BY DOUG NEISWENDER
Mongolia is a country with much land and few people. Its area is more than twice the size of Texas, while its population is about 10 percent of Texas’s: about 3.5 million people (and about 50 million head of livestock). More than half the people live in or near the capital, Ulaanbaatar, which is filled with high-rises, Soviet-era buildings, Buddhist monasteries, and ger districts (round, portable dwellings sometimes called yurts).
Twenty-two of Mongolia’s 28 people groups are unreached with the Gospel, which translates to 3.4 million people. The Soviet-backed communist government that formed in the 1920s ended early missionary efforts to reach Mongolians. After the nation’s freedom in 1990, South Korean believers arrived with the Gospel, and today, the Korean and Mongolian assemblies have a strong relationship. This year, Ho Sook and I, who have served in South Korea since 1966, visited Mongolia and experienced that relationship firsthand.
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF BRETHREN HISTORY
In 1997, a 31-year-old named Jung became the first South Korean Brethren missionary to go to Mongolia. He obeyed the Lord’s call to go “and make disciples of all the nations.” (Matthew 28:19) After language study, Jung went to Öndörkhaan, a city of 28,000 people about 300 miles east of the capital. He saw an assembly start there in 2002.
In 2009, Jung and his family moved to Ulaanbaatar. That same year, his home assembly commended another Korean believer, S. Park, to Mongolia, and an assembly started in the capital. Jung remained there for four years before leaving for mission work in another country. S. Park continues discipling and training believers today. The Ulaanbaatar assembly has grown, with 100 believers meeting together.
Other assemblies have been started across Mongolia. In 2004, one was formed not by a missionary but through the witness of a Mongolian named Puji. While in Korea for a study program, she attended a gospel camp for foreigners. Many other Mongolians attended and needed an interpreter. Puji, being fluent in English, interpreted for a preacher presenting the Gospel in English, and God saved her through the messages.
When she returned to Mongolia, she shared the Gospel with her parents. They believed and witnessed to others in their hometown, and an assembly formed. Puji’s mother, who worked in a hospital, witnessed to the doctors. Some believed and joined the assembly.
At one time, 300 Korean missionary families served in Mongolia, some of them Brethren. Now, most have left. However, Korean believers visit to help Mongolians teach children in the Sunday school ministry; others go to teach and encourage the believers.
One ministry is the Emmaus Bible Correspondence School. This work started in 2003 through Dong-Hwan Kim, a missionary from Germany (married to our niece). Since then, workers have translated 15 books, and five are in production. The goal is to have 24 books translated. About 34 churches, including assemblies, use the books; there are about 400 active students. Checking the completed courses and sending out books keep Dong-Hwan and his coworker, an elder in the Ulaanbaatar assembly, busy.
Northern Ireland’s Bible Education Services (BES) has been in Mongolia since 2019. Each month, 6,000 courses for children aged 2 to 16 are printed and distributed free of cost to 160 churches.
HOURS ON THE ROAD, ENDLESS ENCOURAGEMENT
Toward the end of this past summer, four of us from Seoul Northside Assembly—an elder named Hwang, a young man named Kim, Ho Sook, and I—left South Korea to attend the yearly conference of the six Mongolian assemblies. The weekend conference was held at a large church campground about an hour from Ulaanbaatar. More than 150 believers came for teaching and fellowship. Hwang and Doug each spoke twice. After the messages, we partook in discussion groups and fellowship.
On Saturday, four believers shared their testimonies. They were a young, married man; two medical students; and a young woman. Later that day, everyone went down to the nearby river for the baptism of the four.
After the conference, meetings and visits were held in each assembly. On Monday, a 40-seat bus was hired to transport us. Thirty believers joined us on the trip, including several students since it was vacation time in Mongolia. They came for fellowship and teaching, so Hwang and I needed different messages for each assembly.
The bus went to the newest and farthest assembly first. At more than 420 miles east of Ulaanbaatar, it took us more than 12 hours to reach on a road with broken asphalt and potholes. A young, commended Mongolian believer started the assembly when, in 2023, he went to this city of 72,000 people to pioneer a work.
Each assembly we visited was very hospitable and generous in feeding us. After our final visit, Hwang and our other travel companion, Kim, returned to South Korea. Ho Sook and I stayed another week to spend time with our niece Hanna Kim; her husband, Dong-Hwan; and baby, David. Like Dong-Hwan, Hanna is commended from Germany.
On Monday morning, the five of us and four others drove two cars to a remote village of 2,000 souls in the Gobi Desert. Much of our trip happened on dirt roads. Rain had left potholes, and in one place, one car got stuck in muddy water. By nighttime, we arrived at the village and home where we would stay for three nights. We held two days of meetings: the mornings were devoted to a few women and the afternoons to 20 children. We shared the Gospel at each meeting. The children also enjoyed activities and BES lessons.
After returning to the Kims’ apartment, we visited the nearby pregnancy center where Hanna volunteers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The center’s purpose is to discourage abortion and share the Gospel, and Hanna provides ultrasounds using a machine she and Dong-Hwan brought from Germany. Hanna had been the head gynecologist in a German hospital but left that to join Dong-Hwan in missionary work in Mongolia. For doing this prenatal work, she receives a visa, which allows her and Dong-Hwan to stay in the country.
After a total of two-and-a-half weeks, we returned safely to a hot, humid Korea, leaving behind a much cooler, drier Mongolia. To God be the glory for any good done! Please pray for the six assemblies to stand firm in the Lord while proclaiming the Gospel. Pray that souls will be saved and that young workers will rise up to become leaders. In mid-September, believers gathered for a one-month discipleship program in the area where the first assembly was started (240 miles outside Ulaanbaatar). Leaders were trained in the Gospel, shepherding, and devotional life. Pray, too, that God will use Emmaus and BES courses to reach and teach many for His glory.
Doug and Ho Sook Neiswender are commended from Southside Bible Chapel in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Originally published in Missions magazine, November 2024. For more content, sign up for a free subscription (US) to Missions at CMML.us/magazine/subscribe
