This month in Mongolia our ministry looks almost the same as last month. We are going out into the city of Ulaanbaatar and making relationships with the locals. However, we are connected with a church this month, Cross of Love. Two teams are using the church as a house, and each night from 1800-2000 (6pm-8pm) we have an event planned. Tuesdays are game nights, Wednesdays are grammar nights, Thursdays are conversational english nights, and Fridays are open mic nights. So during the day our teams go out into the city inviting people to these events as well as church on Sundays. We have completed one full week of these activities, and after going through these activities I am very excited to see what the rest of the month has in store for us.
My favorite of these nights was the open mic night. Basically, the event went opened with a time of prayer and worship then we played a game. After each game there were three spots available to do something on stage. Anyone could do anything from singing a song to teaching a dance to sharing your testimony and more. We had our team and about eight locals. We had an absolute blast! After some of us got over our insecurity of performing on stage, we all began jumping up on stage and performing for God! I had never really done anything like this before! At the beginning I kept on thinking to myself, “Do Background, Do Background,” so I ran and grabbed my computer real quick to downloaded the song. Next thing I know Mark and I are up on stage rapping “Background” by Lecrae! I had an absolute blast getting to do something I had never done before without a care in the world. There were people just like me that jumped out of their comfort zones and up on stage and had a great time. The night just got better from there! The worship leader of the church got up on stage and performed a Mongolian song with her friends. I have no clue what the song was about, but all I know is that I had fun jumping around to it! After another game we learned a dance to a really cool song called “Banner” by Brandon Seibert. By the end of the night, after all of the crazy games, the fun and exciting performances on stage, and all of the laughing we were super tired. After everything was over, I thought to myself how much fun that was and how it was all for the glory of God. We weren’t dancing scandalously, drinking and trying to “pick up” someone. We were swimming in our Fathers joy, excitement, and love. There’s nothing that this world can offer that will make someone feel as “high” as our God and His love and joy.
Also, this last Sunday was my first church service on the race! We spent the whole morning preparing the building for service. We moved all of our personal items into a room and cleaned the sanctuary. Service began at 1200 (noon), Ravi, SK and I greeted outside while the others greeted inside. There are about 25 members of the church, and they were all excited to see us. The leader of the service introduced us to everybody and asked the congregation to pray for us. Everyone stood up and began to lay their hands on us. I’ll come back to that moment in a minute. We moved on to a couple of us sharing our testimony and then to the message. My brother Marcus spoke a great message about the Armor of God, even with a translator the congregation seemed to be moved by the message. Shortly after the message, they closed out the service and had tea time and people began to go home. Now back to the prayer time. The previous two days I had been struggling with hearing lies from the enemy. “I’m not good enough, I’m not doing my part in the team, I’m not liked by certain people, etc.” I have also been struggling with finding my alone time to dive into the Word and pray. When everybody began praying for us, a lady come up to me immediately and laid her right hand in the middle of my chest and her left on my back. She began praying in Mongolian and something really cool happened. I could feel a warm sensation fill my torso coming from her hands. It was in that moment I felt the Holy Spirit take my frustrations from the past couple days and melt them away. My heart was instantly filled with love and joy! I felt recharged from all of the battling I had been doing the past two days. After service was over I had to go tell the lady what happened. I asked a little girl to translate for me. We went over to the lady and I explained to her what I felt and how it made me feel. The little girl translated and the lady seemed happy to hear what I said. I thanked her for her prayers gave her a big hug. I was so thankful for that lady and her prayers. I had never had a person pray for me in a different language, and what was so cool was how the Holy Spirit worked even through a language barrier. I had always heard and even explained how God isn’t limited by anything, even a language barrier, but I had never experienced it before. It was so cool to get to see it actually happen! So if I were playing my “high low” game, that moment would be my high for the week. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!
My next financial deadline is almost here! Crazy! I’m only $150 away from meeting my $13,000 goal. I prayerfully ask that you would consider donating. I want to thank everybody that has contributed both financially and prayerfully! Y’alls contributions have made a huge difference in spreading the Kingdom! Again, thank you!
