Humbled in Mongolia
📍Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia June 2024
Welcome to Mongolia, a nation six times bigger than the UK & home to 3.6 million people.
Almost half of that population live in Mongolia’s largest city, Ulaanbaatar, a city that is flavoured by a history of Buddhist heritage & Russian influence. Sitting in a valley on the Tuul river, the city is surrounded by stunning lush green mountain views & is a picture of both industry & natural beauty. It's a city that does not sleep with tall residential & commercial buildings continuously being developed. Throw a stone blindfolded & you’ll hit a Toyota Prius, they are everywhere! An example of measures to help combat the troubling pollution issues of the city.
It’s here that Kevin, Russ & myself came as a Commission team to explore what God was doing in this city & nation, this place of both great challenge & potential. It’s here that we came to support & serve an indigenous church plant that was seeking to build a Word & Spirit church in Ulaanbaatar.
Let me introduce you to Ari, a church leader carrying a great heart for Mongolia. Through him we have learned that the nation has had a staggering explosion of Christianity over the past 25 years from just four Christians in 1989 to now thousands who gather in hundreds of churches.
The people are incredibly kind, generous & passionate. They made it easy for us to quickly love them! Their hospitality was outstanding, with us being treated to meal after meal & we discovered that family plays such an important part of everyday activity. Family & meat, there is always a lot of meat involved!
Culturally the Mongolian people are naturally nomadic, so we went with a heart to draw alongside these beautiful followers of Jesus to help sharpen a focused effort to the city of Ulaanbaatar. Our desire was to help embed the beauty of the local church into the DNA of Ari & the team around him, & we were wonderfully encouraged to see how God was drawing a team together for what feels like a significant season ahead of richer discipleship & gospel breakthrough.
It was a packed itinerary, which included a two-day leadership conference, a two-day visit to Erdenet (Mongolia’s 3rd biggest city) & spending time with the Lord Reigns Church. We taught, we prayed, we worshipped, there was laughter & there were tears, our whole time there was a tremendous privilege. We were absolutely blown away by these faithful brothers & sisters.
God is doing something powerful with his people across the other side of the world & we came away with a strong conviction of hope for this city & nation. What a huge privilege to know that we are part of something much bigger!
Prayer Points:
Please be praying for the “Lord Reigns Church” in Ulaanbaatar. Ari & the team carry a strong desire for ongoing apostolic relationship with Commission. Our hope is that this is the first of many visits for this growing team of faithful brothers & sisters.
Please pray that God would bless them & establish a spectacular church on fire for Him in this important city! That this would be just the start of a journey to reach the nation.
