Snow on the mountain tops in the middle of the desert? Yes, truly! Dozens of camels alongside and on the road. Dry, arid land, sometimes with stones as far as the eye can see without any sign of vegetation causing you to think that may be you are on a different planet. Crawling over bad roads, sometimes at 10 km/h, fording rivers and slip-a-sliding through mud pools! Getting lost in the vastness of Mongolia. These and meeting some very interesting people were our experiences during the ten days from June 16-26.
The Field Leadership Team undertook a journey to Western Mongolia to explore opportunities for extending our ministry and training to this region. We visited three provinces, called aimag in Mongolia, namely Hovd, Bayan Ulgi, and Uvs. Traveling over very bad roads was slow and sometimes painful, both for the vehicle and us. We met many interesting people and were overwhelmed with the needs, opportunities and challenges for ministry in the West. Especially relevant for me is to learn about the needs for leadership development for the church leaders already serving in these areas. As soon as our training program is up and running in Darhan, we will begin to think about how to extend the training to the West. Most likely we will do this in partnership with other organizations and training programs.
