Trip Summary

The trip is over. God brought the whole team back safely from Mongolia.

While planning the trip and traveling to Mongolia, we had no direction from God about the nature of the work we were to be doing there. Because we were remaining flexible about our role, God was able to give the whole team valuable opportunities. As a team, we were able to see our work centered in three areas: encouraging Timothy and his family, learning the culture, characters, needs, and opportunities unique to Mongolia, and catalyzing the work Timothy wishes to start in the city of Darkhan. God was able to line up contacts, events, and circumstances which advanced these three areas of work during the trip.

Encouraging Timothy. As a group of American, english-speaking Christians, having time to fellowship together encouraged Timothy and his family. We were able to join them in prayer, discussion, and physical labor, and play. This fellowship we were able to share was valuable to both Timothy’s family and our team. For example, we were able to give Timothy, in his words, “vocational therapy”, the opportunity to do stonework. This work was very relaxing and helped Timothy think through many aspects of the ministry.

Learning culture. We set out to go into Mongolia with open eyes and blank notebooks, seeking to learn of the needs and opportunities in that nation. We had the opportunity of briefly visiting the countryside and seeing a little of the nomadic lifestyle. We explored markets, biked and walked through the city, ate and talked with the neighbors, met business owners, and developed relationships with some of the local children. All these interactions provided more linguistic and cultural context for us to remember for future trips and plans. Through talking with various people, we learned about the 75% unemployment rate among men, the cultural apathy toward work and property, and the struggles as Mongolia strives to grow more capitalistic from its socialist heritage. Hearing the stories of these people is a huge part of why we came.

Catalyzing the work. As a group of college students, we were eager to dive into some sort of work. This enthusiasm lead to the starting of an urban gardening project Timothy had been wishing to start, as well as lead to a variety of meetings outside of Timothy’s normal sphere of contact. We were able to bring the activation energy to Timothy’s vision for Darkhan. We met with several people who had worked in Christian programs with street children, doing ministry very similar to the work Timothy wishes to begin. One especially powerful meeting was with seven former street boys, who were mentored by a prior ministry, and are now strong Christian men. These seven men are very interested in helping with the work which Timothy wishes to do with the boys now living in basements and on the streets of Darkhan. One of these seven, Heggii, worked with us for the whole trip as a translator and local helper. My friendship with him is something I look forward to cultivating in the coming years.

God was able to provide the meetings and opportunities to come away from this trip with a solid base of experiential knowledge about the needs of Mongolia, as well as opportunities for ministry and work there. He provided safety and relative good health for the whole team. We are now seeking what should be done with this trips information. There are several potential engineering projects which could be done in Mongolia, as well as many other ministries. We are seeking God about the nature of a possible next trip. I am praying for the opportunity to return to Mongolia soon. God has provided every step along the path for this trip, and he will surely continue to do so.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support through this. It is wonderful to have such a large team on this trip, even if only four were physically traveling. I will do my best to keep you informed about the work that is being done in Mongolia by Timothy. Thank you.

In Christ,

David