ADRA Mongolia celebrated 30 years of humanitarian work in Ulaanbaatar, the country's capital, on July 26 and 27, 2024. Under the theme "Celebrating HOPE @30!", the event brought together agency leaders, partners and guests at the Emerald Hall of the Blue Sky Hotel and at the Central Adventist Church of Ulaanbaatar, the Adventist News Network (adventist.news) reported.
Michael Kruger, president of ADRA International, was the keynote speaker. The humanitarian and development arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, ADRA opened its doors in Mongolia in 1994 and, since then, has worked on five fronts: education, disaster and emergency management, economic development, health and food security.
Two days of celebration in the heart of the capital
The program was divided into two moments and two venues, according to the Adventist News Network (adventist.news). The first day, at the Emerald Hall of the Blue Sky Hotel, brought together staff, partners and authorities to mark the agency's three decades of work. The second day took the celebration inside the Central Adventist Church of Ulaanbaatar.
It was on Saturday, during the Thanksgiving celebration at the church, that Michael Kruger, president of ADRA International, delivered the central message. According to the Adventist Review, he spoke about living with hope in Jesus — a theme that ties into the event's own name — in a sermon followed by a commemorative lunch with those present.
The choice of theme was not casual. The word "hope" (HOPE) appears recurrently in the vocabulary of ADRA and of Adventist entities, and here it served as a guiding thread for a date that looked both back, celebrating what was done, and forward.
Honors mark the three decades
The celebration was also the stage for public recognition of the team's work. According to the Adventist News Network, the country director of ADRA Mongolia, Windell M. Maranan, received the Golden Star of Peace, presented by D. Zagdjav, president of the Peace and Friendship Organization of Mongolia.
The honor, described by the agency as the highest granted to a foreigner working in the international non-governmental organization sector in the country, recognized Maranan's contribution to strengthening the relations of friendship and cooperation between the Mongolian people and other nations.
A second recognition went to a less visible name, but one of long standing: Enkhtur Jambajav, senior driver of ADRA Mongolia, was decorated with the Order of the Polar Star — described as the highest state decoration of Mongolia — in recognition of 26 uninterrupted years of service to the agency, the Adventist News Network reported.
Read alsoADRA mobilizes humanitarian response after earthquakes in VenezuelaWhat ADRA is and what it does
For the Pathfinder reader, it is worth placing the acronym. ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) is the official humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Present in more than a hundred countries, it works wherever there is need, without distinction of race, creed or ethnicity, on long-term projects and in emergency responses.
In Mongolia, this work began in 1994 and was organized around five axes, as reported by the agency: education, disaster and emergency management, economic development, health and food security. Over 30 years, the agency formed partnerships with people, communities, organizations and the government itself to improve the population's quality of life.
It is a kind of work that speaks directly to values the Pathfinder learns in the club: service to others, care for the vulnerable and the idea that faith translates into concrete action. Not by chance, many Pathfinder clubs around the world support ADRA campaigns and community projects throughout the year.
Mongolia: a young field on the Adventist map
Mongolia is a country of vast steppes and a small population — about 3.5 million inhabitants in a territory larger than many European countries combined —, with a strong Buddhist and shamanic tradition. The Adventist presence there is recent compared to other regions of the world.
The country is part of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (known by the acronym NSD, from the English Northern Asia-Pacific Division), one of the thirteen worldwide administrative divisions of the Adventist Church. The NSD brings together territories such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Mongolia itself. A division, in the Adventist structure, is the instance that represents the Church's world headquarters in a large geographic region.
In this context of a young mission field, a humanitarian agency completing three decades of uninterrupted work becomes a relevant milestone — a sign of roots that have taken hold and of a relationship of trust built with local society, as the state decorations received by the team themselves suggest.
What the date says to the Pathfinder
Stories like that of ADRA Mongolia help us see the club within a larger picture. The Pathfinder who collects food in a winter campaign, who takes part in a community effort or who learns first-aid honors is, in their own way, in the same movement that sustained 30 years of work in Ulaanbaatar.
The "Celebrating HOPE @30!" celebration reminds us that Adventist hope does not stay only in words: it is measured in schools supported, in families that got through a disaster with help, in communities that gained livelihoods. It is the same principle the club teaches from the first class — to serve is a way to believe.
May the milestone of 30 years, reached in one of the most challenging fields of the Adventist world, serve as inspiration: patient service, done year after year, builds bridges that an entire nation recognizes.