It was a rainy day when we landed in Mongolia. As we drove from the airport located just outside the capital of Ulaanbaatar it was difficult to fathom that 85% of the countries population live in one enormous city.
I have never seen so much green grasslands void of any other trees or shrubs in any other country I have had the privilege to visit. It felt open and with the scent of the rain there was an overwhelming sense of freshness or newness. On the 30 minute bus ride to the city an expectation suddenly rose in my spirit. God was going to do a new thing in Mongolia.
We drove up to our “Hotel” just outside the city. A camp of Yurts set on a beautiful green hillside. It was like we were in another world, not another country. What a unique opportunity.
After settling in, our hosts arrived to transport us to the conference venue. Within a few minutes the landscape changed from unending fresh green pastures to grey concrete and glass buildings reminding me very much of some of the Chinese cities I have visited. The people however, their smiles, their joy very much reflected the welcoming green pastures just a few miles away.
After settling in, our hosts arrived to transport us to the conference venue. Within a few minutes the landscape changed from unending fresh green pastures to grey concrete and glass buildings reminding me very much of some of the Chinese cities I have visited. The people however, their smiles, their joy very much reflected the welcoming green pastures just a few miles away.
Mongolian is a nation that is only 2% Christian, but what a joy to meet, fellowship and worship with the Mongolian church. Our three day meeting was attended by a number of local pastors and students.
Our team consisted of Willie & Lydia (Founders of WMC), Freddie (WMC Leader for Russia) accompanied by his colleague, Ig from South Africa, Myself (William, International Team Leader), the WMC Media and story team, Aubrey, Nathan and Cassidy and lastly a Korean brother who served in Mongolia for many years as a missionary.
During our time together we spent time in worship and prayer, Willie spent time on the Local Church and Missions. Under Freddie’s guidance, we had these leaders break up into 5 groups to lay hands on maps of their country to pray for revival. Willie, Freddie and William trained the pastors and some of their leaders as facilitators while the media team filmed it as it was presented in both English and Mongolian so it can be used to train hundreds more facilitators in the next few years.
On our last conference day we graduated the first 6 Mongolian Live School students. They had taken 5 years to complete Live School because they would watch a few minutes in Russian or Korean and then verbally translated it into Mongolian for their classmates. I have never witnessed such dedication to complete the 242 hours of Live School. What a joy to launch the newly completed Mongolian version of Live school and then to present it to the Lord with these Mongolian brothers and sisters as witnesses.
As a result of the meeting and training, eleven churches were handpicked by our in-country partners under the leadership of Boggie Pastor to start the very first Mongolian Live Schools in one of the most remote and unreached countries in the world. As we handed them the Live School units I was reminded of the expectation I felt when we drove from the airport. Indeed God is going to do a new thing.
At the request of our partners we traveled to the Little Gobi desert, near the spiritual centre of Mongolia. We entered the old city, from where once the largest empire ever to exist to this day was ruled. Mongolia, today unassuming, unknown to many, sandwiched between Russia and China and one of the most remote nations, once ruled most of the then known world.
Today the city is a monument to its former glory and inside its walls is a Buddhist temple. As a team we spent time in prayer for the nation while the Buddhist monks were blowing there trumpets. What a privilege to be standing on this ground in this beautiful counttry. Joshua 1:3 comes to mind, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses”.