The local Chinese workers we are mentoring continue to press on with the work of enlarging their contact base and deepening their relationships with the Hui Moslem friends they have made. God has granted them much favor with the Hui community where they serve.
“C” is a Han Chinese worker we are mentoring to reach out to the Hui Moslems. He has started a kindergarten and an after-school center strategically located right in the middle of a Hui community that is notorious for drug-related crimes. Mothers single-handedly raise many of the kids who attend classes at the Centre — the husbands and fathers are in prison, serving jail time with life imprisonment, or have been put to death for peddling drugs.
C’s team members make regular home visits to help the families and pray for them. The Hui Moslems welcome them, saying C and his co-workers are unlike the Imams (religious teachers/leaders) who expect payment for prayer. More importantly, the Hui Moslems have witnessed first-hand answered prayers for healing!
“Z”, another Han Chinese worker, was able to lease a plot of land from a group of Hui families. It is unheard of in the county-city that Z is in for the Hui to lease land to a Han Chinese. And a Hui grandma that they have gotten to know has allowed them use of her courtyard to rear chickens. This is indeed God’s extraordinary favor, considering that the Hui often look upon the Han Chinese as outsiders. Z has also learned to rear bees from a Hui, and his wife makes bread in a Hui shop to make a living.
They have planted cherry trees in the plot of land and are expecting a harvest next year. May the cherry fruit they expect next year be translated into spiritual fruit they would see in their outreach to the Hui.
In the midst of open doors into the Hui community, these local Chinese workers continue to face the huge challenge of persecution from governing authorities where enforcement has been stepped up further to curb the work of the ministry.
May these workers experience God’s protection, and stay encouraged to see breakthroughs and much fruit for their faithful labor.