MY is a young medical assistant who is engaged to a 3^rd year seminary student. She comes from a non-Christian background. Her father is alcoholic and was very abusive to her mother. This emotional baggage has been interfering with both her spiritual growth and her relationship with her fiancé.  Through time spent in prayer and study, she has begun to be freed from the past.  She has a hunger to grow and an eagerness to share the good news with both  her family and our patients. She is one of our main co-workers in the ministry to Bouyei people here.

 

K's marriage seemed hopeless. Last spring  her husband left her and their son to work in Shanghai.  Over the past few months their relationship has improved.  They now have long conversations over the telephone 2-3 times a week. She plans to  spend a week with him at Christmas in the province where he is now working. It is only a first step but it is an answer to prayer.  She is a believer and has grown spiritually from her ordeal. He had professed to be a Christian before they married.

 

CH's growth as a believer has been very slow in the 3 years since she  believed.  Earlier this year, she seemed spiritually apathetic.  Recently though, she has been growing and has been eager to learn  in our OT study . Last week she was baptised. She says she was “sprinkled” 3 years ago but understood little of what she was doing.  This time she wanted to make a clear commitment to the Lord.

 

The Bouyei community - we have been especially concerned for Mr. and Mrs. W and the seven other families in their courtyard. Mr. and Mrs. W believed about one year ago. Little did we know that the on-going spiritual warfare related to their deeply ingrained practice of  ancestor worship would increase.   About 3 weeks ago, Mr. W’s mother came from their home village to visit them, a  huge endeavor for an illiterate village woman who has never left her area.  Her express purpose in visiting was to make sure they would no longer believe in Jesus.  She told them that sooner or  later they would return to the village to care for the elders.  Then they would be required to follow the ancient traditions  related to Buddhism and ancestor worship.  Life in the village is based on cooperation and uniformity, she said, and it is would be impossible to live there  with a  belief system different from everyone else.  Mr. and Mrs. W’s faith  seemed to wither under this parental barrage.

     

The other lady who had professed faith in the courtyard made a short trip back around the same  time.  There her brother-in-law blasted her for thinking of believing in Jesus.  Mrs. W also told me that she had discovered one of the reasons why the children in the courtyard had seemed so fickle with our outreach. Their parents had spoken over the phone of our work to grandparents back in the home village.  The grandparents all said you must not let your children learn about God! We have not gone back to the courtyard as a group for the past 2-3 weeks. One of my co-workers, however, went for a casual visit last week and got quite a warm reception.  Several of the people wanted to sit around and chat, even some of the men.  So we will go again, keeping  the doors of relationship open. 

• But pray with us for wisdom and for  Father to pave the way.

We have learned valuable lessons:  Ancestor worship is a  cultural practice that has been theirs for centuries . It is a powerful spiritual stronghold, more so than we had understood . These Bouyei think and act communally, not individually as in the West.

• Pray these experiences will enable us to minister to them with greater insight.

An open door to another Bouyei community - The couple, the woman with thyroid disease and her husband has TB,  have both shown a  clear interest in learning more about the truth. They are living with a large extended family of 14 or 15 people including her parents.  When we began to share about the Creator the old father was the most enthusiastic listener! He says he has been healthy but several of his children have had various illnesses. His oldest son died from some illness about 5 years ago.  This made him think a lot more about the meaning of life.   In our interactions, it is clear this man is the respected patriarch of this family.

• Pray for Mr. W that not only will he believe but he will influence his entire family to come to faith.  Pray especially for his wife, the mother of my patient, because she is a Buddhist fortune teller.  No doubt there will be much spiritual opposition from her demons.

The man with the severe heart disease, along with his wife, believed last month and are being followed up. They are faithful to meet each week.  He is feeling stronger physically as well.

• Please continue to pray for their daily needs as they depend on his wife to find trash to sell to recyclers.  Recently, there have been days where she finds little to nothing.