Dear Family and Friends,
With much excitement and thankfulness for having privilege to serve our Lord on the field, we anticipate YOUR continuous walking with us in the m* journey in the year of 2014. We thank YOU very much for your pr*yers, love and full support to us and our min*stries. Without your fervent intercession throughout the past years, our min*stries were impossible.
In January, we had an opportunity to visit a remote mountainous area where aborigines of an ethnic minority group, Miao group, have been dwelling in the past millennia. Having been invited to attend a wedding ceremony (which lasted for three whole days), we are thankful that we were able to build relationships with people in that village. While they extensively assimilated with the mainstream Han’s culture, their own language as well as many of their cultural traditions and superstitious beliefs are still prevalent. Nevertheless, neither a single chur*h was planted nor the Good News ever reached that area of the country before. “Coincidentally”, we had undertaken the outreach of ethnic minority groups to be one of the new areas in our 2014 min*stry plan. May the Lord prepare a way and direct us to serve Him in His will!
In addition to the Han majority, there are 55 ethnic minority groups within the country. In cultural traditions of Miao group, wedding is neither merely a matter of two people nor two families, but two entire villages. Right at the very instant of a “good fortune” time on the first day of ceremony, both families of bride and groom slaughtered seven pigs for serving the banquets in the coming days and also as gifts to guests. In general, there are a few hundred guests including families of bride and groom, their relatives and friends as well as all people from their respective villages.
On the second day, we, together with all relatives and friends of groom, took a four-hour trip to the bride’s village located at the top of the hill. Many gifts including the bridal gown and head-cover were brought to the bride’s family and were presented to the eldest of bride’s family immediately. Having enjoyed a big feast prepared by the bride’s family in the evening, all guests stayed overnight at bride’s home to accompany her for the last night at her own home. Guests gambled, smoked and drank, sang and danced, and chatted with bride overnight for celebration.
The celebration program on the third day started at 5am. The bride, escorted by her family and relatives, went to the groom’s village. Upon arrival in the afternoon, there were many solemn rituals held with hundreds of people from both villages: worship and sacrifice for ancestors, elder of the groom’s family pr*ying for blessings from ancestors, groom’s recital of “good fortune” address to the public, new couple’s receiving blessings from ancestors, distribution of “good fortune” rice-cakes and eggs to all guests, etc. Afterwards, big feasts, singing, dancing, fire crackers, fireworks and musical instrument performance followed overnight.
We are thankful that G*d gave us opportunity to enter into a Miao group community and celebrate a wedding with them together. However, we realized that ancestor worship and superstitions are much more emphasized in their traditions. With speaking their own dialect and living in a simple environment, there are only few Miao people in this community receiving high education. We pr*y that G*d opens door for us to reach out to Miao people and other ethnic minority groups, helps us recognize their felt needs, and share His great love to them.
In addition to our 2013 min*stries of reaching out to university students, and caring and supporting a national ev*ng*list, Lai, we plan to launch some new …..*stries in 2014 including
- Regularly reaching out to some ethnic minority groups.
- Coworking with STM teams; at the time of writing, two potential teams are being organized to come and serve in the fall season
- Disciple and equip a full-time coworker to become a national ev*ng*list
With love and appreciation,
Nick and Iris