For The Wandering Heart.
The road less traveled is a dear friend of anyone who says they have "faith." Consider when God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness... That faith took him through lands he had never been - a faith-walk on the road less traveled. It's not that these people are adventure-seekers, adrenalin-junkies, or masochists, but rather that there is a hunger... a longing for souls and for holiness that takes them anywhere and everywhere in search of the Kingdom - following whispers, clouds, and pillars of fire in search of the One by whom they were called and for whom they would lay down their very lives like drink-offerings. It's risky, dangerous, unexpected, and life-threatening... Those who take the road less traveled count the cost and march on. It's got nothing to do with self, but everything to do with laying aside self just to obey - having counted the cost of the end of having sought first the Kingdom of God. Whatever it takes they will give. "Every day they choose to lose that they might one day win the 'well done' of faithful sons and daughters."
Abandon. It's what we're starting to taste. Twenty-five days in the "howling waste" of the Mongolian wilderness - 'familiarity' is just an lofty idea with the exception of Christ and 'comfort' is whenever you're not sick. The silence is piercing. There is no background music, no buzz of electricity, no cars or kids, no morning birds or night owls. Silence... well reflecting what Christ may have felt when He often withdrew to pray... just Him and His Abba on the mountain-top. And as we hike through these mountains, somedays it feels likes it's just us and our Abba-Father and nothing else, just the endless Mongolian steppes, the harsh and unrelenting wind, and a river so cold that it hurts to bathe.
Yet despite the brutal distance between A and B (the variables are yours to imagine) I am reminded of the brave cloud of witnesses who surround me, they are in Cameroon, Ghana, Norway, The Ukraine, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Belize, Japan, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, The Phillipines, Indonésia, Oman, Tunísia, Nepal, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Honduras, China - and there are the brave ones in the United States who have been praying dangerous and life-altering prayers for the nations... spending their money and their time with full abandon and faith that "surely He is coming soon!"
2000 years after the life of Paul, Phillip, John, Peter, and countless other Saints of old, mission remains the family business. Though the hearts of some have grown cold to the urgent call of the Bridegroom, some are still set ablaze with hunger for the fulfillment of the Bridegroom's promise: "And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
He said, "Seek first my Kingdom." And if we are to seek this Kingdom (even before the kingdom into which we were borne - in which our feet are still planted to varying degrees), then we must be concerned with the souls of the nations. When everything else fades away and only the Kingdom of our God remains, souls will be the only things proven to pass from this life to the next. So when we daydream about what the Kingdom will look like we must dream of two elements which we may control in this life: holiness and souls. Holiness - because Christ is returning for a pure Bride whom He will marry. Souls - because they will be the company by which God is most glorified for all eternity. So if we seek to glorify God maximally for eternity in the way His soul longs for most, then we ought respond to the breaking heart of God (for the worship of the nations) with a radical push in sharing the Gospel with full abandon.
--- Could I just say (not prophetically, but in folly and as a brother) that God's call, especially for my home country, is that we stop living like Disney Land, McDonalds, CalKing mattresses, skinny jeans, vans shoes, hot cars, hot dates, diets, sports, and television are the reason for living... and that we start living as if the reason for this life is to prepare for the one to come; which will outsatisfy any pleasure that this life may seductively advertise. ---
My friend Jordan and I once sat together in the grass on a cool SoCal spring morning... As we thought together of what the Kingdom costs a believer, Jordan's eyes widened and he began to pull his hair; "it's just your life!" he shouted. "Jesus bought it - it's His to use! Heaven will be better! Throw-it-AWAY! It is just your life!"
Indeed... The day we start living like heaven is more than a fairy-tale is the day we'll start shouting, "Whatever! It's just my life!" ... We spend this whole life trying to escape the sting of death - medications, cozy couches, good-looking cars, health insurance, safety-this, safety-that... and then we say something like, "it's not that I don't trust God, I'm just being 'responsible'." Or, "I would do it if I didn't have a wife and kids at home." But you won't find that verse anywhere in Acts, the book where the church grew despite the promise of death for their faith... They were sawed in two, crucified upside-down, thrown from buildings, shot with arrows, boiled alive, beheaded, and stoned... And Stephen looked up into heaven and said with wide eyes and a grin as the rocks continued to bring him closer to death: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Do not hold this sin against them." And if I may insert: "It was worth it!" The Kingdom is of so much more value than our earthly lives that if we suffer torture, persecution, loss, ostracizing, rejection, hatred, and the worst of deaths we may still look up into heaven with our final breath and say with all our hearts, "It was worth it... SO worth it... O death, where is your sting?!"
Camel caravans, wolves, two fiendish horses; sheep testicles, liver, lung, intestines, heart, kidney, and colon; river crossings, wind, rain, snow, blaring sun, sickness, sunburns, cuts, bruises, 8 families and a Mosque with 5 Saudis... True blood, sweat, and tears.
- Blood: from bloody noses caused by chronic sickness... From ticks... From blisters won by the endless hiking... From chaffing (yes... Chaffing)... And from odds and ends of farm-life and hiking...
- Sweat: from the heat of some days, where water and shade are as good as gold... from wrestling with young guys... From shearing sheep, collecting firewood, and herding the flocks... And from our sleeping bags whose ratings are good until the sun comes up in the morning and makes the "sleeping bag" into a "sleeping sauna."
- Tears: from missing home so much... From growing hearts that are constantly breaking for this nation... And from joy of the 16 who have put their hope in Jesus and have joined the triumphal procession of Saints!
I wish I could tell all of our stories. I would if I could, but time and strength would truly fail me if I started to speak of the 5 Muslim men from Saudi Arabia with whom we shared the Gospel for the first time in a small-town Mosque; of the Camel packing over 450 pounds of wood which, while roaring with an ear-shattering roar, nearly fell over and spit regurgitated grass all over our translator; of the midnight dance-competition we had with nearly 200 girl and boy scouts in the middle of nomadic lands; and of the personal and team victories we've had in Christ despite persecution, cultural miscommunication, sickness, and adversities of many kinds. The faithfulness of God is astounding... His grace is overwhelming... His favor is so undeserved.
My Friends, This has been a most challenging walk of faith... in every way. It's not quite the fairy tale that Papua New Guinea was... I'm not quite as enchanted or love-drunk as I once was... But then there’s God, who constantly whispers and breathes refinement into the chaos of my heart. He reminds me constantly that Mongolia is less than 1% Christian - who am I to complain when the task is so urgent?
We hiked through the mountains for 25 days, stayed with 4 families, visited 12 others... We helped them milk their goats every morning, castrate and shear their sheep, collect firewood and water, and Geoff found himself graduated from nursing student to full-blown Doctor (“Kyle studies culture, Miles studies radio, Frank studies film, oh, and Geoff is a Doctor”). We took two horses with us, we named them Caster and Pollux from Acts 28 - the “twin gods” on the helm of Paul’s boat set out for Rome. We've ridden camels, crossed swift and deep rivers, seen a wolf attack a flock of sheep, we've eaten sheep testicles and all sorts of goat and sheep guts, and we hiked about 80 miles total. We’ve seen loss, we’ve felt heartache, we’ve shared joy and pain... our boots will never be the same, nor will our attitudes. During our trek we shared the Gospel with about 70 nomads who had never heard the story before. Unreached. Forgotten. Unscathed by the searing truth of a Gospel I have abused and perverted with disdain for years. We invested in their lives, spending several days with each family. 60 of those 70 nomads had never heard even the name of Jesus. All the same, we earned a name for ourselves, they called us the “Jesus People.” 16 accepted Christ and acknowledged that they had to break commitments to all of their other gods (many times for Polytheistic peoples, Jesus will just be added as another god on their list). Most nomads worship nature - the mountains, rivers, trees, and sky... even if they start out saying they are Buddhist or Muslim, their shamanistic and even pantheistic beliefs generally come out. We encouraged them to worship the Creator and not the creation.
We made a most noble attempt at not imposing our own culture - walking as they walk, living as they live, eating as they eat, and talking as they talk. I believe that when someone accepts Jesus, the Gospel has the power to fit into their culture yet still address sin. We admit a God who is glorified by cultural diversity.
So even though this trip wasn't easy or always enjoyable - the sicknesses, the disagreements, and the cultural challenges with our translator, I am reminding myself: "I'm not here for comfort. I'm here for the Gospel."
Please pray:
• For the 5 Saudi Arabian Muslim men we shared the Gospel with - their names are Fahad, Muhammad, Abdullah, Achmed, and Selah.
• For the 16 Nomad who have accepted the Gospel through our team - that they would read the Bibles we left them, that their faith would be genuine, and that they would be able to visit the church in Tarialan.
• That The Holy Spirit would continue leading us where He wants us to go, even in the city - continuing to people in our paths whom He wishes to speak to.
• For boldness in our team - there are many things that are tempting to fear - but perfect love casts out fear!
Your prayers have been the fuel to our passion, and are driving us into deeper places with Jesus and darker parts of this earth.
With the strong love of our Savior,
Kyle & Team Mongolia
