The task that we have in front of us is really quite overwhelming.  I spent the past couple of days dialoguing with coworker Dr. Pieter Theron.  Pieter has been given the ominous task of developing a multi-level training program that will ultimately produce Mongolian pastors and theologians and evangelists and missionaries;  Mongolians who will think and write and speak about the mysteries and the wonders of the Gospel in a way that will be uniquely Mongolian. There’s not much of anything to start with. We’re baking from scratch.  It’s a daunting, yet exciting project. 

As those of you who read this Blog are well aware, Renee’ and I (along with the Pieter and his wife Hanaki) are still in the arduous process of language study.  We’ve completed one year and have one year left.  While we’ve come a long way – there is still a very long way to go before there will be semblance of what I would consider fluency.  Yet there is something more that needs to happen.  We need to not only become fluent in the use of verbs and nouns and syntax and adjective clauses and post-positions.  Language learning is also culture learning.  It’s understanding Mongolian thinking and reasoning.  It’s knowing why and how Mongolians react under certain circumstances, and knowing and appreciating and loving them in spit of the  fact that those reactions are quite different than my western white middle class frame of thinking.  Ministry here depends on this understanding.  We want to raise up Mongolian pastors, evangelists, etc.  Not Mongolians who have been forced to think like me.  We must learn to think like them (in as much as it is possible to do so). 

In light of this, I made a list in my Moleskine Journal the other day. It’s not an exhaustive list and definitely could be added to.  I am not a cultural anthropologist nor do I have a degree in sociology (my wife has one of those, though!).  But I do want a record of observed facts, figures and differences in Mongolian culture.  A lot of these entries are “things Mongolians value”.  If there are team members reading this – please feel free to add or correct these observations in the comments. Bear in mind that these are personally observed cultural generalizations.  Not every person fits into the mold. Also understand the fact that I live in the city.  There is a large cultural difference between city dwellers and herders. I know that a lot more can be added – but this is what I have for the time being, in no particular order:

1. Mongolians value free time.  It’s a slower culture than ours and having free time “space” is something they value and appreciate.

2. Mongolians value work for what it is.  (A common greeting among friends is “Is your work going well?”).  Some foreigners at a precursory glance might categorize Mongolians as generally lazy.  I have observed quite the opposite.  They generally work hard when it’s time to work.  However, their perspective of work is that it’s something that is necessary in order to live.  They don’t live for it. 

3. Mongolians place a high value on family.   It is interesting to observe the esteem that is placed on parents.  There is high symbolic value placed on the father (the oldest man in a home is called “the Lord of the Home”!).  He is given the place of honor during holidays, at meals, etc.  However, the emotional esteem is usually placed on the mother (“the wife of the Lord of the Home”).  Most traditional (and much contemporary – including Mongolian rap!) music has a theme of ‘mother’. They will sing (and rap) about ’walking with my mother, and listening to her wise words”.   A person’s mother is emotionally esteemed in this culture.

4. Mongolians place a high value on nature.  They don’t cut the grass around my building.  I really want to cut the grass around my building, myself.  I dare not, however.  The reason is that this grass is food for the animals (sheep, yak, goats, horses, camels, etc).  It would be a waste of food to cut it now.  Trust me, there have been no camels anywhere close to my building, although I have seen the occasional horse cart come through town. (I live in the dead center of Ulaanbaatar!) They will not cut the grass for that reason.  The “countryside” holds a mystique for Mongolians, even for city folks who only get to the country side in the summer, if they’re wealthy enough to have a summer home.  Nature is important to them.

5. Mongolians value community over individual.  Always. 

6. Mongolians place a high value on friends and friendship.

7. Mongolians are never afraid to share a song – and will be quite eager to have you share a song, as well. 

8. Personal space in Mongolia is pretty much non-existent.  In America we have a good 2-3 foot bubble that we count on as personal space.  There is no ‘bubble’ here.  Americans just have to get over the Bubble. 

9.  Mongolians don’t like being told what to do.  They have a fiercely independent spirit.  In spite of this, Mongolian leadership style is extremely hierarchical.  This is a great challenge when thinking through leadership training in the church.  We must teach the servant leadership model of Jesus to a culture that places no value in such.

10.  Mongolians tend to think beginning with the minutia – and eventually (maybe) working up to the big picture.  Westerners tend to think about the big picture first, and then move to the smaller items.  I am sure there is some philosophical name for the logic patterns that I am talking about here – but the more I think through this one, the more I think it is a big deal.  In teaching, my typical pattern is to move from the big to the small.  I think culturally Mongolians tend to move from the small to the big. This may prove to be quite a challenge. 

11. I think it is also very important to remember that this culture is fragmented and broken.  Years of Russian and Chinese rule, urbanization, problems like alcohol abuse and a tendency to anger all lead to a broken society.  The culture is also changing because of the fact that the vast majority of the population is under the age of 35.  Things are changing – and changing fast.  The younger generation values all things western. They like western music and clothes and movies. This is a critical factor to bear in mind, lest we think that it’s necessary to put ourselves and everyone else back in gers (the felt tents lived in by countryside herders, and many city dwellers who have moved in form the countryside) and dells (the traditional long coat-like clothes worn by older Mongolians – and by others during national holidays). Most young people don’t want that.  It’s changing.  We have to move with the change. 

So it’s all a challenge.  I believe that the Gospel can redeem a culture.  It makes that which is good, great – and that which is broken, repaired.  It’s our task to humbly submit to and learn from the culture, in order to effectively communicate the great news that Jesus Christ redeems those who bow to Him.