China (MNN) — To many people in the West, China may still seem like a land devoid of much Christian influence. While there is some truth to that, in one minority group, the Gospel is catching fire.
That’s what Erik Burklin, President of China Partner, says he witnessed on a recent visit to China’s Guizhou province. He was invited by the Miao minority group to visit one of their new churches.
(Photo courtesy of China Partner)
“As a result of this church now, many Miao people are coming to Christ,” Burklin says. “What’s so exciting is the people groups are very relational. Especially if a leader of a group like that accepts Christ, then what we have noticed is sometimes the whole village will accept Christ because the leader of that town had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and then he tells his friends and his family members about it.”
Burklin was also invited to teach at a Miao training center, where local pastors and lay leaders come for a week of training. Burklin says out of China’s 55 official minority groups, over 90 percent of attendees were from the Miao people group.
“So many times we look at China and the tremendous amounts of unreached people groups that are still living within China today that we think have no access to the Gospel,” Burklin says. “When I was there, I realized again that, that is not necessarily always the case. In this case, many of the Miao have come to faith over the last 100 years even, they were saying.”
The Miao people’s recently-found faith, Burklin says, is forging a radical change. This transformation is happening both on an individual and societal level.
(Photo courtesy of China Partner)
“Before the Gospel came to them, they were drunkards, there was free sexual activity going on, very tribal, almost like Satanic,” Burklin says. “And then the Good News came and everything changed. So they have now become one of the stronger minority groups that have changed for the positive.
“Of course, that is filtering all the way down. In some cases, they even have good schools now in those villages that years ago the missionaries started. You see that Christianity not only just changes their destiny, that they’re born again and one day will be with Jesus — but then right away, practically, in society, it’s having a positive impact.”
China Partner comes alongside multiple people groups within China to train and equip leaders and churches for ministry. You can learn more about their work, and how you can get involved, by clicking here.
I never heard of the Miao people before and I am thrilled that the impact that the gospel has made on these people