Brian Hogan

“She tried to tell them she felt like she had nothing to give. Her grief over Jed had turned into a numbness that was robbing life of all its flavors. “Everything still tastes like sawdust” she told me one night. She didn’t feel like she could pray for others when she was so needy of a breakthrough for herself. The ministry team dismissed her objections. Here is her account: “The second night we were there I prayed for many people, then one of my fellow teammates prayed for me. The presence of the Holy Spirit was so heavy I found it hard to stand. The Lord spoke to me and told me he had been saving all the tears I had cried in the last two years and he was going to pour them out on me in laughter. I laughed from the gut. Then I thought of specific times I had cried in Mongolia and I laughed. I remembered the frozen tears on the day we buried Jed and I laughed and laughed. I said to myself, “This is not funny,” and I laughed again. The next day another team member prayed for me again and this time the Lord showed me He is raising up an army that will laugh in the face of the enemy. I remembered all the battles we fought last year and I laughed again. God had indeed turned my mourning into dancing, and his joy into my strength. The last night I was there I had the opportunity to share what the Lord had done for me in front of the whole assembly, numbering a few thousand people. They heard how God is moving in Mongolia. I am looking forward to getting back to Mongolia with the blessing stored in my earthen vessel.” During our time in the USA, we really missed our team back in Erdenet. The relationships had become so tight. They had become our family in such a real way. Knowing we were headed back made the absence easier, but we began to anticipate the pain of a future good-bye when we would leave Mongolia for good. When I saw them in Korea, Maria filled me in on how the church was doing in our absence. The mother congregation in Erdenet now had over 350 attending the big “celebration service.” Our church had, the previous year, planted its first daughter church in the county seat 60 km. (37 mi.) from Erdenet. Now that daughter congregation in Bulgan had planted a daughter church in another, even more remote, town (a granddaughter church.). This furlough was even more than we had hoped for. The Father had come through for us and fulfilled desires and needs we weren’t even aware of ourselves.”
― Brian Hogan, There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement