My mom died when I was three, and my father did when I was nine. My oldest sister, who was sixteen years old at that time, became the head of our family, and we strove to overcome the sorrow for losing our parents and the financial difficulties.
After I entered middle school, I learned running and became a member of the national team as a marathoner. Unfortunately, however, my ankle got injured while training in the severe cold of under -40ºC [-40ºF], and I had to give up being an athlete.
I grew up, overcoming the absence of my parents and the hard life of athlete, and I became arrogant; I felt proud of myself for being strong and successful. And I used to think that Christianity is a religion for weak people who don’t trust themselves. However, God allowed me to hear the gospel through a friend of mine.
I met my old school friend by chance, and heard the words of the truth from her, and I received a new life. It was on August 8, 2008, the first day of the Beijing Olympics. I had been very eager to see the Beijing Olympics, but I spent that day, studying the Bible, not watching the Olympic Games. The day the Olympics began, God let me begin my spiritual marathon. Since that day, I studied the word every day.
While my faith was growing rapidly, a visa that I had applied to work in the Czech Republic two years before got approved. I knew that it was meaningless to go to the Czech Republic, but my oldest sister, who had worked so hard to take care of her little siblings since she was young, begged me with tears, and I couldn’t deny her request. Just like Jonah who fled to Tarshish by ship to run away from God, I left for the Czech Republic by train, leaving the gospel behind.
Not long after I arrived in the Czech Republic, the factory I worked at went bankrupt, and I had to move to another city. There, I shared the lodging with some people who were drunk with the worldly pleasure. Whenever the worship day came, I kept service alone in a room where other people couldn’t find me. My prayers were so earnest just like those of Daniel who prayed toward Jerusalem. My visa had expired and I had no job. I read the Truth Books and the Bible every day and heard fragrances of Zion from my friend over the phone. I prayed that I would go back to Mongolia as soon as possible.
As I had no job for a few months and underwent a big surgery, I ran out of all the money I had. The people at the lodging, who didn’t like me, laughed at me. However, I prayed with tears before I went to bed every day. The surgery was successful by God’s grace, but I became desperate because I had no means to go back to Mongolia. I missed all the Zion members so much that I even packed up all my stuff one day and cried all day long at the train station.
One day, I heard unbelievably happy news that the Czech government planned to send some of foreigners, who resided in the nation though they wanted to go back home because they had no money, to their home countries.
Since there was no police station in charge of foreigners in the city I was living in, I made a trip to another city. I neither had money nor could communicate with people there, but I arrived at the police station after many twists and turns through lots of prayers to God. They told me to come back the next day because the part that took care of visas was not open that day, but since I couldn’t take a rain check, I pleaded with tears, and I was finally able to come back to Mongolia about a month before the Passover in 2009.
The day I arrived in Mongolia, I pinched myself; I couldn’t believe that I was finally back in to my home country. My friend came to the airport to meet me. She and I went to Zion together, where our brothers and sisters welcomed me, shouting, “We love you.” I sobbed. It seemed that all the loneliness and sorrow melted in tears.
When I kept the first worship after I came back to Mongolia, I felt as if I was in heaven. Even the brothers and sisters in whom I saw only faults before I went to the Czech Republic looked lovely and beautiful. To make up for the time I wasted, I preached the gospel with all my strength.
As I overcame hardships and temptations, God blessed me; I could focus only on preaching and was given a precious duty of the gospel. God even poured the overflowing blessing of bearing fruits after I visited Korea as a member of the overseas visiting group in 2010.
I experienced many hardships in the Czech Republic, but I’ve realized that it was God’s love to change me, an arrogant child who was lacking in many things. Just as Jonah repented inside the fish after running away from God, all my hardships and sufferings were from God’s will to change me, who was cold and didn’t know how to love, to be tender and to repent. I give thanks to God for planning everything for me and giving me strength and power to overcome temptations and hardships.
Marathoners train themselves much to run a distance of 42.195 km (26.218 miles). When I was an athlete, I ran at least 25 km (15.5 miles) every day to be prepared for the marathon. 25 km (15.5 miles) is a distance that one can run by swinging his arms and legs over 25,000 times. While running in the severely cold weather of Mongolia, my whole body often felt numb, and sometimes the metal zipper on my clothes froze to my chin. Whenever I ran, carrying a heavy bag, to build up physical strength, I was so exhausted that I felt like giving up running. My feet often blistered because my running shoes were too big for my feet; or sometimes my white shoes became red because my toe nails came out, for the shoes were too tight for my feet. However, those who endure and overcome those hard trainings can obtain more strength and willpower.
In 2000 when they selected athletes for the Olympics, arrogantly I thought that I would be selected as a member of the national team as I had always been. I was lazy in training with arrogance, and gained a bad result in an important game where it was decided whether or not I would participate in the Olympics. Because of my arrogance, lack of preparation, and wrong mindset, I lost the opportunity and I regretted it a lot.
Through the failure at that time, God gave me precious realization. A life of faith is a spiritual marathon that we run toward the heavenly kingdom, having God as a goal. The hardships and sufferings that I experienced were a training in preparing the spiritual marathon by understanding God’s love and sacrifice. If only a smooth path had been given to me, I would’ve lost an important opportunity in the spiritual marathon as well.
When you are out of breath in the race, you may feel like giving up. However, whenever you feel like that, you have to overcome yourself and run until you hit the finish line; if you stop running, your body will paralyze and you cannot run again. That’s why many athletes give up in the middle of the race though the finish line is right in front of them. However, the joy that you feel when hitting the finish line after enduring all hardship with patience cannot be compared with anything.
It is the same with the spiritual marathon. We may face temptation and problems that are hard to overcome. However, if we overcome them with patience, the finish line of the kingdom of heaven will become a lot closer. I eagerly pray that I will prepare the lamp and enough oil, and run diligently, following the Teachings of Mother, so that I can complete the race of my spiritual marathon.