Life is ministry
Last month me and the rest of team Nautilus were doing ministry in the countryside of Mongolia. We spent the month working with a group of three families that made up a nomadic church. We got there in the middle of the night, stepped out of the car and looked up at some of the brightest stars I’ve ever seen in my life. We set up our small tents next to the larger Mongolian yurts that the families lived in. I was excited to be roughing it out in the middle of nowhere for the next month, but it really set in when we woke up the next morning and realized the environment that we were actually in.
I stepped out of my tent to see the beauty of the valley that we were now living in. It stretched on for miles and miles and was surrounded by lush green rolling hills. In the whole valley there was maybe a hundred people that spent their days shepherding flocks of goats, sheep, cows, horses, and yaks. The hills were full of livestock. The group of family’s we were with alone had about 200 sheep and goats, 20 cows, and 10 horses.
The first day there they took us to the river 8 km away to have a true Mongolian BBQ (nothing like Ghengis grill). We swam (and showered) in the freezing cold river, played soccer on the banks, and wrestled Mongolian style against some of the shepherds in the church (I won one match and lost two in case you were wondering). This just set the tone for the rest of the month. We were on our way to becoming Mongolian shepherds.
Throughout the month I had some of the greatest (and weirdest) experiences I’ve ever had. I herded sheep in the mountains, WRESTLED MONGOLIANS, burnt the hair off a goat so we could cook it up, ate pretty much every part of a goat (intestines, brain, eyeball just to name a few), saw the yearly Mongolian festival called Nadaam, and so much more. We also got to jump and/or wade across a couple streams in order to do house visits, have church in a yurt while we all sang in our own languages, and see the hearts of a Mongolian pastor that not only tends a flock of sheep but also tends a flock of believers with a love and passion that is visible every time you see him interact with someone.
For most of the month we did not have a translator and the people around us spoke maybe a total of 30 words in English. So a lot of the communication between us was single word sentences and a lot of charades and pointing. All my life I’ve heard the phrase that goes, “preach Jesus, and if necessary use words.” Thank you Bro White. I’ve always believed the intention behind this saying but never really experienced how true it was until using words stopped being an option at all.
For the most part our ministry was to the church itself. We would clean out the sheep pen, gather and prepare firewood, herd sheep, and churn milk. In our down time we would have team bible studies, prayer walks, and on occasion would walk the hour it takes to get to the river to take a shower and wash clothes. We essentially were just living with this community of families. We were doing whatever we could to help in the daily routine of things and live along side them.
At times it was easy to question our ministry as something that was truly effective. I know sometimes I tend to put ministry inside of a box. Limiting ministry to preaching, teaching and evangelism just to name a few. All of them have to do with the ability to communicate. It is a simple thing to forget that God sees things differently then we do and works in ways that we don’t understand. I often forget that God is able to see the big picture when I am only able to see a small piece of what is truly happening.
When I think about life being ministry I’m always brought back to Acts 2:42-47. In these versus, at the very beginning of the New Testament church, right after the upper room experience, we see God work in the everyday life. The church devoted themselves to teachings, they ate together and prayed together, they started living life together as a community, praising God and having favor on all people. They were just living life how God told them too. It doesn’t say they were preaching, teaching, or evangelizing, it basically gives a description of how they just started to live as a community. The beautiful part of this is the final verse, which says “and God added to there number day by day those who were being saved.” God used the life they were living in such a way that the community around them was led to Christ. There is power in your everyday actions. When we devote ourselves to living a life that is directed by God every decision and action we make can be used for His glory.
This month I got to experience what just living in Godly community can do. For the last week of the month we had a translator and were able to share testimonies each of us had about the month. We shared how much we enjoyed being able to see the way they loved their families and their community. We thanked them for all the love that they showed us by welcoming us into their homes and lives. How we felt that even through the language barrier we didn’t have any problem with understanding the love that they had for us.
Finally our contacts wife began to speak. With tears in her eyes she told us of the pain that she had been going through at the beginning of the month. It was then explained to us that just a week or two before we had arrived there that her sister had passed away. In the wake of the loss she was facing the busiest and most difficult months of the year for her and her family. She spoke to us about how encouraging it was for her to see us everyday with smiles on our faces, always facing whatever came our way with joy and enthusiasm. She said that just us being there helped her when she was struggling with grieving the loss of her sister.
All we were doing in Mongolia was living alongside these families, never truly knowing what was going on just underneath the surface. We have no idea how the ripples caused by our daily lives will affect those around us. We can only trust that God’s plan is continually being worked out behind the scenes.
This month I also tried my hand at making a video using video taken by multiple members of our team. I hope you enjoy it
MY Mongolia from Derek West on Vimeo.
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