Almost 85% of the Adventist membership in Mongolia consists of young people, so a strong youth ministry is vital. On August 22, 2009Pastor HaShik Kang and his family arrived in Mongolia after a lengthy delay due to visa challenges. The PMM pastor is the new MMF Youth Ministries director. Following are a few of the highlights in the newly established Youth department.

Music Contest

Over the last few months, the Youth department organized several activities and programs. In August, as previously reported in the November/December 2009 issue of the News & Views, we held our first interchurch gospel singing contest. Eight churches joined the Eternal Sound contest. Talent was found in each of the four categories: free song, acapella, church hymns and creative/ motion songs. The Youth department plans to make this an annual contest. The purpose of this festival is to encourage an active lay ministry and develop standards for music in the Mongolian churches.

AMICUS

After the MMF Youth Ministry orientation in November 2009 with Pastor Joshua Shin, we were able to organize the first AMiCUS in Mongolia. December 19, 2009 saw our first AMICUS festival. Eighty students packed into the Ulaanbaatar Central church to enjoy the Christmas-themed program.  Eight AMiCUS cell groups prepared special presentations. We enjoyed watching our young people’s creative productions. Some groups sang, some read poetry, some presented dramas, and some held fun activities. The most exciting part was the musical drama presented by each group. They contextualized the Biblical stories into modern lifestyle and culture of Mongolia using the melodies of the country’s popular songs for the conversational parts. The lyrics had been revised to fit into the story. It was fun and interesting. We believe and hope that through the AMiCUS program we can reach many non-Adventist students in Mongolia.

Bible Olympiad

In December 2009, we had our first Bible Olympiad in Mongolia. People were so excited about this activity that our various churches started to prepare their people a month ahead of time. At first we thought that there would not be many people from the countryside churches, but surprisingly 14 participants from 7 different places arrived to join the Olympiad. The farthest travelled a distance of 1000 km to get to Ulaanbaatar. All in all 88 participants from 14 churches took part. The Bible Olympics covered the 4 gospel books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

When we started our first level participants were tense as they were very serious about the Olympiad. Easy and difficult questions were mixed. And although this was a competition the participants remained pleasant even when they failed to answer questions. They shared with why they were unable to answer correctly and were challenged to learn more and have a better chance next time.  At the end, we had a tie for second place and one first place winner.

The experience was quite challenging for our members. We know that in the next Olympiad it will be a tough competition because many who failed this time will prepare wholeheartedly to try to get to the top.

Re-organization of Pathfinder Club

Throughout Mongolia thus far we have has only one Pathfinder club at Ulaanbaatar Central church. Club membership totaled 50 with 9 teachers. This year Pastor Kang met with all the teachers and re-organized the club into 6 camps. For the year 2010, we challenged ourselves and set big goals.

Organization of Mongolian Golden Angels

Inspired by the NSD Golden Angels our Youth department decided to organize its own Mongolian Golden Angels team recently. Following the same principles as the NSD our young people are given the chance to dedicate 1 year of their lives to God. The purpose of the Mongolian Golden Angels is to support and empower local churches.  We believe that through this project our young people will be trained for service and the churches will be energized. Lastly, our Youth department is expecting great things to happen in the future. Let us pray for this ministry!

Reported  by: Adiyahu Oktyabr, Associate Youth Director, MMF.