GSM Stories from the Mongolian Steppe

GSM Mongolian Staff

Praise God, the government of Mongolia has approved the registration of GSM’s representative office in Mongolia. We have been waiting since July, 2014. GSM has formed a Mongolian leadership team currently consisting of five young professionals and myself. Two  have joined GSM staff including Amy (altantsetseg) and Battulga. Amy is of the Mongolian Buryat tribe, one of the unreached people groups of the the Siberian steppe. Amy was my assistant for four years in South Korea at Handong Global University. She and her husband Miga have been married since 2011 and have a handsome two year old named Amor. Tulga is a man with a great big servant’s heart. We have been friends since 2007, and wherever the Lord has allowed me to serve Him in Mongolia Tulga has most often been by my side. Tulga is working hard organizing and making arrangements for “The Crossing,” a Biblical wilderness journey across the great Mongolian steppe beginning June 7th.

The Pain of an Economic Fall

Please pray for Mongolia as people here are really beginning to struggle. The Mongolian economy which was growing at 15% a year in 2011 is expecting 0% growth this year. Many international business development projects have been halted and most expats have left the country. In 2012, a new elected government decided to allow themselves the power to rewrite government contracts with international companies. The real target was Australia’s giant mining company in Mongolia called Oyu Tulgoi from which the government wanted a larger share of the profits. Oyu Tulgoi accounted for a third of Mongolia’s economy and 89.9% of the country’s exports. Needless to say, Oyu Tulgoi halted Mongolian operations and the economy has come crashing down. Since 2012 the Mongolian Tugrik has fallen about 35% to the dollar and international businesses have laid off up to 70% of staff. Imagine losing one third of your economy over a two year period.

History of Mongolia

There is a great book called History of Mongolia by a Mongolian named Baabar published by the White Horse Press in 1999. There is a second edition from 2005. Baabar records a history of Mongolia up to and including the beginning of the Communist era of the 1930s. The Communists, since Stalin have tried their best to rid the Mongolian steppe of religion, culture and history. With Mongolia’s 1990 peaceful revolution to a democracy and the collapse of the USSR in December of 1991 came the release of records hidden since the 1930s. Today, Mongolians are recovering their lost history and figures of Chingis (a.k.a. Gengis) Khan are everywhere.

According to Baabar’s book the history of the Mongolian tribes can be traced to the earliest Chinese records of the Hu (primitive tribes) of the north from the third century B.C. These tribes eventually formed the first Mongol state called the Hunnu or Huns who not only ravaged China but invaded Europe in the third century A.D. The name Mon-gu is Chinese meaning “those barbarians.” Baabar records that the Great Wall of China was built not to keep men from crossing the border but to stop the horses. Without horses the Barbarians of the North were not a danger to the populous Han Chinese to the south. The book is an amazing read and I’ll share little bits of it in the GSM blogs.