Mongolia is an ancient, sparsely populated Asian country that has sustained its nomadic way of life into the 21st century. Its capital and largest city, Ulaanbaatar, has less than a million residents. Until very recently, even in the cities, many Mongolians lived in the traditional ger, a large white felt tent that can be moved easily. Today gers are still found on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, and they are the pre-dominant housing in the countryside. Once a vast empire that included all of China and parts of Europe, Mongolia today struggles to adapt to modern times.

In 2000, the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) sent an assessment team to Ulaanbaatar to consider the possibilities of opening a new mission in Mongolia. Neither The United Methodist Church nor its predecessor denominations has had any history of out-reach in this part of the world. Buddhism, introduced into the culture from Tibet, claims the most adherents. Despite Communist efforts to rid the country of religion, Buddhism made a strong comeback in the 1990s when the government eased religious restrictions. The team found that there was an openness and curiosity about other faiths. The mission will witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and, in addition, will work to relieve some of the social problems that face the country, such as alcoholism, unemployment, and domestic violence. The first United Methodist missionary arrived in the country in February 2002.

Mongolia’s Past
Mongolia is situated on the high grassland and desert region of central Asia, landlocked between Siberia to the north and China to the south. Archeologists have found human remains in the Gobi desert that date back 500,000 years. Long, cold winters and little rainfall make 99 percent of the country unsuitable for farming. The traditional economy was based on nomadic herding, primarily of goats, horses, and camels. For centuries the people of this land have roamed the steppes in search of grass and water for their animals. They formed loose tribal groups speaking Mongolian, Turkic, and related languages.

Most Americans and Europeans tend to recognize the more famous of Mongolia’s rulers, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, who extended Mongol power deep into the south and west. In the fifth century, Attila led the Siungnu, or Huns, into Europe all the way to Gaul (France) and the Italian peninsula on the heels of the crumbling Roman Empire.

The term “Mongol” was first used by the T’ang dynasty of China (618- 907A.D.) to describe the inhabitants of Mongolia. The Mongols remained a loose confederation of rival clans until the emergence of a new leader in the 12th century. Temujin, later named Genghis Khan (“universal king”), united the Mongol tribes and developed a cavalry using a superior breed of Mongolian horse named the Takhi. Khan’s invasion force took China, pressing south to Iran and west to Russia. Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis, became emperor of the Yuan Dynasty in China late in the 13th century. His Mongol Empire stretched from Korea through central Asia across Russia to Poland and Hungary, with the capital in Peking. Visiting Tibetan monks brought Buddhism to the empire.

After Kublai’s death, however, rebellion raged and the empire fell apart. The Chinese Ming Dynasty expelled the Mongols from Peking in the mid-14th century.

In 1644 the Manchus, with the help of eastern Mongolians, seized the Chinese throne. Inner Mongolia, which today is east of Mongolia, became part of Manchurian China. Outer Mongolia, or western Mongolia, was conquered by China over the next hundred years and then disputed by Russia and Japan.

With the outbreak of the Chinese Revolution in 1911, Outer Mongolia declared its independence from China. For the next ten years, through the Chinese and Russian revolutions, sovereignty passed back and forth between China and Russia. In 1924, Mongolia became the People’s Republic of Mongolia, a Communist state. For the next 75 years, the People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) ruled the country, allied with the Soviet Union. The Stalinist purges of the 1920s and 1930s were echoed in Mongolia. By 1939, in an effort to collectivize property and end religious power, the MPRP had destroyed 750 monasteries and killed or exiled thousands of Buddhist monks. It is estimated that 27,000 people (three percent of the population) were executed.

During World War II, Japan invaded Mongolia’s northeastern border but was driven back with Soviet assistance. Border disputes with China delayed Mongolia’s admission to the United Nations until 1961. As late as the 1980s incidents still erupted along the border, but in 1988, China and Mongolia signed the first treaty that defined the border between them.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Mongolia began a transition to democracy. All Soviet troops were withdrawn from Mongolia by the year 1992. Demonstrators in Ulaanbataar demanded the dissolution of the one-party system, and the constitution was amended to permit multiparty elections. Though the country progressed rapidly in its transition from a totalitarian state to a democratic form of government, the changes have brought great hardship for the people. Urban poverty has increased as unprofitable factories, no longer subsidized by the state, have closed, putting many people out of work. City families can no longer support relatives from the countryside, who suffered from the effects of the winter of 2000, the coldest in 55 years. More than 2 million head of livestock were lost. According to reports from nongovernmental organizations, 4000 street children roam Ulaanbaatar, a 10-fold increase from previous years.

Music Opens a Door
In October of 2000, GBGM assistant general secretary Dr. David Wu (Evangelization and Church Growth), and associate general secretary S T Kimbrough, Jr. (Mission Evangelism), traveled to Mongolia for the first time. On that trip they met Nagatsiin Jantsannorov, a Mongolian composer, and Kimbrough asked if he would be willing to transcribe some United Methodist music for Mongolian instruments. Jantsannorov agreed, starting a long process toward preparation of an orchestral suite of Charles Wesley hymns with set-tings by Mendelssohn, Handel, Bortniansky, and Bach. Mark McGurty of GBGM arranged the suite for orchestra and Jantsannorov transcribed the instrumental parts for indigenous Mongolian instruments. In the summer of 2001, the Youth Mission Chorale (YMC), directed by Kimbrough, was scheduled for a tour of Asia and spent a week in Mongolia. The Chorale rented the opera house in Ulaanbaatar, engaged the Mongolian instrumental ensemble “Murin Huur” (National Horse Violin Orchestra) and prepared for an evening of global sacred music. The evening included music that told the story of the Christian Gospel and introduced part of the Methodist heritage. The beginnings of United Methodist mission in Mongolia opened up through music.

Many bridges were built across language and cultural boundaries through the art of Christian song and the music itself. The YMC created tremendous good will among the Mongolian dignitaries and others who attended the concert. The day after the concert, the Chorale had fellowship with Mongolian university students out in the countryside, sharing their faith and diverse experiences. The following day, the YMC and the Mongolian orchestra traveled to the edge of the Gobi Desert and gave a concert for local nomads. This was an especially joyous occasion as the Gospel was shared through song where it may never have been heard before.

A Missionary Arrives
The YMC prepared the way for Helen Sheperd, who was assigned as the first United Methodist missionary to Mongolia. She was able to draw on many of the contacts established by the YMC as she began her work. Sheperd served for nine years in Korea and previously visited Mongolia with a Korean Methodist team. The Korean Methodist Church has established a medical clinic as an outreach of Yonsei University and Hospital in Korea. Sheperd first became acquainted with Mongolian doctors when they came to Korea for medical training. What follows are Sheperd’s reflections about the new ministry:

“As we were flying across Mongolia, I couldn’t see any signs of life from the air for miles and miles. After three hours of flight from Incheon, Korea, I was amazed how much Ulaanbaatar had changed in just one year [since my last visit] other construction cranes were visible all over the city. Big signs with bright advertisements were displayed across the streets and automobiles clogged the main street. The air was thick with pollution from the coal-fueled power plant and old cars. The sky was very clear and blue and the surrounding mountains looked soft and fresh with their white covering of snow.

“I have visited many congregations, varying from the fellow-ship of foreigners that meets at the Ulaanbaatar Hotel to a congregation of 10 to 15 people. There are an estimated 8000 Christians in Mongolia. Last week, I had a conversation with a Mongolian whose thinking was about as far away from Christian thinking as possible. She wanted to know why foreigners would come to Mongolia to care for the poor. She said ‘Mongolians don’t like poor people.’ She then explained that the poor are being punished with problems, poverty, and disease because of the bad things they did in a former life. She was afraid that touching or aiding a poor person would then bring bad luck to her! She was well-educated and well-traveled. Not all Mongolians feel this way, but I felt a strong sense of why this mission needs to be here.

“Now that I am physically settled, I am focusing on building relationships with the Mongolian people and with the Koreans and other foreign missionaries. My main responsibility now is to study the Mongolian language, but I also have the opportunity to work as a nurse with the fledgling hospice program established by the Yonsei NGO. This has allowed me to visit people in their home settings with a Mongolian translator. Some of our patients live in the traditional ger. Other people live in the apartments that seem to be springing up all over the city.

“There is a tremendous need for education, training, and mentoring for health-care professionals h e re. Health care is lacking in medicines and good diagnostic and treatment facilities. The hospitals seem to have beds and patients but little else.

“A visit to a charity hospital run by the Catholic Church was an eye-opener. I met one patient who was being treated for serious burns when he fell asleep under the streets where he and others live to keep warm in the winter. This young man had been drinking and lay against the hot pipes, burning his back. Many people require amputations because of severe frostbite. An abandoned child, about 2 years old, was walking a round the hospital with a nurse. The hospital took him in. So many children are abandoned these days. Other needs outside of health care are also very obvious, which makes it somewhat difficult to determine what direction is most critical for the UMC mission.

“Please pray for this new are a of UMC mission work, that we might seek to know God’s will for our work and that we may follow in an enthusiastic way, allowing those whom we serve to know the love of God through us.”

* Christie R. House is the editor of New World Outlook. Helen Sheperd, of the Missouri West Conference, directed Heartland Home Hospice, Clinicare, in Kansas City, Kansas, prior to being commissioned as a missionary.