Pastor Amara told us that the Mongolian Christians would probably be a bit “stand-offish” at first. He said that so many cults had come into Mongolia and had confused the new believers over the few years that the church had been growing. We understood and appreciated the fact that they would want to know where we were coming from. Sound doctrine is a Bible term from the Greek world of medicine. It literally means “healthy” teaching. It is also the term for being saved. In other words, sound doctrine is Christ-centered doctrine that stays close to the cross.
We walked from Ganah’s apartment building a few blocks to a main street and then to a two-story hotel/restaurant building; hotel on the bottom floor and restaurant on the second floor. Pastor Ganah had reserved the whole restaurant for us that evening. We met with the pastors and church leaders of the main church and the three house churches in Choibalsan. We all sat around a big table in the middle of the room. We enjoyed a wonderful meal of salad, lamb, potatoes, carrots, and bread. One by one, we introduced ourselves to everyone.
One of the first things I noticed is that as soon as they would share their name they would give their age, so we did too. They would tell when they received Christ, when they got married, how many children/grandchildren they had, and what they did in the church. The Mongolian culture is very family oriented. We followed their lead and shared just as they did. When it was my turn, I told them my name (Charles…I learned that “Bubba” sounds like something related to what a horse leaves behind), and that I am 59 years old, that I received Christ as a young child, married to Beth for 40 years, two sons, both doctors, six grandchildren, and that I was a pastor in the church in Kingsland, Texas, USA. One of the other pastors immediately spoke up and through the interpreter said that I sure got married at a young age. I responded that if he were to see Beth he would understand why I didn’t wait! The whole room thought it was funny.
By the time everyone had introduced themselves we were about finished with the main course. We shared that the reason we came to Choibalsan was to see if there was a church there and wondered if they would be open to going out to invite others in the city to meet with us for a service to discuss the claims of Jesus Christ from the Bible. We also wondered if they would be interested in a time of training and teaching for the pastors and church leadership. There was an awkward silence. They looked around at each other for a moment and then the pastor of the main church spoke up and said that they would discuss it and get back with us tomorrow (Saturday).
Then, the main pastor made a request that surprised me. Through the interpreter, he told me that they would all be meeting together in the morning for quiet time at 7 AM and wondered if I would bring the devotion for the quiet time. I quickly agreed knowing that I had the rest of the evening to get something ready. Then he made another request I wasn’t prepared for. He asked me to give them the Scripture I would be sharing from so that they could be meditating on it before morning. As the interpreter said that, my mind started racing through various Scriptures and studies that could be appropriate. Parables are always appropriate no matter what the culture, so I said that they could meditate on Matthew 13, a whole chapter of the parables of Jesus; thanking Him silently for giving me something at such short notice! They seemed to nod with approval.
As we went downstairs, Greg and I had already decided that we were going to see if they any rooms available and what the price would be. We found out that they had a room with three beds available across from the lobby with a bathroom down the hall for $35 a night. We took it. We then learned that no one else was staying at the hotel. If we took the room, we would be the only ones there. We got with Terry and David and told them. David said that he wanted to stay with Ganah and Terry and Greg and I said we would stay at the hotel. For $35 it was very nice and was within our budget for the trip. The three of us slept great. We woke up early to learn that the $35 included breakfast.
After breakfast we made our way over to Ganah’s apartment to go with David, Pastor Amara, and Ganah to the place we would have the quiet time. When we got there, we learned it was to be in Ganah’s little living room. Only the pastors were present. It was crowded. As they sang a few worship songs, I had the same feeling that I have had when I would go to a church to preach in view of a call to be pastor. I knew they wanted to know what kind of doctrine we had. I was praying like crazy. Next blog, I will tell you the unexpected thing that happened next.
No comments:
Post a Comment