Tom Lin

Greetings from SNOWY Ulaanbaatar! Yes, we saw our first snowfall on Sept. 16, and our 7-month long winter is now beginning. As the new season arrives, we also welcome a new school year and a new season of ministry. We see God doing some “new things” in our midst:

—- FIRST FCS MISSION TRIP —-
As the first few years of FCS pioneering have been dedicated to “gathering” students and building inward-focused structures, we believe now begins a new season of “outward mission”. Mission is one of FCS’s 3 core values. To execute on this, on August 3-8, Tom led the first-ever Mongolian student mission to Baganuur, a small countryside village two hours outside of Ulaanbaatar. The mission was a joint project between Wellspring Church (our home church in the U.S.) and FCS cell members. Our joint team included 34 people! For six days, we shared the gospel on the streets and taught lectures at the local church. Half the team also organized an English Camp for new high school graduates.

The results were phenomenal, beyond our expectations. Over 467 people in Baganuur heard the entire gospel through our team members, and 165 of them made decisions to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior! Our Mongolian FCS students were amazed at how much their faith grew and how God worked in their own lives. “We need to do a mission trip every summer!” exclaimed one of our FCS staff.

To give you more details on our mission trip and a summary of our summer activities, a hard-copy letter will arrive at your address this week. To view the prayer letter online, click on: http://www.tomandnancylin.com/updates/200508.pdf

—- NEW STAFF, BIGGER TEAM! —-
Our staffing situation has entered a new season, as we have just appointed a new generation of staff. Our fledgling movement now has 14 staff (7 Mongolian, 7 foreign), up from just 6 staff two years ago. On August 30, we hired 3 new Mongolian staff - Navchaa, Chimgee, and Naraa. To celebrate and make it official, we held a simple ceremony to install these new FCS staff. The three of them all were student leaders this past year in their respective chapters (FCS1, FCS2, and FCS3). They are eager to serve, but also eager to learn more about staffwork. This semester, Tom has set up a temporary training center for them, a place where they will live together and go through training every weekday morning.

On Aug. 22-25, we held our first Mongolian Staff Training Camp, focused on 2 topics - counseling and spiritual formation. It was specially designed to better equip and grow our 4 “old” Mongolian staff. We thank you for your prayers and thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to teach.

We are also thankful for our first American teammate, Chris Loose, who arrived in August, and another South Korean teammate, Seung-Jin You, who arrived in March. Both of them are currently studying Mongolian and learning about the culture. Please pray for Tom as he supervises this new, larger team.

Please check out PHOTOS of our new staff team, the mission trip, and our growing baby Abby. Go to: http://www.tomandnancylin.com/photos/.

—- NEW PROGRAMS TO FIGHT POVERTY —-
The UN General Assembly proclaimed 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit, and has designated 34 countries, incl. Mongolia, to take part in the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards (GMA). In recent months, a team comprised of Tom’s former Harvard students volunteered to represent Mongolia and coordinate implementation of the awards in partnership with UN reps based in Ulaanbaatar. Tom has had the privilege of serving as an Advisor, as we believe that alleviating poverty is vital to the growth of the Mongolian Church. Within FCS, we are also in the process of setting up a “micro-lending program” for FCS graduates to start small businesses. We are recognizing that our student movement needs to be more involved in battling poverty.

Mongolia poses a unique challenge and opportunity: it is making the difficult transition from 70 years of Communism to a free market economy. Its GNP per capita is among the world’s lowest, but its openness and its relatively small population make Mongolia a country where the impact of microfinance can be maximized. For more on the UNDP Global Microfinance Awards, click on: http://www.undp.mn/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=362

- - - - - - - MORE PRAYER REQUESTS [Print & post] - - - - - - -

1. NANCY’S SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL ENCOURAGEMENT. From Sept. 27-Oct. 26, Nancy’s parents and sister will visit Mongolia. This will be a tremendous help to us, as it’s difficult to take Abby outside during this cold season, and it’s likewise difficult to stay inside our small apartment 24-7! Pray that this would be a good time of physical rest for Nancy, as well as spiritually nurturing. Pray for God’s blessing on that family time.

2. NEW THINGS ON TOM’S PLATE. Tom will spend much more time this semester on staff development. He will teach several days per week at the new staff training center, as well as training our older staff how to be effective “team leaders.” It will also be a new season of learning for Tom, as he will attend an IFES Global Leaders Formacion (training) in Hong Kong on October 17-26, and has been accepted into Fuller Seminary’s M.A. in Global Leadership program, beginning one online class on Sept. 26. Finally, Tom has a Wycliffe Board meeting on Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Orlando. Please pray for Tom’s new responsibilities and his upcoming travel.

3. PIONEERING A FCS GRADUATES’ FELLOWSHIP. Beginning this semester, we will gather our 20-25 graduates of FCS (over the past 2 years) for monthly fellowship meetings and small group meetings. This is a critical next step for the growth of FCS because (a) our graduates are still young in faith and need encouragement in addition to their local church involvement, and (b) our graduates will provide a pool of financial support and volunteer help to our core undergraduate ministry. Please pray for this new fellowship, as well as an upcoming GRADUATES RETREAT on Oct. 7-8.
—–