“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

But no, that’s not how I do things. I suppose I would have to say that I didn’t choose my life verse. It chose me, or more accurately, God chose it for me.

Before I continue to reveal said verse, let me note that you are probably realizing that this blog is not written by Bernie, the usual blogger on the Remember Mongolia website. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually helped him out with material here. Probably because for me, blogging is a way to process and verbalize what is going on internally. Over the past couple of years, social media has allowed me to do that with some things and writing and teaching Bible Studies has given me an outlet with others. Neither of those venues seem appropriate here. That said….

More years ago than I want to mention, I was a college student living in Memphis, Tennessee. I don’t remember how I came across this verse, maybe because I was reading a book or studying about Philippians. When I read verse 3:10, it was as if something would never be the same.

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”

and then of course, the conclusion in verse 11 of attaining the resurrection. I was drawn in and intrigued and the response that rose up from within was a prayer.

“Lord, I want to know You like this.”

I can still see it clearly in my mind. I had a dear friend, Alva, working in a law office in downtown Memphis. I met her for lunch in their conference room that was in a high rise building with one side completely made of glass. As I looked out on the beautiful clear day at the mighty Mississippi River, I shared my prayer with her. I can still remember her looking me full in the eyes and saying, “Renee’, that is a prayer God always answers.”

She went on to share with me of her own experience. She had been with a missions organization and during that time had spent six months in a Turkish prison for sharing the gospel. I knew that she knew what she was talking about.

What is it about youth that can romanticize something like prison? Perhaps its that idealism that comes with believing so strongly about something that you have to do something about it. And yes, this was also around the time that the missions spark was ignited in me. Now, I would say, “Oh, wow, that must have been rough.” I don’t remember what I said, but I know what I was thinking, “Oh, wow, that is so cool.” Do you ever miss naivety?

That was my first understanding of that verse. Suffering equals persecution. It means standing up for truth no matter what, and that was the kind of thing that appealed to me.

As I grew older, I continued to pray this prayer and, as Alva promised, God continued to answer. Then I got married and had two children. One day it dawned on me, that if I prayed that prayer, something might happen to my children. I understood suffering to be loss. I didn’t want to lose my husband or my children. We lived in a neighborhood with several police officers, and sometimes when they turned onto our street it looked as if they were turning in our driveway, and my heart would leap up into my throat until they passed by. So I stopped praying that prayer.

God, however, did not stop answering, and over time He gave me the courage and the faith to pray that again. He continued to answer.

A couple of weeks ago, I was having lunch with three very special Mongolian friends, Bayarmaa, Doggi and Onon. And God brought us, in our discussion, to this verse. I shared with them that this was my life verse. In the last couple of years, I have learned a new dimension to this verse. The four of us have to different extents. Suffering sometimes equals persecution. Suffering sometimes equals loss. But sometimes suffering is pain inflicted by others.

As I considered the Lord Jesus in His last days on earth, I thought about the different types of pain He went through. Certainly He was being persecuted. Certainly He suffered loss – He had to give His mother to His friend, John, to care for. I have to wonder, though, if the greater pain was in the betrayal of those closest to Him. The crowd, who just days before had cheered Him on with palm branches and loud Hosanas were now shouting for His crucifixion. Judas had betrayed Him with a kiss. Peter denied knowing him. The version of that incident in the book of Luke is very telling. He adds the detail that Jesus turned and looked at Him. I can’t imagine the pain in that look, to both the giver and the recipient. Peter himself went out and wept. Of all His followers, only John, his mother, his aunt and Mary Magdalene were with Him to the end.

Now I realize that if I continue to pray this prayer, I do so with eyes wide open. Suffering involves rejection. It involves betrayal. It involves rejection and betrayal at the deepest levels. Not by the fickle rabble, but by those with whom we thought we were safe. Perhaps if I were still that young girl watching the river power its way to the ocean, I could idealize this. So what if I get hurt, it’s for the cause! But hurt is just hurt and it doesn’t get easier. If anything, it gets harder. As it does, the prayer gets more and more difficult to pray.

Can I put in a request to change my life verse, please? Probably not. On the other hand, I don’t think it would hurt to line it up beside a companion verse.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This soul needs this today. Especially if I am to stay the course.

This weekend was spent with Church Leaders working through a thought provoking process called “The Pastoral Circle”. It’s a simple pattern for properly thinking about ways the church should engage with the problems and issues of society. The process involves discovery of the issues, personal biases surrounding those issues, social analysis, theological reflection and planning on how the church will engage. While it’s a simple pattern,the process is involved. But, it’s extremely helpful.

The Gospel. The Church. Mission. Cultural and societal engagement. These are topics with interest me deeply. Indeed, in many ways they are subjects on which I’ve dedicate my life. It was refreshing to once again explain how the Gospel affects and impacts every part of the life of a believer. The issue which was raised during our time together this weekend was one which thrills me to no end.

The Gospel affects everything.

One of the important issues in the church today (at least in my non-essential opinion) is the fact that Gospel is not just a message to be proclaimed every once in a while on a Sunday. In many of our churches the Gospel is relegated to a moralistic Sunday School story (Jesus-died-on-the-cross-for-our-sins), rather than THE story that changes everything. I don’t think we are (shall I just speak for myself? I don’t think I am …) adequately stunned by the staggering implications of the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the West, we tend to practice (and export) the less-than-stunning, sterilized, Sunday School version of that story.

As a part of the process this weekend, the students were required to think about where they live (the geographical location). They had to talk about what they love about their home … and the things they would like to see changed. From this, each group connected to a specific problem. They covered everything from divorce to alcoholism in youth to garbage.

Here was the classic moment. To understand this, you have to understand that the term “Gospel” is literally translated “Good News” in Mongolian. So, I asked the question.

How do we connect the “Good News” to the problem of trash?

Some blank looks.

Then one student hesitantly said, “Well, the Good News is good …. and trash …. is bad?”

So we thought together about creation, stewardship, the Fall, the results of the Fall, the reason Jesus had to come and die, and the results of the death and resurrection of Jesus … as it relates to trash, the human condition and the stewardship of the Earth. We talked about Thomas Chalmers of Glasgow, and how he practically applied the Gospel in the poorest of neighborhoods – and saw those neighborhoods transformed through the power of the Gospel. It was an enlightening and enjoyable session. The Mongolian church leaders moved a step closer to what I believe to be a Biblical vision of the Gospel and the Kingdom.

Let me qualify … I am not a post-millennial reconstructionist. But, then again, I’m also not a pre-millennial, pre-trib, dispensationalist. The Biblical vision of the Gospel and the Kingdom is much bigger than our theological containers. I believe that until we begin to connect the Gospel with garbage, we’re not even beginning to touch the atom-bomb impact of the Cross on this planet.

This past weekend of teaching has convinced me that those of us working in the context of modern day cross-cultural mission also need to connect Gospel and garbage. Unless that connection at least begins to take place in our own minds, I’m fairly certain we’re fooling ourselves, and more tragically, fooling the good people who send money every month for our support. Mission has to be more than a numbers game and “Good News” is not just positive information in a newsletter. I think we’re way too easily satisfied with superficial “decisions for Christ” and church attendance. If the personal transformation that should be taking place in Jesus disciples is not transforming the environment around us (families, finances, the environment … finish out the list!), we need at the very least recognize that we are doing more tilling of the ground and seed planting … and a lot less “harvesting” than what we’d like people to give us credit for. I think honesty is important here, for the sake of all involved. Even if that means people at home are a little less “excited” about the work. (I really don’t like the word “excited” anyway … it sounds like the necessary ingredient for a riot, but that’s probably just me). If “the Gospel” is indeed “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16), surly the impact will be bigger than a splash at a meeting? I sincerely hope so.

I’m fairly convinced that the soteriological “all things new” of 2 Corinthians 5:17 is connected to the eschatological “all things new” of Revelation 21:5. And this does mean that the Gospel will affect the garbage.

We should not be satisfied until it does.

A New Project!

We’re excited to come along side a small group of believers in Zamyn Uud, Mongolia. They are a part of one of three churches which exist in the entire area. The thing about this small group of folks is that they don’t think small. They’ve already started a very cool daycare center for physically and mentally disabled children and want to do the same kind of thing for area senior citizens. Their vision is to show the love of Christ to the people of their community. They’ve started two cell groups and begun other works in three other locations in southern Mongolia. These folks are about the Kingdom, and showing the love of Jesus to as many as possible.

We’re going to try and help them build a two story building on land they’ve already acquired. The building will provde :

I was very grateful for this guy:

The Car Wash Guy

Kids from the daycare

There’s a small group of Christian women who live in a small town in the south Gobi. I’m pretty much convinced they’re trying to change the entire landscape of Mongolia.

Part of my work involves periodically traveling 15 hours south of Ulaanbaatar by train to connect with this small south Gobi church, to help them out with leadership training. To encourage. The church is made up of mostly women and children. I did spend some time talking to an old man when i was there last. He had only just heard the Gospel for the first time.  Other than that, no men. But while the church itself is quite small, their vision is impressive. In fact, they’ve managed to start three other branch churches in other parts of Mongolia, and an additional cell group in their small town, and a very cool and vibrant children’s church. Their church sponsors and runs and daycare for disabled children in their community. They currently take care of ten physically and mentally disabled kids everyday, with the capacity to expand to twenty in their current facility. Their aim is to show the love of Jesus to these kids by taking care of their physical needs and working with their families.  They hope to start doing the same thing with old folks in the near future.

I’m blown away by the commitment and work of this little group of women and children.

I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I’m called to work here. But the Mongolian church has always impressed me. Don’t get me wrong. The church here has major issues. But, what church in which country doesn’t? Our issues in the US are typically more “first world problems” than what we find here. However, the core problem of human selfishness and sin is universal.  Manifestation just varies.  I still remember spending time with Mongolian believers in 2003, when Renee’ and I first visited this place. I remember being really impressed with their prayer lives and their vision for taking the Gospel beyond the borders of their own country. I’ve learned a thing or two about Mongolians and the Mongolian church since those days of bright-eyed naivety.  However, I still am amazed at how the people of God persevere through hardship here.

A Mongolian friend and I were talking to the leader of this world-changing little group of folks in the desert. She’s a 50-ish woman named “Eternal Treasure”. She expressed to us her gratitude for our Leadership Training program.  She said that the weekly leadership classes help to keep their church theologically and Biblically on target, and that these classes are a strong part of their church life. And indeed they are eager to learn. The one lament she made was the fact that “There’s no shepherd”.

Shepherdless. That’s the literal translation of the word she used.

***

Flashback. A Summer afternoon at Starbucks in Franklin, TN, circa 2004.

Franklin is full of churches. It would then stand to reason that the town is also full of pastors. And it is.  I was one of them. When I first moved to Franklin in 1993, the church was a kind of cut-throat business. The Nashville area is a virtual Wall Street for the business of church.  In spite of this atmosphere, I saw God do a work in our community over the years to change this, as the barriers of denomination, race and even some socio-economic walls toppled through the work of a small group of pastors and lay leaders who were intentional about community and reconciliation.  (There’s not a even a website anymore…but there’s a brief description of what we were a part of on a friend’s website.)

Eleven years later. Starbucks. Franklin, TN. 2004. I was drinking my small black coffee and supposed to be catching up on backlogged email. For some reason I found myself staring out the window, counting churches. There were five that I could see, or almost see, from my corner seat. Hundreds more within just a few square miles. I looked around the room, and for a moment it was all movie-like, surreal slow motion. There were two guys at one table doing a Bible study. There was another guy who I knew to be a pastor of one of these churches reading a book on leadership. There was another guy around the corner, a leader in a ministry specifically for men, doing discipleship with a young man.

In Mongolia there were no shepherds.

I knew I couldn’t stay here anymore.

***

A Desert Outpost

“Eternal Treasure” expressed her gratitude for the training, and talked about how we can continue to to work together for the Kingdom of Jesus in the Gobi for the future. Shepherds are still few and far between here. Like the occasional outposts along the train route in the desert. The pastors we see are rugged and strong, but few and far between; sparsely equipped for the difficulties of shepherding.

When I share about Mongolia, people always ask me “What do you need? What can we do?”  As my friend and I rode back to the city through the frozen Mongolian desert, my thoughts went to how our friends in Franklin (and now so many other parts of the US) could help. It’s simple, but also much more difficult than sending money. Money is the easy part.

Have a Starbucks moment.

And pray.

Please pray.

Commit to pray

Commit to pray without ceasing that God would raise up Mongolian men who will have hearts to become servant leaders – real shepherds – who will lead this church with strength, grace, humility and gentleness.

You couldn’t do anything greater for us than that.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
(Matthew 9:35-38 ESV)

Zolo with the Children's Church

Listen and enjoy!

All prayer requests for the field can be found at the CAMA Mongolia website. Let me know if you need the secret password.

Summary: Pray for missionaries and Mongolians during the winter months and the Tsagaan Sar celebration!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for praying!

Frozen Sidewalks

Today we’re posting a small gallery of shots from all of the Christmas related activities over the past couple of weeks.  From Christmas parties in our home to gatherings with our team and with the youth. It was a fun and memorable Christmas season, in spite of missing family and friends from the US immensely (particularly tough not having Jonathan here).

We are grateful to all who pray for us … and we wish you the Lord’s great grace in 2012.