Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Headed to Mongolian Grill or This One Is For You Dad

We seem to split the day up into four parts of teaching: 9-10:30; 10:40-12; 1-2:30; 2:40-4:00. A little bell rings at the end of the session and the first day when I went a little past, the bell rang again – 10:30 means 10:30. And so I have learned that when the bell tolls, I stop. Anyway, in our last session, I finished with Genesis 3 when God came to Adam and Eve. And we talked about how God comes to us when we have sinned against him. God came to Abraham, God came to Moses, God came to Israel, God came to us – and this is an act of grace on the part of God. The Lord was able to take the truth and give us an opportunity to respond with singing. I told the men and women that our knowledge is not to be just head knowledge but heart knowledge and an expression of thanksgiving to God. There is this one particular lady who does an excellent job leading songs and I asked if she would come up and if we could sing a song of response to God – I asked her if we could sing You Are My All In All. I wanted to sing that because it is the only song I can sing along with in English.

In the context, the chorus is powerful: Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is YOUR NAME. I rejoiced with a hand full of believers in Mongolia that God came to us and brought us salvation through Jesus Christ. It was a real moment of rejoicing in God’s mercy, grace, and kindness.

I need to mention lunch for a moment. If you were to sit down around our family table and we were to have meat and there was a bit of fat on it, you would notice that sometimes subtly and not so subtly my dad would cut away the fat. He would cut his meat well away from the fat so that no part of his body, fingers or mouth, would ever touch a piece of fat. So, this mention of lunch is for my dad. The main meal in Mongolia is lunch so they first brought out a bowl of soup with noodles, meat and yes – fat. Clumps of fat mixed in with the broth, sitting in all their white glory. (How are you feeling dad?) That was the first course. The second course was rice with a stir fry of what they called black mushrooms (Eva would be proud that I did not even make a facial grimace at the sound of black mushroom). As I began eating, I noticed once again mixed into the stir fry is – yes, none other than serious globs of fat. I found it all rather tasty and enjoyed the meal. I am so thankful that it is not extremely spicy because they give you lots of food. So dad, this “fat” paragraph is for you!! I hope you enjoyed.

The men and women today asked more questions throughout the teaching time. I was so thankful for this because it gives me an indication of where they are at and what they are thinking. We were able to talk about the coming glory, the new creation, sovereignty of God, what sin looks like and how we can battle against sin and many times they had questions. So the teaching seemed to go well and I believe it is an answer to prayer. So please continue to pray because the Mongolian leaders need to hear God’s Word so they can bring it to their people.

Well, I am off to BD’s with Andrew and Liz, their family and a group of Canadians Chartwell Baptist Church in Toronto. BD’s is apparently an American chain that calls itself Mongolian BBQ. When Chinggis and his troops would go off to fight, they would fry their food on their shields. It is like our Mongolian Grill. Some of you joked if I went to Mongolia, would I go to the Mongolian Grill and the answer apparently is YES – tonight I am going to an American Chain like our Mongolian Grill in Mongolia. It is a strange world, is it not?

5 comments:

Paul said...

How was dinner? :-)

Sonya & Josh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sonya & Josh said...

Hi David!

My grandmother is 95 and when we would ask how she lived to be that age she said that she always ate what they told her not to eat, like all the fat off the meat. So perhaps the Mongolians have a key to life there!! Glad to be updated on your trip!!

Sonya

Rileysowner said...

I'm with your dad on this one. I do not like the texture of fat when I eat it. I find it makes me feel rather ill, and I have to force it down if I am visiting someone and the feed me fatty meat. I'm glad you don't share that particular food issue with me, or you dad.

Anonymous said...

Hey Pastor Dave,
Glad to hear things are going well. Hope you enjoyed Mongolian Grill...a little bit of fat never hurt anyone (unless of course you're Jack Sprat!). Be on the alert tho, when you hear, "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty...."
you are in our prayers as are Eva, Mikayla, Isaiah and Noah. May God bless you and keep you.
Janet and Dave