Weekend Update

Hi, Mark here. It's Monday afternoon. Dave & Brook are finishing up with their class. Marla and I will start ours @ 5:30.

Bottom line: I'm very encouraged. Here's why:

1) The 'American Breakfast' idea worked great. The goal was to get some personal conversations going-- and we did. Almost all of Dave & Brook's class showed up on Friday (17 students). They invited two of the students to come to the Friday Bible study -- and two showed up (one they had invited, and one they had not invited came anyway).

We (Mark & Marla) had ten of our students show up for our Saturday morning breakfast. (There seems to be higher attrition in our class. It may be because we're not as fun as Dave & Brook). But, the whole gang hung around talking and singing songs and playing Uno until almost noon. In the process, I think we discussed spiritual things with almost every one of our students. We'll be looking for opportunities during the next couple of days to invite them to the Mongolian Bible Study next Friday (Thursday is the final examination & Ice Cream Social).

The invitation to the Mongolian Bible study is a great, natural transition -- allowing us to "hand off" our students into the care of the local brothers and sisters.

2) The Mongolian believers are excited and stepping up to the mark. Last Friday night they had 6 new folks. Three of them we had a hand in inviting; three of them had been invited by local believers. In God's providence, unbeknownst to us, the Ariuna and her sister Enkee had been talking to the felt factory owners about Christ. We showed up on Saturday, saw their artwork (Jesus & Mary, Buddhist "god" and nativity scene) asked if they believed in Jesus (they said "I want to...") and invited them to the Bible study. Ariuna was blessed and suprised to see them at the Bible study. Right after the Friday night meeting Ariuna was on her cell phone calling the new visitors and inviting them to the Sunday picnic at the lake. (I wish I had such follow through). Including a dozen Americans, we had about 30 folks at the lake on Sunday. It was fun and relaxing -- a great way to introduce the newcomers to the family of God. Pray that God will continue to expand their vision and give wisdom on how to establish a truly Mongolian church.

An interesting note: a prior post told about the Mongolian custom of hanging colored scarves on certain "holy" trees for good luck, etc. I noticed, at our picnic, that someone had hung a coat hanger, shaped into a cross, on the tree next to where we were eating. It is fascinating how Christianity get's re-translated into each culture.

3) The American long-termers are faithful and wise, and are letting the Mongolians take the lead. That is what is needed.

4) Suprisingly, it seems that Christianity has sort of reached "critical mass" in Mongolia. I've heard from a couple of different (Mongolian) sources that it is not as strange to talk about Christianity as it was a few years ago. It seems that there are enough believers that it no longer seems like a bizzarre foreign cult. People are willing to give it a listen. One of our students was telling Marla that Mongolia has freedom of religion, but there are really only 3 religions in Mongolia: Buddhism, shamanism and Christianity. It's nice to be on the list.