A young girl displaying the intricate beauty of the traditional clothing of the Nisu
Paths Paved by Persons of Peace
Todd’s 2nd and final blog from China
Dear Friends,
Hopefully you’ve already read my first blog, entitled Crashing the Wild Man Party, but if not please click here. There I talked about my journey to meet “persons of peace” among the Nisu tribe, an unreached people group we’ve recently learned of that speaks the same language as the A-Che, another remote tribe we’ve been making significant inroads into with the gospel.
One of the persons of peace we met at the Xinhua festival was MeiLan, a woman who helped acquaint my team with the language, dress and locations of various Nisu settlements. When we first arrived in her town, however, we were unable to meet with MeiLan. Although initially a bit disappointed, we soon discovered that God was interrupting our plans so that, while we were waiting, we’d meet a passerby named Mr. Pu. One of our team, Pastor Paul Fang, struck up a conversation with the stranger. He soon learned that Mr. Pu had once heard the gospel and believed, but he was never discipled, experienced fellowship, or even owned a Bible!
There we were, thousands of miles from where Mr. Pu first met Jesus, participating in the plan of God in a remote town near the border of Myanmar. Mr. Pu told us how he’d been longing for instruction, so we invited him to join us for the entire evening. Pastor Paul encouraged him and gave him a Bible. To make this amazing story even better, Mr. Pu comes from the Lalu people, a tribe that is both unreached and unengaged (currently no known missionaries or ministries working to reach them). We’re excited about one day carrying the gospel through the doors that will open into yet another tribe with no gospel witness, all because of our new connection with Mr. Pu, a person of peace!
Finally meeting up with MeiLan the next day, she took us to a mountaintop village to see some of her relatives. They were nowhere to be found, but this turned out to be a divine appointment once again! After realizing we weren’t going to find her relatives that day, we hiked up a path towards another group of homes. Along the way we met an elderly man named Mr. Zhu. He then invited us into his home.
Mr. Zhu, our new person of peace, began to tell us of the sacrifices his people make on the mountain to the spirits of the trees and the rocks. He described these rituals in great detail. As it turned out, Mr. Zhu was the village priest who actually made the sacrifices! Pastor Paul then shared several Bible stories with him in the A-Che/Nisu language. Mr. Zhu was so impressed with these stories that he wants to pass them on to the younger generation. Isn’t it amazing how God sent us to the top of the spiritual ladder in that region to build relationships and proclaim truth to those who have the influence to share it with many? All within the confines of communist China!
At left, a woman in traditional clothing playing a banjo-like instrument; at right, our new friend Mr. Zhu
Thank you for being one of our “persons of peace” for making this work possible through your gifts to the Unreached People Groups Ministry. Together we are taking the gospel to those who have never heard it before. Please pray for our gospel and Bible-story recordings to be widely distributed amongst the A-Che and Nisu. Pray for a mighty harvest to be reaped!
Many Blessings,
Todd Matthews
Director, Unreached People Groups Ministry
