In his book
entitled “Anthropological Insights for Missionaries,” Paul G. Hiebert
writes:
There is a gulf between ourselves
and the people to whom we go in service.
There is an even greater gulf
between the Bible’s historical and cultural setting and contemporary life. How do we bridge these gulfs and make
possible the effective cross-cultural and cross-historical communication of the
gospel? Clearly we need to understand the
gospel in its historical and cultural setting.
Without this, we have no message.
We also need a clear understanding of ourselves and the people we serve
in diverse historical and cultural contexts.
Without this, we are in danger of proclaiming a meaningless and
irrelevant message.
Our mission,
Asians For Christ, emphasizes the importance of solid and sound doctrine based
on biblical truth as well as being sensitive with cultural setting of people we
serve so that the message would not be misunderstood or be foreign to the
people, and ultimately many lost souls would be reached with the Good News of
Jesus’ redemption.
The
Context of Lisu ethnicity
Lisu people
live throughout several countries; China, Myanmar, India, Laos and
Thailand. Now a day, you will find some
Lisu people in Malaysia, Australia and even in the United State of
America. They came to the USA first as
political refugees and then holding the USA citizenship after living some
years. Out of approximately 2,000,000,
1/3 of the Lisu people are Christians. The majority of Lisu are
spiritists. Most of the Lisu in Myanmar
and India are Christians, most of the Lisu in China and Thailand are nonbelievers,
and not even one person of Lisu in Laos is nonbeliever. Mission history confirms that Lisu Christians
were the ethnic people who converted Chinese, Rawang, and Nu people in Myanmar
and converted Lahu and Wa people in China.
Traditionally, the Lisu people had no written language. The Lisu script was invented by J. O. Fraser,
the first missionary of Lisu in the early 19th century. It is common that the nonbelievers would not
know how to read and write this script.
Indeed, most of them are illiterate.
In other words, they have not even known how to read the Bible.
The Incarnated
Mission:
In order to incarnate
the Word of God to the Lisu people in their cultural setting, we held the Lisu
cultural conference and exhibition during Feb 28-March 4, 2014 in Chiangmai and
Mae Hong Son provinces, Thailand. Since
many of Lisu people are animists and illiterate, our mission endeavors to
promote the Lisu people who live in China, Myanmar, India, Laos and Thailand,
to learn how to read and write Lisu so that they, whether they are believers or
not, will be able to read God’s Word in their own language.
In February,
we spent most of our time and effort to prepare this conference. The conference turned out to be the real
blessing from our living God and Lord.
It was well accepted, attended and supported by Christians and
non-Christians, native people and missionaries.
We had over 60 Lisu key governmental leaders, both Christians and
non-Christians, from several places in China, for instance; Nujiang, Baoshan,
Dehong, Wexei and Lijiang. We also had
two Lisu senators and a minister from Myanmar and several thousands of Lisu
people in Thailand participating at this conference. The conference agreed to conclude that every
Lisu whether being believers or non-believers should study the Lisu
script. Praise the Lord!
Why is
teaching the Lisu script very important for mission works? Because after learning the Lisu alphabets,
the Bible is the only available tool for practicing the Lisu language. In addition, we believe that the Bible is
God’s Living Word, and after they read the Bible, God will work in their hearts
and lead them to repentance, be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and to
receive God’s salvation by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians
2:8-9). We have seen that this is the
only avenue for reaching out many lost souls among the Lisu people in China,
Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. Our ultimate
goal has been reached and our efforts have been paid off because many Lisu
people in China have requested us to teach them how to read and write in Lisu
after the conference. Praise the
Lord!
Indeed, God
is even moving ahead of us among the pagan government on this issue. For instance, the government of Myanmar
enacts the law that every Lisu needs to know the Lisu script. The Chinese government also promotes this
ideology. Actually, this is the best
chance for a mission work because only Christian workers are able to teach the
Lisu script. Now it is the time to
harvest what we had sown at the conference.
Please keep this ministry in your prayers!
Meeting with Lisu leaders in Chiangmai for
preparing the conference
Conference call to Lisu from different countries
Meeting with Lisu leaders at Pai, Maehongson
Preparing the location for the cultural exhibition
Finding hotels for guests
Picking up Chinese Lisu at the airport
Stephen giving a welcoming speech
The opening event
The most popular Christian singer from Myanmar
Introducing Lisu from different countries
Cultural dialogue
The Morse, missionary family, participate this event
The winner of the Chinese Idol in 2010
The chairman of Lisu culture in China
The Thailand-Lisu attended at this event
The Lisu cultural exhibition
The First
Mission trip to Myanmar
Bagan, the ancient city of Myanmar
Chinese Lisu visit church at Yagon
Chinese Lisu visit a Bible training center for Lisu in Myanmar
Introducing Chinese Lisu to Lisu Christians in Myanmar
A group picture with church leaders at Pying Oo Lwin
The girl all the way on the left is the one
who asks Stephen to pray for her
Family:
Though it
was a very tiresome month, every one of the Wongratanamajchas played
significant roles at the conference.
Mary took care of those female leaders from China. Nick and John are serving as staffs. Isaac entertained our guests with his
innocent and attractive character. Becky
is a living demonstrator of God’s saving power during the conference.
At the
moment, every one of the Wongratanamajchas, except John, is in a great
health. John has a stomach infection with
bacteria. He was hospitalized for a few
days and now he is at home. Much
appreciation for your continual prayers for John! Nick is busy in preparing lessons for
teaching Christian youth at their camp in Myitkyina, the Northern part of
Myanmar, this upcoming April. Isaac and
Becky are on their break. Stephen is
preparing himself for the upcoming several mission trips. All evangelistic trips must be done before
the raining season in June. Due to
traveling to remote areas, please accept our apology in advance for the blog
will not be updated on the regular basis for the next few months.
Isaac in Lisu attire
John performing a Lisu song
Nick with a women leader from Dehong, China
Mary with Lisu leaders from Boashan, China
Mary, Isaac and John with the Thailand Lisu
- Stephen will take off on his second mission trip to Myanmar at the last week of March. He will spend most of his time during this upcoming trip to evangelize to the people in remote villages and restricted areas in the Shan State of Myanmar.
- At the second week of April, Nick will fly to Myanmar and conduct the Christian Youth camp at Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. Stephen will join Nick at this camp.
- In May, Stephen is planning to make his mission trip to Laos. During the conference, we have learned that there are several thousands of Lisu live in Laos. These Lisu have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ yet. What a challenging opportunity!
Missionary
needs
- Our mission has been requested to offer a week or two week long English camp to children in China. If any churches or individual feels this call, please contact us for we are looking for some short-term missionaries to enroll in this ministry.
- John’s school, Grace international School, has several positions that needs to be filled for the next school year--Elementary Music Teacher, Elementary Art Teacher, Secondary Teacher (Religious Studies), Secondary Teacher (Math), Extension Services Department (Homeschool) Director, Home Education Consultant, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, Spiritual Life Director, Facilities Engineer, Alumni Relations Coordinator, and Webmaster. If you might be interested in some of these staff openings or you might know someone with the skills that their need, please click on www.gisthailand.org/serve-at-GIS/
Much
appreciation for your partnering in carrying out the Great Commission to the
Lost people and making His disciples in all the ethnic groups of people in
Southeast Asia and China.
In Christ’s
Love,
Stephen and
Mary
