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Mongolia UBF

January 15, 2013

“He says: ‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’”(Isaiah 49:6)

1. World Mission

Over the past 20 years, God has greatly blessed the gospel work in Mongolia. According to unofficial statistics Mongolia has 80,000 believers. It indicates that over 2.5% of her population believes in Jesus, since the total population of Mongolia is a little less than 3 million. It was reported that there was no church at all, not even one believer, until the early 1990s, God has achieved great things among the Mongolians.

In Isaiah 49:6, however, God says it is too small a thing. Rather, God is willing to choose Mongolia as a light for the Gentiles, to give salvation to the ends of the earth. Actually God has sent a native Mongolian, John to N country as a missionary. So far there are 5 Mongolian missionaries who were sent out to Central Asia by UBF. Three of them got government scholarships, and the other two are self-supporting missionaries. They are scattered in three regions, and are serving pioneering work in each mission field. While those who got the scholarship have no problem to stay in their mission field, self-supporting missionaries should find a legitimate business for long-term stay and possible self-support.

M. Abraham from N country and M. Peter from L country returned home in August 2011 during the summer vacation to take a rest and were re-sent to their mission field after spiritual refreshment.  The L country where M. Peter works is the region of severe conflicts among the minorities and never gives long-term visas to any foreigner. Especially we need pray for Missionary Peter.

Mongolia UBF has been persistently praying for the pioneering of 5 Central Asian countries and 5 big cities in the northwestern region since 2007. This area is close to Mongolia geographically, where many unreached tribes are living. So, it has optimal conditions for Mongolians to preach the gospel. I believe that God left it as the last mission field to the Mongolians. It is too small a thing for us to evangelize Mongolia. I pray that God may make Mongolia a light for the Gentiles and spread the gospel of Jesus over all of Central Asia.

2. The ministry of the words of God

During the spring semester of 2012 we studied the second part of Genesis, 1 John, and after summer vacation we chose and studied 24 lessons from the Gospel books, which can well show us the characteristics of Jesus and the Gospel. The book of 1 John emphasizes love. 1 John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”  And 1 John 3:16-18 says that “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” I pray that Mongolia UBF may be a community where the true love of God overflows, loving in deed and in truth, not with words or tongues only, according to the words of 1 John.    

3. Spring and summer Bible conferences

Spring conference was held on April 21 to 22. Lecture 1, "Who is My Neighbor?" (Luke 10:25-37) was delivered by Sh. Natsagaa; lecture 2, "The Greatest of These is Love" (I Corinthians Chapter 13) was delivered by Sh. Ganzorig respectively.

Summer conference was on June 15-17, 2009. Lecture 1, "Jesus Who Came to Save the Lost " (Luke 19:1-10) was served by Sh. John and lecture 2, "Jesus Who was Nailed on the Cross" (Luke 23) was served by Sh. Luvsansambuu, and the lecture 3, "For I am Honored in the Eyes of the Lord" (Isaiah 49:1-7) was served by Sh. Nyamaa respectively. There also were life testimonies by Erenebold (brother), Myadagmaa (sister), Altanchimek (sister) and by M. Elijah Noh from Namsan center, Korea. Especially M. Elijah Noh has been attending to our summer Bible conference every year for the last five years since 2008 and sharing his life testimony and making a good environment throughout the conference period having an earnest conversation about believing life with native shepherds, so they like him after all.

Sh. John grew up in the countryside and used to drink a lot mingling with many bad friends and getting into gang fights. His character was harsh and selfish. After being a college student, however, he met Sh. Orgil and his life has been changed since then.  Sh. Orgil has a totally opposite personality from him. He is very gentle and quiet. Sh. John began to realize Jesus’ love through his 1:1 shepherd who accepts all kinds of complaining. Finally Sh. John accepted Jesus as his personal Savior and changed and became a shepherd. Sometimes even after being a shepherd he was tempted to drink and to sin through the influence of his previous bad friends; he repented, however, by the help of other shepherds and was able to come back to Jesus. After this conference he was sent out as a missionary.

4. Fellowship with students through Soccer

Every week after worship service, brothers had a soccer fellowship. We went to a park, 10 km away from Ulaanbaatar, carrying a goal gate and played soccer in two teams, junior and senior. After soccer, we had a wonderful eating fellowship cooking Chinese, Korean and Mongolian food alternatively each week. At this moment, we felt as if it was a heavenly banquet. One brother said that our meeting was different from the world’s which is separated based on color, position and human backgrounds.  In our meeting, however, all people become friends, and even senior people serve young people without showing their authorities as professors and business owners.   

Through fellowship of soccer, many young people are remaining in our ministry such as Erdenebold. He came from a farm and was lonely without any friend. Moreover, he failed in his study. Out of deep despair, he wanted to give up and go back to his hometown. However, he remained in our ministry because he loved soccer. Gradually he studied the Bible and grew as a spiritual leader. He is going to graduate this year after 7 years of study. His victory amazed all of us. What amazed us even more was that he not only he graduated after many years of suffering, but also got a job even before graduation and raised one brother as a spiritual leader.  I pray that our ministry may raise many spiritual leaders who give good influence to many others and who serve others sacrificially like Jesus.

5. Christmas Worship Service and New Year’s Eve Party

West UBF had their Christmas Service on December 16^th. East and NUM UBF had their joint Christmas worship service on December 23^rd. Over 400 people attended the three worship services. The message was from Luke 2 with the title, “Savior Was Born.” Nowadays, many Mongolians are upset because of their poor life.  Although it is good that GNP has increased to $3,000, in reality the majority cannot share the benefit because of the unbalanced distribution of wealth.  So people become angry and aggressive. Through the Christmas service, we learned the importance of accepting the true King Jesus in our hearts rather than focusing only on economic development. This truly gives us peace.     

Many family members attended and the environment was graceful. In the past, when family members came, it was hard to make a good environment. However, the environment is getting better for the past few years because they come early and focus on the message. Especially, parents are very thankful to attend our Christmas worship service. I realized that our growing leaders had a wonderful influence on their family members.    

In the early days of our mission life in Mongolia, I was scared of sheep’s parents; some parents used to come to our center and yelled at us. Some parents grabbed me by the collar, many times some parents came and smacked their child and took away, some shepherds who were trying to stop them were even slapped. But after attending our Christmas worship service, the parents commended us saying, “The message was good. This meeting was pretty good!” They looked assured of their children. Through this we could see that God was showing us a vision of evangelizing Mongolian families. Since then we prepared the Christmas messages wholeheartedly thinking that it is the message not only for us, but also for all Mongolian families. I pray that our Christmas worship service may be the cornerstone for the evangelization of all Mongolian families and even for all Mongolian people. 

At Christmas 2012, I traveled to N region for 13 hours by train and 7 hours by car and had a Christmas worship service together with our missionaries there. After the worship service, we cooked Mongolian cuisine with the lamb we brought from Mongolia and ate together. How delicious it was! It was seemingly the most delicious lamb meat that I have ever had in my entire life. Every year I would like to go there and have a Christmas worship service together with our Mongolian missionaries who are silently serving God’s ministry whether others recognize them or not, suffering from language barrier and humble food, and spend time with them gnawing on lamb’s ribs together. 

Meanwhile West UBF center had a year-end party after Sunday worship service on Dec. 30, 2012. At that time, they raised four new leaders as shepherds. They are Amarsaikhan (graduated from Athletic college), Ganchuluun (University of Science and Technology Information and Communication), Oyunsukh (Home Economics, Ulaanbaatar Univ.), and Oyunbolor ( Fine Art, Mongolian National University). Last year it was very hard to raise new shepherds. After sending out native Mongolian shepherds as missionaries, it seemed that our center was empty; what was worse was almost all students who used to study the Bible for 1-2 years left in the fall. I thought we were unable to raise new shepherds. However, God appointed and raised four new shepherds, whose testimonies were good and the saving grace of God was clear in their testimonies. We thanked God who raised more shepherds than missionaries who were sent out.   

After establishing four new shepherds, we held a contest of reciting their own poems dedicating to our Savior, Jesus. It was a hard competition and Sh. Altanchimeg who majored Mongolian language got the glorious grand prize. Afterwards, Paul Jr. and Hannah performed a beautiful violin and piano duet.

6.My Missionary Life

My key verse of 2012 was Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” I wanted to learn how to give thanks in prayer.Last year my business had a big trouble. My company imports Nongshim Ramen Noodle from Korea. Last year a carcinogenic substance was found in Nongshim products and it became a huge fluctuation in Mongol society. In fact, our imported products had not been found any carcinogenic substance, but majority media organizations dealt with my company as if we had a big problem. Finally, the government decided to stop importing any products from Nongshim and many products were returned.  

I was helpless and anxious. I began to complain to God thinking, “If I become bankrupt, we will all have big financial problems both our center and missionaries. Then why God did not help us?” Then I remembered my key verse of the year, Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” I asked God again and again, “What are my thanksgiving topics in the midst of this trouble?” Through struggle in prayer, I deeply realized it was God’s discipline for me to learn desperate prayer and to make me alert spiritually. God molded me to grow as a man of prayer through the difficulties and I began to give thanks to God. I learned what it meant to pray in thanksgiving.   

After two months, the government released the import prohibition and promised us to support fully our property damage for two months. While we could not sell the ramen, thankfully more Kim-chi was sold. 

God taught me about prayer through it. He not only trained me but also he restored everything that our company lost during the hardship. I learned that there was nothing to complain at all but only to be thankful toward my God.

My key verse of 2013 is Philippians 1:20, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” I want to struggle to have sufficient courage to have Christ in my life and exalt him. My Second Key verse is Psalms 18:33, “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” As I became a middle- aged man, I have tendency to be complacent and lazy. In this New Year, I want to serve the work of God diligently like the feet of a deer!

By M. Paul Kwon