Story number 3 for 25 Jul 2001

(Mongolia)–The Evangelical Free Church Mission is reporting a setback in a special outreach in Mongolia. An early convert, Coach Battulga, who used basketball as a means of evangelistic outreach, died of a heart attack earlier this month. EFCM’s Benjamin Sawatsky. “Coach Battulga was a nationally known figure, because he played for the national basketball team. When he found Christ, he used his basketball to conduct basketball camps every year; and there they taught English as a second language, and shared the good news of the Gospel. Many, many Mongolians have come to Christ through his ministry.” Sawatsky says that there will undoubtedly be great pressures on his family because of pagan relatives. “A Christian funeral is a brand new thing. There’s a lot of pressure from the Buddhist society to give anyone who dies a Buddhist funeral, so Christians are really tested at funeral times.” Pray that the outreach will continue, and especially for his wife and two small children.”