Kim and I have been working on a short TV series for the largest cable news station in M*ngolia, Eagle TV - think of it like the Fox News of M*ngolia.  The show will be similar to a TV news magazine like Dateline/48 Hours and we will be telling stories that are, truly, foreign to us from America and the West.  We will tell the stories of a Christian minority. 

It would be hard for me to imagine if I hadn’t been living here for the past year, but in M*ngolia less than 2% of the population are Christians and those who do become Christians regularly face oppression or persecution from the Buddhist and atheist majority - both remnants of occupations by their Russian and Chinese neighbors.  Christianity is seen as a “foreign” religion and so the hostility comes more from a nationalistic place than anything.  

What we want to do is find stories of people whose lives have been changed by Christ and who have overcome obstacles that we in America will never have to face.  All of the stories so far have been harrowing, but I really wanted to briefly share the one we heard today. 

Nara began by telling us that before she was a Christian she felt lonely and hopeless.

She gave birth to her third child 2 months early; a 2.8lb baby boy.  When the baby was born the doctors told her that he was too small to live and immediately wrapped him in white cloths and took him away so they could let him die.  Nara begged for her son back and, thankfully, they gave the baby back to his mother.

It turns out that her son was born with a disability similar to cerebral palsy that was accompanied by severe seizures daily.  The concerned mother told us how she took her son to every doctor available to her in the remote area where she lived (down by the Gobi desert) and that eventually the doctor bills became overwhelming to the point that she needed to sell her family’s ger (home) and land to pay for treatment.

Her husband was angry that they had a disabled son - disabled children are seen as a curse - and that it was costing so much to care for him.  Most of Nara’s own family also ostracized her and her son because of his disability.  Because of those tensions her husband left her; leaving her as a single mother with no home, no land, and no job to care for 3 young boys, one of them severely disabled.  It got to the point where she and her boys were consistently living on less than $24/month.

In utter desperation she went to more doctors, to Buddhist llamas, and to anyone who offered help for her son.  None of it helped.

The story continued as they became Christians and, though they struggled for fourteen years, God provided in amazing ways; from healing (his daily seizures have ceased) to answered prayer to the most basic daily needs being provided from friends, her sister in another city, and strangers.

At the end of her story though, Kim was in tears and I was fighting them back.  Her son goes to the school for disabled children that Kim volunteers at so she knows him well.  Nara told us how every day she gives her son a piggy back ride from their ger to the taxi stand (not a short walk) to catch a ride to the school.  The piggy back rides not only help him strengthen his legs and arms, but they give the mother and son cherished time together.  She said that on those daily walks, they talk and pray together.  After a short pause, Nara said with a shaky voice that no one ever, in all of her life, has said as kind and loving l things as her son whispers to her as he clings to her back. 

“I have the most wonderful mother”, he says softly.  “I have such a beautiful mother.”

She said that she sees not only how God has blessed their family in shocking and tangible ways, but she sees how God has loved her through her son and how He has loved her son through her.  The loneliness and hopelessness that she felt when she first had her son, and as they went through all of those difficult years together, has been replaced by joy, gratitude, faith, and hope.