World Tour: Faith in Mongolia

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour.

A generation after the fall of communism, a new kind of revolution is quietly underway. WORLD’s Amy Lewis reports from Mongolia, where Christianity is gaining ground, but not without challenges.

DAVID KHONGOR: I not believe in Muslim, Jesus...

AMY LEWIS: David Khongor grew up an orphan living in the heated sewers under the streets of Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar.

KHONGOR/TRANSLATOR: I did not believe. I wasn’t Muslim, animus… I did not believe. It wasn’t good.

God was the furthest thought from his mind.

KHONGOR/TRANSLATOR: Not mother, not father, not grandmother, not family, I am only. It's really hard, my life.

All that changed when as a teenager he was welcomed into an orphanage run by Christians.

KHONGOR: I believe Jesus. Jesus my, how you say? Jesus my dad. Jesus my mother. Jesus, my good brother.

Khongor had the opportunity to hear the gospel because his country defends the rights of its citizens to freely choose their religion. In 1989, there were only 4 reported Christians in the country that then had just over 2 million people. Atheism was the dominant belief system.

In 1990, Mongolia underwent a peaceful democratic revolution that brought major changes. It ushered in broad religious freedom. Interest in traditional Buddhism grew. People could suddenly buy things like cars. But unemployment, inflation, and food shortages plagued the new country.

MOOGIE JARGAL: So life was very difficult during 1990s. That's why even the good thing is people were very open to gospel…

Moogie Jargal is a Mongolian Christian. Her husband Ulzii pastors an Assembly of God church in Ulaanbaatar.

JARGAL: And like my husband, Ulzii, is one of the first Christians, and he was one of the first Bible School student.

According to data from the Assemblies of God, there are now more than 100,000 Christians in the country. Most evangelical churches don’t have their own buildings. They meet in coffee shops or rented spaces.

Christian workers describe most Mongolians as curious, interested in prayer and life after death. But people who are open to hearing the good news of Jesus are sometimes vulnerable to joining cults. Especially foreign ones, like Mormonism, which is prevalent in Mongolia.

JARGAL: So they have several very nice church buildings. And, and they have lots of missionaries in Mongolia.

Last month, Mormon leaders unveiled building plans for a new Latter-day Saints temple in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

The Mongolian government is very cautious about foreigners, especially when it comes to religious work. Ex-pat Christians—and people from other religious groups—often enter the country with a secular profession.

I spoke with a handful of foreign workers for this story. WORLD is not using their names to protect their ongoing work in Mongolia.

One expat teacher says Mongolians often hold onto their traditions, like Buddhism and Shamanism, but they include bits of other religions also.

TEACHER: So they may say, Oh, I like that. I like a little bit of Latter-day Saints. I like a little bit of Christianity. I like a little bit of Islamic beliefs. And they'll add them in on top of the foundation

A medical worker says Mormonism is spreading due to its emphasis on following the rules.

MEDICAL WORKER: The thing that’s attractive about Mormonism is that it fits very well into Buddhism and their kind of cultural beliefs of doing the right things and following rules and doing what you're told.

The deception often starts with Mormon groups offering free English lessons. It seems friendly enough.

MEDICAL WORKER: And then after a time, and I don't know the specifics, but they bring them into their religious literature. And it's almost, it can be impossible to leave.

That’s leading Mongolians to be skeptical of Christians bringing the true gospel.

In spite of those challenges, workers are encouraged by the fervor of the Mongolian church.

WORKER: They are so, so motivated to reach their people… Like, there's always some announcement about some project they're doing, or workers that they're sending, or just ways they're trying to reach the like poor populations, ways they're trying to go out into the countryside…

That vision extends beyond their own borders.

WORKER: They're sending people to Russia. They're sending people to Thailand, to India, to Mongolians inside of China, even to North Korea. So they're just, they're so determined.

Those who work in the country ask for prayer for the Mongolian church to be strengthened and built up.

The government doesn’t consider pastoring a legitimate occupation, so Ulzii and other pastors also hold down full-time secular jobs.

JARGAL: Most of our like energetic times we have to spend for the work. And then after work, we do the ministry, and also the weekend.

But the need is great.

WORKER: When you get really out of the city and especially into the tiny little centers, and then just the nomads who are in the middle of nowhere. It can feel really daunting with, how will we reach them?

Technology and new lifestyles have brought some of the same challenges as Western nations.

JARGAL: It's kind of hard to share gospel nowadays, like everybody says, ‘Oh, we heard about it. Oh, we know about it,’ but they don't go to church, and they don't easily receive good news because they say, ‘Oh, we are busy.’ Everybody says, ‘Busy, busy, busy.’

The best way to overcome that societal apathy and to protect against false teachings is for the local church to grow stronger.

MEDICAL WORKER: I would encourage everyone to pray for maturity in the church, and that people would be, become true disciples and followers of Jesus, and that they would read His word and know it for himself, and long, you know, long for the pure word of God.

For WORLD tour, I’m Amy Lewis.

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