Mosuo people update (Autumn 2003)

Yunnan province is home to 41 million people and the largest number of ethic groups in China. Of the 230 people groups 200 are unreached with the gospel. One of these groups, the Mosuo (pronounced MORE-SAW) number about fifty thousand.

We featured these people in our Easter Report this year and many friends have been using special bookmarks as a prayer reminder for these people. The area is very restricted to the Gospel and the police quickly crack down on any Christian work, especially involving outsiders. Our goal among the Mosuo is for the Lord to raise up a church planting movement that will see many thousands come to Christ and all Mosuo able to hear the Gospel and attend a church in there own language.

Praise God that we know of seven or eight new Mosuo believers in the last few months so, of course, the spiritual battle is intensifying. A worker, who we know as Horse, led a family to the Lord and on returning to see them learnt the family had had a visitor. Mr Pang, a northern Chinese, claimed he was from a large Christian organisation. He threw a lot of money around and made promises of jobs for all the young family members in a nearby city.

Eventually he persuaded the mother to let him take her youngest daughter (pictured) to see the city and study the Bible. But he treated her badly, making phone calls to the north of China trying to arrange some sort of work for her. She was drugged and became very distressed. At this stage Mr Pang took the girl to her sisters where she remained very ill. This is the situation that Horse has returned to - not the ideal way to begin training.

Because Mr Pang claimed to be a Christian, Horse initially didn't get a great reception when he went up to the village. In his words, "the village came out to give me a beating, but the girl's mother stood up for me so they left me alone". Horse prayed for the young lady and straight away she began to stabilise. He was able to share more evangelistic stories with unbelievers in the village and taught the few believers from the Word.

If you would like Mosuo bookmarks, please let us know.