Recently a friend recommended a book to me, "20/20 Vision: Amazing Stories of What God Is Doing Around the World," by Bill and Amy Stearns. In the book is the story of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ came to Mongolia.

"In the 1870’s Swedish missionaries arrived in Mongolia. After four decades not a single indigenous church had been established. Then, in 1921, Mongolia voluntarily invited the Soviets to bring communism to their country." In the ensuing purge, every vestige of any religion was erased.

"In 1980, a young Mongolian named 'Yi'...went to study at a university in Moscow. He was given an English-language Bible by a fellow student from Tanzania. 'You can study English with it,' the Tanzanian student explained. Yi studied the Bible for seven years, returning to Mongolia and rising to a top English interpreter position with the Mongolian government.

"In 1987, Yi was assigned to an American big-game hunt tourist group. Douglas Coe, Evangelical leader of 'The Family' and political mentor for many politicians...During the hunting trip, Yi found the opportunity to secretly ask him, 'Do you know God?' Douglas nodded. Three hours later, Yi was able to whisper, 'What is His name?' 'Jesus Christ' In bits and pieces of stolen conversations throughout the rest of the big-game hunt, Douglas was able to introduce Yi to Jesus. 'Don’t worry,' he told Yi. 'I know it’s illegal to be a Christian; and, it will be hard for you. But friends will come.'

"Three years later, Yi was assigned to another foreign tour group, this time a group of Native American cowboys of Navajo, Winnebago, Cocapaw, and other Native American descent, who came to Mongolia to perform in the national nadim, a competition in horsemanship! By God's grace and foresight, the tourist group was composed of Christian Native American cowboys! Yi translated their testimonies on national television and interpreted their explanation of the Gospel to press groups and officials.

"Several Mongolians responded to the tourist group’s challenge to receive Jesus Christ, and Yi spent hours and hours absorbing everything the cowboys knew about God! Then, they too left Mongolia. Yi began discipling those Mongolians who had come to Christ through the cowboys’ ministry. Some time later, another tour group came, a few members of which just happened to be pastors! The ministers, after days of intense discipling, realized the depth of Yi’s Bible knowledge. For this reason they all gathered together in a hotel room in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, on a cold day in November 1990 and ordained Yi as an elder of the first Mongolian church in the history of the world!" Report by BROWNNAIK@aol.com.

Jesus Christ builds His Church 24/7, night and day, all around the globe. The work of building the Church never ceases! The Church triumphant is not about building buildings. Rather, it is about building lives!

According to the record in "Operation World" by Patrick Johnstone "The young Mongolian Church is a reality for the first time in modern history. The believers are eagerly evangelizing, and new converts are won weekly."

Read more inspiring stories by ordering "Into All The World" by this writer. Call toll free, Jenny 866-308-6235 extension 5127.

Make plans now to plant a garden

The projections for the near future of our economy are not good. Many of our leaders are telling us that our incomes will get much worse before they get better. This makes me ask, "What can we learn from our ancestors, who survived when the economy was bad? From our library I picked up a copy of "Count Me In" by T. Euclid Rains, Sr. Euclid was a relative of Clara, my wife. He is famous in the Alabama area for his being able to manage a farm even though he was totally blind. His wife, Nell, had to give up her job when Tommy was born, because Tommy's health problem required constant attention from his mother. "When we brought Tommy home from the hospital, we knew we had monumental financial problems to solve. After Nell and I huddled, we agreed the answer to our survival and well-being as a family would have to come from the soil and our frugal handing of personal needs...Nell had a deep freeze and we bought a pressure cooker for canning. We rounded up some 300 canning jars of all sizes...The notion of our turning to the soil for the solution of our problems was realized in full. Within a year we were growing 52 items of food on Sunshine Farm and had reduced our grocery bill to about $2.75 per week."

How did they do it? They canned the blackberries, jellied the muscadines, and drank sassafras tea and grape juice. They "raised" their own milk, butter and eggs-butchered their own beef, pork and chickens-got fish from neighboring ponds and streams-and sometimes had rabbit, squirrel and quail from their farm. They ground and mixed their own sausage and raised the dill for their own pickles. In his book, "Count Me In" Euclid reported, "we became partners with my dad in pig farming. Dad did the driving and the hauling of the pigs, and I did the handling of the feed and other manual labor. And soon that whopping hospital bill for the weeks of care for baby Tommy just melted away like a snowball in July...We were prospering. We never stopped supporting our church and other charitable institutions and causes."

In his book Euclid asks, "Where have all the gardeners gone? Surely the answer to some of our poverty and hunger lies in the land up which we walk. A few plants of tomatoes, squash and cucumbers would brighten up a menu. Surely some of the fertile soil about us that is so rife with weeds and briars would be better off growing potatoes and beans. It requires only a little know how and some elbow grease."

We used to sit around at the family reunions and listen to Euclid talk. It was a treat. He would often conclude his sharing with these words, "Please let me reiterate: We were not poor. Our family was simply wallowing in plenty. We made ice cream nearly every warm day of summer and early fall. I remember one hot August afternoon, we made and consumed a whole gallon of rich Jersey ice cream. If we wanted walnut, if we wanted peach, or it we wanted strawberry or whatever flavor, it was in our pantry or deep freeze."

What can we do to help secure for our future? I believe Euclid would say, "Make plans now to plant a garden."

Sierra Leone, West Africa

In January of 1979 twelve young adult members of Trinity United Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee led a three week medical mobile dental ministry to the poorest and richest area of Sierra Leone, West Africa. One of our assignments was to spend several days in Bo, known as one of the richest and poorest areas of the world. "Rich" because of its many productive diamond mines. "Poor" because the local residents, whose ancestors "owned" this area of the country for generations, now do not share in the great wealth from the resources that the Creator put in the earth for their well being.

When we arrived in the Bo area one of the first sights that caught our attention was a crew of men digging graves in a very large cemetery. When we asked if there had been some kind of natural disaster, we were told that the constant grave digging was natural because almost half the children in the Bo area die before they are five years old. We asked, "How can this be in one of the riches areas of the world?" The answer we received was that most of the wealth, except for some low paying laboring jobs, ends up in the hands of foreign investors. And when a baby is born many perform an ancient ritual of thanking mother earth by washing the child in mud made from the "sacred soil". Too often the tetanus germ enters the child's body through the "washing." For several days we provided medical and dental care for the residents. One of our hardest experiences was when a mother brought to us her baby boy with a high fever. Our medical team treated the child and our prayer team prayed with him. But to the mother's and our distress the child died during the night.

After serving for a week in the Bo area, we were pleased to receive an invitation to have dinner as guests of the wife of the Superintendent of the Bo Diamond Industry. We could not believe our eyes when we entered through the gate into the British compound of several hundred thousand acres. We dined in a mansion, entertained by one of the most gracious hostess I have ever met. She focused her attention on us. She was eager to hear our story. When we told her about our work with the citizens of Sierra Leone in the area near the British compound she could hardly believe that the citizens nearby were living in such poverty, and experiencing the death of so many of their children. She confessed that she had lived in the Bo area for several years, but she had only left the British compound by air and had never met any of her neighbors. She was not aware of the sickness and death all around her. For the next ten years the young adult Sunday school class of Trinity Church gave three weeks every January to send a group of their members to practice a medical and dental ministry with the citizens in the bush area of Sierra Leone. The class also provided the money for the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone to hire and supervise two full time dental nurses to serve the people in the bush area.

Nearby each of us there are persons who are lonely and suffering from poor health, feeling like no one cares. Some of them we see when we go to buy groceries. Others we meet at the post office. Sometimes we see them playing in the streets. Let us decide today when we meet others we will for them breath a prayer, and when the Lord opens the door, let us put "legs on our faith", and share with them Christ's care.

Pictured above is the late Bishop T.S. Bangura of the United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone.

Curtis Schofield was the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee for seven years. He is now retired and enjoying telling faith stories in churches and to his grandchildren.

Pray for the missionaries in Venezuela

Pray for the missionaries in Venezuela, and for the Christian people who have come to Christ and Christian discipleship by working with missionaries. The Supreme Court of Venezuela recently, in November, 2008, ruled that the rights of New Tribes Mission of Venezuela had not been violated by the resolution issued by the Ministry of Interior and Justice on the 14th of November, 2005 that gave New Tribes Mission of Venezuela ninety days in which to remove its personnel from all indigenous areas. New Tribes Mission of Venezuela believed the government resolution to be unconstitutional and had sought to have it overturned by the Supreme Court. Recently the Supreme Court disagreed and ruled in favor of the government resolution.

One of the missionaries said "This has been disappointing, but we trust God, and seek to work within the context that He provides. We know that it it God who keeps the door open for His Word to continue to be proclaimed."

A recent report by Chris Mitchell, the CBN News Middle East Correspondent gives us hope for the places, like Venezuela, where the government is closing doors to Christian missionaries: "Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ commanded His followers to take His Gospel to the ends of the earth. This command, known as the Great Commission has yet to be completed. But a movement out of China believes the inspiring vision is helping them and Christians worldwide to fulfill that command,possibly within this generation.

The history of the Chinese house church is a powerful chronicle. In 1949, Mao Tse Tsung expelled the Western missionaries and began a campaign to purge China of Christianity. During this long campaign of persecution, many in the West feared that the light of the church would be extinguished. But like a stream in the desert, the church not only survived the harsh conditions, it thrived. Today, it is estimated that there are from 70-million to 100-million Christians in China. Brother Yun says it was like a modern-day book of Acts. Brother Yun told us, 'We just went everywhere. We found people who didn't know about Jesus. We healed the sick, we cast out demons and we led people into salvation of Jesus, and that is what we are doing today.' "During this time, Brother Yun, like many other Christians, was imprisoned and tortured, but his faith remained strong. Brother Yun said, 'It's that God Himself or Jesus Himself in a special way helped me to overcome this thing. It was more like, in myself, in my spirit and in my heart, I have to focus my eyes on Jesus. Think about His suffering for me. And so I was receiving strength from His suffering and that made me strong enough to overcome the persecution.'"

To learn more about how you can help missionaries share the gospel call The Mission Society(800-478-8963.)

We Have A Savior

Once He was mocked as a despised Galilean "King".

To religious leaders He was no more than a play thing,

Belittled while He suffered rejection and execution to save us,

Suffering for our sins He died in our place.

Through His life and death, He brings us God's grace.

His enemies labeled Him a terrible sinner,

Who was for His own suffering and death to blame.

Today we hail Him as One who bore our sin and shame.

By His sacrificial merits we find mercy and favor,

Praising God for grace and resurrection power in Jesus' name.

He is the Paschal Lamb, appointed by God the Father,

To freely accept all our sins on Himself to be laid.

By His sacrificial gift we see God's love incarnate,

Suffering the total cost for full atonement made.

He made possible for every sin to be forgiven.

Through the virtue of the shedding of His innocent blood,

He destroyed the gates of hell,

And fed us everlasting bread unleavened,

So we could recover from the pit in which we fell,

Reconciling us with God, fully opening up the gates of Heaven.

Faith Story - Joyce Chellis

Joyce Chellis is special. Her life in Sergeievka, Kazakhstan, as a missionary is an example of abundant life, even when living in poverty. She reminds us of the words of Jesus, "I am come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Her experience as a missionary in a poverty world gives us some good news today as we are now faced with recession. She recently wrote.

"I returned home to Michigan this fall just as it was becoming clear that our nation’s economic crisis was going to impact my state hard...I have recently been pondering Jesus’ promise of 'abundant life' vs. our understanding of 'abundance' in my village in Kazakhstan…

"Ten winters ago, I lived through a economic crisis far from Michigan. I watched children pass out from hunger, mothers with frozen fingers and frozen tears on their cheeks begging for flour to make bread for their kids, people were dying for lack of medicine and many elderly dying from lack of heat in their homes. I was overwhelmed. I found it easy to share Christ’s promise of eternal life but difficult to teach them Jesus’ promise of an abundant life here on earth. It has been these new Christians, most who continue in poverty that have taught me about abundance…

"The Lord didn’t just deliver Doosya from her sins; He delivered her from...a spirit of fear... It has been a rough road for this young wife and mother...but over the years she has seen answer prayers for her husband and daughters. All are now professing Christians; I am still amazed at how God provided a way for her two oldest daughters to go to college…an answer to a prayer she had shared with no one but God...

"Young Katya and her sister Tanya moved with their family of 13 when things were at there worst in our village…Why move to a village with no jobs and no food? Because it was better than one with no jobs, no food and no water. Katya, at 11 years old became one of the first converts…and she suffered ridicule and bitter abuse for it. Over time we’ve celebrated with them the purchase of a 4 room house that replaced a 2 room shack, the opportunity for both to attend university, and best of all, the conversion of several siblings as well as their atheist father before his death. Tanya said, 'We came here in search of water and God provided Living Water.'

"Just let me say that Katya’s families will probably never have running water, indoor bathrooms, or even a matched set of plates in their homes...But every single one of these 'poverty stricken' people are delighted to tell you about the abundant life that Jesus has given them…as Natalya once said to me when I was weeping over the abuse she was enduring, 'Joyce, you don’t get it, do you?'

"My prayer is that all of us...will 'get it'…the fact that sometimes God needs to realign our definition of abundance with His so we can continue to share that part of the Good News."

If you would like Joyce Chellis on your prayer list, and to receive reports from her about her mission work in Sergeievka, Kazakhstan, please call Dennis E. Brown at The Mission Society, 800.478.8963 ext. 9037.

Power in the name of Jesus

She was so excited to be chosen to take the training to be a volunteer with Contact Telephone Ministry of Chattanooga. Her pastor had recommended her. She asked him "why me?" He replied, "The Contact workers are trained to befriend troubled callers. The way you are skilled at listening to the rest of us here in this community, makes me believe you would be an effective volunteer." Since she was retirement age, she was not sure she would be chosen to serve, even after taking the training. But even being given the opportunity to take the training excited her. So she took the fifty hours of training. She graduated and was invited to serve on the six to eleven shift. This meant she and another partner would sit by telephones and respond to callers who were aware that "help is as close as your telephone." Each time she was relieved from her service at 11:00pm, she left the center so content. What a joy it was to serve troubled and lonely people...She was rejoicing that life is so good. How wonderful it was to belong to this special group of servants, called Contact workers.

For her, life was so beautiful. That is until one night when she stepped out of the Contact Center into the darkness on a street in Highland Park, where the street was not well lighted. She looked up the street to her car. When she parked her car before entering the contact center it seem close to the Contact Center. Now, at 11 PM, in the dim light from too few street lights, her car seemed so far away. She started to go back in and ask Ralph, the volunteer who had just relieved her to walk her to her car, but she thought, "I can not let fear control me. If I am going to do this important work, I must be brave." So she said one of her favorite prayers, "Jesus, I accept your promise, 'I am with you always.' " So out into the darkened street Sarah went. She had walked no more than fifteen steps when she could hear the steps of a man behind her. She wondered, "Where did he come from? He was not anywhere to be seen, when I left the building." She hurried her pace to get to her car. She prayed, "Lord Jesus, thank you that I am not alone." She got her car keys out so as to be ready. When she got to the car, and put her key in, the hand of a stranger reached out and took hold of her shoulder. Her first thought was to scream, but instead, she said, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to take you hand off me, and leave." The intruder fled. She started her car and went home, rejoicing that there is power in the name of Jesus.