Church in a Box

The biggest struggle new house church leaders encounter is finding a way to facilitate weekly church meetings that include well-prepared praise and worship times as well as sound teachings and Biblical discussions. To help them with this, Among Foundation is creating the ‘Church in a Box’ house church video guide.

As the early church committed themselves to the Word of God, to fellowship with each other, to prayers and praising God together, God added to their numbers day by day those who were being saved.

In these videos, SBS team members guide the new church leaders through four sections of the meeting, FELLOWSHIP, WORSHIP, WORD, and PRAYER. While the SBS team encourages the audience during Fellowship and Prayer time, a Praise and Worship leader will lead the audience during the worship time with songs and accompanying lyrics and guitar chords on the screen. House church members can learn to play the instrument as they sing along with the worship leader.

Church in a Box begins with 52 episodes on the Gospel of John.  The teachings are prepared and taught by Among Foundation’s Executive Director, Mungunkhet J.

A Decision for Christ

Batsaikhan works as a school janitor in Erdenemandal Soum. One evening he invited our team into his home to show a Bible film and share the Gospel with his family. It was late when we heard a knock at the door. It was Batzaya, a young relative of Batsaikhan, who looks after their herds in the countryside. He had come into the Soum and was looking for a place to sleep. He saw the light on and came to Batsaikhan’s in hopes to find a meal and shelter.  The family eagerly welcomed him and excitedly told him what they had learned about the Bible. They begged us to show him the Color of Life episode we had shown them earlier that evening. As Batzaya watched the video of people sharing their testimonies he began to cry. He asked us to tell him more about God and that night he prayed to accept Jesus as his savior.

“I’m very grateful for our Steppe-by-Steppe brothers.”

Munkhchuluun is from Khatanbulag in Dornogobi. “I am a new believer and I have trouble understanding what I read in the Bible. There is no one here to lead us so we are like sheep without a shepherd. I’m grateful the Steppe-by-Steppe brothers came all the way here to serve us. They taught us to pray and meditate on God’s word and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.”

If God is for me why should I fear any man?

Aman traveled from Tolbo with his wife and son to attend the Timothy Leadership Training session in Ulgii. Although he was happy to participate in the training he was apprehensive about being associated with Christians. He told us about the persecution Christians were experiencing in his hometown and begged us not to take any pictures during the training. He was distrustful of Kazakh believers around us. But sometime during the training his heart was touched and he acquired a bravery he’d not had before. “If God is for me, why should I fear any man?” he testified. After the training he and his family traveled to a different Kazakh community and shared the Gospel there before returning home.

Truth Prevails

In 2010, the Korean cult “New Heaven and New Earth” (Shincheonji) entered Mongolia and began infiltrating evangelical churches. Over the years they gathered a following of about 800 people, over half of these professed faith in Christ and attended evangelical churches. These followers were strongly encouraged to leave their families and social circles.  Many became involved in money laundering schemes within the cult.

Virus did a two-part story exposing the group and warning both Christians and non-Christians to beware. Many people contacted us and shared their own experiences as a result.  Not long after the Virus program aired, an investigation of the New Heaven, New Earth church, “The Mongolian Pearl”, was launched by the government and they were found to be a dangerous cult.  They were stripped of their permission to conduct religious activity in Mongolia.   The Mongolian Pearl then pressed charges against AMONG Mongolia, however, after two separate court hearings, the judge ruled in our favor.  As of today, March 10, 2017 AMONG Mongolia is cleared of any wrongdoing.

SHOW ME challenges youth to make positive choices

Mongolia has a population of 3 million. 37.5% of the population are ages 15-34. According to a 2015 survey conducted by the Information and Research Center of Mongolia, 45% of youth ages 12-24 consume alcohol, especially during holidays or celebration events.

With the growing problem of substance abuse within this age group in mind, and with Proverbs 20:1 as their foundation, the SHOW ME team decided to challenge young people via the SHOW ME facebook page to celebrate life without alcoholic drinks. The post reached 491,303 people. It had an engagement of 25,593, and was shared 4,803 times. Eighty-two people left positive comments.