2000s Tibetan work

2000s

Kham ཁམས་

The kingdom of God also continued to expand among the Khampa Tibetans in western Sichuan Province, in many of the same areas where godly missionaries like Albert Shelton had laid a foundation for the gospel in past decades. A missionary's newsletter in 2002 gave an insight into the kind of low-key but effective work being carried out at the time. It said:

"More than 90 children have heard the gospel for the first time. Pray the young believers there would withstand persecution. Several Tibetans have recently received Christ in one city. One young girl stands alone in her town, and an older man in the same place has heard the gospel."

Shortwave gospel radio broadcasts in the Kham language also proved an effective tool for reaching the Khampa Tibetans. Many are enthralled to hear their own language being spoken over the airwaves, and throughout the region people gather around their radios to learn about the Living God who loved them and sent His Son to bear their sins.

The Lisu Connection

Meanwhile, further south for over a century the Christian world has marveled at the special work of grace among the Lisu people of southwest China and northern Myanmar. Famous missionaries James Fraser and Isobel Kuhn were two who served among the Lisu, and today there are an estimated 350,000 Lisu Christians in China alone.

Few people outside the region realize that the Lisu live alongside Tibetans in many locations, and frequently interact with them. Mixed marriages are common in northern Yunnan and across the border in southern Tibet, while it's a little-known fact that there are nine villages of Tibetan people in the northernmost tip of Myanmar.

In this strategic location, where the Buddhist Tibetans meet the Christian Lisu, many Tibetans have heard the gospel in recent years, and more than a few have believed in Jesus Christ. In 2004, one Christian organization reported:

"A man named Chang has been a Christian for eight years. His mother is Tibetan and his father is Lisu. He has started 16 churches, containing 50 baptized Tibetan believers and 865 Lisu believers. Chang showed the Jesus film to a Tibetan lama who accepted Christ. This lama is now busy teaching his fellow Tibetans how to read the Tibetan Bible."