Mongolia
(MNN) — Vision Beyond Borders sent some encouragement recently through a team
taking clothing, seeds, and flannelgraphs to Mongolia.
They spent 10 days with a camp for street kids teaching English for 2
hours a day and getting to know 20 children who take refuge in a shelter. The
director of the shelter that the children visit is a Christian. She
encourages the children to know God and prays with them every evening. Many of the children go to children's church with her. One of the
flannelgraph sets was left with her.
Later, the VBB team visited three
other shelters/children's homes where they gave a majority of the clothing
and toys. They also met a Korean woman who feeds and cares for the
poor and feeds the homeless who live in the dump. She has
been serving in this manner every Saturday for 5 years. They left more clothing for her to distribute. An additional flannelgraph was left for a small Mongolian Church.
Why did flannelgraph play such a key role in this trip? Flannelgraph has made surprising inroads for
the Gospel in countries where many are illiterate and oral tradition is strong. Often in places like these, people use
pictoral literature to teach their history. Flannelgraphs were created to
communicate the Gospel and history of the Bible.
In remote villages, they can be introduced as a form of entertainment.
People who would not normally attend church will sit and listen to a story.
Although children are the target for this ministry, many adults are reached as
well.
Vision Beyond Borders works with two different types of flannelsgraphs.
One tells the story of both the Old and New Testaments and has 600 figures that
are moved to tell the story. The other has 185 figures and recounts the life of
Christ until His resurrection and ascension.
Pray for the partners who are
struggling to aid the most vulnerable in Mongolia. Visits like these are a huge encouragement
that they haven't been forgotten. Pray
for even more opportunities God is providing to share the love and hope of Christ. Click here for ways to encourage the VBB staff.
