You and Lisu, My Fellow Soldiers!

There is a battle for us. Not against any human being. But against Satan who enslaves them.

Though spiritual, it's a real one.

Like all battles, it calls for real soldier.

Not one, but many - band of brothers, fellow soldiers, ready to watch each other’s back, ready to support each other, ready to die for a cause, for allegiance to their King, Christ Jesus.

A few weeks ago, we had a great Bible study with our kids. We were learning prayer and warfare from how Israelites defeating the Amalekites (Exodus 17: 8ff). The text was so rich. But one truth stands out from all:
Everyone has a role in warfare (Joshua & some men fought in the field; Moses prayed hard; Aaron and Hur kept Moses’ hands up and steady…). But we all need each other (Joshua needed fellow soldiers; Moses prayed for Joshua while he was engaging enemies; Aaron and Hur supported an exhausting hands of Moses. Together they fought the Amalekites on earth, while angels engaged the evil powers of the air in other realm…). Because we have a common enemy – Satan.

For the last two years, we often felt like Joshua, a frontier solider, only left alone in ditches engaging enemies. Supplies, not much left. Fellow soldiers, not at sight. Always wondered how much praying hands uplifted over that mountain top for us.

At times, we felt like Moses, tired, exhausted of lifting hands. How Aden and I long for fellow soldiers like Aaron and Hur to support our lowering hands! But support was rare.

 Still we press on. Yet it should not be a one-man battle, as surely as we have the same King.

So now I am calling out fellow soldiers for this battle. And I want to see you, you, you and you… together with the Lisu Christians, fighting in the same line.

I will be soon going back to the mountain, to the Lisu Christians this month. After my first visit in April, I pondered how to work among them. They do have lots of needs (Check my previous blog for my report: Won't Let Your Feet Slip, Lisu). However I do not intend to bring out to them much of the Western church resources and finance fearing that we might transform them from a simple and faithful God’s community into a greedy mass. But still out of brotherly love, we might be helping out with the basics like improvement on water, electricity, education and medication in the long run.

But two things we must do, one out of their request, one from our missional vision. They are hungry for the words of God. They want to learn more about God. So this time I will be going there to train them for a few days about “the Gospel of the Kingdom.” Through this, I hope their faith will be strengthened. But that’s not all.

There is a broader perspective, about global harvest, about other minority peoples that had never heard about Jesus before but live near to Lisu.

North East of Lisu, there are 300,000 Naxi people never heard about Jesus. The Pumi with 30,000 people on its east side, and Deang people, totaling 15,000, lives in its north. All under Satan’s bondage and slavery. Never heard of the gospel of Jesus and the love of God.

They are the neighbours of our Lisu Christian brothers and sisters. Can we encourage the Lisu to be fellow soldiers and bring the gospel to these unreached minority peoples nearby?

God wishes all person to be saved but this is not his reality (1Tim.2:4). Before Jesus ascension to heaven, he commanded us to make disciples of all peoples(nations) – people group of same language, culture and background, not all person. And it is only when all people groups on earth have active Christian communities among them, then Jesus will return (Mat.24:14).

There are 24,000 people group in this world. 16,000 had been successfully reached by gospel. Only 8,000 people groups left and needed to be reached before our Lord returns. Naxi, Pumi, Deang are among them.

This is nothing about personal ambition. It is about how close you want to come near His heart, His will. These unreached Naxi, Pumi, Deang and other peoples are his heart and his will. It is about how much you love your Lord and want to see these people from every tribe, language, nation, to stand before the Lamb and worship Him(Rev. 7:9ff). I am expecting that day.

What if our vision is not a dream? That on one day Aden, Marcus, Lisu brothers, and you and you, we stand before our King Jesus, together with this once-before-non-believing Naxi, Pumi or Deang, but now are His disciples! And have our Lord declared to us, “You are my fellow soldiers, my band of brothers! I am proud of you all.”

And we, the Lisu brothers, the Naxi, Pumi, and you and you, will stand hand in hand and proudly praise, “Lord, you are worthy…”

What joy complete if I see YOU were there with us as well! Will you fight with us here and now, that you and us shall proudly stand together there on that day?

Pray about this. Show your fire. Call us if you want to know how to combat with us.

Won't Let Your Foot Slip, Lisu



Lisu Houses at Hill Slope

  Sitting and praising in a small church in Kamloops, I was about to preach.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills -- where does my help comes from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip --he who watches over you will not slumber..."(Psalms 121)

While I sang this Psalms, my heart and mind flew thousands miles to Yunnan. To the Lisu minority people who lives and works in the steep hills and mountains. Seeing their feet would slip and they would fall - in fact an old man did slip and rolled down the hill - got my emotion suddenly. My eyes turned red. Tears wanted to fall. But I held myself, I was about to preach. 

Ever since I came back from Lisu last month, I couldn't help thinking of them a lot.

Lisu people lives in high mountains along the Nu River in Yunnan, 3500 to 4000 meters above sea. The small Lisu village we visited is located so high up that no cars can access. If you dare to ride on a motorcycle behind their back along the steep and narrow slope, there you go modern way. If not, donkey will do with goods. And us, just walked up and up the Yunnan red soil plateau. With less and less oxygen level in the air, every move seemed tougher and every breathing went deeper and deeper.

Mountains give protection to their faith and to their unique culture.  But high mountains won't grow much. Only corns for animals, coffee bean for sales. But they grow Bourbon - a high quality Arabica coffee. When I shared with them my Starbuck instant coffee, that was the first time these kind-hearted coffee planters drank coffee. They were amazed at how high this tiny Starbuck sachet could charge when they sell their beans to coffee dealers in such a low price.  In a slope so steep that holds nothing more than their feet, they plant and grow and harvest coffee bean. People would slip and fall and roll and die.  Innocent kids in flip-flops jump here and there over sandy heights. Fearfully I watched. "Watch out. Watch out." I exclaimed. 

Lisu House & Coffee Beans Bags



They don't have electricity for their houses. Only manage to have some solar energy for their small chapel. No power no light give much inconvenience.  But the reward for darkness is found in the sheer beauty of a starry night.

Water condition is poor. Drought hit them hard for the last 3 years and is getting worse. They drain water with a small hose from mountain spring afar to 2 stone barrels. No better storage and no pipings to each house. They don't brush their teeth and wash their bodies much.  I became one of them that night. I dared not waste their water on my body and my teeth.  So after much sweating but no washing, sleeping was not much an easy rest that night.

Sanitation and hygiene are poor. The last thing we shall wish for is a well-drained toilet. How bad? Leave it to your wild imagination. But ever since we left the village, we started discussing how to construct better toilet. At least we build our own next time - personal, simple but workable, temporary, mosquitoes and flies free. We even made sketches!

Toddlers crawled on ground with no pants. Cut wounds were not treated with right medicine. Flies share your foods and cups. In a dark dinning moment, you could be eating a dried black bean or most likely, an unlucky fly.

They are poor. But when they moved from the north to this area 5 years ago, they were worse. With the help of some local churches, they built better houses with brick roof. Church people would bring in used clothes and textbooks for kids once a year. 

They have a school, more like a classroom.  One class for all kids of all ages, ranged from 6 to 18. Now the 18 dropped off because he felt bad among the younger ones. The teacher is a young man who should be getting higher education himself. That's all they have. But they have it contentedly. So joyful and eagerly they learn. They even accepted a lousy teacher like me to teach them "Hello" "How are you" "I am fine" in English.

If life is all about food and goods, the Lisu people doesn't have life and joy. But Jesus reassured us that, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."(Deut.8:3). Their faith in God makes their life a richer one.

They are poor. But they share. They killed chickens - their scare and precious resources, to feed strangers like us. They moved to relative's house and welcome us to sleep in their very own. They accepted us whom they never met with great hospitality. I hope we were angels to them!

They are poor. But the Kingdom of God belongs to the poor, to them.

Bible in Lisu Language



Simple But Faithful



They let Christ be their center spiritually and physically.

Somewhere in the center of their village, they built a small chapel. This small and simple chapel was built not for faith decoration and sunday church-goers. Almost every nights, they go there for prayers, for praises, for teach and preach, for admonishing one and other. 

That night after dinner, they summoned the villagers with speakers. People walked up and down to the church from all directions with torchlight at their hands. They sat down and sang. And then, with no prior notice, they invited me to preach them God's words. In awe, in His holy presence and with great honour, I finished my first ever spontaneous preaching. We were all touched by the love of God.   

Their zeal for God and their hunger for His words are nowhere to find in our western church. So precious that makes you want to go back again and again to help them.

I can't stop thinking...

Our western Christianity uses up a majority of spiritual and financial resources. Does our faith get better? But somewhere in these high mountains, live the Lisu minority people - unknown to world, neglected and poor and deprived simply because they are the "minority." Is that fair?  Yet they remain strong and faithful to God. And God is faithful enough to remember them even they are the "minority."  He blesses them.

Good People: Father & Daughter

I hope my life could be used in place and people where it is needed most.
If there is already so much supply to a rich majority, why need me?
If there is supply never delivered to a needy minority, what holds me?

If James O Fraser, as a foreigner, could live 30 years there in Yunnan, riding donkey or just walking for weeks from village to village to preach and teach, could I, as a Chinese, move there and just live near them so as to build up their faith?
Why people of no faith could move easily to settle in China for the sake of its great culture or money-making?
And why does it take us, followers of the great Faith, so much pain to consider living there for the good sake of others and the gospel of the Kingdom?

My soul flies to you Lisu ...over mountains and seas.
Just believe Lisu, the Lord will not let your foot slip.
And just believe Lisu, we won't let your foot slip.

Never.

 





Following Jesus (2): Two Grande Dark

Coffee is coffee. But coffee isn't coffee.

In the hand of the One who turned water into wine. It's more than a Starbuck coffee. 

"Two Grande Dark" - the spirit of "Got it" and "Pass on."

Master Xu ( Click & know him first will help Following Jesus (1): Shall We Dance? ) drank tea back home. Seldom drank coffee. Never a Starbuck fans. But I am everything of coffee, of Starbuck. Since he didn't have any idea what to order, he followed mine. " Two Grande Dark please!"  No milk only sugar is my cup of coffee. Xu followed the last detail. We drank, talked about everything, of life, of immigration, of James O Fraser, of faith...

Then at other time, Xu would meet his own friends in restaurants, his home AND Starbuck. Now he met Alan, another Chinese immigrant, in Starbuck. He messed up the order and ended up something like Latte or Mocha, expensive and milky. He distasted it. Came back to me and asked what's the correct name to order. I told Xu, "Grande Dark." And ask him to repeat a few times "Grande Dark."  Now whenever they met in Starbuck, he made Alan drink...GRANDE DARK.  Xu "Got it". He "Passed on" to Alan right away.

Coffee is not my interest here. Jesus IS. Coffee is a medium to connect people. LTG (Life Transformation Group) is the like, a tool only, but Xu experienced the "Got it" and the power of God's words there.

3 months ago, when he felt desperate at all live challenges in this new country, I encouraged him to read Bible, by himself, as well as with us as a group.  This was his first time reading Bible.

I refrained myself from giving out to him only teaching, knowledge and opinion. Every questions he raised or every life issues he faced, I would answer them in the light of the Scripture and Jesus teaching - I flipped Bible.  Our focus is obedience unto Christ(Mat.28:20)  If he still didn't "Got it," we would learn the same lesson the other week, the other other week... till he was convinced to ACT. Even my friend was just a seeker, non-Christian, pre-follower, I wanted to make sure obedience to Christ was planted, planted deep. Because a true mark for Christ follower is obedience and love, not knowledge.

He showed progress, but slow. Now he told me he would be leaving for China in February. I thought I  should formed a LTG with him so that he later could repeat it with someone in China, to grow his new found faith and to grow the Kingdom there.

We did 3 things in LTG - the very core things of our faith, of our living as followers, yet so often neglected or reduced to lip service:

1. Read about 30 chapters Bible a week: He was then bathed in the Kingdom values, filling his soul, spirit and thinking, shaping him, instructing him...We read Gospel of John, then two three times Matthew(since we couldn't finish at the same time). Romans. Now Luke.  Jesus became bigger and bigger in Master Xu.
2. Make ourselves accountable to each other: we ask each other character shaping questions, confessing sins and drawing our focus again and again to the spiritual realm, the presence of God in our lives...
3. Pray for non-believers: this prepared him to share his witness and Jesus' teaching to his friends.  

Life's happening, growing and began to bear fruit.

He got drunk, then next morning he confessed he was wrong, since he now knew drunkenness is a sin(Rom 13:13). He no more wanted to tell lie, just wanted to be honest. He confessed his negligence of his kids and wanted to be a better father. Those were the things we confessed as we met in the LTG. And I told him that we should confess to each other and asked God's forgiveness. But at the same time, we should ask forgiveness from those with whom we had wronged.

The next day, after he had left for China, his wife told me that Master Xu had apologized to her and asked for forgiveness. He never apologized before.  Amd she was touched. They used to pointing finger towards each other, seeing logs in other's eyes. Now they were submitted to Jesus' teaching and confessing their logs in their own eyes (Mat.7:3-5).

I didn't induce them to say a sinner's prayer and became a believer. I no more a fans of it. I now challenged people to follow, to obey, to have an obedience-based faith.  When they follow Christ, they are His follower. When they obey Christ, they are God's obedient children (1Peter 1:14). A sinner's prayer won't bring you into his Kingdom, only the faith in obedience will do.  

There he was, he "Got it." He's following Jesus. And "Passed on" now...

 He shared Jesus teaching and his own experience to friends. People listened to him and wanting to study Bible with us. 2 weeks before he left, he brought Alan to our Bible Study, 6 of us including Alan's wife. We studied Bible.

Now Alan learnt to drink Grande Dark from Xu. Now Alan joined our LTG.  Both of us would connect with Master Xu in China through Skype to do LTG together every Friday. 

This is our journey in making disciples for Jesus. This is what we do in convincing them that everything we do, they can do, they should do.  His charge and his dream " to make disciples OF ALL NATIONS" (that is, of all people groups, of all languages, culture, subculture in this world) can only make senses when all believers all do it.

And do it with all focus. 
 

A LISU Christian was praying


A same disciple-making journey. In April, I would go to Yunnan to further disciple Master Xu. We were kind of connected by James O Fraser ("Mountain Rain"). I felt something divine in the minority groups out there in Yunnan, out there for us to discover, out there God's plan for us.  It is another journey.  We would walk along the missional path of James O Fraser, visiting cities he preached, staying in the Lisu minority people village... to hear, to see, to discover what God has prepared for us there. 

If you are inspired by what we are doing, and want to support my journey to Lisu in April. You can team up with us by donation - this will relieve our ministry's financial burden, and by prayer support, in our "LISU & Minorities 101 Journey." (Email me for detail)

See coffee is more than a coffee... 

So whether we are in a remote village in the Lisu community, or in a packed Starbuck corner in Vancouver. Be it face to face. Be it via Facebook.

 

We have one vision, one heart and one focus. To grow and reproduce faithful disciples, leaders, Christ communities. Love Jesus in our hearts. Love people with our deeds. Glorifing our Father here and forever.

Come and join me with a coffee!

This time with..."Two Grande Dark"

Following Jesus (I): Shall We Dance?

Jesus leads, we follow. That's discipleship.


Man leads, lady follows. That's dancing.  Can we then compare discipleship to dancing? To Tango.

Intimate, passionate, glancing at and away from each other.  STRONG - STRONG beat, and a weak beat or two in between.  Accelerates and slows down. Kicks and turns and throws and draws.  In good leading hands, and the will to follow, they turn out to be breathless moments lasting a lifetime. 

All of these begin with an invitation to our partner: "Shall we dance?"

But the way Jesus extended his invitation to my friend, Xu, seemed unconventional to us. In fact, Jesus sent someone to attract him, teach him, before he himself danced a Tango of discipleship with Xu.

Me. No! You can't imagine. A dead figure, James O Fraser, the missionary to Lisu - minority people in south west Yunnan, China.   


My friend came from another minority group in Yunnan. He met me at the poolside 6 months ago here. As a new immigrant, he's proactive in introducing himself, talking about his career as a Kung Fu Master in University back home. But his focus would shift when I mentioned my faith.


Summer sun gone quickly. Worries of life and emotion kicked into my friend. Failed in driving exam, hardship in jumpstart his Kungfu career, cold and rainy weather, language and more... My friend could no longer sleep at night, sad and depressed. Wanting to go home.

It was in this circumstance that I handed him the biography of James O Fraser (JOF), the "Mountain Rain" - a book any missional follower shouldn't miss. I couldn't give him a Bible. He still shifted his focus. But "Mountain Rain" and JOF were irresistible to him. Because he came from the same place where JOF served and died. He practised Kungfu everyday in the mountain where he believed JOF was buried a generation ago. 

He was 100% curious and drawn. Two weeks later, he excitedly told me he finished reading. And he was reading now AGAIN. We always drank coffee in Starbuck. He kept telling me how he related all those places in the book, how he was amazed by JOF' sacrifice for the Lisu people group... He was very much following James O Fraser. Not exactly Jesus. He's admiring him and so much inspired by him. 

This very much differs from our "Bringing People To Christ 101."  Attracted by a Christian book is OK la. Some by "Wealth & Health" gospel.  But definitely not a missionary book - sacrifice, suffering, hardship for faith.

While James O Fraser still impacting my friend, Jesus showed up on the stage, whispered to my friend, "Shall we dance?"

My friend started to see miracle. A big one that he couldn't deny. 


He was a skillful driver in China standard. In Canada and for driving exam bar, he was just lousy and poor. He failed once already. Now their chinese driving licences were taken away by CIBC. They could no longer drive their car alone. Imagine the everyday inconveniences. This created pressure. The couple was desperate to pass this time. So I decided to drive him to N. Vancouver for driving test, to bless him.


On that day, we arrived an hour early for practicing. I now saw how he drove. I was shaking my head and sighed inside. "OH my God, how will he get passed. Impossible!" He broke almost all rules. And he himself knew it.


Test time. There he went. Here I sat. In the centre praying for him. His wife and his son was praying at home for him. Then he came back. I met his test officer(she) with him. She told me with the paper on hand, " I didn't decide to pass or to fail him yet. Did he learn from a coach here?" "Yes"(i didn't mention one lesson only!). "I will give him a bare pass. But he has to promise me to improve this...and that...!" "Yes Yes Yes...," We replied.

A huge relief for everyone. Everyone involved knew it's a miracle. My family prayed. Her wife and kid did. He himself prayed. Rarely had I heard of anything called "Barely Pass" in driving test. He now got one. He knew it's the gift of Jesus. And it was a gift from Jesus for him had I prayed in the center. Now Jesus opened the eyes of his heart that he could see miracle.

Then both he and his wife started reading Bible with us.

But the issue of returning to China or not created great schism among them. They couldn't talk about it without arguing. They wouldn't listen to each other. We showed them how to wait on God's will. But how much could they, as pre-believers, the not-yet-followers, understand?  "God, I didn't expect discipleship turn out to be marriage counselling!" I complaint to God.

We became close friend. Families mingled. Kids played. Our home always seemed open to him. He could show up anytime at our door. Coffee, numerous. Life, crossed and shared. Jesus was here among us. 

The way onto following Jesus wasn't easy for them. "STRONG-weak-STRONG" beat of faith. Quickens and slows down. But God's grace was powerful. And they were doing great. I formed an LTG with my friend, while Aden formed one with his wife. They read 30 chapters Bible a week. Their values began to change. They started to see God here and there.

The power of God's words and the Holy Spirit were just irresistible. Jesus was now leading, my friend was following. Beautiful things were happening. Amazing me. Amazing them.  

I'll leave their transformation, the exciting part, a week from now for Part II, Following Jesus(2): Two Grande Dark

But for the time being, slow down and listen... Jesus whispers to you, "Shall we dance?"

Will you follow?

Search & Find

On a new way. The way we point people to Jesus.

2 days ago we met with non-Christian friends & studied "Jesus Feeds 5 thousands" at our home.

If it were 5 years ago, then this meeting would be like this:

I played guitar and sang beautiful songs, hoping to move their emotions; we made breakfast and great desserts, fearing Jesus needs facials & make-up; I would prepare much information and guiding questions, thinking they would be sufficient or necessary for faith and obedience. I would naively gave them workbooks instead of Bibles. That was my "Seeker's Bible Study." Good for producing nothing except passive & information-based church members. I had much confessions to make...

For our new attempt, the Discovery Bible Study, things are simple, direct and full of heavenly surprises:

No guitar, no songs, no American breakfast or delicious desserts - we want people to be attracted by nothing, except Jesus alone. They either discover Jesus here and follow or find nothing this time and leave. A blurred Jesus believed by them is worse than the real Jesus not yet be found. There are no intrinsic wrongs with songs, guitar, dessert... But they are wrong when used as outreach strategies. In other times, I still play music.

Anything that is not reproducible in these potential disciples' lives, I alert myself not to do.

If they think they need a guitar to start a Bible study with friends, that's a sin to the multiplication of church movements. Anything that is of culture, of tradition or personal charisma should be distinguished and discarded from the basic and original Gospel message if we long to see the Gospel moves from nations to nations, from races to races.

We want followers of Jesus even at this pre-following stage to believe that they can do what we are doing. God wants all extraordinary works come from ordinary people, not the ordained, not the priests, not the so called full-time pastors or ministers only. I believe. I act.

No more workbooks - our bestseller authors would hate me, but only an easy -to -read, to- hear and to -understand version of Bible on hands. Some never touched Bible before. Some even read the Bible story before they come!

Every weeks, we ask the same 4 questions - good news to you, leaders! No more our expository skills we rely on, but trusting the Holy Spirit to work with God's words in a searching heart. So the 4 easy questions for leading the 7 Miracles of John are:

• What do you know about man (or human nature)?


• What do you know about Jesus?


• What do you know about yourself?


• To whom you can share this with?

So simple. With repeated questions like these, the focus is not on how much meaning we can bring out for them. Rather they search in the text for insights about human nature, about Jesus and about their own life. Since it is they who dig it out, so they own it and keep it. I would never forget those sacred moments when the "aha" came from their eyes once they discover the truth. So our job is more about praying, observing and pointing out how Jesus is now working in their lives.

Here are our discoveries...

"Our Japanese friend seemed not very pleased with Jesus, 'It's not very admirable to do good to people (in the miracle of water into wine) and then publicized it and got glory.' My friend misunderstood Jesus let the whole bunch of wedding guests know it was he who gave them the new choice wine! So we looked at the text again. Our Budhist friend also shared this misunderstanding but was shocked for their new discovery & said, 'Oh. Only the servants knew. Jesus didn't say anything to the public.' Their eyes shone, 'Jesus was very humble. He did good things in secret...' (Bare in mind, Japanese and Budhist have strong belief in doing good. But doing it in a humble and secret way is rare and is adorable to them.)"

"'What do you know about Jesus(in the miracle of feeding 5 thousands), Catherine?' She was kind of choked in her voice, 'I think Jesus cared about people.' She was a strong-willed woman. We knew her for 5 years and tried hard to introduce her Jesus. But she never thought she need Jesus. Recently she had family problem and her daughter had health issue. Now when asked to elaborate more on 'Jesus cared about people,' in shivering voices she said, 'sometimes you feel so helpless. You try and try. But your best seems not good enough. You need someone like Jesus who cares for people...'(She represents all those who believe in themselves. But the struggles of life open up her eyes seeing and longing for Jesus' care.)"

There are many things we can improve. We never tried the fourth question. It's a powerful one to plant a disciple seed into pre-follower's heart. I have to try this one! There are many in and out. But we don't want to set any condition for the group...

There are so many places to improve and so much to learn in our first Discovery Bible Study. But one thing we can be sure and proud of, that is, we let Jesus to be our only focus. Then Jesus proudly presents himself. When the King comes, he catches all eyes...

Aden met our Japanese friend after school in the playground. She attended our Bible study for the first time this Monday. It was about 3 hours after the meeting. Aden asked her how she thought of it...

(I would not dare to ask, if it were me. During the study, she was distracted by my friend's little kid and she played with him from time to time. She was not very attentive. And usually it is a tactic we employ to tell others 'I am not interested!' So when sending her to the door, I deliberately said to her, 'We welcome you to come back next Monday!' This I say to those I guess probably not coming again.)

She said to Aden, "I find it very new and very good to me! I know this is for Christians only (No! It is in fact not for Christians!). But could I come every week?"

A non-Christian asking for a permission of attending your Bible Study? What could it be?

The fragrance of Jesus. The presence of Jesus in the study. The presence of Jesus' works in a searching heart.

"Everyone who searches will find."(Mat.7:8)

This is our exciting journey of searching Jesus together, and we all discover the King one way or the other.