Go Beyond

A Page From My Journal | Mongolia | June 18, 2008

As this day comes to a close, I am seated outside facing west, watching the sun go down behind the distant purple steppes. The last rays of the sun are illuminating the white-sheathed gers dotting the valley west of the Haraa River. Night is preparing to make its grand entrance. The stars are awaiting their cue. The grass and wildflowers are dancing to the rhythm of a gentle northern breeze as a flock of birds fly against its unseen current. This is Mongolia, the ancient land of Ghengis Khan, whose hoards once thundered across these steppes, sowing fear and reaping conquest.

Once again, we have returned to this vast land where horses almost outnumber people, flocks of sheep and goats graze across fenceless ranges, and camels lazily lumber near the Gobi. We have come to make connections with people whose  souls were raped by the atheism of Communist philosophy, whose hearts are searching for meaning in ancient Buddhist ways, and who minds are caught between a proud past and an encroaching future. With only 2.5 million people scattered across this vast country, reaching Mongolia with the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an unrealistic goal.

I am proud of our team. They have compassionately demonstrated the love of Jesus to children with dirty faces, to the elderly who have outlived their families and are facing final days alone, to single mothers with no place to call home, to nomads with matted hair and weather-worn faces, to those whose health is failing, to those bullied by despair and who feed on the table scraps of hope, and to those who have never entertained significance or befriended worth.

Jesus cared about people like this. He cared about the least of these — a woman at a well, a tax-collector in a tree, an adulteress dragged through the streets, a grieving mother at a funeral, hungry crowds on a hillside, lepers in the shadows, and others living on the edge of dignity. We are perhaps most like Him when we love the least of these as He did.

Many in Mongolia are turning to our compassionate Savior because He has visited them here on the endless steppes. He has kissed dirty cheeks, combed matted hair, delivered food to the hungry, built shelters for the homeless, given new sight to those with dim vision, and brought laughter and joy to children rescued from the sewers that carry the refuse of living. He has visited Mongolia through the people of Kingsland, through those who have made room in their hearts for the least of these.