The mountain village is remote, high in the mountains along a river.   Not a likely place for God to plant a church.

A year and a half ago a group of women traveled across the ocean to go from village to village, praying and sharing God’s love at every opportunity.   One day, on a bus, one of the women began telling stories of God’s love to a 15-year-old girl whom we’ll call Clara.  Though she got sick and threw up several times, Clara was very interested in the stories and invited the women to her village.

Once home Clara began telling her mother what she had been hearing.   The mother, speaking only Miao, said, “It is truth.  For we, too, have a story of a God who created man from dust, and woman from the man’s bone.”  Clara listened to God’s story as the women shared long into the night.  And she gave her heart to Jesus. 

The women gave Clara a Bible written in the language of her country; there is yet no Bible in her Miao dialect.   Clara could read it only because her parents had sacrificed to send her to boarding school in a faraway town.

In a later visit to encourage Clara, visitors found the older sister to be quite hostile.   Last summer the woman who had led the earlier team of women returned to the village with two Hispanics visiting from overseas and a Miao believer.   The older sister was home...and not happy about the visit.  God intervened in response to prayer.   Later that evening the sister let the group talk to her father about Jesus.  And he received Christ.

Still later others visited again.   This time Clara’s sister believed.   Two months ago a group of local believers went to the village.   They played with the children and danced for the villagers.  As the local believers shared their faith, six more Miao came to Christ.

Rejoice at God’s work!  What is remarkable about this story is that He used people from 10 different nationalities to weave a tapestry of His grace in this village virtually unknown to the outside world!

Pray:

• God, use whatever means necessary to weave Your love into the lives of the Hmong/Miao.
• Let Your grace explode in village after village just as it has begun to grow in this obscure hamlet.
• Protect teams who are praying and sharing Your Word.   Give them divine encounters with people whose hearts yearn to hear of You; open their hearts to receive You.
• Father, You know how desperately workers need to be able to return to their ministries.  Provide quickly the financial support to make this possible.