September 3, 2001

DAVE WALSER instructs a group of Mongolian instrumentalists on the virtues of picking, not just strumming, a guitar.

WORSHIP LESSONS:
Texans aid emerging Mongolian church
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___Two Texans led a team to help train worship leaders for the fledgling evangelical church in Mongolia, but they came back with a renewed appreciation for worship themselves.
___Mongolia lies in a mountainous region between China and Russia, and more than 70 years of communist rule had virtually eradicated Christianity there.
___From this rocky soil, the Christian church now is experiencing a rebirth, according to

BRENT EDWARDS and Chris Machen (back row left) and their team found time to visit a Mongolian orphanage. The nation is home to thousands of orphans, although most do not know the luxury of an orphanage but live on or under the streets.

Chris Machen and Brent Edwards, leaders of the worship training. The first known Christian there was baptized in 1989.
___Due to the lack of recent history of Christianity there, few Mongolians are equipped to lead in worship, Machen and Edwards reported.
___"The whole concept of worship is new to them," said Edwards, a former minister of music in Texas Baptist churches.
___The team offered five courses to the 60 adults who came to a Saturday training event--keyboard, guitar, choreography and children's music, songwriting, and worship planning.
___One of the most touching sights, Edwards said, was watching people come for keyboard instruction carrying their inexpensive keyboards into the church, often in wooden boxes to protect their treasures. The keyboards were of such value because the average income is about $40 per month.
___"These people had spent more than a month's salary on these little portable keyboards," he explained. "If we were to go to most people in our churches and tell them, 'We need you to spend more than a month's salary on something for the church,' they'd say, 'Blow it out your nose, buddy.' But for these people it was a sacrifice they made with joy."
___None of the Mongolian keyboard players had any training prior to that day. They had secured English recordings of songs and learned to play them by ear.
___"They came with such joy in their faces, and by the end of the day Cathy (Elmore, the

THIS MONGOLIAN HERDSMAN has had to deal with a plummeting economy and massive political changes in the past few years.

instructor) had taught them all a couple of new songs they could play. They were just thrilled," said Machen, a music evangelist and member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.
___Machen worked with a number of budding lyricists.
___"They had never had anyone tell them, 'Write your own stuff.' As we worked through the day, there were at least two who showed signs of being potentially very good songwriters," he said.
___With the economy as poor as it is, many Mongolian churches do not have keyboards, but they do have guitars.
___"Again, these people had never had any instruction. They knew how to strum their guitars but never had been taught how to pick the strings to get all the music out of the instrument," Machen said. Team member Dave Walser taught them to pick as well as strum.
___"As they learned, sometimes you could see their eyes get real big with wonder at what they were now able to do," Machen said.
___Edwards also helped church leaders learn how to plan a worship service. "The whole concept is so new to them," he explained. "The communists had stripped them of all that over a period of 70 years."
___The trip was the result of a relationship Edwards has with Jerry and Susan Smith, a couple from Bear Creek Baptist Church in Houston who work primarily with orphan children through Change the World Ministries.
___"The economy is such that there are thousands of children who live in the sewer systems so they can keep out of the elements," Edwards said. "The hot water pipes for the houses also are down there, and the children will get next to them for warmth. The pipes are old and rusted, however, so it is not unusual to see children who have been burned when a pipe sprang a leak.
___"Ministering to these children has given Jerry and Susan Smith an entrée," Edwards said, "because they are providing for these children in ways the government just can't.
___"The communists are in control, but they're really controlling nothing because the economy doesn't really exist," he continued.
___Now, the government doesn't bother the Christians as long as they confine themselves to worship in their churches on Sundays, Edwards said. Much beyond that is frowned on, however.
___"They don't arrest people, because they can't really afford the expense of jailing them," he explained. "'Religious harassment' is really a better word than 'persecution.'"
___The team was in Mongolia for three days. On the first day, a Friday, the church put on an event in the local community center to welcome the visiting musicians. Saturday was spent in the worship education classes. On Sunday, the team led the church in worship.
___"The concert was strictly an evangelistic effort. Seventy-five people came forward accepting Christ that night, and we have gotten e-mails that every one of those have attended and become plugged into one of the local churches there," Edwards said. "Not one of them has fallen through the cracks."
___He and Machen attribute the success to the local Mongolian Christians.
___"The Christians we were around were just so joyful. In the midst of all this poverty, they are still joyful. Christ is their life," Machen said.
___"We would encourage other ministries and churches to take groups and not just do concerts, but just to lead and model worship in places like this, where worship is really fresh and new," Edwards said.
___Dave Walser instructs a group of Mongolian instrumentalists on the virtues of picking, not just strumming, a guitar.Brent Edwards and Chris Machen (back row left) and their team found time to visit a Mongolian orphanage. The nation is home to thousands of orphans, although most do not know the luxury of an orphanage but live on or under the streets.

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