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Yi People at Yunnan Theological Seminary's Chapel - November, 2016
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Mountains and Sea of Clouds in Yunnan - November, 2016
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City at NuJiang - October, 2016
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Training Class at Nujiang Christian Training Center - October, 2016
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Training Class at Nujiang Christian Training Center - October, 2016
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Wednesday Evening Worship Service at Nujiang Christian Center - October, 2016
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Praising Dance at Nujiang Christian Training Center - October, 2016
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Training Class at LuShui Christian Center - October, 2016
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Church at BaoShan - October, 2016
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Yunnan Theological Seminary - November, 2016
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Preaching at Yunnan Theological Seminary - November, 2016
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Wa Christian Training Center - November, 2016
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Wa Church - November, 2016
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Wa Church - November, 2016
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Wa Church - November, 2016
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Wa Church - November, 2016
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Wa Church - November, 2016
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Training Team - November, 2016
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Training Class at Lahu Christian Training Center - November, 2016
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Lahu Church in Construction on November 2016
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Lahu Church - November, 2016
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Teaching at Lahu Church - November, 2016
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Sharing at Lahu Church - November, 2016
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Lahu Church - November, 2016
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Lahu Church in Construction - November, 2016
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Sharing at Lahu Church - November, 2016
The Chinese
New Year of the Monkey became the Chinese Year of the Rooster on January 28,
2017. Our reflection on the Chinese
Monkey year (2016) reveals a fruitful year for the ministry. In late 2015, the major assignments at Macau Bible
Institute were completed, and International Ministries received an invitation
from Yunnan Province Christian Council and Christian Three-self Patriotic
Movement committee (YCC & TSPM) to help with their theological
training. After the area director Dr.
Ben Chan discussed the invitation with us, we quickly moved to Hong Kong and
started the Global Chinese Training Ministry in January 2016, and now we have
three major ministries: Yunnan Christian
training, visiting Hong Kong churches and exploring mission partnerships in
Taiwan.
Yunnan
Christian training, our primary focus in 2016, has four areas of ministry which
also are part of the three years plan: (1) training at Yunnan Theological
Seminary and four Christian training centers, (2) a teacher conference, (3)
raising scholarships for the students, (4) providing books for their
libraries. In four Yunnan trips, we
visited Yunnan Theological Seminary, the Bible school, Christian training
centers, preached at churches and provided training at the Christian training
centers for more than 600 students. During the first visit, we quickly
identified with the Apostle Paul’s Macedonian Call: “Come over … and help us.”
(Acts 16:9). For details of our first
and second trips, please reference our four published journals on https://www.internationalministries.org/teams/445-wu .
The last
half of 2016 was our busiest time. In
October we had the third Yunnan trip to the Nujiang area where the Salween
River, a river from north to south, passes through a mountain valley. It is
called Nujiang Grand Canyon and the “Gospel Grand Canyon” because there are
more than 200,000 Christians living in this Nujiang Grand Canyon. Ninety percent of the people of this rural
area are believers, and nearly every household believes in Jesus
Christ. We were inspired from learning
many missionaries’ stories such as James Fraser, Allyn Cooke and Isobel Kuhn; especially their ministries for the Lisu people. A team of four, including both of us, went to the Lisu Christian Training Centers which are on the
south side of the Nujiang Grand Canyon. Although
the tuition, board and fees are not expensive, some of the student families live
in the mountains with low income and need financial support in order to study
at the Christian training center. The
students are young but eager to learn the Bible. Some students are very sharp and wish
to pursue advanced theological education in order to serve the Lord in the
future. Please join with us to pray for
those students and for their wishes to equip themselves to serve our Lord.
In
November, our biggest team of seven people, including our area director Dr.
Chan, went on our fourth Yunnan trip, which was not only for training but also
for visiting 8 churches of Wa and Lahu ethnic minorities in total. We visited one historic old wooden church which was built about 90 years
ago by an ABC missionary. We had to take
off our shoes in order to enter the “Holy Ground.” A new
church currently in construction is following this historic church’s
architecture. All the churches are built
on the mountain top and have the most beautiful views of the countryside. Although the mountainous scenes with the blue
sky are beautiful, to reach some of the churches requires a bumpy and slippery
ride through the cliffs and hills. One
of the churches just built a drivable road in 2016. Most of this church's members speak only their
dialect because of limited contact with the outside world, and a majority of
the churches do not have an indoor restroom.
But these ethnical minorities are giving their most beautiful location
to build their church for God.
As
mentioned above, another ministry was to visit churches, especially the Swatow churches at Hong Kong, and invite them to join the Yunnan Training
ministry. Our third and fourth Yunnan
trip teams had some members from those churches. We invite all those who have a heart for
teaching these ethnic Chinese Christians to join us in our ministry.
This past
year we went to Taiwan twice and visited six theological seminaries. From the
visits, two seminaries have indicated an interest to partner with IM and
requested a missionary to help in their seminaries. One of theological seminaries' purpose is to
equip students to be faithful workers in the Church and society and to
participate in God's mission among the indigenous communities. “The harvest is
plentiful but the workers are few. Ask
the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest
field.” (Matthew 9:37-38). We pray that
those who have a burden for theological teaching will receive the Macedonian
call.
May God
bless your heart for His mission work in this New Year! Happy Chinese New Year!