When Mickey and Trina Cofer were first introduced to Good Soil training and resources a few years ago, they were convinced that they would be a good fit for the country of Mongolia and an important tool for the spread of the gospel in that country. Returning to Mongolia, they worked diligently to have The Story of Hope, The Way to Joy, and The Roots of Faith resources translated into Mongolian.

Over 10 years ago the Cofers purchased a piece of land in Outer Mongolia that housed an abandoned factory on the south end of Lake Khovsgol, a 9 mile wide by 80 mile long beautiful patch of clear blue water the Mongolians call “Mother Lake.” In fact, Mickey told me it was the very first factory built by the USSR in Mongolia in the 1920s. Since 2014 the Cofers have been running a yearly camp at this location, but the dream always included a place for much needed pastoral training. Over the years they have been working hard to transform the dilapidated buildings into something suitable for this purpose. This year they were ready to host their first group of pastors and missionaries and wanted their very first training to be Good Soil Evangelism & Discipleship.

It took almost 52 hours from leaving home to arriving at the Cofer’s place of ministry, but the trip was more than worth it. We had a great week of training with a wonderful group of Mongolian pastors, missionaries, and other church members. Pastors came from all over the country – the Gobi desert, the capital of Ulaanbaatar, and even further north than we were. Even though the interactive type of training was new to them, they participated extremely well and were excited to begin to use the training and resources in their ministries.

My translator was a pastor from the capital who did a tremendous job communicating. He had been instrumental in getting the Good Soil training manual translated in the weeks before, and now has plans to continue the training among more pastors and churches in the capital.

The plan is to hopefully return next year and with an even greater number of pastors teach the Roots of Faith courses. What a beautiful plan God had that buildings first constructed by communists who sought to stamp out religion in the country are today being used to train Mongolian believers to be effective in communicating His Word.

Please be in prayer for Mongolia where Christianity is fairly new but is starting to grow – from less than 40 in 1989 to about 40,000 today! Pray that it would be firmly grounded in the truths of the gospel and many more might come to understand and embrace God’s redemptive plan for them.