Country Director Tom Mangham blogs from Mongolia.

In the ministries of Samaritan’s Purse, field workers often come face to face with immense human suffering. Certainly there is suffering in every part of the world, but the nature and intensity is very different from place to place.

In Mongolia, the nature of the suffering we face in our work often comes in the form of poverty, broken homes, and unspeakable abuse taking place within families. Mongolian people often suffer with and die from illnesses and conditions that are readily treated in the West. There is widespread substance abuse and hopelessness here as well as deep spiritual oppression.

I met a young mother living in the ger districts, which are shantytowns surrounding the capital of Ulaan bataar. Her family of five lives on less than $2 a day in a tiny rundown shack no more than 10ft by 8ft. In the long winters, more than 70 percent of their income goes to buying coal to heat the home.

When I asked what her hope was for the future, she answered that she dreamed that one day she could afford to send her young children to school so that they might have a chance at a better future, but she did not think that this would ever happen.

When faced with suffering, people of faith are forced to ask where a loving God is in these circumstances. Believers in Christ need to reconcile what the Bible teaches about the character of God and the reality of human misery we see all around the world.

In the book of Job, we find a narrative that asks many of the big questions about pain and despair: Why do terrible things happen to good people? How do we cope with it, and where is God in it?

The answers are not necessarily what we want to hear, nor are they easy and straightforward; however, we are given certain truths and assurances. We are told that God is still sovereign, that He still cares, and that His will is still being accomplished though we cannot understand it in the moment.

We are also told that no matter how terrible things get, there is still hope available as these circumstances are not beyond God’s redemption. In the lowest part of Job’s agony, he is still able to say the words: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” – Job 19:25

Samaritan's Purse , Mongolia , God is Sovereign

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