If you know me at all you know that I am loud, energetic, extremely extroverted, and fairly resilient. I am a woman that is passionate about women: women ministry and the role of women in the church.
If you know me you are currently remembering all the times I have talked about women in ministry or have loudly made my opinion known.
If you know me you are probably rolling your eyes at how accurate a description this is.
If you don’t know me… let me just tell you that sometimes I can be overly passionate about what I believe it. It can be good and bad.
Hopefully everyone now understands the place I was at as I came to our ministry site here in Mongolia. The church we have been at is called Cross of Love and it is a branch of Antioch churches here in Mongolia.
Cross of Love is led by women of God that are faithfully and obediently answering the call that God has placed on their lives. They are leading their church to be God’s children that pray for and serve one another; but they are also leading their church to be a church that serves God in all aspects of their lives. They are a missional church that is striving to share the Gospel throughout all of Mongolia.
These women are strong, bold, humble servants of God and I was so excited when I came to this church. Women in ministry is my passion and my heart was so happy.
The more time we spent in Mongolia I was able to see ore of the daily reality of the Mongolia people. The Mongolia people are traditionally nomadic and their country only has a few months of warm weather. The traditions of Mongolia mixed with the movement toward modernization has created a few problems for this country. Specifically, there is a high rate of alcohol and substance abuse.
While doing ministry we were told that there is a large percentage of Mongolian people that struggle with alcoholism. This is primarily among men and is fairly apparent when walking throughout the streets of Ulaanbaatar.
Our second Sunday worshipping at Cross of Love, I looked at the women leaders and was so thankful for them. They are leading well and are growing the church and sharing the Gospel. As I was praying for the church and the women I heard the Lord ask, “Where are the men?” I hadn’t really noticed the men before this question. I looked around the room and there were only a few men. I then heard the Lord say, “they need men.”
I looked around the room again and this need for this church and the people of Mongolia overwhelmed me. “Yes,” I told God. These people do need men in leadership. I do not mean that this church needs men in leadership because the women couldn’t handle the task or because they weren’t truly called to this place of leadership. This church needs men to go out and share the gospel because this country needs men of God to minister to them.
The men of this country need Christian men to come and lead them. The men of this country know that alcohol does not fill their needs, but they know no other way. They need discipleship and I firmly believe God is calling Christian men to show them that there is someone that fills every need and sustains more than any drink could ever accomplish. These men need Christian men to help them see the saving power of Jesus Christ.
I do not know exactly which men God is calling to Mongolia, but I am positive this is a need that God is working to fill. Please join me in praying for the Christian men that God is calling to minister and work in Mongolia. Please pray that these men are listening to the Lord and are saying yes to the calling God has placed on their lives and that they say yes to Mongolia.
