woman eating scraps

Capture opportunities

In City H, where I live, the population of M people (Muslim ethnic group) who settled from a certain South Asian country has grown by double digits in the past ten years. From an inconspicuous small group to now, they can be found in every district!

Just four years ago, God used the words of faith of the Phoenician woman recorded in the Gospel of Mark—“But the dogs also eat the crumbs of the children under the table!” I was moved to put aside my job as a seminary teacher and devote myself to Care about them. Due to factors such as the right time (the time has come for them to have many children and spread across all districts), the right location (H City is the cosmopolitan city they long to move to), the "South Asian Ministry" was born. The ministry is carried out in two of the three districts in H City where M people live densely. There are three reasons: first, all kinds of information are easy to spread here; second, the M people in these two districts are numerous; third, the M people in these two districts are There are many needs.

Enter the group

Faced with the increasing number of crops on the field, we arranged for a team of two people to visit our homes, recruited primary and secondary school tutoring volunteers, and then trained volunteers who were willing to devote themselves to caring for these M people. So far, about 30 people have been trained and 10 people are steadily participating in the service. We believe that starting from the basics and building relationships with the people we visit is far more important than holding large events or interest classes. Because the government and non-governmental social service agencies in H City are already flourishing in this regard, we do not need to add icing on the cake.

When you walk into a dilapidated old building in H City, you will see women with their heads covered, dragging two or three children to school. At the school gate, their hurried figures quickly disappeared into the crowd after picking up their children from school. It is often after nine o'clock late at night on weekends when you see women gathering in front of the park to chat.

Women only have their own "free time" on Saturdays and Sunday nights, when their children and husbands don't have to go to school and go to work, and they have completed all the housework. That's when they can relax most and talk without being criticized for being immodest because it happens late at night. However, such dark nights are often the best time for us to "come face to face" with these women. Generally speaking, their husbands do not allow them to do this, so we regard this precious opportunity as a treasure given by God to us to develop diverse ministries!

reveal the mask

In male-dominated families, M women are greatly suppressed physically and spiritually, and most of them live in "blindness." No matter how many grievances they suffer, they can always think of some "big" truths to convince themselves that it is appropriate to "seek compromise" in this way. There is a woman whose husband refuses to apply for government-provided housing, and the whole family has to bear expensive rent expenses. Even in such a difficult financial situation, she can still say: "Since religious regulations require a wife to submit to her husband, I will obey without complaint." Because he can go to heaven by doing this.” Furthermore, the family of 60% lives in poverty because of the low income of the husband and the large number of children. Women just "let nature take its course and swallow their anger."

In addition, the distinctive clothing of M women often causes local people to avoid them or look at them strangely. In fact, regardless of whether they are men or women, M citizens are subject to considerable discrimination in H City because local people generally believe that they will take away their jobs and social resources.

Another common regret among the M people is that most women of the M people get married early due to blind marriages. However, due to the constraints of religious and cultural traditions, they cannot prevent pregnancy, so they have children at a young age. The heavy housework weighs on their shoulders every day, causing many of them to suffer from hundreds of illnesses. In their thirties, they have difficulty walking due to knee pain and suffer from spinal pain. The situation of premature aging is deplorable.

In order to enable these weak M civilian women to receive appropriate health treatment, I tried to accompany them to the hospital to understand the doctor's position and help the women break through their defenses and receive medical treatment safely. This also breaks the barrier between us as neither relatives nor friends, and allows them to feel the warmth of local company.

Because M's husband is considered to be the sole breadwinner of the family, M's women are not allowed to work freely, cannot go out alone, and do not have the freedom to get to know the people around them, let alone learn the local language of H City. Therefore, they lack opportunities to contact the outside world and are marginalized by society. Since both husbands and children have learned the local dialect through work or school, ethnic women have involuntarily become a group dominated by their husbands and even their children. She relies entirely on her husband financially and has no understanding of social resources.

We will catch them when they are alone at home, teach them Cantonese, and let them express their feelings. At the same time, our ministry team also actively provides M women with a variety of practical help in daily life, including providing second-hand furniture and appliances, free short-term food supply, arranging family outdoor activities, etc. Because of this, we became their friends and had a good reputation among them, which laid a solid foundation for the spread of good news in the future.

▲The unique clothes of M women often make local people look at them strangely.

When to sow? When to harvest?

Spiritually, M women are even more restricted by male-oriented religious rules: women must absolutely obey men and must obtain the consent of their husbands before they can do anything, including learning the local dialect! If you are found to be hiding anything from your husband, the consequences will be disastrous! So we carefully blend "good news" into general conversation, hoping that they will receive help directly from God. When they encountered illness, bereavement, or family financial difficulties, our team members bravely advised them with the truth and even prayed with them. Currently, among these women, there are 40 who are in contact with us, and about 13 of them are in close contact with us.

Confess your true feelings and break through the siege

When I was studying theology, I was called to urban missionary service to serve the oppressed grassroots women in society. Determined to love those whom Jesus loves, I step up to the plate and focus on underrepresented and vulnerable women. Currently, in City H, most of the churches or welfare organizations that serve South Asians focus on children and youth ministry. In comparison, there are very few social welfare groups that help M women. Most of the reason is that women do not understand English or local dialects, which leads to many obstacles in communication. Therefore, they have become a bead that many gospel ministries cannot penetrate.

Because of the vision of "one disciple per person," my colleagues in the "South Asian Ministry" and I have been committed to being evangelists among the M people over the years, and hope to lead more people to do the same at the same time. As of now, the two main directions of our ministry are outreach and training volunteers.

Currently, among those we serve, five women who are willing to open their hearts to know Heavenly Father and feel they are loved are most in need. There are another seven families in need of "adoption" - the plan is to arrange for two volunteers to care for one family for a long time, hoping that the whole family will be blessed. Because M women often have many excuses to avoid meeting, we need wisdom from heaven, preparation and patience to complete this mission.

The long-term goal of our ministry is to work with a team of volunteers who have been trained to care for the M people and fully carry out local M people work. At this stage, we still need a large number of primary and secondary school tutors to raise funds to provide second-generation vocational training for M citizens, so as to improve their life bottleneck of being limited to low-skilled jobs. On the other hand, language barrier is a big obstacle. We hope that in the future, some of the first fruits of M women will be able to serve as translators, which will not only promote mutual communication, but also further establish a communication platform and completely dismantle their mentality of guarding against different religions. .

Enlightenment experience

In frequent exchanges with M women, their straightforward personalities often remind me, who is kind and gentle, to stand firm for God in words and deeds, and to be firm in the truth and not to waver easily, otherwise it will easily give them the impression of weakness and avoidance. It feels like, and maybe even diminishes, the power of the gospel.

Although M women often mention the name of their gods and adhere to the rules of their religion, we firmly believe that Heavenly Father’s unfailing love will one day soften their superficial hardness and flow slowly in their hearts. Unless they are related by blood, they do not trust each other for fear of having their privacy exposed. Our appearance just makes up for their inner needs: a sense of security, someone to talk to, and a friendship that can develop an intimate relationship. Every meeting is like running water to them, watering their thirsty souls. Therefore, I can say with certainty: "God loves them so much!"

When we are willing to contact them, God will surely use His own method to lead them into His own fold. For when the spiritual touch of women is ready, as soon as the messenger of the gospel breathes upon them, they will rise like dry bones and rise up into an army. We are convinced that as long as we lead an M citizen to become a disciple, she will not hesitate and respond to the true love of Heavenly Father with her life.

Oh God! May this moment come soon.

The author's profile, Zhang Ailin, is now a freelance preacher. Master of Christian Studies from the China Theological Seminary. He has served as a church preacher, a former instructor at the Juifford Association’s Grassroots Ministry Training Institute, a former student internship coordinator for the missionary course at Juifford College, and a former South Asian ministry coordinator for the Juifford Association.