches in America, 7,000 churches could be built in a 3rd world nation. Are we truly being good stewards of the incredible resources God has given us?

If the Great Commission is to be on the heart of every Christian, as it was on the heart of Jesus and His disciples, why is the American Church, seminaries, major Christian personalities, and many Christian organizations not more outspoken about the persecuted church and worldwide missions? According to Tim Dearborn,  “Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by a lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying people’s passion for Christ, so that the passions of His heart become the passions that propel our hearts.”

That's what happened to me! Some of you may be familiar with the song Hosanna by Hillsong. There is a line in there that has become my personal prayer: “Break my heart for what breaks Yours.” I began seriously praying that prayer while living in South Korea, two hours away from the most repressive, closed to the Gospel, nation on earth...North Korea. As I began to really ask God to draw me closer to Him and to help me know Him more, I became more and more passionate about the lost and the persecuted Church. I began to write this blog because God has shown me what the number one item on His agenda is...winning the lost for Christ!

We are living in exciting times! The move of Christ throughout the world is amazing and He is asking us to join Him. I shared these stats before but they are worth repeating. This comes from the book 2020 Vision by Bill and Amy Stearns

- An average of 160,000 a day hear the message of redemption in Christ for the first time.

- Every hour, 3,000 more people decide to follow Jesus Christ which results in 72,000 new believers in Jesus every day, 91% of which are found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

- 1,600 new churches open every week around the world

- 80 percent of the world's people have access to at least some portion of the Bible in a language they can understand

- Daily, in Africa, 20,000 new believers; Africa was 3% Christian in 1900 and is now more than 50% Christian

- In India, the home of the largest number of unreached people groups in the world, Gospel for Asia plants an amazing 7-10 churches a day!

- Uganda: One church in Kampala seats 10,500 and is filled to capacity for four services every Sunday. The church has planted more than 1,000 daughter churches across Uganda. Twenty-five years ago, Uganda’s population was 22% Muslim. Today that figure is around 6% Muslim. To find out how God is using one young lady in a remarkable way in Uganda go to Amazima

- Explosive growth in Latin America...almost all unreached people groups have been reached with 50,000 new churches per year

- In 1950 in China - 1 million believers; 2009 in China - 80 million Christians with average of 10,000 - 23,000 new Christians daily

- Mongolia - In 1989 there were only four known Christians; today there are more than 10,000 indigenous believers.

- Afghanistan - Before Sept. 11, 2001, there were only 17 known Muslim-background followers of Christ. Today there are more than 10,000. (I personally know a few of them!!!)

- During the 1990s, the number of born-again believers in the world doubled!

- In 100 AD, the time of the earliest persecution of the Church, there were 360 non-Christians for every true believer...today that number has shrunk to just 7 non-Christians for every Christian as the Holy Spirit continues to move in our world

God is doing amazing things in the world and He will do them with or without our help. My fervent prayer is that we will be involved...pray, get educated, teach our children, tell those around us, support financially, go if God calls!  "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2

Early Christianity in Iran and China

Nestorian priests in a procession on Palm Sunday,
in a 7th- or 8th-century wall painting from a
Nestorian church in China

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  Matthew 24:14

Nestorian missionaries

Christianity is growing in modern-day China and Iran, but it is not a new religion to these regions. As early as the 7th century AD, Christianity had spread to the Arabian Peninsula (most notably Persia - modern day Iran), India and China. It was spread by Nestorian missionaries. 

Nestorianism was a Christian doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431 AD. Because there were doctrinal differences between the Nestorians and the Roman Catholic Church, the Nestorians branched out, spreading the Christian faith to Persia. 

"Missionaries established dioceses in the Arabian Peninsula and India (they were known there as Saint Thomas Christians, after the apostle Thomas who is believed to have spread Christianity as far away as India). They made some advances in Egypt as well. 

Missionaries entered Central Asia and had significant success converting local Tartar tribes. Following the Muslim conquest of Persia, completed in 644, the Persian Church became a protected  community under the Rashidun Caliphate. The church and its communities abroad flourished under the Caliphate; by the 10th century it had fifteen metropolitan sees within the Caliphate's territories, and another five elsewhere, including in China and India. (History shows that at one time, Christianity and Islam co-existed in peace). 

Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) - more on that below. The Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele records a mission under a Persian proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. These Christian missionaries, led by Alopen, established the Church of the East, or Nestorian Church. It was the first church to spread Christianity to China. 

Emperor Taizong, of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), welcomed the Nestorian Christians to China. His successor, emperor Gaozong, was pleased to continue emperor Taizong's policy of toleration towards Christianity. He was sufficiently pleased to permit the building of Nestorian Christian churches in every province of China, and to decree Alopen the title of "Great Conservator of Doctrine for the Protector of the Empire" (i.e., metropolitan Chang'an).

The Nestorians built and staffed monasteries in China's key cities. They were also quite aggressive in their proclamation of the Christian faith. They persevered in their efforts to phrase the Christian message in the philosophical language of the Confucian court in order to make it intellectually acceptable to the literati.

Nestorian artifacts such as the Daqin Pagoda (see picture below), the Jesus Sutras (the Sutra of Jesus the Messiah, sought to introduce the Chinese to the Christian faith and specifically pointed out that the gospel contained nothing subversive to China's ancient traditions, loyalty to the state and filial piety being of the essence of the law of Christ.), and the Nestorian Stele testify to the place of church in Chinese society at the time. 

The Church of the East in China faded with the fall of the Tang Dynasty, but the Nestorian Church continued to flourish throughout Central Asia well into the fourteenth century among the northern tribes, such as Uyghurs, Turks, and Mongols. 

Under the leadership of the Mongol-established Yuan Dynasty, Nestorian Christianity once again gained a foothold in China. When it was overthrown by the native Chinese Ming Dynasty, foreign influences once again became suspect, and Christians were expelled from China. 

One of the last known monuments referring to Christianity in China seems to be one dating to c. 1365 and found at Sanpen Mountain, near Beijing. The monument relates the story of a Buddhist monk who visited the site of an old Christian monument and had a vision of a luminous cross. A nearby inscription reveals the presence of a Christian monk near the site as late as 1438.  (much of the above information came from Wikipedia). 

Daqin Pagoda - the remnant of the earliest surviving
Christian church in China. The church and
the monastery were built in 640
by early Nestorian missionaries.

Walk Like Enoch Did

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  Matthew 10:39

I read a book, The Great Omission: A Biblical Basis for World Evangelism by Robertson McQuilkin.

Much of it has spoken to my heart and voiced the things that concern me about myself. God really spoke to my heart about His Great Commission and His desire that myself and our family be involved in mission outreach. This blog exists because of His words to my heart. Yet, in the day to day of living, I often find my passion lessening. I could blame it on our recent move to a new home or the needs of a family of 8 which seem never ending, but honestly, I think it's that I'm just not desiring God enough.

The things of this world so easily satisfy. When life is good overall, everyone is healthy, there's plenty of family, friends, food, clothing, entertainment...I'm just not thinking of God throughout the day. I'm happy. I'm content. I'm satisfied. And that...is the subtle draw of this world. Like Esau who chose the stew that Jacob made for him (to satisfy his present appetite) over the first-born blessing that God had promised him...I so often choose the things of this world over the things of God.

I think back to the toughest periods of my life when things were sad, uncertain, hectic, tiring, confusing and so very stressful. It's these times, more than any, when I had focused on God. I prayed all the time. I sensed His presence so very closely. Like Enoch (Genesis 5:24), I was walking with God every day throughout the day. 

But now, "I have discovered that if Satan can't get me with destruction, he will try to get to me with distraction," (Beth Moore - Believing God). He wants to distract me from what the Lord finds most important...the saving of human souls for His glory. God wants to lead us into His perfect will for our lives, but we would often rather stay where things are comfortable, predictable and safe.  

"Why is it so difficult to replace a sophisticated way of life with a simple lifestyle in the face of incredible human need in the world? Why is it so difficult to say farewell to warm personal relationships and the security of a loving family and church and commit one’s life to penetrating the dark half of the world for the sake of people who are desperately lost? Why will so few abandon an occupation that makes full use of their vocational interests and opportunities to invest life in reaching the multitudes now out of reach of gospel witness? Is it that we don’t care? At least it is that we don’t care enough. We are committed to choose, act, and live on the basis of self-interest. In the conflict of loves, we choose to save our lives, not lose them. But in saving, we lose. "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" Matthew 10:39  (Robertson McQuilkin)

Jesus was tempted to choose preservation, safety, comfort, but "it was love for the Father that dominated in that titanic struggle of the loves: “not my will, but yours be done,” Jesus prayed (Luke 22:42). John explains in great detail that such obedience is the proof of love. He wrote, “This is love for God: to obey his commands” (1 John 5:2, 3). It will not do to proclaim our love for God and then not obey Him.

Is there any command more forceful than the Great Commission? Is there any greater disobedience than a church squandering its resources on itself for twenty centuries, refusing to live and die in behalf of a world for whom Jesus Christ gave His life?

Love in the Bible is more verb than noun. More than an emotion it is behavior. To love as God loved is to live in behalf of others at any cost to self—indeed, to die in behalf of others if necessary.

Jesus is able to awaken us with those incredible words given first on the night of His mighty resurrection, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Let us respond to His outpouring of love, embracing Him with all our lives until we become even as He is (1 John 4:17)." (Robertson McQuilkin)

"We have only one turn on this green earth. We will never get to do this again. We cannot do a hundred things to the glory of God, but we can certainly do a few. What you and I need is focus. Day in and day out. Eyes on the goal," (Beth Moore). 

May the Lord help us to focus on Him, walk with Him daily as Enoch did, choose His will over ours as Jesus did, and have our hearts broken and our lives dedicated to sharing the Gospel with the lost for the glory of the Lord! 

Why Do We Share Christ?

I wanted to share parts of a blog, written by Justin Long who attended a Lausanne (worldwide missions) conference. It addresses the question..."Why should we be engaged in missions? 

"When Jesus looked on the fields “white unto harvest,” he neither set out to preach to them nor did he pray for God to divinely show them the truth. Instead, he instructed his disciples to pray for workers. (And then, shortly later, he sent the disciples out as workers).

With God all things are possible—as the many dreams of Jesus in the Middle East presently being seen attest—but at the same time we must also remember that God requires human interaction too. God could instantaneously present himself to all unreached peoples worldwide: but this would immediately relieve his Church, his lovely bride, of the responsibility that he gave us. If we are to obey the Great Commandment (to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, mind and to love our neighbor as our self) then we must obey the Great Commission (to proclaim the good news to all the earth). But there’s a catch: obedience to the Great Commission isn’t a one time event.

Not too long back I was telling one of our kids that he needed to go and clean his room. “But dad,” he said, “I cleaned it already.” When pressed for when he cleaned it, he said, “I cleaned it on Monday!” I then had to explain to him that a room needed to be cleaned more than once. Picking up needed to be done on a daily basis.

It could have gone differently. I could have told him to clean his room—and then, when he failed to get it done in an appropriate time, I could have gone and done it for him. It would have gotten the job done yet taught him nothing. The job, in effect, wasn’t about cleaning the room so much as it was about teaching the skills and habits of cleaning which he will use the rest of his life.

And how are we doing on our own task? The number of people who have no access to Christ, Christianity or the Gospel is presently increasing by an estimated 19 million per year. The reason is simple: not enough people are working among these groups to make a sustainable difference in the long run.

It is the long run that is important. It is not enough to engage a group with a few missionaries. We must engage them with sufficient missionaries—but even that is not enough, because that’s like cleaning our room once. We need to to pioneer a church planting movement which will plant churches capable of evangelizing the group to its cultural borders and sustaining that evangelism through future generations. That’s cleaning a room and keeping it clean. That’s learning the habits that are necessary—the habit of passing on to future generations what has been passed on to us, as Paul instructed Timothy to do.

In other words “completion” of the Great Commission is a task that is not done once and then forgotten. We must have sufficient resources to complete it every day. It’s possible for rooms to become messy, and possible for a group to become unevangelized. For a live fire demonstration of this, look at Europe. It’s very simple, really: if all a group has are missionaries, then when the missionaries go home – and they will – then future generations will not be evangelized. A non-christian home will not evangelize its children. If a growing church is not planted then in 20 or 25 years the seeds of the Gospel will be scorched, die and wither away.

To reach a group sustainably over time requires people willing to be long-term servants, humble older brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers in the faith. Otherwise it’s all for naught. Short-term workers can be useful, but they’re less like parents and more like doctors, dropping in when they’re desperately needed but not there for the day-in and day-out growth that keep them from being needed in the first place. Short term is useful but not the answer to the long-term inculturation of the gospel, translation of the Word, and discipling of first believers necessary for a church to be pioneered.

You can point to a place like China where the Gospel grew without outside missionaries, but don’t forget that missionaries like Hudson Taylor and many others pioneered it there first. They endured long enough to plant a church which could withstand persecution.

I don’t think we’ll ever have sufficient missionary workers to evangelize the whole world at one point, and at that point Christ will return (as many Christians interpret Matthew 24:14). So we need to build up a church capable of sustaining that effort over time so that at some future point the task is accomplished and will continue to be accomplished. It is “after” the task is accomplished (and sustainably so, I think) that Jesus will return.

I wish we could abandon “end times” thinking. I think it’s a bit of a oxymoron. For Christians there are no “end times” or “last days” in the long view. This age may end, but we will continue on. For people who will live eternally, “last days” is a bit of tunnel thinking.

What will happen after Jesus’ returns? We will worship him forever, enjoy him forever, and rule and reign with him. Thus, worship continues. Learning about him and his nature continues. Caring for his creation continues. Love never fails. Obedience to Christ never stops. A million years from now, I’ll still be alive, still loving my wife and children, still worshipping my king, and—I hope!—exploring this wonderful universe He has created. I’ll be laughing over this 70 years and the trials I endure. A billion years from now, I may not even remember this period.

What does not continue? Fame. Fortune. Power. Hunger. Sickness. Sin. Death. (and possibly many more things.)

So, let’s not consider the church to be the waiting room for eternity, but rather be about the business of the Kingdom now. Let’s do the things that will last for eternity." 

Korea and the Awesome Move of God

But now, this is what the Lord says-- he who created you... He who formed you..."Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine."  Isaiah 43:1

How to describe Korea? For those who have never been there, you may not give the country much thought. Yes, we know they make good appliances and you may have heard of their spicy cabbage called kimchi. And yes, a war was fought there, though the details are a bit fuzzy as it rarely garners much interest or instruction time in America's high schools.

But for those who have been to Korea, you will never leave the same. At least I didn't. Our family was stationed there for two years, from 2006 until 2008. After those two, all too short, years, I left that country fully convinced that God is alive and well in Korea, and doing incredible things through its people, both in their own country and throughout the world!

Korea has, unfortunately, had a 2,000-year history of frequent invasions and interference from surrounding nations. In the recent past, the Japanese occupation (1910-1945), the Russian-engineered division of Korea (1945-48) and the devastating Korean War (1950-53) have molded the attitudes and politics of Koreans. They have been mistreated horribly by others (Korean "comfort women" for the Japanese soldiers during WWII, current starvation and horrific slaughter of people in North Korea) and have seen their country almost destroyed following the Korean War. 

"The South Korea that Ed Faltin (U.S. military member who fought in the Korean War) left behind in 1952 was a bleak place. 'I left the front lines and went across the country to Pusan and Seoul and there was nothing there,' he said. 'That country was bombed out rubble. No trees. It was just so pulverized by artillery and mortars. There was nothing left.'

(Upon his return to South Korea in 2002), Faltin was surprised by what he saw. In place of rubble, he saw what looked like New York City, complete with high-rise buildings. 'It's unbelievable what they did,' he said. 'They're the largest ship-makers in the world, (the 11th largest economy) and the people are so gracious.'"

South Korea has indeed climbed out of the rubble a strong, committed Christian nation. In Asia, which is primarily Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim, Korea's Christianity stands out, like the red crosses you see on so many buildings throughout the Seoul city skyline. The first Protestant church was planted in 1884. By 1984 there were over 30,000 churches, and by 2000 over 60,000. The 2005 census of South Korea showed 29.2 percent of the population as Christian, up from 26.3 percent ten years previously.

The Korean Church grew strong through early morning prayer meetings, prayer mountains for seeking God (to read more on this go to this blog post Prayer-It begins and ends there), church-based Bible study, evangelism programs, fellowship in home meetings and at Sunday meals. 

Surveys have shown that South Korean Christians are very active. Seoul contains eleven of the world's twelve largest Christian congregations. I've been to the largest Protestant Church in the world, Yoido Full Gospel Church, and it is incredible! To be amongst thousands upon thousands of Christians, all singing praises to God...it gave me just a small idea of what Heaven will be like...worshipping the Lord with brothers and sisters from around the world. 

Praise God for the unique Korean Church! It was founded on sound indigenous principles, blessed with a succession of revivals, refined by persecution and is now one of the foremost in the world for missions vision. South Korea provides the world's second largest number of Christian missionaries, surpassed only by the United States. South Korean missionaries are particularly prevalent in 10/40 Window nations that are hostile to Westerners. In 1979, the official figure for Korean missionaries was 93, yet by 2009, that number had grown incredibly to more than 16,000 South Korean missionaries in 168 countries!

"Koreans have a fervent passion to proclaim the Gospel, a family-centered lifestyle and are highly educated. Korean missionaries are often well received by unreached people in the Chinese, Muslim and Buddhist blocks due to their relative cultural proximity. Increasing numbers of marketplace missionaries are able to enter restricted access countries where ordained missionaries cannot go," (Chul Ho Han, Director of Mission Korea.

One important contributing factor to South Korea being the second largest mission sending country in the world, has been the mission movement among college students led by Mission Korea, a coalition of 11 campus ministries and 24 overseas mission agencies working together for the common goal of mobilizing students into cross-cultural missions. Mission Korea's conference, which was first held in 1988, has grown to be the largest mission-focused conference in Asia, attracting over 5,000 students every two years.

This incredible missional movement among young people was very visible at the church we attended while living in Seoul. Jubilee Church was like no other church I have ever attended! The sense of the Holy Spirit's presence was so strong there that even my father commented on it after attending church with us one Sunday. After only short number of years of existence, their heart for missions is incredible. The church, mostly young professionals and students in their 20s, envisions itself as a mission-sending and mission-supporting church, with a heart especially for North Korea and China. It was amazing to be part of them. Our family still speaks of them fondly and prays that the Lord will lead us back to Seoul to once again worship and serve with them. 

There is so much more I could say about Korea, yet I know that my words can not do justice to what God is doing in this country through its incredible people. No matter hold strong of a hold Satan may have on Asia, God is breaking that hold and He is using the people of Korea on the front lines! 

The Sending of God

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 

because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

and recovery of sight for the blind, 

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 

Luke 4:18-19

A few years ago as I was walking out to the car with my then-8-yr-old daughter Grace, she said to me, "Mommy, I really sense that God wants me to do something for Him, something outside America." I told her that I understand exactly what she is hearing from God. I too have felt that call, that tugging, that urge to go out of the comforts of my American lifestyle and share the Gospel.

It happens every day, all over the world...God draws a person out, out of their comfort zone, into something new...something He is asking them to join, for His sake. It may be overseas or it may be across the street. But the call is unmistakable and the initiative is all God's.

We can't make missions happen. It is not up to us to lead. Instead, as each of us spends time with the Lord, He begins to reveal His plans, His purposes, His pathways, and He asks us to follow. It is the sending of God.

That's what missions is...the sending of God. He tells us to go, and we follow.

And how does one prepare for mission - one step at a time. The key is hearing God's voice. You see, God doesn't need our money. God doesn't need our ability. God doesn't need us, period. He could reveal Himself to every person in the world through visions and dreams, and draw them to Him. He could make the "stones cry out" as a witness to Himself Luke 19:40.

Because He can do anything, He doesn't need us to proclaim the gospel. He wants us to participate in His work for our benefit. What, in all the world, could be more rewarding than knowing that you had a part to play in the salvation of another person?

I'm reminded of the words to one of my favorite songs that talks about this very thing.

Thank You for Giving To The Lord
by Ray Boltz 

I dreamed I went to Heaven, you were there with me.
We walked upon the streets of gold beside the Crystal Sea.
We heard the angels singing, then someone called your name.
You turned and saw this young man, and he was smiling as he came.
He said, "Friend you may not know me now," and then he said, "But wait -
You used to teach my Sunday School, when I was only eight.
And every week you would say a prayer before the class would start.
And one day when you said that prayer,
I asked Jesus in my heart." 

Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am so glad you gave.

Then another man stood before you, he said "Remember the time,
A missionary came to your church, His pictures made you cry.
You didn't have much money but you gave it anyway.
Jesus took that gift you gave
And that's why I'm in Heaven today" 

Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am so glad you gave.

One by one they came, far as your eyes could see.
Each life somehow touched by your generosity.
Little things that you had done, sacrifices that you made,
They were unnoticed on this earth
In Heaven now proclaimed. 

Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am so glad you gave.
And I know up in Heaven you're not supposed to cry
But I am almost sure there were tears in your eyes
As Jesus took your hand and you stood before the Lord
He said "My child look around you,
Great is your reward." 

Let me share one story that illustrates the sending of God. "Before 1991 the Gospel had managed to attract very few converts in a particular district in Central India. Seven years later, hundreds of newly baptized believers from at least 24 different people groups are learning to follow Jesus...How did so many people suddenly turn to hope in Christ from centuries of practicing animistic spiritism blended with Hinduism?" 

God sent local and international missionaries to tell them the good news of Jesus, and at the same time, prepared their hearts, through His Holy Spirit, to hear that good news. One way He prepared them for the Gospel is truly remarkable, as He sent a short-term mission team, from Scandinavia, into one of the Indian villages of the Poharis tribe.

"The Poharis are highly transient hunters who engage in animistic rituals while honoring Hindu brahminical priestcraft. They had asked for someone to come and teach them about Christ, too. But the only ones available were a short-term team of young Scandinavian women who could not have been further removed from them in almost every way.

While discussing Christ with these young women with pale skin, bright blond hair and blue eyes, the Poharis began telling them about a particular priest in their village. Five years prior he had passed through a period when most of the people thought he was crazy. He often seemed tormented by spirits.

They brought him repeatedly before various gods and goddesses for healing. All the while he kept saying, 'People who look like angels will come from around the world to our village. They will tell us about the real God. We should follow Him.'

The team asked the priest what he saw in his vision. He said, 'I saw people like you, white kind of people - they were angels. They will come and tell us about God.' When they asked, 'Do you think we are those people?,' he responded, 'I don't know yet.' 

But after four days of listening, he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and received Him as his Savior. In the end, most of those residing in that particular village were baptized."  (from A Movement of Christ Worshippers in India by Dean Hubbard). 

God calls us and sends us out as we obey Him. Just as He sent Jesus, so He is sending us. I pray that each of us will be eager to hear His call, and when we do, step out in obedience and faith. 

Mongols Under the Leadership of the Khan of Khans

See, I am doing a new thing! 

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 

I am making a way in the desert 

and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19

This is the second part of the story about the growth of the Mongolian Church. One neat thing is that I have a friend named Christine who was a missionary in Mongolia. I asked her to share her thoughts about the growing church in Mongolia. This is what she said:

"What I'm sensing, as I am here, I feel the Lord is doing a purifying work. Because He is a holy God, and requires us to be holy, I feel that the Lord is coming in His holiness into the church. He is purifying the church and wanting to take them "deep." 

As 1st generation believers, they've gone through a lot. As the Lord purifies the church, I see Him wanting to heal, restore, renew, and revive the church...esp. the leaders of the church. The Lord is exposing darkness, so that the church can truly be light. In so doing, He wants to take the church deeper. 

Personally, I see myself as a "wounded healer." and I wonder if the Lord is using Mongolian believers to be that...

Mongolian believers DO have such a heart for evangelism. And I agree that I can see Mongolians being such strategic people to be sent to the world. You can't help but to pray that the Lord use these people to conquer nations for the Lord. In the past they may have conquered nations by killing and attacking them, but this time, that they would conquer nations with life in Christ...with the love of Christ. 

I can see their potential. We need more people who have hearts to disciple and mentor these leaders...to walk through character formation, take them deeper into His presence, His will." 

Here is the second half of Brian Hogan's story about the Church in Mongolia. I pray it will encourage and excite you to see what God is doing in our world! If you have not read the first part, I encourage you to read it at Mongolia, from darkness to light in our generation

"The second factor in the sudden acceptability of the good news by the traditional Mongols was the decision by our team and the “elders-in-training” to begin using the Mongolian term “Borkhan” to refer to the God of the Bible.

Many centuries before, when Tibetan Buddhist missionaries arrived in Mongolia, they adopted “Borkhan,” the generic Mongolian term for “god,” for their purposes. In the early ‘90s, nearly all the believers in Mongolia used another term for God, Yertontsin Ezen, which was a brand new term composed by a translator in an attempt to avoid any potential confusion or syncretism with the beliefs of Buddhism. 

But the new term, which can be translated “Master of the Universe,” sounded unfamiliar and unreal to Mongolian ears. It had no intrinsic meaning for them and was essentially a foreign word made up of Mongolian elements. Although the Erdenet elders-in-training were used to using the term Yertontsin Ezen, they decided that the traditional term Borkhan would be more appropriate and acceptable and was capable of being filled with biblical meaning. 

This change came just in time for the suddenly open crowds who witnessed healings and deliverances. The God who was working these wonders had a name that didn’t sound like science fiction."

I wrote about this very thing in my blog entries Is Allah God? and Eternity in their hearts

"During this period of explosive growth our team was careful to stay “behind the scenes,” giving on-the-job training for the emerging leaders. Care was taken to do everything in ways that could easily be imitated—baptisms were in bathtubs, worship songs were not imported, etc.

We made sure Jesus’ basic commands were taught in such a way that disciples could immediately respond in obedience. The house churches enabled, supported and encouraged these practical responses to the teaching from God’s Word. Believers helped one another to do the Word and not just hear it, often finding corporate ways to obey together.

Yet there were serious problems from our point of view where the cultural norms of Mongolian society conflicted with some of the moral teaching of the Scriptures. The elders-in-training were encouraged to search the Scriptures to find solutions for sin problems in the emerging church. Cultural blind spots in the areas of sexual purity and courtship were dealt with by defining principles, then teaching and enforcing them. The solutions these Mongol leaders crafted were both biblically and culturally correct—much better than solutions we missionaries might have crafted.

The emerging Mongolian church looked far different from any of our team’s home churches in Sweden, Russia or America. Dramas and testimonies quickly became prominent features of the large celebration meetings (which went from once to twice a month and eventually weekly). The “drama team” wrote and produced their own skits, plays and dramatic dances from Bible stories and everyday Mongolian life. This became a powerful teaching and evangelistic tool. 

Time was always set aside for testimonies from “real Mongols” —often new believers in their ‘60s just come from the steppes. These long and, to Western ears, rambling stories of salvation gripped the fellowship in a state of rapt wonder and awe. God was on the move among their people— dressed in the most traditional of Mongolian clothing. Worship rose from their hearts as they sang new songs written by their own people in their own language and unique musical style. This was no foreign fad or import!

Our team of expatriates concentrated our efforts upon discipling, equipping and releasing Mongols to take the lead in building up the church and reaching the lost. A school of discipleship was formed and by the third class was entirely Mongol led. With the emphasis upon “learning by doing,” new leaders were trained locally in the ministry rather than being sent away. The leadership of the home gatherings had been placed into their hands almost immediately, and soon the Mongol believers also carried the majority of the responsibility for the weekly services.

All of this progress and growth was not overlooked by the Enemy. Beginning in November of 1994, our team and the fledgling church endured two solid months of unrelenting spiritual attacks: three cult groups targeted our city, the church was almost split, leaders fell into sin and some were demonized. Our team came close to despairing and pulling out.

Finally, two sudden and unexplainable deaths rocked the missionary team and the church. My only son, Jedidiah, had been born on November 2nd. On the morning of Christmas Eve our apartment rang with screams when Louise discovered Jedidiah’s cold and lifeless body—dead of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at two months. We buried our boy and a piece of our hearts in the frozen soil on a cold windswept hillside outside of town. The next day a young girl in the church died from an unknown cause.

In response, the believers and our team came together for 24 hours of prayer and fasting. At three in the morning, a breakthrough occurred and everyone knew it. The church has never been overwhelmed by an onslaught of spiritual warfare like that since.

As encouraging as this start in Erdenet was, it still fell short of the vision God had given to our team. We knew the planting of a single church in one city would not be the break-through to reaching an entire nation and beyond. We were aiming for a movement of indigenous and spontaneously multiplying churches within the Mongolian peoples, and the Mongolian believers themselves needed to share this goal.

At the very first baptism, Magnus shared this vision with the newly born body of Christ: to reach all the families of Erdenet with the gospel, to plant a daughter church in the neighboring province and to reach other unreached peoples of the world. The young believers, blissfully clueless, responded very enthusiastically. We trained all of the disciples to view the church as a living organism rather than an organization—a healthy “mother church” that would reproduce into daughter and granddaughter churches. The leaders we trained kept the vision—“God wants to plant new churches though our church”—before the members.

During the church’s second year, the elders sent out teams and planted a daughter church in a town 60 kilometers away. Because they were of the same people group, planting another congregation was easy for the Mongolians. The leaders the Lord raised up for this daughter church soon began sending teams out to plant granddaughter churches in other towns even farther from Erdenet.

After just three years of work by our team in Erdenet, we came to the realization that our efforts had borne good fruit and we had “worked ourselves out of a job.” In the beginning of 1996, we had successfully modeled and passed on every ministry and function in the church movement to Mongolian disciples. The Mongols were doing everything and we were just watching. The bittersweet moment that had been our goal all along had come. It was time to say goodbye.

The Easter service was packed—standing room only. Nearly 800 filled the largest hall in Erdenet with many more turned away by the authorities, who closed the doors when they saw the crowds. Those who managed to get in gathered to worship Jesus and to witness the ceremony marking the passing of authority from our foreign church planting team to the local elders. We explained and acted out the analogy of a relay race to portray graphically what was taking place. A baton was handed from our family and Magnus, representing the church planters, to a group of Mongolian leaders in full national dress. They were so ready! 

The baton was passed. For the first time in history, a fully indigenous Mongolian church was in Mongolian hands—and they in turn were firmly in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus.

Our family left Mongolia that very day, and the rest of the team left in June when their English teaching commitments ended. In our absence, the Mongolian churches continued to grow and multiply. They started a number of mercy ministries as well. They began to feed and clothe street children, care for single mothers and prevent abortions and even planted a church among dump dwellers. All of these initiatives were completely from and by the Mongolian believers.

The movement continues. By 2008, the church in Erdenet had given birth to 15 daughter churches in towns scattered across the country. Some of their daughter churches have themselves reproduced from one to six granddaughter churches. A very satisfying report—considering we started with only teenage girls!

This movement has also been hard at work cross-culturally. Teams of Mongol church planters have been sent to Muslim peoples in two other countries, to an animistic forest tribal people, as well as already having launched church planting movements among several other Mongolian tribes. Five of the daughter churches and four granddaughter churches are missionary church plants among distinct ethnic groups. A missionary training school in Erdenet trains the Mongolian Church’s emerging mission force.

God seems to have made the spiritual soil of Mongolia especially fertile for church planting. The gospel continues to do its life giving and community-changing work. Churches continue to grow and reproduce. 

Conservative estimates state that the number of believers grew from just two in 1990 to over 50,000 believers in 2005. Mongolia has changed from a mission field to being a powerful mission force— sending out more missionaries per believer than any other nation on Earth. As in a pre- vious age, Mongols again thunder off to the nations beyond their barren hills—this time under the leadership of the “Khan of Khans”—King Jesus!

Mongolia - From Darkness to Light in One Generation

"And I tell you that you are Peter, 

and on this rock I will build My church, 

and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Matthew 16:18

When I was born in 1970, Mongolia was a dark country, completely closed to the Gospel behind the Iron Curtain of communism, with no known Christian believers. Today, it sends out more Christian missionaries, per number of Christians, than any other nation in the world.

How did this nation move from darkness to light in less than 40 years? Brian Hogan, part of a Youth With a Mission church planting team working in Mongolia, tells the story in There's a Sheep in my Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement. 

"In the 13th century, the Mongol tribes, united under Genghis Khan, thundered across the steppes of Central Asia and terrorized the known world. In a short time, these fierce horsemen had carved out an empire dwarfing those of Cyrus and Caesar combined.

The Mongol empire was not to endure for long. The Mongols embraced Tibetan Buddhism and became a backward hinterland ruled by a succession of Chinese dynasties. In 1921, a Communist revolution turned Mongolia into the first “independent” Soviet satellite. All missionaries were expelled before any church had been planted, and the darkness of Communism settled over this “closed” country. 

Mongolia was one of the very few countries on earth with no church and no known national believers.

After 70 years of being sealed off from the outside world, Mongolia gained freedom and independence along with other Soviet Bloc nations in early 1990, and Satan’s defenses against the gospel came crashing down. Creative strategies sparked the beginnings. 

A team of Native American believers entered Mongolia as tourists in 1990. Their visit generated a great deal of interest among Mongols and even hit the national press. By the end of their second visit in 1991, they had publicly baptized 36 new Mongol believers. The spiritual landscape of Mongolia would never be the same. 

A young Swedish couple, Magnus and Maria, came to Mongolia intending to plant churches. As they began to learn the language in the capital, Ulaan Baatar, friendships developed with the new and very young Mongolian believers in that city’s growing churches.

Maria and Magnus made several forays up to Erdenet, Mongolia’s third largest city, with short-term Mongolian evangelism teams from a church in the capital city of Ulaan Baatar. These trips bore fruit in the form of 14 teenage girls who responded to the teaching on faith and repentance. Magnus baptized these first disciples in January 1993, the beginnings of the church in Erdenet.

Fourteen young girls—not a very auspicious beginning. The new fellowship needed on-site help if it was to grow into anything more. In February, the young couple moved up to Erdenet accompanied by one of the best students in their English classes, a 19-year-old female Mongolian believer named Bayaraa.

As Magnus and Maria ministered with and discipled Bayaraa, their relationship served as an effective bi-cultural bridge. Magnus and Maria gained important insights into Mongolian culture that guided their ministry. Bayaraa was a natural evangelist. What she learned about Jesus and the Bible from Magnus and Maria, she put to immediate use leading many to the Lord.

The disciples were quickly organized into three groups that met in homes. They gathered for prayer, fellowship and teaching in an atmosphere of support and accountability. From the very beginning they were taught to obey the simple commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. They learned to love God and each other, to pray, give generously, repent and believe, baptize, celebrate the Lord’s Supper and to teach others to love and obey Jesus. 

As the girls led their friends to Christ, the groups multiplied. Magnus couldn’t lead the expanding number of groups, so active and faithful believers were equipped and released into leadership. After some time, they began a larger gathering, the “Celebration Service,” on a monthly basis to bring the house groups together for corporate worship and fellowship. After one year, the number of baptized Christ followers had grown to 120—almost all teenage girls! This was not the multi-generational church of entire families the church planters were dreaming of - it was half a youth group.

After a year of language study in Ulaan Baatar, my wife Louise, our three daughters and I moved to Erdenet joining Magnus, Maria and Bayaraa. A year later, others from Russia, America and Sweden joined our team’s ranks. Apart from three members of the Peace Corps, our team was Erdenet’s sole foreign presence —we were utterly different. We tried to work from behind the scenes so the movement would have visible Mongolian leadership.

We realized that teenage girls were not the best foundation for starting a church movement. At that time, however, youth were the only ones responding anywhere in Mongolia. So we worked with the fruit the Lord provided and prayed for a breakthrough to begin reaching whole families. We established “provisional elders” (starting with two younger men and Bayaraa) in order to begin the process of allowing a Mongolian style of church leadership to develop.

There was a great divide between our youthful, urban circle of friends and the family-oriented heart of traditional Mongolian society. The three cities of Mongolia were a relatively recent and imposed urban social structure overlaid by Communism upon a nomadic tribal society—and nomadic social structure was seen by all as the more legitimate and authentic of the two. Even our early converts had the impression the gospel wasn’t relevant for “real Mongols.” 

Even though Mongolia had become a 50% urbanized society, to the Mongol understanding, “real Mongols” are horse-riding pastoralists and gher (traditional round felt tents) dwellers. An urban teen growing up in an apartment building who has never even sat on a horse is not an authentic Mongolian. The gospel would be seen as just a foreign import, like Coca Cola, if it were only embraced by city dwellers. If Jesus were going to “become a Mongolian,” He would need to enter into the lives of nomadic herders.

A visiting short-term team began to pray for the sick in some of the traditional gher suburbs on the outskirts of town. God answered prayer dramatically. A lame person, a deaf person, a mute person and a blind person were all healed, and several demons were cast out. These healings provided a seal of authenticity recognized by the older Mongols. 

The news spread like wildfire and the fellowship was flooded with growth from every age group and segment of the city. The urbanized youth were especially surprised that “real Mongols” were coming to faith. 

Soon two older traditional Mongol men joined the ranks of our provisional elders. When these men, who were respected heads of households, began leading house churches and ministries, it made a huge difference in gaining credibility for the movement in the larger culture."

This story doesn't end here...I will share more tomorrow.