Mission Trip, Day 7

We started the day late, because it was Sunday. So this meant Devotion Time at 9am instead of 8am. Which meant breakfast afterwards at 10am, and over to church for the service at 11am. Except no-one was there at 11. I thought this was unsurprising, since we are in Mongolia, and in the countryside, but the team thought this was not good and we should pray. Well, it's never bad to pray. So from around 11:20 people started to arrive, and over time it filled completely. But only one man came.

Church Times

Erka shares

Erka preached/testified, and after the service there was some discussion time. Then all the women left, just as Bataar turned up with a few other men. Davka explained to the gospel to them while I went home, where Enkhtsetseg had prepared lunch. There was not really time for the others to come home for lunch, so we ate and went back to church for the children's program. It was a lot like the previous day, with games, singing, and Davka gave a talk from Luke 5 about the calling of Peter.

Some Young ones

Enkhtsetseg sharing from the Bible

All this finished up reasonably early, so in the afternoon it was decided to climb a mountain. Off we went, with some snacks, and after some fun in the snow, we climbed a relatively small hill. I said this was not a mountain. We took photos, ate snacks, and prayed.

Then Nyambaa (the younger son of Naraa the elder) and I set off up an actual mountain. Bagii, Onoroo and Tyyla also followed. It was a bit of a climb, but well worth it.

In the evening two women and a child turned up. Nobody introduced anybody, they just turned up and then they were eating dinner with us. It turned out they were travelling to the city but one bus had not arrived so they were waiting for some other bus. After dinner the team shared the gospel and conversed with them. Finally we started team meeting at 10pm! Which meant midnight bed-times.

On top of a hill

On top of a mountain

On top of the world

Meet the team! Let's talk about Erka (Erdenebat). Erka as a younger man accidentally hit a pedestrian who later died and Erka had to serve time in prison. This really devastated his life. At the time he visited many shamans and lamas to try and avoid this penalty. After prison he went to Korea and worked as an illegal immigrant in the countryside. After two years his wife said, "I heard that the church will help people, let's visit the church", so they went to an English-language church. They didn't understand anything but they felt very welcomed. Eventually they met a Mongolian woman at their church who said that there was a Mongolian church nearby and they should come to this. So they went and learnt about Jesus. At this time Erka was converted. Although he worked on the other side of Korea, near Busan, he would travel back every week to serve in church. Then God blessed them financially and they returned to Mongolia where he operates a medium business and is involved in church planting. He is also very nice, a good organised, and sings marvellously.