Mission In Our Midst (3): Ong Ying Hern

PR DR JEREMY CHEW

Ying Hern serves in the AV team and as a coach for the youths. She was a great help in the Mongolia Mission Booth during last year’s Mission Month. She made a physical trip to Mongolia in May.

Pr Jeremy (PJ): Why did you choose to go to Mongolia for your holiday?

Ying Hern (YH): In 2020, I participated in a month-long mission trip program to Mongolia with my school’s Christian fellowship. Because of Covid, I got to know the students and ministry workers in Mongolia through zoom. They shared with me things about Mongolia and showed me the scenery there. That made me really want to visit Mongolia so I told them that when the restrictions ease out, I would want to visit them and visit the country.

PJ: What was your highlight for the time you spent there?

YH: Receiving the service of our friends there. Our friends were incredibly kind to us and they really went all out to serve us and to make us feel comfortable. Yumbii (a university ministry staff worker) drove us to and from the airport which required her to brace a 3-hour long traffic jam. A couple doing special needs ministry in Mongolia (Odko and Urangoo) brought us around as they did their ministry and spontaneously drove us to a place about 50km from their home to sightsee, even though it meant that they would go home very late. Luya and Tuul and Tushig and Nyamaa took their weekend to bring us to explore a national park 60km away from the city center and were incredibly warm and hospitable towards us. I felt very blessed by their kind acts of service and by the conversations we had along the way. Watching them really made me see in real life what counting the needs of others as more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3) can look like.

PJ: What did you learn about God’s heart for the unreached?

YH: When the director of the Bible school (teacher Luya) brought us around his school, he shared with us how 30+ years ago, there were no Christians in Mongolia. Today, there are about 42,859 Christians in the country. These individuals got to hear Christ through the sacrifices of those who went before them (e.g. the first missionaries to reach Mongolia, the first few Christians who had to be the odd balls in society, Christian ministry workers who sacrificed and are sacrificing a bigger pay check to live a life where they continually raise funds to support their livelihood, etc.). It is only through the sacrifices of these individuals that so many others have heard and accepted the Good News. Through watching their lives, I learnt that while many need to hear God, they can't know about God unless His people obey and make sacrifices for Him and others (Matthew 9:34-38).

Secondly, a conversation with Odko and Urangoo made me reflect about God's heart for the unreached too. I quote: "God created all of us with a soul and a heart. All of us are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. If God created us, and He gave each of us a soul and a heart, who are we to brush off any one individual and conclude that they cannot possibly believe in Christ?"

It takes a tender and compassionate heart to beat in sync with God’s heart. That’s the gift that is found in Ying Hern.

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

(MATTHEW 9:37-38)