You

Shepherds are watching their sheep, warmed by the fire, drifting off to sleep. As Mary labors in a barn, shepherds breath in the last air of a world without a Savior. 

This is it. This is the moment God has waited for, and He is ready to announce it. 

Poor shepherds watching their sheep, drifting off to sleep, they are within moments of being the first to be caught into the embrace of a God so ecstatic He can't contain Himself. 

Shepherds, lowly ones, God is coming to you. 

A baby's cry pierces the Bethlehem night, and Heaven touches earth. Part victory moment, part birth announcement. TERROR. The shepherds cover their faces at the sight of God's powerful announcer. The Angel. Right here, He shows us just how much new we will be experiencing from now on.

 “Do not be afraid, I bring you GOOD NEWS, it will cause GREAT JOY.” The shepherds are listening. So near to God and yet still living, despite their lowly state, despite their sin. "A Messiah who is Christ the Lord.” 

They are invited, and they are wanted. God chooses the lowly shepherds first. "This will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." The sign, it turned out, was for the shepherds. 

Your Messiah is in a manger. He's here now, for YOU. You are included. You, the uneducated. You the lowly, you, the poor, you, the insignificant...No more. 

 “I'm going into the Gobi Desert for forty days.” Our director Dan Hennenfent from the USA, was writing to us with half a request for help, half a baring of a heart. 

"I believe God has told me, 'Meet me in the Gobi Desert for forty days.” Dan was anything but dramatic. I knew that he was being called to the Gobi, but I wondered why. A year and a half later, Dan flew to Mongolia and headed out to the southern borders of the Gobi. I watched him leave our house and wondered how he would survive. 

We did not hear from Dan for those forty days, and the excitement mounted as we counted down the last of the week before we would drive the fourteen hours to get him. We did find Dan again, sort of.

 We found a different version of Dan. A Dan who had met God in a new way. With his permission, I tell a long and lovely story briefly and simply. 

Dan had been invited to live with a family of nomads. Here he met a lowly shepherd insignificant by all the world's levels of measurement. The Shepherd was poor in material goods and physically handicapped. The Shepherd had befriended Dan. This made things complicated for Dan. He had fully intended on fasting and praying and to 'meet God.’ But the Shepherd was lonely and thankful to have a person nearby, even if they didn't speak the same language. He would visit Dan often, bring food, bring games, learn English, observe Dan. Outside Dan's small ger lay the vast dunes of the Gobi. One day Dan decided he wanted to climb to the peak. As he packed up his hiking supplies, the Shepherd made motions to Dan, indicating he wanted to climb the dunes with him. Dan hesitated. The shepherded had physical handicaps that Dan thought may slow him down. He wanted that alone time to meet with God. He imagined all that could go wrong on this adventure. Dan's mind said no simultaneously, with his mouth saying yes. Dan was prepared for all that could happen but not for what did. The shepherd beat him to the top of the dunes and waited patiently for Dan to catch up. When Dan arrived at the summit, the shepherd shouted at the top of his lungs, "HALLELUJAH!" Surprised that the shepherd knew that word, Dan wondered what had just transpired. Using his index finger, the shepherd drew a cross on the palm of his hand. He tried to draw pictures in the sand with a stick, but Dan could not make sense of any of it. 

Unable to communicate any more than that, they walked down the dunes together...this time as friends. Something had connected them. 

  Five weeks later, when we pulled up in the jeep to find Dan thankfully alive, the shepherd was there too. Dan and the shepherd could hardly wait for us to get settled. They both wanted to know so much from one another. But the shepherd spoke first. 

"Once, years ago, I went into the city, and while there, I learned about Jesus. I believed, and I followed God for the first time in my life. I joined a church and had a Christian community around me. Eventually, I had to return to the desert to help my family. But it was difficult because my family did not believe and they were angry with me for not being Buddhist like them..... I became so lonely here in the desert. Other Christians told me before I left for the desert that if I didn’t forsake my family and celebrate the holiday traditions, I couldn’t be a Christian. I didn't believe that, and I tried anyway. Finally, the pressures were too strong, and realizing I was the only Christian I knew in the entire Gobi Desert. I decided that ‘God must not live in the desert,’ so I decided not to be a Christian any longer. And then you came here, Dan. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT WHEN I SAW YOU OPEN A BIBLE. I couldn't speak your language or read your Bible, but I knew you were a believer. I watched you these forty days, and I was so amazed by how you followed God. You were very different from the other Christians I had met in the city. That day I stood on the dunes. I shouted, "HALLELUJAH," thanking God for showing me that God was in the desert too." 

God led Dan to a lost shepherd. Together they each met God in the Gobi. I cried buckets of tears on that trip home from the Gobi, as Dan expanded on the story of what he had just experienced. I recognized how God is true to His word. He does not leave any of us, not a single one of us alone. There is no one, not one, insignificant to Him. 

A shepherd cries out alone in the Gobi Desert.
A man in his sixties stands in church and hears a call, "Meet me in the Gobi for forty days."


FOR UNTO YOU IS BORN THIS DAY.... UNTO you.