Mentoring: Mongolian Style

by Kelly Bastow-Cox

A young woman thinks through her schedule. A full-time student at two different schools, she manages to cram a practicum into a schedule already overloaded with homework and tests. She spends every spare minute with her local congregation, to which she is equally committed. She finds little time for herself, let alone time to learn more about her faith. She sighs, disappointed by the time she wasted merely thinking.

A young man walks into a sanctuary on a Sunday morning, bright-eyed with interest and nearly pale with hunger for something he can’t describe. The words of Truth rolling from the speaker’s mouth strike his heart in a deeply appealing and unsettling way. But one glance around the room assures him he will never return. The room is full of women with hardly a single man other than himself—making his discomfort stronger than any pull he might feel.

A mother with a young family answers a knock at her door. She opens it and feels obligated to welcome two strangers. They ask her questions about the Book she studies on Sundays. They assure her they will teach her the real meaning of that Book and give her one of their own.

They notice her children nearby and hint at a possibility of scholarships for them in the future. The mother’s inability to answer questions about her own faith and her desire for the wealth they possess cause her to abandon her previous loyalties.

These stories may have a haunting sense of familiarity about them, as though they were taking place just down the street. Perhaps you know someone like the people in them. These people, however, don’t speak your language; they don’t share your traditions or your food. They are Mongolians, living in the capital of their country—a city named Ulaanbaatar.

Joshua and Jennifer Detherage (pictured below) have made that city their home for the past three years, teaching English with English Language Institute/China (ELIC). They are teaching and living among people very different from themselves, experiencing first hand the challenges and blessings of cross-cultural living. They arrived in Mongolia with fistfuls of expectations; now they serve with empty hands.

“We came and saw the situation, saw the need for further training within the body, and we saw it with American eyes...but Mongolia is a country with only about 25 years of faithful witness. There is so much we don’t understand.”

Why not just meet with people and start teaching directly from the Text? Why not start a small group that meets for that purpose weekly? Why not ask older men to teach the young men and older women to teach the younger ones? Isn’t it obvious how to establish learners in the truth?

Expectations are quickly shattered at the feet of Mongolian cultural norms. A history of societal submission to Buddhism, animism, and social vices sets up unforeseen barriers. Training in the Way and reinforcement of the truth look different in this land. The Detherages are among several ELIC families at the forefront of the struggle for Mongolian minds and hearts.

“Our most successful attempts at edification and training are among the national students and teachers we see every day. We live with them, eat lunches with them, see them in the halls and in the offices,” says Joshua as he describes a typical day. Confident that such openness leads to mutual encouragement, opportunities for thoughtful questions, and honest exchange of ideas, he and Jennifer remain hopeful and alert to further influential development in their relationships.

Despite the lack of curriculum, set times for meeting, or orderly approach, they trust the Father to weave effective training out of every opportunity, using all the gifts He’s given them and filling in Himself where they lack.

This type of training doesn’t require the young woman to add another thing to her schedule; but, instead, meets her in the midst of it, in her classroom hallway. Spiritual reinforcement isn’t found only in the building where the young man felt uncomfortable, but in the home of his friend or teacher. The mother’s foundation in her faith could be strengthened by a shared meal with her neighbor while her children are at school, rather than another event that takes her away from her family.

And maybe, just maybe, the Creator is honored by the opportunity to create depth, relationship, and shared knowledge through those willing to leave their land and live in a different one entirely.

Perhaps, you also have a role to play in Mongolia, building in a way that looks nothing like anything you could have imagined, but exactly like what the Father had in mind.

For more information about English Language Institute/China, visit www.elic.org.