Mongolia: Number of Adventist pastors increases by 50 percent

March 3, 2008 UlaanBaatar, Mongolia 

The number of ordained Seventh-day Adventist pastors in Mongolia rose from four to six with the February 23 ordination of two Korean pastors. Park NoYoung and Park SangBum were ordained to ministry in a dedication service at the Ulaanbaatar Central Church.

The two pastors are serving in Mongolia as part of the church's Global Mission initiative and supported by the Pioneer Mission Movement (PMM) program in Northern Asia. The PMM program places Adventist pastors, mostly from Korea, as missionaries in countries within the Northern Asia region.

"Let's all work together to fulfill Jesus' mission in the world," Pastor Park SangBum said, speaking in Mongolian.

Church leaders who presided over the service included Kwon JohngHaeng, PMM coordinator at the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, Paul Kotanko, director of the church in Mongolia, and Nyamdavaa Dovchinsuren, one of two ordained Mongolian Adventist pastors.

Today there are some 1,200 church members in Mongolia, up from zero 15 years ago. Adventists from Russia started work in the region in the 1920s and in the 1930s western missionaries started work in Inner Mongolia, now part of China. However, Adventist work in the region came to a standstill in part because of the outbreak of war. The first Adventist Church members in modern Mongolia were baptized in 1993. Four years later the first Adventist church was established with 26 members. (Source: Adventist News Network)