How an Adventist Pioneer to Mongolia has Learned to Pray

Narrative of Cathy (Jolly) Hartman, written by Andrew McChesney

When we arrived in Mongolia in 1991, I felt that God was calling me to be a prayer warrior. But I said to God, “I pray all the time. How am I not a prayer warrior?” I argued with God.

After my husband died, and I remarried, we moved to China for a while. I sensed God calling me again to be a prayer warrior. I relented and said, “OK, I’ll put ‘pray three times a day’ on the schedule.”

Miracles began to happen as my husband, three young daughters, and I prayed three times a day as a family. We had been looking for months for a place to live, and God provided a home. My husband and I lost our job teaching English, and God provided a new teaching position that was even better. The list of answered prayers goes on and on.

That was the first step where God took me in prayer. The second step came when I began to ponder Jesus’ repeated instructions to “watch and pray” in the New Testament. I wasn’t sure what He meant. I looked for passages in Ellen White’s writings about watching and praying, and I condensed them into one document. I learned that “watching” means that we are supposed to watch our emotions, watch our words, and watch whether we have an indifferent attitude. (To download Cathy’s “Watch and Prayer” document, click here!)

Whenever my daughters had struggles in their early teens, I asked, “Have you watched and prayed?” Usually, they acknowledged that they had not. We set aside a prayer room in our home where each of us, three times a day, privately confessed our sins and weaknesses and asked God to replace them with a loving, humble spirit. This really helped smooth our family relationships.

The third step in prayer came from the syllabus from the Faith and Prayer class that I took from Joe Engelkemier, a teacher at Andrews University. Re-reading the syllabus in the mission field, I was reminded that if Jesus as God’s Son needed prayer, how much more we need it now. Jesus got up early to pray or spent all night in prayer, so I prayed that night, “If You wake me up, I’ll pray.”

I was wide awake at 1 a.m.

I prayed until my family got up. Then I prayed, “I’ve been up since 1 a.m., and I need energy to get through the day.” God carried me through the whole day!

The next morning, I woke up at 1 a.m. again. I was amazed that God gave me the energy to function all day again. It was awesome!

Sometimes God wakes me up at 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. It’s up to Him. For years, I have had hot flashes that wake me up at night, and I thought, “OK, that is God wanting to spend time together.” I never use an alarm clock to wake up.

God wants to have so much more in His relationship with us. We just don’t know what it is until we spend the time with Him.

Cathie and her late husband, Brad, were the first post-Communist Adventist missionaries to Mongolia when they arrived with Adventist Frontier Missions, a supporting church ministry, on Oct. 23, 1991. Andrew McChesney, editor for Adventist Mission, caught up with Cathie and her family during a recent visit to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where they serve.This story was originally published via Adventist Mission. Click here to read additional testimony of Cathie Hartman.

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Inter-American Division Prayer Focus

June 25 – July 2, 2017

• BRIEF FACTS ABOUT THE IAD: The Inter-American Division has 38 countries in its territory including Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Columbia and all the islands of the Caribbean. The Inter-American Division consists of 24 Unions with 3.8 million members making up 21,000 congregations. Their members speak English, Spanish, French and Dutch.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for Israel Leito, Division President, Elie Hentry, Division Secretary, Filiberto M. Verduzco, Division Treasurer. Pray also for the Union leadership, and many pastors of the IAD.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the IAD members as they actively embrace Total Member Involvement through the Division’s emphasis on, “Lord Transform Me.” The lay members in IAD are very involved in mission and are enthusiastically working and waiting for the return of Jesus Christ.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the young people of the IAD, that they will fall in love with Jesus, dig deeply in their Bible study, take seriously the call to pray, and follow Jesus wholeheartedly.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the Centers of Influence within this region, that these places will be beacons of light to their communities and cities.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray also for the Guerrilla and Paramilitary groups that work much violence throughout this region of the world. Pray for conversions and the Damascus Road experience for these fighters, that they can begin fighting for the sake of Christ.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please continue to pray for the upcoming July 1st (3rd Quarter) Day of Prayer and Fasting for the World church that occurs this coming Sabbath. Pray that many church members will participate. (To access program resources for this special day, click here: https://www.revivalandreformation.org/resources/all/prayer-and-fasting-days/)