Archive for October, 2008
Friday was a dark day for Inhay and Bodio. Thursday evening their little girl named Itgel (which means “Faith�) was happily laughing and playing as any four-month old baby would normally do. That evening she began to cry and would not be comforted. She began to run a fever. It was a long night for their family. In the morning, Bodio took little Itgel to Dr. Pham (our C&MA team physician). He prayed for her and said to take her to the hospital right away. Pieter Theron had Bodio and Itgel get into his car to get them to hospital, and en route the crying stopped and Itgel went to be with Jesus. We aren’t positive of the cause of death, but in all likelihood meningitis is the culprit that took her life.
Today, as I type this, there is a funeral happening up in Darhan. Our team mate Brent, along with a Mongolian co-worker named Dawaa will be performing the funeral.
Any time a baby dies a lot of questions come to mind - “Why?�, perhaps being one of the first. Babies are not supposed to die. Babies are supposed to laugh and play and get teeth and learn to walk and talk. They are supposed to eventually go to school and get an education and grow up to choose a career and get married and have more babies. Babies are not supposed to have funerals.
This is a hard thing for us to get our minds around. We know the theology. We know what it is true. But it still must be one of the most difficult things on the planet to grasp or to make any sense of.
I am thankful that as Christians who serve the God of all the Universe, we do have some rock solid truth in which to place our faith. God is good. God is wise. God is just. God is ultimately sovereign. God is working everything (even terrible, horrible bad things) for our good. He sees the beginning from the end and dwells outside of time and space. He is for us and not against us. He loves little Itgel and she is now happily laughing and playing in His presence.
I am grateful that the Christian understanding of sovereignty is far different from Mongolia’s predominate religion’s view of sovereignty. When we as Christians ask God “Why?�, we don’t end up in a place of rigid and hopeless stoicism. We end up in the arms of a God who has lived our pain. He knows. He is not a stranger to losing a child. We end up in the arms a Father who weeps with the childless. He’s not a Father who tells us to ‘buck up’ and ‘stop crying’. He grieves and empathizes with Inhay and Bodio today at the funeral of their daughter - and He can do that because He was at the funeral of His Son.
Here’s what has stirred my passions this entire weekend. God is using the death of Itgel to solidify my heart and my determination for working in Mongolia for the long haul. I have the preceding three paragraphs of truth to hold on to when suffering happens in my life. Indeed, I have a lifetime … no … thousands of lifetimes of truth. We in the Western world have 2000 years of Church history and 5000+ years of redemptive history to to help our faith hold when children die, or events of equal or greater tragedy strike our lives. There’s been a church in Mongolia for about 20 years (maximum). The Mongolian church is shallow and has been influenced by the shallow (i.e., heretical) stupid grins of prosperity teachers and their books and false promises. This church needs the ancient foundations laid. Inhay and Bodio don’t need to be told that if they’ll just pray and believe good things (and give their money) that they will have all of God’s blessings. They just want their daughter back … and they need to know that this is not just some random thing that has happened. They need to know the deep truths of God. His goodness. His wisdom. His sovereignty. They need to know what it means to embrace the cross of Christ and to trust, and that in doing that they will find grace and peace and meaning.
Today we weep with our friends.
In the days to come we will need to point them to the depths of God and the historical mountain of truth that enables a soul to be steadied through difficult times. My prayer is that in the end, Inhay and Bodio will indeed find “Itgel� (Faith) in every sense, and that their final word in this will be worship of the One who infinitely loves and infinitely cares.
I personally have a deeper burden than ever for solid foundations in the Mongolian church. This is why we are here. This is why we will stay.
October 27th, 2008
This is a tad odd.
For a reason unknown to us, a small stage was built in the little plaza/walkway that’s just outside of our apartment. The stage features a sort of odd-looking bronzed replica of the Fab-4. None of us have any idea why we now have a monument to the Beatles in UB. But, it is a bit of a novelty - even though it looks a little strange.
Did you know that the fifth Beatle was actually a girl…
October 25th, 2008
As we approach our third winter here in Mongolia, I am reminded of a dilemma that we face on an ongoing basis. What do we do about the street children?
In our family devotions last week, Bernie referenced the verse where Jesus tells His disciples that if someone takes their coat, they are to give their shirt as well. “Give to everyone who asks of you…� (Luke 6:29, 30). Cori then raised the question that we wrestle with internally all the time. “If this is what Jesus said, why don’t we give money to the street children?�
Wanting to make sure my daughter is well informed and well trained, I looked at her and gave her my best answer.
“I don’t know.�
And I don’t. Oh, I know what I tell myself. They just have to give it to someone else who will use it to buy vodka (true almost all the time, though I have seen them use it to go buy food). I know that if I gave money every time I was asked, pretty soon we would have nothing left and would have to return to the US and work at McDonalds.
We’ve tried just giving them food, and do this sometimes. But this isn’t really a long term solution. Imagine sitting in one of the nicer restaurants with your husband on your anniversary, and one of the street children slips past the hostess and stands at your tables and looks at your food and says, “I’m hungry.� I wanted to get up and give him my chair. The waiter came and shooed him away, but my appetite was gone. Yet, what would happen to the restaurant’s clientele if everyone gave in to the street children who came in? Then you’d have a restaurant owner out of business.
Not long ago, the young guy that we have singled out caught me as I was going into the grocery store. He offered to wash my car, but I didn’t have time as I just planned to run in and run out. So he rubbed his stomach and said, “I’m hungry.� I nodded, and he knows us well enough to know that we usually try to buy him food. Then he looked at me, and placed his order. “Ham.� Well, that didn’t set so well. I wanted to buy him a package of spinach or a carrot or something.
How do you move from giving out bread to seeing them realize their need for the Bread of Life? How do we as “rich� Americans bridge the gap between our world and theirs? I leave the encounter and go to a warm home. They leave and go who knows where, some to homes, but others to sleep under the streets by the warm pipes. Especially when you know that is not the purpose God has sent you to this city to fulfill.
Jesus stated that the poor would always be here. But He didn’t leave us a detailed plan of how to deal with this. Oh how I wish He had. I ask myself, “What would Jesus do?� I DON�T KNOW. Obviously even He did not meet the need of every poor person.
This past summer I was sitting in church and had purchased a bottle of juice to drink because it was a hot day and there was no AC and little breeze. We were singing and a little street girl came to the doorway to listen. I turned around a saw her and smiled. She saw the juice in my hand and held out her hand for it. I was sitting toward the front and didn’t really want to take it back to her (and honestly didn’t want to give it up – I had already drank half of it). But every time I would look back she would hold out her hand. Needless to say I didn’t enjoy the service very much. On one hand it wasn’t a good precedent to set, but on the other, I felt guilty for not giving it to her. I shared this with Bernie later. He had given the message that day, and he told me that she had hung from the wrought iron bars and listened to the entire sermon. Perhaps had I given it to her she would have just left. Or maybe I just feel better if I tell myself that.
But back to our devotions. This is what we shared with Cori, after honestly sharing our own inner struggle. For us it has boiled down to this. Walk in the Spirit. The Spirit of God knows the will of the Father. There is a quote from one of our Christian forefathers that has meant much to us. “Learn to detect and obey the inward impulse of the Spirit of God.� It always comes back to this – a daily surrender of my life to God. When I am in the right place, walking in fellowship with Him, His Spirit will lead me, even in these little things.
That still doesn’t make it easy. It doesn’t mean we don’t still wrestle with it, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. I don’t think God wants us to boil our lives down to formulas and policies, even though those are sometimes necessary and helpful.
The big issue is for the church here. Please pray with us for a healthy, growing church that in love and compassion can do so much more than hand out a bag of peanuts. Pray for the church in Mongolia, that out of their love for God and compassion for people they would bridge the gap and share bread, thus paving the way for relationships where the Bread of Life is shared as well.
October 22nd, 2008
Two stories behind this picture.
1. For God only knows what reason, we allowed Cori to rescue this puppy from certain death and destruction while on a recent shopping trip. We were assured she could find a home for it, because we are NOT going to have two dogs. Dad still is insisting that we are NOT going to have two dogs, and is holding out for that.
2. Prior to hosting a prayer team from the Santa Rosa Alliance Church (more on that later), Renee’ had been a bit sick. So she was getting some sleep so that she would be well for the trip (and apart from a lingering cough, is doing better).
So if you’re sick or you have a puppy or you’re sick of having a puppy … or if you are a puppy … sometimes you just need a nap.
October 6th, 2008