Inside Story: “You Can’t Pass By”

Inside Story for Friday 7th of February 2025

By Andrew McChesney

American missionary Joanne (Park) Kim was walking to her rented apartment in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It was the dead of winter, and the midafternoon temperature was about minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius).

Then Joanne saw an intoxicated man lying on the sidewalk. She had been attacked by a number of drunken men over the past year in Mongolia, and she didn’t want to stop. What if he also attacked her? She started to walk past him, but then she stopped. A small voice seemed to say, “You can’t pass by.”

Image © Pacific Press

Joanne struggled with the idea of helping him. “Lord,” she said, “he weighs nearly twice as much as I do. How can I help him?”

She looked around. The street was empty. No other people were in sight.

Joanne looked at the stranger again. “If I walk by, he will die,” she thought. “His body will freeze in just a couple of hours.”

She saw apartment buildings all around. Each building had a small room on the first floor for a guard, so the entryway was fairly warm. The nearest building was about 1,000 feet (300 meters) away. “OK, Lord,” Joanne said. “I’ll get this guy over there.” Putting her arms under his, she prayed for strength and pulled. Somehow, she dragged him to the building. Placing him in the entryway, she stepped back and looked at him. A new feeling filled her heart. She felt compassion and pity.

This encounter marked a turning point in Joanne’s mission work. No longer did she harbor any ill feelings toward the attackers. Instead, compassion and pity washed over her. At last, she could love like Jesus.

Joanne went on to help plant the first Adventist church in Ulaanbaatar as a pioneer missionary with a supporting mission organization from 1992 to 1998. She returned in 2017, and she now serves as education and development director for the Adventist Church in Mongolia.

Even now, drunken strangers still attack her from time to time, but her love for God and His people is unshakable. “Satan does not give up,” she said. “He knew he could wear me down. But God gifted me with the Mongolian language and a change of heart. God loves even the drunk men who were attacking me all the time, so I need to love them and help them as best I can.”

You also can participate in the mission work in Mongolia through this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, part of which will help open a recreation center where children can grow spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.