Ü-Tsang དབུས་གཙང་
In the new millennium, the Spirit of God continued to move on the hearts and minds of Tibetan people, and the Chinese Church made more progress in its vision to reach Tibet. In 2003, several key house church leaders summarized their efforts to reach Tibet for Christ:
The Tibetans and other strong Buddhist groups are in a sense even more difficult to reach than Muslims, because Buddhists have absolutely no concept of a Creator God or of personal sin. Yet we have many evangelists working among Tibetans. Just in Lhasa City alone, we have almost 100 house church evangelists.
Tibetan nuns reading a Gospel booklet
Julian Hawken
While it is true that not many Tibetans have believed, a few small Tibetan fellowships have been established, and God is teaching our workers how to pray and work more effectively. They have learned that strategies used in other parts of China will not necessarily work in Tibet, so they are seeking God for revelation about how to win the Tibetans. When God gives the key, the door will open!1
Many of the Han Chinese missionaries sent to Tibet struggled because their sending churches had little or no structure in place to take care of their needs. Some were sent to Tibet on one-way tickets and a promise to pray for them when the Holy Spirit brought them to mind. Not surprisingly, without adequate care and support, many did not last long. A 2006 article shared the experiences of a Han missionary from Henan Province, and how he ultimately found a way to engage in effective ministry among Tibetans:
This young man was sent by his church network as a missionary to Tibet with only a one-way ticket in his pocket and a heart full of passion and love towards the people. He spent almost a year there without prior training or support of any sort, and very soon he found himself begging for food on the streets of Lhasa in order to stay alive . . . A situation like this is definitely not intentional; rather, it is a painful reality when facing the lack of resources and expertise for cross-cultural missionary training.
In spite of all the problems, the story of this young missionary to Tibet has a happy ending; the experience did not crush his spirit nor alter his calling. He was more committed to cross-cultural missions than ever before. When I met with him again about a year later in Henan (he went back home after the ordeal in Tibet), he had brought with him a young lady who is also committed to missions. They want to get married and receive training together before heading to the mission field again!
When I prayed with this couple in that little hotel room, I felt I had a glimpse of the spirit of resilience and steadfastness that carried the house churches through all those years of persecutions and hardships. At that moment, the room became a sanctuary and prayer turned to worship!2
The Lisu connection
For over a century the Christian world has marveled at the special work of grace among the Lisu people of south-west China and northern Myanmar. Famous missionaries James Fraser and Isobel Kuhn were two who served among the Lisu, and today there are an estimated 350,000 Lisu Christians in China alone.
Few people outside the region realize that the Lisu live alongside Tibetans in many locations and frequently interact with them. Mixed marriages are common in northern Yunnan and across the border in southern Tibet, while it’s a little-known fact that there are nine villages of Tibetan people in the northernmost tip of Myanmar.
In this strategic location, where the Buddhist Tibetans meet the Christian Lisu, many Tibetans have heard the gospel in recent years, and more than a few have believed in Jesus Christ. In 2004, one Christian organization reported:
A man named Chang has been a Christian for eight years. His mother is Tibetan and his father is Lisu. He has started 16 churches, containing 50 baptized Tibetan believers and 865 Lisu believers. Chang showed the Jesus film to a Tibetan lama who accepted Christ. This lama is now busy teaching his fellow Tibetans how to read the Tibetan Bible.3
Amdo ཨ་མདོོ་
As Han Chinese Christians continued to witness throughout the Amdo region, the Spirit of God blessed their work and started to produce a harvest. One pastor left his home province and had labored in the mountains of Qinghai for ten years, being financially supported by a group of elderly Christian women who earned money by carrying loads of water on their backs for a dollar a day. A breakthrough finally occurred when:
He met the local people carrying an idol and praying for rain. Immediately he went among them and pushed the idol into the river, telling the villagers that this was a false god and he had come to introduce them to the true God. The villagers thought he was insulting their god and locked him up. But as he prayed, things turned around, and now almost all the people living in that village believe in Jesus. Ten years after he began his work, God has greatly blessed his ministry and many churches have been established.4
The Jesus film in the main Amdo dialect proved to be an effect-ive tool, especially when coupled with increased prayer for the salvation of Amdo Tibetans. One 2003 report said:
There are now at least four different house church groups known to be sending people specifically to reach the Amdo, up from zero just several years ago. Some are already living among the Amdo and others are in training, soon to be sent out. Some are already learning the Amdo language. Outreach is beginning directly from the Chinese to the Amdo! The number of verified, known Amdo believers has grown from 1 to 46 in the last decade . . .
While many of the Amdo believers are scattered in ones and twos across the countryside and towns, at least three larger fellowships are forming. One group of ten believers in south Gansu has formed quickly over the last year . . . We should rejoice in Amdo believers fellowshipping with Han Chinese brothers and sisters, but pray toward true Amdo churches conducting their worship, Bible teaching, prayer fellowship and outreach in their heart language.5
Meanwhile, small teams of foreign Christians traveled to the Amdo region to pray for the salvation of the people and to share the gospel when opportunities arose. One prayer team reported:
A friendly, elderly monk came back to our hotel room to drink tea with us. The Chinese speakers began to witness to him. As we shared the joy of forgiveness of sins and the blessing of a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus, the man’s face lit up. We led him in repentance and receiving the Lord, and then prayed for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I will never forget the expression of joy on his dark, lined face . . .
On another occasion, one of the team members remained in her room for warmth. When the maid came in to change the bedding, she began to witness to her. Soon there were six Tibetan girls listening avidly as our team member shared Jesus with them. Before the bus departed, all six had received the Lord as their personal Savior. On our way back through that town, we were able to visit the hotel again. All six were rejoicing in their new-found faith.6
A few years later, another mission team visited the Amdo and participated in the God-orchestrated salvation of a Tibetan monk. The story began when a team member met a young Buddhist monk and presented him with a Gospel of John in the Tibetan language. He didn’t seem particularly interested, but asked for copies of photos taken during their lunch together. After returning home, the believer sent the photos but the monk didn’t respond, so it was assumed he was not interested in the gospel.
A year or more later, however, news emerged from the area that a monk had become a wholehearted Christian, and a worker was dispatched to visit him. The visitor discovered that:
After the monk had been given the Gospel of John, he read it and the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to the emptiness and deception of Buddhism. He became very restless. A few months later he attended a Buddhist conference in a nearby town with most of the monks from his monastery.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit spoke to two South Korean Christians and told them to go to that same town and book into a hotel. There they would be directed to a Buddhist monk whom God was going to raise up as a Paul among his people. The Koreans jumped on a plane and flew to the town as directed.
As they walked down the street, the Holy Spirit pointed out this monk (from among all the others) and said he was the one . . . They invited him to their room for a cup of tea, and they told him about Jesus. The monk was so surprised, and the Koreans led him to the Lord . . .
Every day the monk is now taught by Christians. He is aware of his new calling and he said at the right time he will return to the monastery to evangelize the other monks . . . People are attracted to him and will just walk up to him and talk. He tells them about Jesus and they become believers! His face shines with the Spirit.7
Kham ཁམས་
The kingdom of God also continued to expand among the Khampa Tibetans in western Sichuan Province, in many of the same areas where godly missionaries like Albert Shelton had laid a foundation for the gospel in past decades. A missionary’s newsletter in 2002 gave an insight into the kind of low-key but effective work being carried out at the time:
More than 90 children have heard the gospel for the first time. Pray the young believers there would withstand persecution. Several Tibetans have recently received Christ in one city. One young girl stands alone in her town, and an older man in the same place has heard the gospel.8
A Khampa man intently reading Gospel literature
Julian Hawken
Shortwave gospel radio broadcasts in the Kham language also proved an effective tool for reaching the Khampa Tibetans. Many are enthralled to hear their own language being spoken over the airwaves, and throughout the region people gather around their radios to learn about the Living God who loved them and sent His Son to bear their sins.
Notes
1 Paul Hattaway, Back to Jerusalem: God’s Call to the Chinese Church to Complete the Great Commission (Carlisle: Piquant, 2003), p. 102.
2 L. K. Chiu, “A Piece of the Puzzle: Training Mainland Chinese to Be Cross-Cultural Missionaries,” ChinaSource (Spring 2006), p. 8.
3 Christian Far East Ministry (August 2004).
4 Antioch Missions, China Prayer Update (November 2002), p. 3.
5 Confidential mission report, June 2003.
6 Antioch Missions/CCSM, “Reaching the Mission Field on Our Knees,” China Challenge (no. 11), p. 11.
7 Antioch Missions/CCSM, “You Never Know What God Might Do!” China Challenge (no. 20), pp. 13–14.
8 Prayer Update for the Khambas (January 2002).