Dong
There are close
to 3 million Dong in Southwest China concentrated in Guangxi,
Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. 1.7 million Dong live in
southeastern Guizhou, 800,000 in southwestern Hunan and
200,000 in northern Guangxi.
Most Dong live
in valleys surrounded by rough mountainous terrain. There
are no major cities; most live in villages. The majority of
roads in the region are narrow, unpaved mountainous, and
subject to flooding and landslides.
The Dong need the Bible in their own language. Dong house
churches, in most places, are still feeding on spiritual
milk and are left susceptible to cults already active in
those areas. Workers from multiple backgrounds have joined to aide Dong
believers in recording chronological Bible stories into one
of the dialects of Dong, and hope to finish this set of
stories in that dialect by the end of 2005.
The team of foreign and Dong believers need:
- Time for the team to finish the initial recordings of
each story
- Technical help in the recording process
- An opening to continue outside (of the team) consultant
checking
- Patience in editing stories, which are already recorded
and checked
- Grace to finish by the end of 2005
Tai Lue
The Sipsongpanna Dai (or Tai) live mainly in the subtropical
regions of southern Yunnan Province, China. They are mostly
located in the Sipsongpanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and
Simao Prefecture. They also exist in smaller numbers in
Myanmar (200,000), Laos (119,100), Thailand (78,000),
Vietnam (3,684), and the United States (4,000).
The Dai are one of the 55 officially-recognized minority
nationalities of China. The majority of the Dai people live
in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (known in
Thailand as Sipsongpanna, "Twelve Thousand Rice Fields") in
southernmost Yunnan.
Pray for:
- On-going training of five Tai Lue in linguistics and
Bible translation in Thailand. They will be in Thailand
for about another 12 months, after which time we hope
that these young people will begin translating portions
of the Old Testament.
- On-going transcription of the Tai Lue New Testament from
the old, traditional script to the new, simplified
script. This project is currently about half way
completed, with most of the epistles/letters already
transcribed.
- On-going chronological Bible training of Tai Lue
believers within one Tai Lue village. The establishment
of a new chronological training program this month to
train Tai Lue Christian workers from six different
churches.
- On-going humanitarian work within four leprosy-affected
Tai Lue villages. The need for additional funding and
personnel to expand this work of wound care and
community development into additional leprosy-affected
villages.
