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.