January 19th - Beaten for his Faith
Mien Quick Facts:
-Around 11.2 Million Mien in China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and the United States
-Daoism is the main religion
-0.7% Christian
-Classified as Yao by the Chinese Gov't
Bible translation
- The Christmas outreach in the village went well despite the efforts of some trying to
interrupt and confuse. Pray that all that took
place will have made people more open to Christianity
and that the Holy Spirit will use what they saw and
heard as links in the chain to bring them to Christ.
- The 2
interns, J and his wife MC, complete their internship
in one month’s time. Please pray for them as they
will be involved in conferences and camps amongst other
things. Pray that in between these activities they will
be willing to continue to help part time with the Bible
checking until they return to Bible School at the end of
May. There is so much they could do to help.
- The hymnbooks are now done
except for the final layout check on all 5 editions.
Mien Mission Church
- When D and SZ visited a CAN earlier this year, D was
able to obtain some linguistic data on the Kim Mun language. The
Kim Mun are the minority people group who are closest linguistically and culturally to the
Mien. Many of them can actually speak Mien. Some 5000
of them in CANs have turned to Christ. As their
language is not written down some of these new believers
have learnt to read Mien in order to be able to read the
Scriptures. They are also listening to the Mien radio
broadcasts. In December D was introduced to a Kim Mun
lady living in a small Northern Thai and Mien village.
She fled from Laos to Thailand 20 years ago. Her
presence was not known to linguists and
anthropologists. She immediately recognized a recording
sent by a Kim Mun from a CAN as being her own language.
Praise the Lord that she is willing to teach D her
language.
- We
are grateful to the Lord for a good time of outreach by
the Mien Mission Church to Unity Village. Mr FO
(in his 60’s) accepted Christ as
his Savior. Please pray for growth in understanding the
Gospel and for good health.
Church
Planting
- Last month
we said that we were hoping that within a few days we
should have an estimate for printing the pocket sized
New Testaments for Creative Access Nations. There has
been yet another set back as a key contact has been
arrested. Please pray for his release. Please pray
too for the new arrangements that now have to be made.
Getting Scriptures and other literature into CANs is
becoming more and more difficult but the Lord is able to
overcome all obstacles.
- Please
continue to pray for the large number of ‘Two Ways’
booklets and tapes that have got held up on route to
their destination in a CAN. We still have not heard
whether it has been possible to move them. A very small
number of the booklets and tapes going in by another
route got through to Mien believers in another area
where there is very severe persecution. They were
so grateful.
Young Peoples’ and Children's’
Ministry
- On Sunday
mornings 10 young people regularly attend the junior
worship service. The attendance at the main service is
only 6. This is very discouraging. Two years ago there
were 10. One was murdered and 4 have left the
village for work overseas. Pray that the remaining
6 will seek to witness to their friends and bring them
to Christ and not keep saying,’ I can’t do it’.
- Praise
the Lord that some of the young people are really keen
and are growing in their faith. One of them, L (15yrs),
has finished reading the New Testament. He is often
beaten by his mother because he is a Christian. Pray for him to grow in his understanding of God’s Word
and in his love for Jesus and for him to obey the Lord
in the details of everyday
life.