Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Oh yeah, what sort of things do you do then?
'Well, the people on the land - the nomads - have generally been all right. But
last winter was terrible. It got to minus fifty degrees and a lot of people lost a lot
of their livestock and are now struggling to survive. And, of course, their children
grow up without any education at all, so that's one of the things that we're trying
to address. And in the towns, like this one, things have been going pretty much
downhill since the Russians pulled out in ninety-one. There's a lot of poverty now,
so we're trying to help people as much as we can.'
'I see.' It seemed fair enough. 'How many people can you help, though?'
'We have limited resources, of course, but everyone in the town knows that
we're here and we try to help those who come to us. We have a little school and a
church where we teach people about Jesus. And we also have funding to help them
buy food and clothing, or livestock for the nomads when they need help.'
'Okay, so are there many Christians in the town then?' I had read that nearly one
hundred percent of Mongolia's population were devout Buddhists.
'We have a little flock of over two hundred here now, but can you imagine?
When we first arrived a year ago, there were no Christians here at all! We're grow-
ing faster all the time, too.' He smiled happily. 'About six months ago we were able
to send a couple of the younger men over to America to train with our organisation
and hopefully, they'll become ordained before returning. They're due back by the
end of the year, so we'll be able to leave them to run things by themselves while
we move on to another town.' He smiled again and glanced at his watch. 'Oops!
Late for choir practice. Sorry, I can't stay to chat, but it's been nice talking to you.
Goodbye.'
He hurried off and I was left standing by the roadside with my shopping bags,
wondering uncertainly. I admire much about Christianity, and the material help
they were giving must have been invaluable to the locals. But I'd always been dubi-
ous about zealous missionaries spreading mass conversion through 'undeveloped'
countries. Now I'd finally met one first-hand and, try as I might, I couldn't shake
the image of this orange-haired Scotsman and his friends spreading their version
of God across this land of age-old Buddhist beliefs like an infectious disease. With
his words still fresh in my mind, it was hard not to picture churches and gospel-
singing choirs popping up all over a country where once ancient Buddhist orders
and monasteries had been.
Later, after returning home, I saw a documentary about the missionaries on tele-
vision. The process was known as 'Cash for Conversion'.
