China’s minority groups, particularly those such as the Yi (彞, approximately 8 million strong), have been marginalized for years. This region has been designated as an “extremely impoverished” area dependent on outside resources. However, this aid often remains superficial and fails to address the root causes of the problem.
Those of us involved in China ministry since the early 1980s have been eye-witnesses of China’s rapid changes on the surface. As China opens again after COVID-19, I believe we are asking the same question again—what is our role as Christians from the West in China?
It has been almost five years since I returned to China. From the world’s perspective, I have shifted to a new field that seems like a “downgrade.” However, without this experience, I would never have discovered that I am suited to be a teacher. Reflecting on God's blessings in every trial, I have no regrets.
When our own cultural perspective is extremely limited, our capacity for ministering cross-culturally will likewise be significantly constrained. A perspective growing out of spiritual maturity—more and more of us and fewer and fewer of them—will go a long way toward effective ministering cross-culturally.
Jesus became real and trustworthy, not just a man anymore, but God in the flesh. However, the burden of sin, the condemnation of conscience, and the bondage of opium addiction became increasingly difficult for him to overcome.
God finally led me through his gates and into his courts, where I came to understand that he is not only the answer to the social issues I sought to resolve but also my personal Savior, my eternal Father in heaven, my dearest friend in spirit, and I, his beloved child.
Even before the civil unrest and the pandemic, Hong Kong was already known for its sky-high housing prices and tough conditions for raising kids. Still, God guided us on a journey of grace and reconciliation, calling us to stay and serve his church.
The LGBTQ community is the new unreached people group. Learn from Jesus to enter their community with companionship and share the gospel with them.
Many Chinese Christians suffered to love others and endured hardship in their native land because they loved the Lord. Pastor Hsi was one of them. Ordained by Hudson Taylor in 1887, he was the first pastor ordained by the China Inland Mission in mainland China.
I no longer wallowed in self-pity as a piece of wild grass because such grass is also created by God and loved by God.
The God of mission has a church, a people he shapes and sends in collaboration with missio dei. God himself accomplishes missionary formation through a series of shaping events that unfold over a lifetime.
That deepening understanding of his mercy towards us will stir our hearts to do whatever we can, out of love for Christ, to see those held captive to pride and unbelief turn to him.