Below is a little update on Tim and the working he is doing in Mongolia. Please continue to pray for him!!
A lot of things have changed in the two months since I left the States, not the least of which being that, as I write this, I am sitting on a violent purple couch with dainty flowers patterned across the fabric. (Yes, it is my couch, and I barely even notice that it’s purple anymore.)
In location, I have moved from a city of two hundred and fifty thousand to a city of twenty-seven thousand. Rocky, barren crags dominate my views in Mongolia, while two months ago I was surrounded a mass of frozen lakes and streams as my time in Madison came to an end. Instead of college students moving in herds across busy avenues, lonely “trash cows” meander down the dusty, mostly empty streets. (You guessed right- they are called trash cows because they graze on mostly trash.) Lazy, sunbathing dogs during the day become ferocious guard dogs at night. All this is part of what my Kazakh and Mongolian neighbors and I together call home.
Common food in western Mongolia consists of a lot of meat and juicy fat, a little bit of rice with ketchup, and usually a shredded carrot or cabbage salad. At home, my roommate and I try to find as many diverse uses for bell peppers, rice, and fresh garlic as we can. We actually made a tasty beef stew last week! Since it is approaching summer, there is a decent supply of imported apples, oranges, and tomatoes available.
My fellowship with believers is also different. In Mongolia I meet with a small grouping of brothers and sisters at someone’s home and I’m lucky if I pick out a handful of words the entire night as people fling phrases across the room in both Kazakh and Mongolian. It’s a lively group and we have lots of laughs together despite the language barrier! It is evident that there is a spirit of love at work even though we are from different cultures.
But despite all the swirling and shifting variables around me, not everything has changed. My God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow— He is a solid Rock who is guarding me and preparing me for an eternal weight of glory and a salvation yet to be fully revealed.
“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded,
set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13
A lot has changed, and there are days when I feel weak and I want to be in familiar surroundings with deep blue lakes and lush green grass springing to life, when I feel like I can’t imagine living here for the foreseeable future. But then I remember the life of our Lord, poured out for me and for you, and I know that I can’t imagine living life anywhere else because this is where my loving Shepherd has called me. My heart and mind is set on the hope I have in Him, and I now have the opportunity to bring that hope and new life here.
And the same is true of you, wherever you are! May we together focus our eyes heavenward and, setting our hearts fully on the grace that is ours in Jesus, be the salt and the light we are called to be.