It’s called the “Grain of Wheat Student Center”

We now have a lighted sign to let people know who we are.

There will be a quiet opening this Friday, as we finish up repairs and work on operating procedures as well as work out the kinks.

We will hopefully have a grand opening on December 5th.

If you don’t have your shirt, it’s not too late. Click the link on the right to order yours today. Then get out, get your picture taken in all the places you travel, and we’ll post them in the YPATW gallery!

(note: we still need a shot from ‘down under’ - Australia and Antarctica - to say we’ve been on every continent. Also, now that we have a picture from the lowest point on earth, if any one ever takes on Everest … let us know. We’ll send you a free shirt.)

(As of this post, the remembermongolia.org photo album is not working. I am tracking this down and will hopefully have it fixed over the next few days. In the meantime, feel free to visit our Flickr photo stream to see all of our pictures!)

Update: Our Photo Gallery is fixed! You can view pictures directly from our site.

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.

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…

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.

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.

After our marriage (yes, we understand this is way back but bear with us) in 1989 — making next year the big 2 - 0 — we spent three years in Memphis in secular employment and lay ministry in an Alliance church there. We both felt called to missions and were taking time to adjust to life together and see exactly where we were to go.

Jonathan joined us in 1992 and just before his first birthday Bernie accepted a call to pastor a church in Franklin, Tennessee. Yes, we know. It was a surprise to us as well, but a very clear direction. God’s reasons for that were His own, but His wisdom in that was abundantly clear as we learned how to walk with Him in His work.

Cori was born our second year in Franklin. Faith Community Church was a great place for a young family and we got to walk through the parenting process with many good friends. It certainly had its ups and downs, but we loved our church family and totally enjoyed pastoral ministry.

As a matter of fact, it was our desire to stay there a very long time. But….

During our 13 years there we were able to take quite a few short term missions trips. This was something that had been an important part of our life as singles, and was a double blessing as a couple. There was still that spark deep down that had never died, however, so each time we would visit a field, we would be open to God. Was He calling us there? It seemed like no matter where we went, we always returned with a certainty that we were exactly in the place God would have us be. With that certainty came peace and joy.

That is until November 2003. As part of her ministry on a Missions Mobilization team through the C&MA national office, Renee’ took part in a conference in Thailand. Each of the eight team members were requested to lead an extension trip before or after that conference and of course as we are a team, Bernie was also able to participate (actually he did most of the work). We requested the China extension, but two other members who had been before were given those two trips. However, since you go through Beijing to get to Mongolia we were told that if we led that trip we could have a few days between to see China.

We had no idea that would be the life-changing trip. As a matter of fact, Mongolia was the first country we visited where Renee’ didn’t even want to go. We were barely here for a week. But that week we were able to spend with the Mongolian believers, became something we couldn’t forget. Just this week when asked her first impression of Mongolia as short termer replied, “I feel like I’ve come home.” Aaahh, we know the feeling.

When we returned home this time, we no longer had that sense that pastoral ministry in Franklin was what we were supposed to do. We had sat with little groups who were amazed that of our small team of seven, four of them were pastors. They just couldn’t believe there were four pastors in one room. There were very few pastors here, as a matter of fact few men believers.

God never wastes a situation. We would never say that God put us in pastoral ministry only to prepare us for Mongolia. God doesn’t do that. However, we see now that His purposes for us there were for more than ministry to that congregation. It was to prepare us for next assignment. As a matter of fact, most of our previous experiences have in some way been part of His training. We believe that is always the case for all of us.

So, to sum this up, we went home and after a few weeks we talked and realized we were both still not able to put Mongolia in the past. So we prayed. We had several reasons why we could not come to Mongolia. We’re grateful for those hurdles. We saw them come down, one by one, as God confirmed His call. In the fall of 2004 we made the phone call to the candidate office of the C&MA. We spent the next year in the applicant process. In December 2005 we were officially approved and in January 2006 dropped the bomb to our family and friends. We left the US for Ulaanbaatar July 24, 2006.

Now our newbie readers know The Rest of the Story.

By the estimation of most, we have done the “hard thing”. We left home and family and country. We studied language. We live with inconvenience and difficulty and frustration all the time. Yet, it is possible to completely waste my life in Mongolia. Maybe as much, if not more that it is possible to waste my life in America. Crossing the ocean doesn’t guarentee that I won’t live a wasted life. In fact, it is frightening for me to think about the fact that I could waste my life while giving the unholy pretense of not wasting it because I live outside of the US comfort zone. There is a sense in which that is is worse because it’s not just a wasted life, it’s a hypocritical wasted life. That is perhaps the greatest misspending of all.

One morning this past week, I was walking and praying - and thinking about some of these things. I was thinking about all the times during this past week when I was grumpy with my family (even though it wasn’t their fault that I was tired) and had hateful thoughts (and a few words) about rude and selfish and bad drivers and harsh words that had been directed at my daughter (who is just trying to wade through being 13). I realized that what came out of me at those times was grotesque, offense, self-indulgent flesh. That’s when I remembered a simple illustration that I’ve known for much of my Christian life. Amy Carmichael uses it in her devastating little book “If”.

“If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. (For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water however suddenly jolted).”

Here is what I’ve determined. I am going to seek every day to be full of Christ. He is sweet water. I am not going to battle unsweetness, and impatience and unlove by taking battling them directly. I will daily ‘be filled’. In the end, I just want people to see Jesus. Not me. Just him. I am pretty confident that it will only be at that point that life is not wasted. The hard thing is daily fellowship, surrender, emptying and filling.

So while we talk to Jonathan and Cori about what it means for them to “do hard things”, the Holy Spirit is challenging me to “do hard things”, as well.

In the end, I pray that Jesus will be seen in all of us.

Friday photo’s for this week are some renovation shots (you may be getting a lot of these in the near future!). Our main accomplishment this week is getting a concrete floor stained. Onon said this is probably the first stained concrete floor in Mongolia. When we went to the building supply district (called zuun aile in Mongolian - think Home Depot explodes, and lands in a flea market setting) and explained our plan, we were told several times that it couldn’t be done. Well, as you can see below, it is being done! We’ll be sure to post shots of the finished product when we get it all done.

Until then, here are some shots of the work in progress.

Also, we recently put out this funding newsletter. Please be sure to read it and let us know if you are being led to help in this project!

The recent summer Olympic games were historic for Mongolia and her athletes. A Mongolian heavy-weight judo contender won the first Olympic Gold Medal in Mongolia’s history. Later, toward the end of the games, another Gold Medal was won by a Mongolian boxer, after he defeated a cuban in the title match. Two silvers were also brought home, in boxing and shooting, respectively. Needless to say, this city was beside itself with jubilation and revelry. Below are pictures I took while watching the final boxing match live on the jumbo-tron that we have outside our apartment, near the State Department Store. The street was blocked off and crowds had gathered to see the fight.

I must confess, as much as I love seeing the the gold brought home by our good ‘ole US of A (way to go Phelps!), it was fun to see Mongolia get so excited about winning a couple of Gold Medals. Young and old were high-fiving in the streets and a renewed patriotism was evidenced in all quarters. It was a happy time for the nation, particularly after the recent riots.

So with our Mongolian friends, we say “Altan avsan shuu… bayariin hurgiea!”
(roughly translated: We got gold! Happiness wished to you!)