This
past June, my parents and I went on a mission trip to Mongolia. It was a
wonderful opportunity for me to see and participate in God’s amazing work in
that country.
We
spent most of our time in Khenti, a province in northeastern Mongolia. It
consisted mostly of grasslands full of wildflowers. Distant mountains on the
horizon marked the end of miles and miles of sky. This beautiful country is
very sparsely populated (about 3 million people in 1,565,000 square
kilometers). Most of its people are nomadic herders who live in gers (also
called yurts/蒙古包). Each
county has a central town (though by Taiwanese or American standards they’re really villages) with
stores, gas stations, etc. Some people build wooden houses in these centers;
others pitch their gers in the town, often in a relative’s back yard. Others live in the countryside and only visit
the county center to buy necessities like food and gas. Outside the central
part of the country there is no running water, and all roads are made of dirt.
In
Mongolia, my parents and I worked with an organization called V.E.T. Net. Based
in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, V.E.T. Net was started by a group of
Christian veterinarians to help provide veterinary training. Veterinarians are
vital for a society so centered on herding. Yet veterinary training isn’t very
good; some veterinary school graduates have never even worked on an animal.
V.E.T. Net provides training and high-quality medicines to help these
veterinarians serve their communities. Since it is a Christian organization, it
uses this to open doors for the Gospel.
V.E.T.
Net’s mission expanded over time to include other kinds of teaching. One
program called Claim a County sends pairs of teachers throughout Mongolia. They
run summer schools for the herders’ children, teaching English and Biblical
principles. Some children only get to attend school in the summer because in
the winter their families live too far from the county center. The English
lessons attract many children from grades 1 to 12, and night classes for adults
often begin, too. All the teachers are Christians, and frequently, the love
they show to the communities lead to churches being planted. The program is
very well-received. Some county leaders even beg the teachers to stay beyond
the three-year limit.
My
parents and I traveled to several of the counties involved in the Claim a
County program. We traveled with my father’s friend Morris (an American who has
done many short mission trips to Mongolia), a Mongolian driver named Jagaa, and
the president of V.E.T. Net, Ganzo, who translated for us. First we visited a
few areas where the program was over to encourage believers. My father led
devotions for both our team and local people every day, except for one day when
I led devotions. Morris, a businessman, led workshops about budgeting and
personal finance. We also spent time talking to the locals with Ganzo’s help
and listening to their stories.
We
spent three days at the first county center and then moved to a second. But
next day we heard some terrible news. A van carrying some teachers who planned
to meet us had rolled over. We rushed toward the next county center, where my
parents, Morris and I were supposed to wait while Ganzo and Jagaa went to help
the accident victims. A local Christian leader went with us. Eventually, we
reached a point where the road was so flooded that we could not pass, so we
turned to find another route. But then our van sank into the mud. After a lot
of pushing and gathering wood and stone to put under the tires, we realized we
couldn’t get it out. My parents and I got in the local Christian leader’s car
with Ganzo and drove toward the next town center looking for a truck to pull
our van out. We finally found a ger with a truck outside, only to discover that
the truck was out of gas. We agreed to buy gas at the next county center, bring
it back and pay to use the truck. My parents and I were dropped off at a
dormitory where we would be staying.
Ganzo
and the local Christian leader got the truck, pulled the van out and went to
get the other van. Meanwhile, we received a call from one of the teachers who
had been in the accident. She was only a bit bruised, but the other teacher had
injured her arm. The driver had seemed fine at first, but it turned out he had
a concussion, and at this point its effects were just becoming plain. But no one
at the dormitory knew enough English to explain this to us. All we were told
was, “The driver … his body is very bad.”
Praise
God, our team was able to pick them up and bring them to the hospital (really a
clinic) in the center where we were staying. The next day Jagaa drove them back
to Ulaanbaatar to get medical treatment. Now, they are all safe and recovering.
The
county where we ended up was in its first year of Claim a County. We worked
with two wonderful teachers, Mogi and Nara. I spent lots of time with Mogi, the
English teacher. Her “textbook English” was excellent, but since she didn’t
have much contact with native speakers, she had some trouble with
pronunciation. So she had me teach the students all the new vocabulary, read
passages out loud and generally help in the class. The children were very
enthusiastic and eager to ask us questions about ourselves. They were divided
into two classes: grades 1-6 and grades 7-12. Eventually, Mogi divided the
younger class in half because of the age difference and the class’s size. It
had over 40 students. I really enjoyed getting to know Mogi. She was a very
kind young woman who clearly cared about her students and wanted to be the best
teacher she could be. My parents and Morris visited Nara’s character education
class and said she was also an excellent teacher.
After
four days at that county center, Jagaa returned, so we moved on to one more
county center. We couldn’t sit in on classes there, but we brought the teachers
some supplies. We spent the night in a ger and then got up early to make our
way across the bumpy dirt roads back to Ulaanbaatar.
I was
continually amazed at the faith, generosity and hospitality of the Christians I
met in Mongolia. The country is mostly Tibetan Buddhist, and Christians are an
extreme minority, so they experience a lot of pressure from neighbors and
relatives. But they have a truly inspiring love for God and for each other. The
work I did in Mongolia was only a small contribution to God’s mission there,
but it is a contribution I was honored to make.
