But Thanks be to God, Who Always Leads Us...

Dear friends,

Can I just say how much we love you?
Your prayers have been falling fresh on us daily. The hand of our God is leading us, passionately, through this beautiful country. Your prayers have shifted the atmosphere in these steppes - whispers of the Holy Spirit flying in an out of these valleys and gers. The Lord hears you! Pray in bold faith for what God has planned, pray "Come Holy Spirit! Have your way!"

I sensed the Lord laughing two nights ago - we played a game of basketball against a team of 17-year-old guys in Ulaangom... All whom are outsiders of the faith. At the end of our time there, 3 boys asked to join us on our 25-day trek to the mountains. After talking to their parents and the Holy Spirit we have agreed to take one boy named Biliya, who is here with us now, sitting in a nomadic ger at the mouth of a massive valley. 

Here we will buy two pack horses. In the last town we bought hand-made saddles with all sorts of leather accessories for the horses. We also paid a woman in the market to make custom saddle bags (mongolians in this region don't seem to us saddle bags, and if they so, they are small. So we have 2 HUGE, custom-made canvas saddle bags... The woman slept for one hour that night in order to complete the task! Would you pray for blessing upon her? And for the revelation of Gods holiness to fall upon her and her family?

Our translator is a passionate and quirkey man named Maidar. The cultural differences between he and us have been challenging, but Maidar loves the Gospel with all his heart.
Please pray for unity between midair and our team - for cultural sensitivity on our part!

We love you and are encouraged by your prayers more than ever! Continue in the fire of prayer as we start our trek today. By tonight we will be camping in the valley, going as deep as we can in the next few days in order to find the least reached. (follow our SPOT device, as this will be our final update for 3 weeks or so) -  0OZMn2EmEpGWepM9o3iV7GQ9TaSWWAWLI

We are in a curious land. Turkish (khoton) and Kazakh Muslims and several Mongolian-buddhist tribes. It is a land where 200 Christians live amongst 230,000 non-believers. We've met some fierce missionaries whose names I ought not post on the Internet. They live on the edge, having lived in this open steppe-lands for over a dozen years, with children, braving the harshest and longest winters you can imagine, and plowing plowing plowing with such little fruit. Please remember the Mongolian church... Remember those God has called to Uvs province as missionaries. 

May He be Glorified as we surrender now! And may He bless His name as we step off of the throne of our hearts so that He might reign there unchallenged!

We love you with all of our hearts!
Thank you for your prayers!

Love, 
TeamMongolia

Fire and Faith

While we Walk…

      ‘…Passionate Dependence…’

 Tomorrow we head west. Tomorrow we follow the passionate call of Jesus to "Go." Tomorrow, the Holy Spirit leads. "And there's no real knowing where we are going;" but for the one who holds on tight to that ancient whisper of God, there comes a surity which accents that deep resolve of accepting those words: "I will never leave you or forsake you."

 

Sacred. Our travels have been sacred. Anointed and consecrated by and for God. We've walked into a city that has real character. The chipped paint, tangeled power lines, and rustic Soviet installments add a curiously sweet tincture to every street-corner and alley-way. The people, as diverse as any, are passionate, strong, and kind.

 

I don't have the time to enumerate the blessings of God in a way that is worthy of His grace, but know that He has set us in high places as His sons. And here we are, looking to grab hold of that sonship with a passionate and chain-breaking resolve of abandon to the Cross. And good sons obey - radically and without question. This is the power of the Cross in us - identifying us as sons, validating us as the Beloved, and establishing us as His own portion in dark streets where light flickers from every secret motive.

 

Tomorrow. I have no clue what tomorrow holds. But we've got maps, we've got tents, and we've got The Holy Spirit. I am reminded of when Abraham, in faith, left all he owned to follow the call of God to a land that he had never seen. He said, "Go, take all you have and go to the land that I will show you." Abraham never looked back, never questioned God - His obedience (the evidence of his faith) was accredited to him as righteousness. And we are chasing righteousness... the call to "go to the land that I will show you." It's not that we're masochists, thrill seekers, or Christian radicals, but it is a thirst for the Living God - the Consuming Fire, it is a simple grapsing of a simple message called "Good News" that contains so profound a message that it could bring the nations to their knees. For the love of God. For the love of those He imprinted with His own image. 

 

Please continue on in prayer. One month of faithfulness in this distinct way - as we are faithful to God in our hiking, talking, eating, sheep-shearing, and Gospel-living,  please also be faithful in prayer. Not for safety or for comfort - but for holiness and for souls. Pray that God be glorified in the way that most pleases Him. Pray that the harvest and sowing be great.

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

 

 

We love you all and you also are in our prayers daily.

In the love of the Maker,

Team Mongolia

 

Holy, Holy, Holy!

A New Flame…

      ‘…Riding on the back of a fresh Revelation…’

I sit… near a snoring team mate of mine… reflecting…

            School is out for the summer; I’m about as poor as I ever was; life seems to be a lot more demanding yet a lot less complicated, and with Jesus I’ve walked through the most difficult and jaw-bone-breaking semester I have ever had.

            I don’t think I’ve prayed that Psalm 71 prayer more at any other point in life, “Lord, don’t forsake me when my strength is spent.” I’ve spent it all. I am moving forward to that howling Mongolian countryside in the arms of Jesus, abandoning my ability to do anything, with fire in my eyes.

            I suppose it’s about time I shared why I am going to Mongolia… or why I “go” anywhere for that matter… it’s this:

            I believe that if we saw the holiness of the living God – That all consuming fire whose eyes are ablaze with passion for His own glory, whose feet were like glowing bronze, whose voice is like the rushing of many waters, out of whose mouth comes a double edged sword, and whose face shines stronger than the sun… I believe that if we SAW that God, with our dinky, little, scale-covered, blind and human eyes… We would no longer be ashamed of the message of the Gospel… I think… if we SAW the glory of the coming of the Lord, we might stop cringing when we feel the Spirit churning within us to just tell the good story with the lost, and start speaking the old old story of Jesus and His blood to those one’s to whom we’ve given the title “Lost”. And they are LOST. To your left, to your right, in your work, in your homes, in your malls, in your churches, they – are – LOST… And if we REALLY believed that God possessed, infinitely, every divine and good attribute dreamed up in the sweetest and most righteous parts of our finite minds which might give us just the smallest taste of the idea that He is the reality of an idea we call “holy,” then we would STOP going place-to-place-to-place without never having needed to let the Gospel proceed from our lips to reach the ears of one who has NEVER even been given the opportunity to hear the message we have taken for granted.

            Do you believe that everyone in America has had the luxury of having heard the Gospel? Of knowing who Jesus really was? A month ago I shared the Gospel with a group of rowdy and loud High-school students… when I reached the climax of the News (“Jesus’ death in place of ours was what it cost for God to be satisfied…”), a young, petit girl nearly lost it… she widened her eyes, told her friends to quiet down… “this is important,” she shouted at them! I asked… “Have any of you ever actually heard this story?” “No… Never,” they replied as if to ask, “howd’ you expect that we’ve ever heard that story?” A generation, rising up, believing that they know Jesus, but not knowing that He died for them? What is the “Good News” if it doesn’t include the cross and the empty grave?

           

            God is looking for 2 Corinthians men and woman – those who will SPEAK with sincerity as if in the sight of God… commissioned by Him (2:17). Because there is no other way that people will hear – unless we speak! “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” – Romans 10:14. So in the most simple way that I can muster… in full knowledge of the sin that lurks behind every one of my good deeds and genuine prayers… I have decided “Lord, I will speak!” It is the most simple, and most desired response that we can give to God in light of His holiness and His breaking heart for a world walking by the millions and by the billions towards an eternity in torment.

God is Holy.

His heart is breaking.

I Will Speak.

“Most churches want to set up shop under their church bells. I want to set up a rescue center - a yard from the gates of Hell.”

William Carey said that.  A man who lost His life (and found it) while living and preaching the Good News in India… before anyone else had arrived with the message. He actually believed that this stuff (the Gospel) was such good news that it was worth telling other people.

If the Good News is THE Good News… then why haven’t I shared it with more people? So this is my stand – repenting of the broken promise to God of: “Hide it under a bushel? NO! I’m gonna let it Shine!” and I choose with unswerving resolve and an iron conviction to “carry my cross till I see Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”

Only the revelation of God’s holiness will do if being consumed with passion is the end we seek. Only the un-tinted, extra-biblical, soul-altering, paradigm-shifting, idol-breaking, slit-side and nail-pierced-hands-feeling experience with Jesus will do. And to the one who has truly placed his hands in Christ’s side, and to the one who has truly put his fingers in the holes of Christ’s hands belongs a revelation that will not fail Him… yet it will destroy him, stripping him of all he owns. For that one, the one to whom Christ has revealed Himself, the only response that person will manage to muster is “here am I, send me!” For the one who has met Jesus face-to-face, worldly pleasures will be forsaken for the pleasure of Christ’s presence. It is the revelation of God’s holiness that will drive a business major to forsake money, a nursing major to forsake health, a Bible major to forsake orthodoxy, a communication major to forsake attention, an ICS major to forsake control, or an American to forsake the calloused heart where self sits on the throne.

The revelation of God’s holiness is the only means by which a follower of Jesus will find themselves sustainably consumed with an unquenchable fire of passion for God. Guilt will not do… Christian tradition will not do… So we cry: “Rain down Your holiness God! Show Yourself to us! Wreck us and consume the dross and the chaff in our lives! We welcome the war of wrath you have stored up for our flesh – purify us in the furnace of affliction which engulfs our flesh and consumes our souls with passion for You!”

Where are the upright ones among us to whom God will call out with furious longing saying, “Ask me! Ask me to show you my glory!” And who will respond back, “Yes! Show me! Take it all!” Just a taste and we’ll be undone! Just a glimpse will consume us! One glimpse will refine us! He is not just the consuming fire, but the refining fire!

Holy Spirit, I ask that you would breathe and blow your mighty wind into the flame of our hearts – consume Team Mongolia with Passion for your name! Consume the dross of our flesh and consume our hearts with passion… with a zeal that does not betray us even when the flesh tries to whisper in our ear. And when the flesh does whisper in our ear seductively of how satisfying it was to have once been set at its feast, may You blow all the more into the flame you’ve set in our hearts through the blood of Christ! Breathe on us with a holy wind and so in consume us with a holy fire! Don’t relent – though it be like a tooth from the jaw we will embrace the pain of amputating the flesh with joy as you sweep through us with the satisfaction of your presence. Forsaking all other passions we embrace You… just you and nothing else… not your blessings, nor your works… just you, with full abandon – we abandon passion for the creation that we might pick up, afresh, a passion for the Creator. And may we find You, these six weeks, more perfectly completing the work You’ve begun for Your glory. Win those whom You will win – We will simply follow… we will speak Your Story, for we love to tell it – it never grows old, the depth of its waters never recede. Seat us at Your feast O God! The feast of Your very presence! We Cry out for ALL You are! Show us Your glory!

                                    Amen

So tomorrow we “go!” We go to Mongolia to take the Gospel to those who have never heard it... and never will unless someone goes. Wow… Just tomorrow! The work, the literal sweat and tears all for God’s glory now bearing fruit!

The call has been urgent and we have been eager. Your prayers, your money, your support, and your encouragement have carried with them the Spirit of Christ and we find ourselves equipped as those who have been called!

UPDATES!

    1. We DO have a translator - FINALLY! What a blessing! To have found an translator just a week before our trip was an outrageous act of God’s favor…

-     And if it weren’t enough, there was ONE plane ticket left when our translator came through! I can’t express the improbability of this situation through words on a blog… save to say that “God showed up.”

    

The Company from whom we bought our food!!! 

     2. We DO have food! -- there was some sort of hick-up with the first food company's ability to get us our food on time, but now we have ordered food through a hiking food company... this freeze-dried food will be much lighter and better-tasting! A HUGE “thank you” to that Company – “Enertia Trail Foods” for getting us some AWESOME food all the way from North Carolina to California in just a day's days notice!

    3. We have turned on our SPOT device a few times in the last week and it is working!

It will plot our coordinates on a map which you can see at: Click Here to Track Us!

May I share a picture!?

A few months ago I had a picture in my head as SMU staff prayed aloud for Miles and I (leaders of Team Mongolia) - The picture was of Christ, riding on a MASSIVE eagle. The Eagle was the Holy Spirit. And He was riding through a Valley in Mongolia proclaiming His own name - shouting of His resurrection and yelling "Waaaaake Uuuuup!!!!"

The Holy Spirit has gone ahead of us. Please pray for the harvest!

Together, For Our King and Until The Whole World Hears!

Bless you and may your summers bear the fruit of the Kingdom as you consider sharing the Gospels in your neighborhoods and workplaces!


Please be fervent in prayer for us sons, brothers, uncles, nephews, students, and disciples - and more-so for the Gospel to penetrate the darkness in Mongolia. 

Kyle, Miles, Geoff, Stefan, Frank, Blake, and Jeremy - Team Mongolia 2011

We Will: “Be strong, and use our strength for our people and for the

 cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him!"

                                                                                                1 Chronicles 19:13