Let’s support: Care for China’s Ethnic Minorities

These missionaries shed much tears and blood to bring the gospel to the ethnic minorities.  They sowed the gospel seeds. Today, the seeds have become trees that bear much fruit. We see churches in the villages among the hills and valleys. Their amazing deeds challenged many ethnic believers to dedicate their lives to the work of missions.

The minority peoples are hard workers, pure and zealous in their faith.  After accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, they keep their faith and pass it on from generation to generation. They also share a common desire, which is to become carriers of the gospel message and bring the blessing of Christ to unreached places. An ethnic believer said, “We are an ethnic minority nestling in a hilly region. We do not share the prosperity of modern China which is taking off in her economic development. We continue to live by our land, diligently tilling it. We follow a simple and frugal lifestyle yet we have a dream! We dream of the gospel spreading to places as far as we can reach. We dream of people reconciling with God and being saved! ”

Offering songs of praise at a church meeting.

A volunteer from Hong Kong gave them a vocal trainig.  They were learning a song called “Amazing Grace”.

We appeal to churches worldwide to help the ethnic believers bring the gospel to recognized difficult places like Tibet. It’s always easier for minority believers to share the gospel with their own people due to the similarity in their language, culture, background and adaptability!

Support Bible Training Schools

Despite their lower standard of living and insufficient training, these ethnic co-workers are willing to share needs and the gospel with other minority groups.  The ethnic believers started disciple training schools despite of a shortage of resources. They focus on equipping the next generation of gospel workers to fulfill God’s calling upon their lives.   Therefore we plan to conduct Bible training courses for the minority believers to help them become effective gospel workers. We have planned to regularly organize short mission trips and invite Bible teachers to teach Bible courses and conduct discipleship training. Through this equipping, we hope to turn the ethnic believers into quality preachers for the advancement of the gospel.  Please contact us for details of the discipleship training and mission trips, or fill in and return the response slip to us.

Support missions among ethnic minorities

The Bible Training Schools for the ethnic minorities have students mainly in the age group of 15-20. These young people have come with simple hearts, grateful to missionaries for the sacrifices made in bringing the gospel to their past generations. Having been blessed with the gospel, they feel the need to repay their gospel debt. Since they have freely received, they want to freely give the blessing to others. In doing evangelization in towns and villages, these young workers often go with little provision or money, hence suffering food and lodging problems. Let us help these young workers with a living allowance that they may be encouraged to continue as messengers of the gospel. If you wish to support the ethnic minorities, please fill in and return the response slip to us.

Support education among ethnic minorities

From the beginning, ethnic minorities are the neglected people groups. This is because they have their homes in the hilly interiors and live as farmers in isolation from others. This has resulted in their comparatively lower status in education and economy. We plan to help the ethnic students who pursue education in senior high schools and universities. More and higher education will lift the minority peoples up from poverty and backwardness. Your giving of HK$400 (approx. US$52) per month is sufficient to cover the one-month fee for a university student; or HK$300 (approx. US$40) per month will cover the one-month fee for a senior high school student. If you wish to give toward Education Aid for the ethnic students, please fill in and return the response slip to us (please indicate Education Aid).

Awaiting your response. God bless you all!

*Response Slip_Care for China’s Ethnic Minorities

Devotion to the Ethnic Minorities

AMONG China’s ethnic minorities, the Miao, Yi and Lisu have the most Christians – making up about 30% to 60% of their population. In certain ethnic regions in Yunnan and Guizhou, the Christian population exceeds 80%. Over a century ago, many missionaries came from afar to sow the gospel seeds in Yunnan and Guizhou resulting in these two provinces having the largest concentration of ethnic believers. Let’s look at three of these missionaries who committed their lives to serving these people groups.

Samuel Pollard: blessing the Miao

In 1887, a 23-year-old British missionary named Samuel Pollard arrived in China in response to God’s call to evangelize a people group. Initially Samuel labored in the city of Zhaotong, Yunnan. Later he took on more of a risk and began to work among the Yi people of Liangshan in the Jinsha Jiang region. And in 1905, he relocated to Guizhou to begin his ministry among the Miao. In those days, the Miao lived under very harsh conditions in extreme poverty, but Samuel chose to live among them and live like them. His devotion to them won him their trust and Samuel had a very successful ministry among them. He built churches, created the Miao written script (the Miao previously only had a spoken language) and translated the Bible into the Miao language. As a result, the gospel spread rapidly among the Miao in the surrounding regions. Other ethnic groups like the Lisu, Nu, Dulong, Yi, Jingpo, Lahu and Wa also began to receive the gospel message. Samuel Pollard continued his ministry which included the setting up of more than a hundred schools, hospitals, orphanages and also China’s first leprosarium. Ten years after this accomplishment, he died at the age of 51. By then, an estimated 10,000 Miao had become believers.

James Fraser: pioneering in Yunnan

James Outram Fraser was born into a wealthy family in Britain. Because of his burden for lost souls, in 1908 at the age of 22 he came to southwestern Yunnan to serve among the Lisu people of Nu Jiang. He traversed the Yunnan-Guizhou highland, learning the Lisu language and sharing the gospel with them. For 14 years, his ministry bore no fruit and he had no converts among the Lisu villagers. In fact, the Lisu attempted to kill him by setting fire to his house one night. James escaped death because of an alert by a young man and he later appeared before the petrified Lisu villagers who thought they were seeing a ghost. James said: “Do not be afraid for I am not a ghost. It’s just that my God is the true God and He has saved me from your plan to kill me. What you should do now is to believe in Jesus who is the savior of the world!” The villagers believed in Jesus that morning. After this, James Fraser ministered in more than 30 Lisu villages and all were won to God’s Kingdom. This happened in 1930 and started the great spiritual transformation among the Lisu people.

For the backward and desolate Lisu people, James Fraser created a written language. With that, James wrote a question-and-answer guide on Christian practices and also translated the gospels of Mark and John into the Lisu language. He went on to write about Lisu history and produced a hand-book on the Lisu language. By 1936 James completed the translation of the New Testament. Furthermore, James learned about and taught vine-growing and other agricultural skills to help the Lisu people upgrade their livelihood. To promote culture, James built churches and schools to benefit thousands of Lisu children. Like Samuel Pollard, James also set up hospitals and clinics. He died of sickness due to overworking at the age of 52.

Isobel Kuhn: handmaid to the Lisu

In 1923 at a small retreat in England, Isobel Selina Miller heard James Fraser sharing on his Lisu ministry in China. Deeply touched, Isobel committed her life to serve the Lisu people.

In 1934, Isobel and her husband John Becker Kuhn went to China and started their work among the Lisu people, assisted later by a Mandarin-speaking local co-worker. Yunnan’s living conditions then were very bad and basic necessities were lacking. But in spite of this, they were able to build a fairly spacious and durable meeting place which they called the “House of Grace”. Their ministry faced an uphill task owing to difficulties of local travelling and the animistic practices of the people.  However, the Kuhns persevered in taking the gospel to the unreached places.

To help the Lisu believers in understanding the Bible, they brought along with them hand-copied New Testament Lisu Bibles. They also had a typewriter for the Lisu language. Each year from June to August, Isobel conducted their Bible school – “The Rainy Season Bible School”. The intensive Bible training classes helped train many Lisu co-workers and build strong Lisu churches. In 1950, the Kuhns left China following changes in domestic politics. They relocated to Thailand to continue serving the Lisu there. In 1954 they returned to their home country due to sickness. By then the Lisu believers were estimated at 3,600 in number or about one-third of its population. Today, the Lisu believers in China exceed 80% of its population.

Response

Our one emphasis this year is in the training of Yunnan’s ethnic minorities and helping their young ones continue with their school education. You can participate in this ministry by joining us on short mission trips, giving toward financial needs and by supporting this ministry in prayer intercession.  Please contact us for further information. God bless you all!

New Wine in New Wineskins – Fires of Holy Ghost Revival Burning in China’s Official and Registered Churches

I recently was invited to speak in an official “Three-Self Patriotic Church” in Wuchang, which is in Wuhan in central China. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei is actually made up of three cities (Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang), and is the most populous city in Central China with a population of about 9.8 million. There are several hundred official churches registered with the Religious Affairs Bureau and without a doubt several thousand house churches.

The pastor, Rev. Xu, then spoke to me about the situation with Christianity in China. He said, “In the West you are now putting emphasis on the cell church, or house church movement and many think the only way to reach China is through support of the house church movement. But after studying Christianity in China for many decades, I have come to the conclusion that China will be reached not only through house churches, but through large open churches preaching the Gospel.”

I asked Rev. Xu, “Why do you say that?” He pointed to a large modern building of over 40 floors, which you see everywhere in Chinese cities, and he said, “In this building there is probably one or several house churches. But other than the people who attend these house churches, who knows about their existence? How many sinners will they be able to reach and bring to Christ say over the period of ten years? Perhaps it will be a few hundred or a few thousand.’

But look at my church. Every Sunday we have over 6,000 come to our meetings, many for the first time. They see a church building and attend out of curiosity, an interest in religion or at the invitation of a member. We have choirs, instrumental music, good preaching, Sunday Schools, youth ministry, divine healing meetings, prayer meetings, Bible Seminary and so on. Every month we reach countless thousands of people. Thus the key to reaching China is through ministry originating in large Spirit-filled open churches.”

I immediately thought of a conference for the “Simple Church” I attended in Dallas Texas several years ago. I was asked to speak on the house church in China. They had all read a book named “Pagan Christianity”. The book basically states that because almost everything we know in Christianity has pagan organs, we thus should leave the ‘institutional church’ and only meet in our homes in small groups in which anyone who desires can share (1 Cor. 14:26). All other things in Christianity are wrong: church building, clergy, choirs, Bible Schools, Sunday Schools, worship teams, youth groups, tithing, communion services, baptismal services, pulpit preaching, etc.

It would seem the authors have something against the ‘church’ as we know it today. But I can totally agree with one of the basic premises of the book, which is ‘the church is not a building we go to or have meetings in, but the church is people, the Body of Christ.’ Having said that, in at least the Asian context, the church building is extremely useful and even vital to the development and growth of the ‘church, the Body of Christ.’ Our Hong Kong church, Revival Christian Church, is a converted movie theater of 15,000 sq. ft. Almost every part of the building is being used every day by our congregation and other groups. Every month literally thousands will be ministered to in this building.

For decades we have experienced mighty revival in China, but it was mostly in the rural house churches. This has resulted in close to a hundred-fold increase in Chinese believers in the past 60 years. Now this revival is sweeping many large official churches often referred to as ‘Three-Self’ churches. Also many congregations now meet in non-official but registered church buildings. These are basically house church fellowships that due to a recent relaxation in policy have been able to build their own church buildings.

During the first 25 years of China’s open door policy (starting in 1978) few house church leaders, believers and overseas Christian workers or missionaries wanted anything to do with the Three-Self churches. They called them the ‘harlot church’ and Christians attending these churches were considered to be compromisers and the preachers as betrayers of Christ. After I attended some of these at the invitation of the pastor to preach and teach on the Holy Spirit and revival, I was told by one leading house-church leader a few years ago, “You cannot even be saved if you set your foot in a Three-Self Church.”

This same leader was lamenting that his house church was in decline, young people were no longer praying or preaching as they did in the Cultural Revolution and the first two decades of the ‘open door policy’, and they were longing for the ‘old time religion’ and the return of the past glories. However he failed to see that many official churches that were in every part of that area (Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province), were packed with young people who were baptized in the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues and prophesying, and every service was lively with instruments, dancing and New Testament style worship. These churches were exploding with growth, conducing Sunday Schools, youth ministry, divine healing taking place in every meeting and powerful Biblical preaching by Spirit filled ministers. It is truly time of revival, and at the present rate of church growth within in thirty years we will probably see the numbers of Christians increase from 20-30% of the population. It now stands about 9%.

While RCMI still focuses on ministering to house church groups in providing Bibles, Christian teaching materials and conducing training sessions both in mainland China and Hong Kong, we increasingly have open doors to the official churches. We still continue to conduct Bible Schools where we train workers. However we now have open doors to train in open churches.

Since I gave the leadership of our local Hong Kong church and local ministry to Samuel and Sharon Lau (note: the son-in-law & daughter of Pastor Dennis, now co-senior pastors of Revival Christian Church, Kwai Fong) in 2003, I have been dedicating the vast majority of my time to ministry in mainland China. While we have heard no policy statement from official religious organizations, there seems to have been a marked change in policy during the past year or so. Evangelical and Spirit filled leaders are taking over official churches, and have liberty to preach whatever they want. Many of these churches are developing worship teams, Sunday Schools, youth groups and are actually very active in evangelism and church planting. I have had the opportunity to preach and share in many of these official churches.

At the same time, many house church fellowships, through contacts with various government officials, have applied to and been given permission to build large church buildings, some over 12 floors high. One floor will be a large meeting hall that can accommodate a congregation of up to 1,000, and they will have multiple meetings on the weekends. Other floors will be used for a Bible College, dormitories for students, offices and canteen. I am often invited to minister and without exception the preaching will focus on being baptized in the Holy Spirit, revival, Biblical worship and praise and missions. Also many will give their lives to Christ and become Christians after we speak.

We still greatly need teams to visit Hong Kong to help us to take in and distribute desperately needed Bibles and Christian books to China. This is because some of the Study Bibles and teaching books (such as Shepherd’s Staff) are not available for sale in China. However with offerings given for Bibles, we can through our contacts in the official churches purchase large amounts of Bibles. The Christians always appreciate this for they are officially printed by Amity and The Chinese Christian Council, and possession of them will never result in any problem.

I also appeal for overseas workers to come to HK to work with our ministry, learn the Chinese language and eventfully go to China to serve the Lord. While China has no such thing as a ‘missionary visa’, countless thousands of missionaries are already in China doing various ministries. But we need tens of thousands more if we are to bring in this last harvest. We are living in the time of opening doors, not closing doors.

Pastor Dennis Balcombe

Happy CHINESE New Year

Revival Chinese Ministries International (RCMI)

wish you all the best in your year to come!

Happy CHINESE New Year!

A White Christmas that was different

>> download article (pdf): English / Chinese

Hi there!  How are you?  How was your Christmas holiday?  We wish you had a good time!

As for us, we had an extraordinary white Christmas in northeastern China! Some 20 of us from Hong Kong, guided by our Lord and supported by your intercessory prayer, had our Christmas in temperatures averaging minus 20 degrees Celsius.

In this trip, we visited Three-Self churches and House churches. We blessed them with more than a hundred copies of the Bible and other spiritual books. We held a Christmas gospel rally where we shared our testimonies. More than a hundred people, mainly the youth, made decisions for Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We also joined the local believers in a 24 hour prayer meeting at the Prayer Mountain. The Prayer Mountain was designed after the Korean model and was built by a brother with the blessing of the Lord. It is truly amazing to see a prayer mountain established in China. Before we left the area, we joined a local church in worship and praise while going around the city in a bus praying and calling upon God for China!

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The gospel of Jesus has continued its outward spread from the local cities and villages to places faraway.  In the latter days, the Chinese churches shall become important bases for missions. The revival and unity of the mainland churches shall have an important bearing on the harvest of the mission fields!  The Chinese churches must undergo transformation and renewal.  Have you prayed for China today?

We plan for more short-term mission trips to China this year to enable many to experience the reality and needs of the Chinese churches. Are you willing to walk another mile for the Lord by coming to China? Are you willing to sow more and reap the harvest? We hope that you will join our co-workers to bring revival to China! Let’s sow and reap in China together!

Here’s more photos we took in the trip: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.321973664503385.81429.114485855252168&type=1