Subscribe to Newsletter by RSS/ Email:
Faith the Same After 100 Years
East Lisu community at Taogu Village. Photo:UBSCP/Yeo Tan Tan.
A Thanksgiving Celebration at East Lisu Taogu Village Church
It was the day before the thanksgiving celebration but East Lisu Christians were already streaming into Taogu Village from different regions. Taogu Village, the birth place of the East Lisu church where the first missionaries came to live amongst the people in 1906. The East Lisu translation team had also used this village as a meeting point from 1998-2001 for translating the East Lisu New Testament. [...] Continue Reading…
Miao Bible –106 Years of Waiting
Miao Christians in their traditional costume singing outside the church. Photo:UBSCP/Yeo Tan Tan.
The Big Flowery Miao people live in China’s Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan Provinces. On 5 September 2009, the Miao people — young and old — dressed in their Sunday’s best, were gathered at Daqing Village Church in Yunnan Province for the celebration. This was the first time in 106 years that the Miao people were finally getting the entire Bible in their own language. Yunnan CC/TSPM estimated that there are probably 80,000 Miao Christians in Yunnan Province alone but according to China Operations, there are altogether an estimated 200,000 Miao Christians.
The History
The gospel was first brought by a missionary, Samuel Pollard, to the Miao people in 1904. At that time, as the Miao language did not have a written script, Pollard invented one and then taught the people how to read and write. The Miao New Testament was first published in 1917, but the people never had the Old Testament. [...] Continue Reading…
East Lisu New Testament
Mr Yang Hanquan reading the East Lisu NT. Photo:UBSCP/Yeo Tan Tan
This is a miracle! Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, for the first time in 60 years, an East Lisu New Testament (NT), translated by the local East Lisu people, has been published and distributed successfully in China this year.
The gospel first reached the East Lisu people in 1903. (This was 7 years earlier than the Lisu people, a different people group, who were reached by J. O. Fraser in 1910). Today, more than a hundred years later, the East Lisu people could finally read the NT in their own mother tongue. It is estimated that there are 50,000 East Lisu Christians today. Undoubtedly the East Lisu NT translation gave them a lot of pride as it was their own people who have translated it, with the support of China Christian Council/ Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM) and the United Bible Societies (UBS). [...] Continue Reading…
Sunday at a China Church
An eye-witness account of a China church service for poorer city folks
The makeshift church entrance. Photo:UBSCP/Jacqueline Ho
Weaving in and out of lanes, our guide hurried us through the narrow alleys of shop houses. We had already survived the crossing of somewhat harassed roads where pedestrian and motorists fight for right of way. Finally we stopped at what looked like a hole in the wall. It was the entrance to the church service hall. We have arrived at Nanjing’s San Cha He Church.
From what used to be an old warehouse it was now a temporary sanctuary for the gathering of God’s people. The hall looked even more dilapidated from the inside: the whitewashed walls had peeling paint and dirty marks plastered all over; the big rectangular gaps in the wall were windows once upon a time. [...] Continue Reading…
1 million Bibles and New Testament for Catholics in China
The SBV Bible cover
This is unprecedented in China: One million copies of Bible and NT to be printed and distributed free to Catholic believers in Mainland China. Never before has there been such a large volume of Bible and NT ever distributed free in China within a year.
The Catholic community is growing steadily in the Mainland. Official estimates reported 6 million Catholics, with unofficial estimates putting it at 12 million. Most of these believers residing in the rural areas rely on subsistence agriculture as a source of income. Many of them are not able to afford a Bible or the NT.
The Catholic Patriotic Association, supported by the United Bible Societies (UBS) and the Taize Community, is spearheading the project of printing and distributing 800,000 New Testaments (including Psalms and Ecclesiasticus) and 200,000 Bibles in China. This unparalleled move is in response to the crying needs of the Chinese Catholics for the Word of God.
[...] Continue Reading…
