Lin

We were only days in China when we met one of our first language teachers. To our culturally new eyes, she looked like any of the other 1.4 billion Chinese. But we soon found out that she was, in fact, Huizu. The Hui Chinese people are an ethnic minority people group consisting of more than 14 million people. They are also almost completely Muslim, without a single known Christian fellowship group.

Our new friend was 24, not long out of university, living in a city that was hours away from her home province and family, in a serious relationship, and Muslim. After teaching our teenage sons Chinese for a couple weeks, she was impressed with their politeness and asked if my wife and I would go on a double date with her and her boyfriend. They planned on marrying and wanted to ask us about how to have a happy marriage after 20 years and how to have children that were polite and respectful. We gladly accepted the invitation. They took us to a park in the city where we rented a paddleboat shaped like a large duck. On a small lake in China, in a large duck-shaped boat, they asked us deep questions about life. We talked about communication, grace, and forgiveness. We also told them of our faith in Jesus Christ and how that faith impacted every area of our lives in great ways, especially our marriage and parenting. As time went by, they asked us to speak at their wedding and, later, to give their son an English name. These were great honors for a Muslim to ask of a Christian.

One day in class, our teacher asked me if all of my family were Christians. When I told her that I made a choice to become a Christian when I was a teenager, when only my older sister had already made that same choice, she was amazed. For her, she was Muslim because she was Huizu. She was Muslim because her father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, uncles and aunts were all Muslim. She had never thought that being a Christian wasn’t based on ethnicity or family tradition. I told her that when I decided to follow Jesus, my father and mother, my grandfather and grandmother, my uncles and aunts were not Christians. She thought deeply about this.

My teacher hasn’t become a follower of Jesus Christ, yet. It’s a difficult decision for a Chinese Muslim to make. Yet my friend is unique among her people group. She is unique because she knows a Christian. She is unique because she’s heard the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why Live Dead is present on the Himalayan Plateau where the Huizu, and three other unreached people groups, can be found. Communities of faith must be established among these people. They must know that they can choose to become a follower of Jesus Christ.