On the Mongolian Mountains   Fr Augustine Mundackatt V C  
 
On 25th July 1997, at Beijing, the capital of China, we boarded the plane bound for Ulaan Baator, the capital of Mongolia. Mongolia is wedged between China in the south and Russia in the north. It was in response to a special message, that we, whose destination earlier was Taiwan, set out for Mongolia.
 
  Geography - Population  
Outer Mongolia is today an independent country. Inner Mongolia is part of China. Mongolia is situated almost in the heartland of the continent of Asia. Mongolians claim that the very word Mongolia means the "Centre of the world". Forty per cent of the country comprises forests and mist-shrouded mountains. For more than six months of the year it is extremely cold. During our stay in Mongolia, there was enough light for us to read the newspaper in the open air even at 10 pm. The sun had not set yet.
 
The world-famous Gopi desert forms the major part of Mongolia. In the rest of the country are vast stretches of grassland.
 
  Style of life  
All the people in Mongolia are shepherds. There is no agriculture at all. Eighty percent of the people are nomads who wander from one meadow to another with their flocks. In this extensive country there are only 25 lakhs of people. It was in 1990 that Mongolia became independent. From 1921 to 1990 it was under communist Russia. The spoken languages are Russian and Mongolian. The currency is called Tughring.
 
Even while Europe and America were plunged in cultural darkness, Mongolians were nomads and as such developed a dexterity to capture lands. At one time, China and Russia were under Mongolia. The great wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was built as an economic blockade against Mongolia. This wall is 6000 kms long. Mongolia was the breeding ground for huge and fierce animals like the dinosaurs which are now extinct. We saw the fossils and skeletons of some of these animals preserved with much care.
 
  The seed of the word  
It was in 1994 that the Catholic Mission was established in Mongolia . There are no churches in this country. In all, there are only twenty Catholic families. If we count the few foreigners come to seek employment and living in isolated areas, there are only about 200 Catholics.
 
It is on the official request of the Mongolian government that Catholic priests and Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's Sisters) have come to Mongolia. In a building named, "The Catholic Mission", stay the priests, and say Mass; it is also the seat of the Pope's representative. There are two Philippinos, two seminarians, and a priest each from Belgium and Korea and an African seminarian staying at the centre. They are engaged in mission work.
 
The Catholics are mostly poor. Most of the Mongolians have faith in no particular religion. The strains of thought of the communist regime that lasted until 1990, are still lingering in the minds of many even today. Most people know nothing about Jesus Christ or the Bible.
 
The missionaries in Mongolia are engaged in picking up strict urchins forsaken by their parents, and bringing them up with proper food, clothing, medical aid and education. They have to depend chiefly on the financial help received from other countries. Mongolia is economically poor. "He said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest"(Lk 10:2) . In this vast country there are only ten missionaries. At this rate, for the Gospel to be preached throughout the world by 2000 AD, we have to pray that numerous missionaries, evangelisers and preachers may be anointed and sent forth to preach the word of God.
 
On our return flight from Mongolia, we became acquainted with some Protestant American and European missionaries. They were returning after two months of missionary work in Mongolia undertaken at their own expense. They were family men and working people.
 
  Mission work  
We visited the Children's Home in the capital city of Ulaan Baator. This home is run under the auspices of the Catholic Mission. The children, both boys and girls, are between the age of 3 and 16. The home has been functioning for two years. The children sang songs for us. Orphan children. Innocence personified.
 
"I shall not leave you orphans. I shall come to you"(Jn 14:18); these words of Jesus were reflected in the lives of these children. They were taken care of with great love by the priests and seminarians. But they did not know to say the Our Father or to read the Bible. They belong to different religions. Some have no religion at all.
 
When we spoke to them about Jesus, the Father's love and the reception of the Holy Spirit, their eyes filled with tears. With hearts filled with joy they repeatedly shouted "alleluia".
 
  The Lord's mercy at the door of the tent  
We spent five days in Mongolia. The capital is not thickly populated. We travelled 80-100 kms and went into the interior - into the midst of the country people living in tents along with animals like the camel, horse, goat, cow, buffalo and yak. Twenty-three of us-Adv A M Mathew and I from India, nineteen people from Singapore, two Koreans along with Ara, the Mongolian tour guide, comprised the Mission team. Ara, who has a post-doctoral degree, was coming to know about Jesus for the first time. It was he who translated the word of God, which we preached in front of the tents of the country people, into Mongolian.
 
The children approached us easily. We sang and they danced. Then the elders who came on horseback remained seated on the saddle and listened to the word of God. We spoke about Jesus, his love and the salvation he gives. We taught them to give up sinful thoughts and actions and to pray for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is all powerful and is the only God. The grass, the mountain, the forest, the sea, the sky, the elements are all God's creation. His life-giving Spirit is within us all- when we taught them these truths, they, who adored and feared powers of nature, were consoled.
 
They got off their horses and came out of their tents. There were about a hundred of them standing in a group. We prayed for all of them in the name of Jesus. The Lord showered his mercy on them. The arm of the tribal chief, paralysed for years, was healed; the Lord touched a woman who was paralysed around the waist and she began to walk. There were several other miracles, besides. "Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles"(Acts 2:43).
 
We distributed rosaries, crucifixes, devotional articles, medals, and pictures. It was with great love in their hearts and tears in their eyes that they bade us farewell. Our tourist guide, Ara, took the English Bible from my hands and appropriated it. "Henceforth I shall live for Jesus," he said after having spent five days with us.
 
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