In 1996, ISP was holding a Convocation in Ulan Ude, Russia. Warren and Diane Willis, country directors of a large organization in Mongolia, and a contingent of school and government officials from Ulaanbaatar traveled north to observe the teacher convocation. Dick and Margaret Ivey, Bonnie Laing and Anna Mae Detwiler were a part of the ISP team. They prayed that someday God would allow a Convocation to be held in Mongolia!

Several years later, Margaret petitioned Dr. Blair Cook, then-Director of ISP, saying that this was a perfect country for ISP. He phoned back later that week to say, “We’re going to Mongolia!“

Translators in the U.S. and Mongolia began translating the elementary and secondary curriculum, as well as other necessary materials, into Mongolian. Two Convocations were held in Ulaanbaatar in fall of 2000.

A Math Teacher Becomes one of the First Christ Followers in Mongolia

“I became a Christian during the ISP Morals and Ethics Convocation in 2000,” says Nergui, a Mongolian colleague and former high school teacher. She placed her faith in Christ after watching the JESUS film. Nergui started reading the Bible and growing in Christ immediately. She stayed up all night reading the Bible she had been given at the Convocation.

Nergui then became strategically involved with launching the New Life Teachers Movement in Mongolia. Today the movement has grown to over 400 involved teachers, approximately 50 of whom are key leaders who are learning how to disciple other teachers.

Violet, a veteran team member of ISP, says, “I like being on the cutting edge. I have no doubt in my mind that when Mongolia had only 10 Christians in the early years and now thousands,that ISP and the New Life Teachers Movement were directly involved. They really ‘catch fire’ and they take it to their students. And of course their students talk about it at home.”

Since that time 20 Convocations and several leadership retreats have equipped more than 5,100 Mongolians with the gospel-based curriculum. These incredible teachers are now running an extremely effective ministry with very little involvement from North Americans..

However, the Mongolian people are not easily forgotten by the North Americans who have built relationships with them over the past decade and a half.

“We are so thankful for the opportunity ISP gave us to work alongside the Teachers’ Ministry in Mongolia,” said Margaret and Dick Ivey, “and to know that probably hundreds of lives were changed by the Holy Spirit during those years.”

*Special thanks to Renna Bertsche, Lee Reno, Dick and Margaret Ivey, and Violet Frazier for their input regarding Mongolian ISP history.

Next stop: Moving further into the Eurasian continent