Opportunity Time (Ep. 46)

 

Podcast Transcript

[Cab Driver]:“Three years ago, I was not a Christian.”

[Wayne]: One quiet listener become a Christian, but this quiet listener doesn’t want to be quiet anymore. We’re going to hear more of that story from that Mongolian cab driver here today on Until All Have Heard from the Far East Broadcasting Company with Ed Cannon, who is the President of FEBC. Ed, I’m glad to be with you today. I’m looking forward to telling some stories here.

[Ed]: This is a great intro to our program today, Wayne, but I want to emphasize some of the language we heard from the Mongolian cab driver in case you didn’t hear exactly. He said, “I am a quiet listener, but I don’t want to be quiet anymore,” and that’s going to be kind of the overarching theme of what we’ll talk about today as we share his story and talk a little bit about ministry in general.

[Wayne]: Well, Ed, before we hear more from our friend who drives a taxi there in Mongolia, let’s talk about FEBC’s ministry there. It’s been pretty amazing to see how it’s grown over the past very few years.

[Ed]: It’s a fairly new ministry for FEBC, Wayne, considering FEBC has been around for 75 years. In Mongolia, we’ve only been there 30 or 35 years. I’m not sure exactly when they started, but there was essentially no presence of Christians in that country. With a background influenced heavily by Soviet, Russia, and China, it was a country essentially void of any presence of churches, essentially void of really any significant concentration of Christians at all. I had the privilege, on my most recent trip there, to meet with a missionary woman who had come from England. She had come back to have sort of a reunion with a bunch of the young men and women that she had ministered to. One of those young men was our Director of Mongolia, Batjargal Tuvshintsengel, who’s now the Director of FEBC Mongolia, but when he was a very young man, he and a dozen or so Mongolian unbelievers were introduced to the gospel by this faithful English missionary woman. Now, fast forward 40 years, that group of people, who she had ministered to, are all dedicated Christians in that country. In that small group of a dozen or so, there were five men who were pastors of churches.

[Wayne]: Wow, amazing.

[Ed]: When I asked Bat about the people in that group, he said, “Essentially, what you’ve got here is six pastors of churches who represent the entire network of Christian churches within Mongolia.”

[Wayne]: Is that right?

[Ed]: So, I think about the influence of one faithful British woman who 40 years ago, all alone, with no family, traveled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and started preaching the word of God to these young men, influenced them to the point where now, they represent the core of that pastors in that entire country.

[Wayne]: A lot of lessons in that story for us.

[Ed]: Yes, and Batjargal, our director, has grown from that point to the point where he has launched 16 FM stations in Mongolia, a large station in Ulaanbaatar, which has such a wonderful listener response that it has been given the award as all radio stations in Mongolia the number one radio station. Not the number one Christian station, but the number one radio station in Mongolia is FEBC’s radio station there in Ulaanbaatar with many, many listeners.

[Wayne]: Love it.

[Ed]: Now, with 16 repeater stations all across the country, we have people in taxicabs listening, [Laughter] which takes us to the story that you started to share with us today.

[Wayne]: Yes, let’s go back to the story. This Mongolian cab driver who challenges us not to be silent about our faith. Let’s listen to more of what he shared with us.

[Ed]: Not to be quiet anymore.

[Cab Driver]: I’m a taxi driver and spend all of my time in a car. That’s why I listen to local radio and I started listening to FEBC. I can’t explain why I like it. Maybe it’s the talk shows. I also listen to the gospel program [Unintelligible]. When I first started tuning in, I was not a Christian. In fact, when the customers got into my taxi, I will turn FEBC off, afraid I would lose future business. Eventually, friends encouraged me to go to church due to listening to FEBC for so long. The message in the church was easy to understand. Two years later, I decided to study at the Union Bible Theological College and I’m still taking classes. Many troubling things started happening in my family. My wife, who had attended church with me, said she was no longer interested in doing this. Two months ago, FEBC gave me a radio. I gave it to my wife and encouraged her to listen to FEBC. I hope FEBC can lead her back to Jesus just as their programs lead me to the cross. I look forward to this miracle in my family. Three years ago, I was not a Christian. I had never listened to FEBC. One quiet listener become a Christian by tuning into FEBC, but this quiet listener doesn’t want to be quiet anymore. I decided to assist FEBC by becoming part of their volunteer team. During broadcast, our team heartily prays for our broadcasters and for their programs to touch the lives of listeners.

[Ed]: I love that sentence, “This quiet listener doesn’t want to be quiet anymore.”

[Wayne]: [Laughter] Great.

[Ed]: You know, Wayne, when I listen to that, it puts a lump in my throat because in a lot of ways, it’s very similar to my own story. As a brand new Christian, I didn’t really understand what the Bible was telling us until I spent hours and hours and hours driving in my car to and from work listening to the radio broadcasts. Actually, the radio broadcast of Moody Bible Institute.

[Wayne]: Yes, they discipled you.

[Ed]: It made such an impact on me and my life, that just like this listener, I could go to church and the messages were easy to understand because of what I heard on the radio.

[Wayne]: Just like him, you shared it with your wife, right? Isn’t that part of your story?

[Ed]: Exactly. He got a radio from FEBC and gave it to his wife. I tuned in the radio in our cars to Moody Radio for my wife to listen to. Actually, at one point, she told me these radio broadcasts are really pretty corny, [Laughter] but the push button in the car, in those days, was fixed to Moody Radio. So, whenever she’d get in the car, it was [Crosstalk]

[Wayne]: That was devious. I tell you, that was great. [Laughter] [Ed]: It worked, and it worked. I’ll never forget, Wayne, one day when I was at work already, she had dropped me off and she had gone on to her work, called me and said she heard a program on the radio after I had gotten out of the car and tears streamed down her face as she understood that it was the gospel of Jesus Christ that she was missing in her life.

[Wayne]: Yes. Well, let’s pray that that happens in the family of this cab driver as his wife listens as well. Hey, you have a great story about being in Mongolia and getting in a taxicab yourself. Tell that story for us.

[Ed]: Yes. Actually, there were quite a number of circumstances. We’re in a city called Darkhan, way out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, you drive for hours and hours and hours and see absolutely nothing but open land, a few goats, sheep, and cows, and an occasional sheep herder on a horseback. All of a sudden, we get into this little town of Darkhan. We’ve got a radio station there. We went and visited the radio station. Then, they were telling us, when we we’re at the radio station, that we have a partnership with a local taxicab firm. So, I assumed that that meant whenever they needed to go somewhere, they got a partnership with the taxi, so they’d go and get in the taxi and they’d take them where they wanted to go. That’s not what he meant at all. He says, “Let’s go and take a taxicab.” We walked out of the little studio and there’s a cab there. All the cabs look the same and it’s extremely unusual looking cabs of all sorts of checkered patterns in green, red, yellow, and flashing lights. Nothing like we have here in the United States.

[Wayne]: Probably Russian and Chinese cars, huh?

[Ed]: I don’t know, but this particular cab we got into had a bumper sticker on the bumper with the call letters and the number of FEBC’s radio station there in Darkhan. So, I thought, “Oh, that’s cute.” We get into that cab. This is, of course, everybody knew was going to happen except me, but I get into the cab and I commented to the cab driver and I’m talking through a translator, of course, that I saw that he has the call letters of FEBC on the bumper sticker, and how nice that is that he puts it on the bumper. He says, “Well, it’s got nothing to do with nice. It’s business. It’s advertising.” I said, “Well, what do you mean by that?” He said, “Well, here in Mongolia, many people have come to love the station so much.” That he said, “I advertise that station on my bumper not so that people will know where the station is, but because people who don’t have radios will hire my taxicab, not for the purpose of going somewhere, but so that they can listen to the radio while they’re riding around town.”

[Wayne]: [Laughter] That’s incredible.

[Ed]: So, he said, “It’s good for business.” [Laughter] I wondered if he meant his business or the Lord’s business, and either case, it doesn’t matter.

[Wayne]: Right, yes.

[Ed]: What a great story. People listen to the radio in the taxicab because they don’t have a radio in their home. So, they pay money to sit in the taxicab and listen to the gospel programs.

[Wayne]: Yes. Hey, let’s go back to the challenge that we all heard from this man who’s driving his taxi, a quiet man who’s not going to be quiet when it comes to the Lord. Let’s talk about the lesson for us.

[Ed]: Yes, okay. If we’re going to talk about the lesson, I must go to scriptures. So, if I’m looking right now at John Chapter 15 and let’s start in Verse 8. “This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit showing yourself to be my disciples.” I think about a taxicab driver who says, “I am a quiet listener who doesn’t want to be quiet anymore.” Why does he say that? Why does he not want to be quiet anymore? Because he understands this verse better than most people here in the United States that I know. “This to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples.” The taxicab driver wants to show people he is Christ’s disciple by sharing the good news with others. If you skip down to Verse 14 in that same chapter, “You are my friends when you do what I command, the Lord says.” What do I command? Bear much fruit, show much fruit. So here, the taxicab driver, once again, first, he wants to be a disciple so he bears fruit. Second, he wants to be God’s friend, so he does what He commands. Then, if I skip back up to Verse 11, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” I can hear the joy in that taxicab driver’s voice. “I don’t want to be quiet anymore.” Sharing the joy with his wife, “I’m so happy to give her that radio so she too can have this joy that I have.” What a great story all tied together.

[Wayne]: It also teaches me that in each and every circumstance of life, we can do that. I mean, if a taxi driver can do it in his world, why can’t I do it in my world, wherever that might be?

[Ed]: Absolutely right, Wayne. There’s not one circumstance that you can’t modify slightly to be like the taxicab driver. It’s the joy of the Lord showing on your face. It’s showing in the way we deal with a person that’s selling us a hamburger at the fast food joint or checking out a book from the library, or changing our oil. It doesn’t matter what the circumstance is, we can show God’s love. We can bear much fruit. We can be friends of God by doing what He commands so that our joy may be complete.

[Wayne]: Yes. Well, great stories, Ed. Thank you. Let me ask you, how would you instruct us to pray, specifically for the country of Mongolia, knowing what some of the needs there are.

[Ed]: Well, I think the answer to that is simple. The country is fairly open to the proclamation of the gospel. Unlike many of the places where FEBC works, we don’t have limitations by the government about what we can say or how we can advance the Gospel. We have a lot of radio stations. There’s not that many people in Mongolia, just a little over three million. With 16 radio stations, our signal is getting pretty much to the bulk of the population. My request for prayer would be this, pray that when the people of Mongolia hear the good news on the radio, their heart is open, their mind is cleared of any distractions from this world or from Satan, and that that message would penetrate to their heart such that they would turn their life over to Christ in His control.

[Wayne]: Yes. I know in the culture there that family issues are of concern, alcoholism is a concern. Our radio broadcaster able to address those needs in light of the gospel, so I’m very thankful for that. Let me urge our listeners to pray for Mongolia and pray for FEBC’s ministry there, the staff there that tirelessly carry on the work of the ministry. So, thank you to all of them. Well, Ed, I think we’ll wrap that up there. I really appreciate the stories today, especially hearing from this gentleman who’s inspired us to not be quiet about the gospel.

[Ed]: Taxicab driver in Mongolia. I love learning lessons from unusual and obscure places. If this podcast can give any of us the opportunity to learn a lesson from a taxicab driver in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, then it’s worth the time that you and I have put into it and it’s worth your time as a listener to listen to this broadcast. I thank you very much for it.

[Wayne]: All right. Don’t hesitate if you have questions about the Far East Broadcasting Company. Let us know. Of course, our website is available 24/7, FEBC.org. Pass the word around to friends. Post it on social media that this podcast is available. We’d love to have more people listening.

[Ed]: And don’t be quiet anymore.

[Wayne]: [Laughter] You’ve been listening to Until All Have Heard from the Far East Broadcasting Company.