Mongolia

May 7, 2020

“We are sharing the Gospel during this difficult time. Our church and another people went to the trash dump place and shared the Gospel with those who live there and gave gifts and masks...Because of quarantine of schools, kindergartens are closed until 1st of September and people are not allowed to make meetings so churches are closed down. Please pray for us.” So wrote Tsengel this morning, from Mongolia.

In 2004, Linda and I had the privilege of traveling to Mongolia to work with Every Home For Christ. While there, we met Tsoogii and Tsengel. Tsoogii had been a thug, serving time in prison, when Tsengel visited the prison with an evangelistic team. Tsoogii came to Christ, and eventually, after being released, they married. When we were there, they had two little children; the family has expanded since then, but they are still faithfully sharing the Gospel all over their country. 

Mongolia is a beautiful country, but life there is hard. After Russia, it was the first country to declare itself Communist after the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1921. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, their economy which was dependent on the Soviet Union, crashed. Then came the drought which drove the nomads from the steppes to the cities, overwhelming an already fragile and decayed infrastructure. In the best of times, people are living in conditions that to most Americans, would be appalling. 

I had written them because I was wondering how COVID was impacting them. Mongolia is not exactly a destination of choice for most people, so I was hoping it had largely passed them by. It hasn’t. I pray for Tsoogii and Tsengel every day, but they need more than prayers now. I am grateful to be in a position to help. We are inconvenienced; they are living on the edge. And when I cannot get out the way I would like, I am honored and humbled to be even a small part of the front line work my friends are doing. We may be sequestered, but the Gospel is not bound, so I pray for many to come to the freedom of repentance and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. In Mongolia. In Cuba. Here in Chautauqua County.