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Fruits of Holistic Ministry
For centuries Yunnan Province, a mountainous region in Southwest China, nestled between Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam, has been filled with needy and impoverished people. Difficult terrain, lack of education, poor infrastructure, natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, mudslides), border wars, politics, drugs and prostitution and a relative lack of government concern for the very high percentage of minority peoples have historically stunted the response to the needs of this area’s disenfranchised population.
High prevalence of tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, typhus, hepatitis and various diseases, along with a minimal and weak healthcare system, have also contributed strongly to perpetuate the plight of the 30 million farmers living on these steep hillsides.
As capitalism has taken over as a driving force for progress, taking advantage of the underprivileged as cheap labor has tended to worsen the situation. With the exception of a few who have been moved by the love of Christ to give themselves to the needs, and the very slow trend of increasing governmental response, there has been very little help available to the sick and dying, the orphans, the lepers, the disabled and those who struggle with the broad variety of other woes which are the natural fruit of poverty.
From 1890 until 1950, many foreign missionary ventures in Yunnan established hospitals, schools, development projects and a variety of other ministries to the poor. The church in Yunnan grew to a moderate extent, thought more slowly than in central and eastern China. National Christians were just beginning to be instigators of God’s response to those in distress when the upheaval of the wars and politics of the 1930’s and 40’s interfered with this forward movement.
As Communism came fully into power, the church retreated into survival mode. Between 1952 and 1990, there was essentially no tolerance for Christian ministry or for anyone else who desired to help those in need. These four decades were a dark time in history for any who could not fend for themselves. In the early 90’s, pressure from Beijing to begin working toward solutions to the long list of problems was being felt. Anti-Christian sentiment began to flow. As the central and provincial governmental attitudes have changed, a constant but slowly increasing openness to foreign assistance in developing programs for the many needs has been the trend.
Growing Openness
As Christian freedoms have gained momentum, believers have advanced from practicing their faith in hiding to open evangelism, and now more recently to building the ability and desire of the Body of Christ to meet the challenge of tangibly revealing Christ into the milieu of poverty. In the early to mid-1990’s, a handful of Christians with vision for holistic ministry arrived. Projects which focused on developing cooperation with the government to address orphan care, rural medicine care, training poor farmers and the needs of the disabled were initiated.
As local officials witnessed the ability, desire, and impact of these ministries, their openness grew. Reduced resistance to the gospel lived hand-in-hand with welcome assistance in serving the poor. Cycles of opposition and oppression followed by renewed welcome became the norm. The overall trend, however, established a growing number of projects and cooperation which broadened the response and deepened the impact. The national church watched at first and then a few embraced the opportunity as God’s provision and calling. By the year 2000, foreign Christians had established perhaps 40 holistic ministry projects in a dozen geographic sites within Yunnan.
Projects could be found in primary and preventative healthcare, building up the education system, orphan care and adoption, introduction of new agricultural technologies to poor farmers, rehabilitation and care for the disabled, job creation for the disenfranchised, care for the leprosy-affected, community development, micro-enterprise development, infrastructure projects (water, sewage, transportation and electrical systems), etc.
Wherever needs came to light, people were arriving to answer those who were suffering and offering their lives and their expertise. Most of the workers in these many projects were local Christians employed (the government, at that point, would not have allowed nationals to openly organize for such work). National believers were constantly gaining vision and experience, being trained, experimenting with the new freedoms, and stepping up to the challenge the Holy Spirit was laying upon their hearts. God was building the local body’s ability and heart to embrace such ministry as their own calling.
Effects of Christian Culture
Christian cultures have also played a role in expanding the Church’s effectiveness in revealing Christ tangibly to the poor. Looking back, the Sichuan earthquake became an impetus for establishing the vision and commitment of national Christians to offer their lives and financial resources to the needs of those whom society has pushed aside. The timing was quite providentially perfect, and the church jumped wholeheartedly and rapidly into service. The impact on them was the greatest result. They saw that there was an overwhelming need that they were capable of and willing to respond to that God was calling them into, and that the government was willing to allow them to mobilize toward. They never looked back.
Fruits of Obedience
God’s people are now more than ever asking Him what He desires as a response to the many needs of those around them. They are constantly seeing that “caring for widows and orphans in their distress” is on Jesus’ heart as well as personal evangelism and that those work hand-in-hand. To be sure, many problems have festered along with this leap into broader ministries. Lack of accountability, planning, organization, expertise, education, government cooperation, trust between bodies, cross-cultural savvy, and many other distressing issues have been very much the norm. Modeling and training towards these concerns has become the primary work of any expatriates who have their eyes open and their minds listening to the Spirit of Wisdom.
But, as He works daily to teach and grow those whose love is truly for our Lord and whose sacrifice is based in the true worship of His glory, the growth continues. Ministering the love of Christ to the manifold needs of the millions whose lives are hopeless without such help is quickly becoming a primary focus of the church in Yunnan and across China. Much support, training, patience, wisdom, prayer and reliance on the Spirit of life and love is essential.