“Hung veno?”, A report from Bible distribution ministry in Mongolia

By Amy Eunjung Lee/ School of Worship)

Endless plains, traditional Ger built upon that land and the people of horseback riding… These are the images that we think of when we hear the word, Mongolia. Mongolia, it was a country that I have always wanted to visit! Thankfully through the Blessing Mongolia, I was able to join the bible distribution project for two weeks.

When we first landed we were all worn out. But from the warm welcomes that we received from the local staff, and fact that they came out to pick us up at the airport despite the late arrival time, we felt the warmth from the country that we never been to before.

Although we were scheduled to stay for two weeks, due to the orientation period and travel time, we didn’t have many days to work on the bible distribution.

Despite that, we interceded and worshiped God every morning for the lost sheep that God prepared for us, and we asked for the heart of God to love and to grief for them.

After our morning worship, we gathered our little gifts and bibles, divided into small teams, and started to work on our mission.

As we walked through the avenues packed with houses, we were looking forward to our mission, but at the same time, I was also a bit worried.

As I was asking myself, how to knock on the doors or what to say when they came out, the local staff started to pound on the door shouting, Honveno?

Most Mongolian houses are built so that the actual house and the front gate is separated. So we had to shout and pound in order for the people to hear. Honveno! First few tries, I hesitated on shouting and knocking on the door, because I was shy and tensed up, but after few houses, I was getting more confident and towards the end of our mission trip, I was having no problem knocking on the foreign doors.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

When the doors were opened, local staff introduced us as travelers from Korea and the conversation was started. Most Mongolians welcome foreign people and didn’t put up a guard against us, and rather welcomed us.

As the local staff carried on a conversation, all I could do was putting a bright smile and pray with all my heart for their souls. To depend on God and trusting in Him was all I could do.

When we heard the local people’s stories, quite many of them knew about Jesus Christ and some of them even have attended church before. However, they couldn’t regularly attend church because they didn’t know where a church is located. Their life was simply too busy. Also, one thing that I noticed was the shamanistic idols in the local people’s houses. Even if they believed in Jesus, shamanistic culture was rooted deeply inside of their lifestyle. Jesus was just one of many gods to them.

He answered: “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

However, I knew that God is good all the time, and that helped me to see the situation with His eyes. When we knocked on the doors, and if they didn’t answer, we probably couldn’t have listened to their stories and pray for their souls.

If their heart was hardened and believed that their god was the only god, we probably couldn’t give them the bible. Although there was shamanism deeply centered in their life, we believe that God who is bigger than all problems is with them, and that was why we could keep our hope for blessing the land of Mongolia. Because our loving God loves them also equally. 

Being on a mission field is fun!

I am always reminded of the joy of spreading the word of God rather than just enjoying the gospel all by myself. At times I was almost bitten by a dog with a size of a lion, was interrogated by a government official, and although I couldn’t do anything in spreading the bible, being in the land that God told me to go was enough to experience the grace of God. I am looking forward to these tiny seeds that we sowed to sprout and eventually produce many fruits in the land of Mongolia!