Bring love to stay in a small border village

【Personal Mission】Our Children’s Ministry

Photo courtesy/Yoshiki

How could I be different?

I only believed in the Lord in 2010. At the beginning, I felt that Jesus was a hero who sacrificed his life for his ideals, so I was very moved and was willing to follow Him to pursue my ideals—to change the current situation of Chinese society and make China a truly democratic and constitutional country. So I decided to commit myself to the church, join this organization, and slowly accumulate resources in it.

But when God led me into the church, it was even more profound. At first I became a superficial theist, knowing only that there is one God who created the world and created mankind. But He did not dislike my superficiality. Through regular church life, reading the Bible, and listening to sermons, He opened my spiritual eyes little by little, letting me know that I was a sinner and that my motivation for joining the church was to toss around politics and seek my own glory. External "noble" goals are just a wrapper.

From myself, I deeply understand human sinfulness and realize that Jesus is my only savior. He died on the cross, washed away my sins with his precious blood, and finally resurrected to defeat death and give us eternity. s life. I began to realize the temporary nature of everything in the world. Everything on earth is ultimately empty (death), and the process is painful (intrigue, betrayal, damage to the body and conscience), so no matter what you do, it should have eternal significance to be worthwhile. Therefore, I am willing to seek refuge in the Lord, follow the Lord, and serve Him. I want to preach the gospel to those unreached people and let them know our Savior.

However, although my inner values have changed greatly and I also have the desire to preach, I do not have particularly specific and ambitious goals in my actions, because I feel that being a missionary basically requires having the qualities of a "special force" and sufficient equipment. Not only in terms of theological training, but also in good health to be able to withstand it, and perhaps even the ability to learn a new language quickly. And I am not in good health and my equipment is limited. Looking at the city where I live, I feel that it can be fine with or without me, but in many places where material resources are poor and life is difficult, it may be different with me.

However, although I see this direction, I don’t know how to proceed.

A small village of the Y ethnic group on the border between Yunnan and Myanmar

At the end of 2014, I had a major surgery and my body became relatively weak. Beijing is very cold in winter and the air is very bad, so my wife and I decided to go to Yunnan to rest for some time and preach the gospel to the people we came in contact with during the trip.

Winter is the most beautiful and comfortable season in Xishuangbanna. The climate is warm and the air is filled with the fragrance of flowers. After recuperating for a while, I gradually recovered, so I traveled around Xishuangbanna. I found an introduction to this Y ethnic village on the Internet and drove there.

The village is close to Myanmar. The people are simple and hospitable. Most of the villagers make a living by growing tea. The village is surrounded by virgin forests and towering trees. In the evening we stayed at a small inn run by villagers. The owner was a single guy who had worked in the city. I chatted with him for a long time in the evening. They have their own language, but no writing. They have some Buddhist beliefs influenced by the Dai people, and they also have some customs of worshiping natural objects. There was another ethnic minority not far away from them. A hundred years ago, missionaries came to preach the gospel. Some believed in the Lord, but none of the Y tribe believed in Jesus. So, I began to preach the gospel to him and found that he was interested in listening and was not resistant because of their national customs.

1. Most of the villagers make a living by growing tea. This is an ancient tea tree. 2. The cherry blossoms in the village are also very charming in the drizzle.

The stay was relatively short, and we only stayed for two nights before leaving. However, this beautiful village and the simple and enthusiastic villagers left a deep impression on me, and I also had the desire to preach the gospel to these ethnic minorities.

On New Year's Day in 2016, we came to this village again and stayed in that small inn. But the master is already married to a beautiful girl from the village and will be a father. This time we stayed for nearly a month, had more contact with the villagers, and gradually became friends with the inn owner. We explained the gospel to the couple in detail, and they gradually came to know Jesus. They made a decision to pray with us and were willing to accept Jesus as the savior of their lives. We also preached the gospel to some tourists who came here and led some people to decide to believe in the Lord.

After this period of short-term missionary experience, we felt that this unreached land might be a piece of good soil prepared by God, waiting for us to sow the seeds of the gospel.

1-2. Bring the children to make small pastries, make them together, and share them together. The children say they are so delicious!

Preach the gospel through companionship

After returning to Beijing, we informed the church where we were about our short-term mission, and also expressed to the church our intention to go to Yunnan for long-term mission. The church was very supportive and gave us its blessing.

In April 2016, we set off from Beijing and drove to Yunnan. Along the way, we also went to the Nu River Gorge and visited the church and some old preachers there. I was deeply inspired and encouraged. In mid-May, we arrived at this small mountain village on the border of Yunnan and Myanmar and began our missionary work.

In the first few months, we couldn’t find a fixed place to live, so we stayed in small inns, visiting villagers in various villages, preaching the gospel to them, letting them hear the name of Jesus, understand Jesus, and know Jesus, and gradually became familiar with them, and slowly Become friends and visit interested villagers, give them Bibles, and help them learn more about Jesus by taking them to read the Bible. However, their nation has no written language, so their Chinese proficiency is limited to some daily conversations. Reading the Bible is more difficult for them and requires long-term and patient teaching.

Later, a villager rented several of his houses to us. It was truly prepared by the Lord, because one of them was relatively large and suitable for activities. A small missionary site finally began to take shape.

With a fixed venue, our daily life is much more convenient. We don’t have to travel around to stay in inns or go to small restaurants every day. We can also gradually invite villagers to come as guests, making communication more convenient and natural.

After a period of exploration, we turned the focus of the gospel to children. We saw that the children here were throwing stones on the road because they did not read after school and had no "extracurricular activities". I thought it would be good to use this kind of time to know the Lord.

Considering that the children in the village lack extracurricular reading materials, we purchased many children's books and some simple educational building blocks and other toys, and established a small children's extracurricular reading room in our residence. Gradually, some children came to our place after class to read and play games. Our Sunday school experience comes in handy. I usually tell them Bible stories appropriately based on their level of understanding. Sometimes I also ask them to recite some Bible verses, because there is nothing better than enlightening children’s hobbies and tastes. It is the truth itself. Let them remember it first, and then gradually understand the deeper meaning of God’s words and know Jesus. Over time, God’s words will take root in their hearts and change their lives.

My wife and I work well together. I am responsible for sharing the content of the Bible, while she uses her sisterly affinity to teach the children some crafts such as origami, hairpins, and cooking skills. The children are very happy. During the activities, we will also randomly intersperse gospel songs. For example, when the children are using fans to cool down the baked cakes, my wife casually sings to accompany the children's actions: "There is a gift, have you received it?" ” They often happily follow us in singing hymns.

3. Let the children make hairpins by themselves, which look beautiful on their heads. 4. Children’s flower arrangements. Children in the mountains all have talents. Just tie a few wild flowers with banana leaves and the effect is quite good.

Thoughts and prospects

Nowadays, except for extremely backward and closed places, the material living conditions in rural China have been greatly improved, far from what foreign missionaries faced back then. Transportation, the Internet and even online shopping are very smooth, and the accommodation conditions are getting smaller and smaller than those in the city. In addition, the countryside has fresh air that cannot be compared with the city. Going to the countryside to develop gospel ministry will not bring much change in material living conditions. The challenge is how to meet the needs and preach the gospel in an appropriate way.

For example, there are a large number of left-behind children in rural China, and the merger and concentration of rural primary schools is now common. In order to go to school, many children have to start boarding at a young age. Most primary schools cannot provide accommodation, so off-campus boarding families have emerged. Many children live in these families. Parents bear all the expenses, but the children may not get the love they need.

Therefore, we Christians can carry out gospel ministry well for left-behind children.

First, because homestays are run on a commercial basis, no additional financial support is required to engage in this ministry. Furthermore, it is also a good social charity for Christians to set up boarding families, treat these left-behind children well and give them family-like care. It can be a good witness for Christ to those parents; most importantly, as a Parents of host families actually play the role of guardians of their children. They can teach these children the concepts of Christianity, establish a world view and outlook on life that are in line with the truth, and even lead them to truly know Jesus.

What left-behind children lack most may not be money and material things. What they lack most is love and loving companionship. Enlightening them with the gospel and God's love will surely keep them from deviating from the true path and make them blessed throughout their lives.

In general, when we preach the gospel to children, we pay attention to three points:

to be carried out in a relationship
Preaching the gospel to children must be done within relationships. Children are very sensitive to your relationship with them. If you love them and think about them, they can feel it and respond with love and trust. Then, the message you preach will have a profound impact on them. Let them feel that Jesus loves them through us, and they will naturally love Jesus.

Use attraction
Let them learn through hobbies and games. When appropriate, we organize activities such as making dumplings and making cakes for the children to integrate them into the program, making them feel capable and valuable, allowing them to trust us more and have a greater sense of belonging to the gospel community.

motivational principles
If children have good memory, let them recite more scriptures. Beautiful handicrafts can be taken home as prizes after they memorize certain scriptures, which gives them great motivation.