Beginning to understand what it means to be a Christian
In one Creative Access Country (CAN) the Mien had been influenced to turn to Christ by the Hmong – another ethnic minority people group living close by high in the mountains.  The Mien had begun listening to the daily broadcasts in their own language but somehow they did not really understand what it was all about.

 

Then in April 1998 the Holy Spirit came down on about 20 Mien scattered in several different villages.  So strong was the awareness of God’s presence upon them that the word they used to describe it was a word more usually used to talk about being possessed by evil spirits!  Some just remained in God’s presence for 2 - 3 days.  Others burst out into spontaneous songs of worship and praise to God.  Others had dreams of the incredible beauty and wonder of Heaven. 

 

One thing in common was that for the first time they really began to understand what it meant to be a Christian – that it was a relationship with a holy God.  Such was the impact of what had happened on them that several with the willing consent of their families, left their wives and children to carry on with the work in their fields whilst they went from village to village helping many other Mien turn to Jesus.  This amazing movement of the Holy Spirit has been fuelled by the daily radio broadcasts and the provision of Scriptures.  No one knows the exact figure but it is thought that there are now in the region of 15,000 Mien believers in CANs.

 

Pocket sized Mien New Testaments and Hymnbooks
One printing of a few thousand pocket sized Mien New Testaments and hymnbooks for the new Mien believers in other countries has been completed.  A few of these, together with more of the ‘Two Ways’ booklets, have already been ‘despatched’. 

• Pray that they will safely reach the Mien who want them.
• Pray too for many more ‘helpers’ needed to despatch the rest of the printing. 
• We have not heard further about the larger printing of NTs and hymnbooks to be done elsewhere.  Please pray that this will happen.  We so want to do everything possible to help these new believers who are on fire for the Lord.
• Topical concordance is currently being produced.  The church leaders in CANs have nothing to help them find their way around the Bible.  The Topical Concordance will enable them to compare Scriptures to find out what the Bible says about a particular subject.  Please pray for the time needed to work on this, the Lord’s leading to know what subjects to include and the right format that will be most easily understood and helpful to the church leaders.  The format that is being using at the moment is to list the main passages and verses that teach about a particular topic and then give the main principles, with references, that come from the teaching.

Mien Bible Translation Milestone
Praise the Lord we have reached a milestone. All the checker's copies we have received for the as yet unpublished books (Joshua to Malachi) have now been carefully looked at and changes/corrections made accordingly. We are now beginning the revision of the Pentateuch. The New Testament will be revised after that.

 

There are still some problems that need rectifying. Please pray for speedy resolution of the remaining computer programs problems. One concern is that for some as yet unknown reason the change tables seem to be cutting off parts of some verses. This is happening to only a few verses but they are difficult to find as they occur only in longer books and there seems to be no special code or situation that is causing it. This is a new problem and definitely needs to be sorted out so we can typeset with confidence that the scriptures are indeed complete.

• In some of the CAN's there is a real hunger for God's Word. Pray that they will be able to have more ready access to that Word.
• Please pray for wisdom, patience and accuracy for us as we press on to get the scriptures finished quickly and well.
• Pray also that Mien in Thailand and around the world will experience a deep hunger for God and thirst for His Word. We are deeply grateful that you are standing with us in prayer for this 'getting to the end' stage of the Mien Bible.