On mission to Mongolia for God, humans leave biggest impressions

The China Post--“I guess you can say that my dream is to find my dream, or to find my purpose in life,” said Grace Soong, an aspiring woman in her 20s and a strong believer in the Christian God. Like many young graduates, Soong wants to discover something that can make her life more meaningful.

With these thoughts at the forefront of her mind, she set out on a one-and-a-half-month trip to Mongolia. “I knew visiting Mongolia would have a big impact on my life. I knew I had to get out of my comfort zone and leave the city if I wanted to find answers,” Soong stated.

Opening One's Eyes to a New World

Soong went on a missionary trip with a Christian organization, Overseas Missionary Fellowship International (OMF), in which three to four participants are recruited to engage in local church activities and to (or so Soong thought) help build a church from scratch. “I love cultural things. From my perspective, interacting with people from different backgrounds and building lifetime relationships is the most valuable experience one can hope for,” she said.

To Soong, traveling shouldn't merely mean sightseeing, buying souvenirs or tasting exquisite food. Rather it should be an eye-opening journey filled with human interactions and tons of culture shock. The pictures she showed from her journey were collections of children or adults with glowing faces. When asked what left the deepest impressions on her, she replied, without hesitation, “the people.”

Landlocked between China and Russia, Mongolia spans over 1.5 million square kilometers — or over 40 times the size of Taiwan — but has a population of only around 2.75 million people. According to the OMF, two-thirds of the population is under 30, and herding contributes substantially to the country's economy. “Ten percent of the world's horses are in Mongolia, and if you divided up all the sheep in Mongolia, each person there would receive 14,” Soong remarked

Dry grassy plains and deserts topped with rolling mountains best represent Mongolia's geography. Soong's pictures show the endless blue skies swirling with puffy clouds while dozens of camels and goats graze on steppes. Like the typical urban girl thrown into a rural setting, Soong flashed picture after picture of livestock, mountains and ger (traditional white Mongolian tents). “Although the economy has been growing rapidly in recent years, there is still a lot of room for development,” she said.

Reaching Out to Those in Need

“I thought we would be building churches from scratch, by helping with carpentry or construction,” Soong said. Instead she found herself engaging in another form of “building.” She participated in leading Bible studies, sharing her beliefs with children and joining their activities. Often she had to communicate using only body language.

Soong found the simple lifestyle in Mongolia intriguing. “I was impressed by how the children could be content with simple, little games. Give them a jump rope and they can play with it for a long time,” she noted. She then showed photos of different children trying to do back flips. “They could do that, just that, for hours,” she remarked.She was also led to the darker sides of the cities where her group met with sex workers. Soong was taken aback at how revealingly the women dressed despite the chilly summer evenings. “A 41-year-old woman made the biggest impression on me. She cried immediately when she saw us. The woman was forced by her husband to work there because the family needed money,” Soong explained.

Serious drinking problems are common in Mongolia, so Soong's group also visited an organization that focuses on helping alcoholics get back on their feet. “Fifty-two percent of the population is alcoholics. In Mongolia, liquor is cheaper than water,” Soong said. All of the alcoholics that come for help have seriously damaged their relationships with their families, and are jobless. “They all lack confidence. They're small, fragile and afraid to make eye contact with you,” Soong shared. “The most challenging part is trying to prevent them from falling back into old habits,” she added.

Together in Fellowship

Working with three other fellow participants from different parts of the world, Soong said she had been praying in the hope that they would achieve team unity. It turned out that bonding, sharing, and finding fellowship in the team marked one of the highlights of her journey.

Grateful for the help of her teammates, she was reminded that even the smallest gesture could inspire the people in Mongolia. “When the church showed us where we would be staying, it was yet another challenge for all of us. The place was a narrow office covered in dirt with flies buzzing everywhere,” she explained. “But when we left, someone said thank you to us for being willing to stay in that place for so long,” Soong added.

For a twentysomething, Soong is a woman who searches for the answers to life's big questions. When asked if she has dreams of becoming a missionary one day, she answered, “I'm thinking about it. But there are so many ways to do it. I think I can be a missionary everywhere, whether in an office, at home or overseas in a foreign country.”

When asked if she would go back to Mongolia, she said that although she is still waiting to find her calling, she “would be willing to go back.” And did she experience any culture shock after coming back to her homeland? “Indeed — I've come to realize that we Taiwanese city-dwellers are richly blessed with modern technology and material wealth,” she responded.

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