presence pressing in

As we recorded the first song of our session in a tiny room in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, something like an invasion took place in that makeshift studio. It all happened suddenly and quite unexpectedly, as if the Lord was riding in on the crest of the song. There was an unusual awareness of God’s presence pressing into the room; a sacred moment of experiencing a measure of God’s power. Two leaders of HSI had met the young team of worship musicians from the town of Erdenet just the previous night. What an exhilarating start to our second visit.

The opportunity to record this worship team from Erdenet traced back to our song-writing workshop held 16 months earlier. One of the participants from Erdenet asked us to consider recording the worship music from her church where she served as worship leader. Included in the songs we were recording this time was one she composed last year.

natural, intense love

Having only six days to do multi-track recording of these 11 Mongolian worship songs stretched us all. Despite the pressure, we kept noticing how the team maintained a natural and intense love for Jesus and for each other. Most days began with memorable times of intercession as we prepared for the rigorous schedule ahead.

The beautiful depth of the song lyrics were supported by a high quality of musicianship found in both composition and performance. The two steel shipping containers welded together, wired, panelled and outfitted for recording, became far more than a makeshift studio. We were in a miniature, God-saturated, steel-clad cathedral.

nuance and passion

During one of the songs, the keyboardist and main songwriter for the group recorded a solo. She approached the microphone quite timidly, asking us to pray. A few seconds later, we were stunned to witness her singing with the intensity, nuance, vocal control and passion of a seasoned professional recording artist.

new worship songs

The day-long recording sessions were only a small part of what was happening during our two-week Mongolia visit. While some of us worked on recording the Erdenet worship team, other members of the Heart Sounds team led a workshop each evening for both traditional and contemporary song writing. About 25 local people participated. Composers with a focus on traditional music created Christian songs in existing musical genres that utilized the five-note pentatonic scale prevalent in this part of the world. Many of these songs utilized the plucked Asian instruments that have been used for centuries, as well as the local hammered dulcimer and flute.

In addition, several composers at the evening workshop sessions wrote songs in contemporary Western styles. Western classical and pop styles have been embedded into Mongolian culture through decades of Russian dominance. The Western pop sounds dominate the youth culture as well as the worship services in the young Mongolian churches.

researching effectiveness

Because of our vision to promote indigenous approaches to worship, HSI launched a third activity in Mongolia—an internship program. One of the HSI leaders, who focuses on ethnomusicology, mentored a student who was on her assignment from a graduate ethnomusicology program at an American university. As part of her research, interviews were conducted with people in the city. A major focus of the interviews was to get feedback on the various types of songs (using traditional and contemporary music styles) composed last year. It was gratifying that a number of people gave very positive feedback on the use of Christian lyrics with some traditional song forms. This research will help to guide HSI and local worship leaders in thinking through issues of which contextualized Christian song forms might be most popular among certain sub-groups of the population, including the nomads who still travel the countryside with their animals.

national committee formed

In both last year’s visit and this one, the Lord unexpectedly brought a prominent Mongolian musician/composer (who is also a pastor) to take a leadership role in the events. This musician / pastor found Christ at the first church planted in Mongolia when the doors opened for evangelism. During the week of song writing, he started sharing his dream to create a Christian song writing fellowship, as well as an annual music concert to celebrate new songs birthed each year. The HSI team started praying and working behind the scenes to encourage the formation of a music and worship committee. It took little persuasion for Puje to grab onto the idea of leading the committee.

standing-room-only

As in the 2002 trip, the crowning event of our visit was a music concert featuring the new songs composed at the workshop. A standing-room-only crowd squeezed into the small church hall to witness the two-part concert. More than an hour’s worth of indigenous songs and poetry with Christian themes dominated the first part. The remaining part of the concert featured new contemporary Christian songs driven by guitar or keyboard. One highlight of the concert was a Mongolian Christian song for children. Only three such original children’s songs (not translated) are known in the country, all composed by the musician pastor.

distribution

As we recorded songs (about 40 during our 15-day stay) and discussed cassette distribution, God showed us ways that we could partner with Mongolian churches and expatriate missionaries to reach into the entire nation with indigenous Christian music. This includes the minority cultures as well as the four million or more people living in Chinese Inner Mongolia. Through prayer, networking and brainstorming, preliminary plans were presented in a multi-year proposal.

keeping up

Looking back, the entire visit was clearly orchestrated by the Lord, even though we had arrived with a sense of dismay and uncertainty. Through months of endless emails and phone calls, we had requested particular preparations and planning. However, when our six-member HSI team arrived in the country, we found few preparations made. However, by the end of our time in Mongolia, we had a growing sense that God had a plan all along. He was unfolding something that was far greater than human planning. We sensed that He might be up to something really huge in the worship life of the whole nation. It seemed like the Lord was moving quickly in many areas of church life and we were breathlessly trying to keep up with it all.

prophetic moment

While we were sharing thoughts about this amongst ourselves, a quiet team member smiled and simply said, “I was wondering how long it would take the team to finally figure this out.” She then added that weeks before she had joined the team God had spoken to several of her friends, in particular a “prayer warrior.” As this woman had prayed, God showed her the team members would have a small part in experiencing something that God was birthing across the entire nation. She also shared several Scriptures that confirmed this prophetic sense of God at work.

Things began to fall into place as we began to sort out why we had been so invigorated, day after day during the visit. It gradually dawned on us that during our short visit, we were privileged to add our little part to the great symphony God was already orchestrating across this land. Little did we realize, until looking back on it, that God had not only empowered those early moments of the first song we recorded; he had also empowered the entire visit. We were merely swept along, riding the crest of the wave.