Mongolian Pastors

This morning I was at a discussion table with an Indian Wycliffe guy, two Mongolian pastors and a HongKong businessman who also does prison ministry talking about most effective evangelism methods.
I found the mongolians most interesting because I hadn't met many before but they said there are over 400 churches in mongolia now all with one vision- 10% of the country being Christians by 2020. Their biggest need was leadership training so they could send out more teams.

Back to Jerusalem

Thomas Wang - leader of the Back To Jerusalem movement- important as he speaks for the vision of many chinese christians:
The great commission needs the East & West to work together and the two generations to work together. The Chinese intend to re-evangelise the West.
I hadn't realised he has been in talks with the major missions for so long..he quoted Billy Graham at the Lausanne Conference 'the whole church preach the whole bible to the whole world'

Can we finish the great commission in our lifetime?

Steve Douglas-campus crusade head honcho
Believes that yes we can:
- mainly because God commanded it so it must be doable
-since 1984 the church has stepped up worldwide in prayer with movements like Ihop, 24/7 prayer etc
- mission agencies are working together like never before e.g Ywam & Imb (southern baptists) are probably the most opposite in styles, but imb have offered Ywam all their church planting resources.
-ministries getting more fruitful e.g Wycliffe 10 years ago took 13 years to translate enough of the bible to start a church, now it takes 2 years

Hudson Taylors legacy

Now Mimi Taylor, wife of James Taylor of the 5th generation of the Taylor family is singing in chinese. It's been great to see that 1/3rd of this conference is mainland chinese. There's a giant map of the world broken down into unreached people on floor.



And some vietnamese pastors praying over their country.

Call2All Conference

Starting today, this is a massive missions conference in hongkong with huge names in missions speaking & i will be updating daily...
I'm watching a british business man now officially repenting to the large numbers of chinese present for the actions of the british east india company in the opium wars, the boxer rebellion & in introducing free- masonry to China. Powerful stuff. Chinese christian leaders are now accepting the apologising & sharing how some of them had hated foreigners and politicians after watching their parents treatment...till they became Christians.

Thai vocab...

Let's talk about language learning. I could rant for ages about the many difficulties in learning Thai, writing it is a near guaranteed headache, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It's come through changing teachers. Well, I liked my first teacher, she was an older christian Thai lady who was very sweet and teaches most of the staff here. Really, the problem's not with her, it's just that I couldn't concentrate for 2 hours straight in a one on one tutoring situation. So I would begin to visibly drift asleep by the end of the first hour, regardless of all my good intentions.
After 5 months of this, dreading every class more, I decided I needed to try a group class. With all the farangs (foreigners) around, you'd think this would be easy, but since I work a full day I was looking for night group classes, and no one seems to do that here. Do all of the other farangs have such easy schedules????
Finally I've joined in Cornerstone, taking lessons 3 days a week from 1pm-3pm, where I'm in a 'group' class with one other Korean man who has trouble with his 'y' syllables...and my thai slang is improving greatly! Basically the first day I came, I met Debbie, who is another missionary from Drummoyne Presbyterian in Sydney - I had heard of her from a mutual friend but we had never actually managed to meet up, and it turns out this is her language school too and she hangs out with the teachers - who are mostly young women in their 20's and 30's. My 'Khruu' (thai for teacher) is extremely cute with big eyes that widen when she's saying certain syllables and she bobs her head in the direction of the vocal tone so I never really have to work hard to guess which one it is...she looks about 16 but is actually 23. She's invited me to go to a party at her place in a couple of weeks...although everytime I ask what the occasion is, the only answer I get is 'big party'.
But the hanging out has opened to door to the final goal in learning Thai for me- being able to make friends with Thai people. Here's what I've learnt already.
khlang khlang = to tease someone
jing jing = serious
mai churr = I don't believe you
mai dii = you're naughty
mai jamben = that's not necessary (Debbie taught me that to say if they told me I needed to sit a test)
ourre= fat

You see what kind of vocab I will end up with?!!

Spot the difference

So I thought that being a missionary would be a vastly different lifestyle, and in some ways it is. I have to 'wai' my greeting, I ride my motorbike between rows of songthews and tuktuks and can't really park in the shopping centre when it's busy cause my bike gets stuck in the jam-packed rows and I can't come back out, I have not much financial control over my life and $20 now seems like a huge amount of money, I fear dengue mosquitoes, I speak softer and move slower than in Australia and I eat very little red meat, but I do eat out a lot.
On the other hand, I'm finding most of the differences are external and many things are still the same. I'm still trying to make friends and building relationships is kind of the same process world over - takes time! I still have to work to get along with everyone, cause you would think being a missionary would make you a nicer, holier or at least less irritating person, but that doesn't seem to be true. I'm still slowly getting involved with a church. Technology still breaks down on me and I spend half my day fixing computers. I still deal with some racism, although it's kind of reversed - now I am accepted for my face until I speak. I still have to try not to impulse buy, even if the price converts to $1. I still stay up way too late reading (although english books are harder to get), I still eat pancakes on sat mornings (although I am also reaching out to the banana pancake cafe owner at the same time) and I have got to try get more exercise!
In fact, I've pretty much realised that most of my daily stuggles just have a different skin now and moving overseas hasn't made me suddenly holier, probably just more dependent on God. Mission is just living the Christian life in less comfortable surroundings.