Radio Revival among the There are about 150,000 "White" Hmong living in southern China, and perhaps 500,000 in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand combined. They are called ‘White’ because their women traditionally wore white dresses, but they also speak a different language from other Miao/Hmong groups. The Chinese commonly call these groups ‘Miao’, but this name is not used by the people themselves. In their own language they call themselves Hmong Daw, which means ‘White Hmong’. Although there have been Christians among this group in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos for most of the past 30 years, in China they remained completely unreached without any knowledge of Christ. One White Hmong Christian was a refugee who was able to flee from Vietnam to California after the war. He was deeply burdened for his people back in Asia. He started recording Gospel messages in his native language, which were aired by FEBC (Far East Broadcasting). For years they broadcast the Gospel in White Hmong without receiving any feedback from China. In 1994 an old White Hmong man in Jinping County, Yunnan Province, China, was tuning his radio one day when suddenly he heard his own language being spoken. He was shocked! He ran outside and gathered his family to come and listen with him. They too were amazed because their language is not allowed to be used in media within China. They heard about Jesus, who they had never heard of before, and did not understand, but they were excited to hear their own language. The next day, when the broadcast came on again, the old man had notified the whole village. Hundreds of people gathered around a radio to listen to see if it was true. Soon after, the old man decided he should tell other White Hmong villages about the broadcast. Because he was too old to work he had plenty of spare time, so he walked to 18 other villages and tuned their radios for them to the short-wave broadcast. Within weeks, thousands of White Hmong were listening to the Gospel every night. Slowly, their understanding started to be pierced by the truths of the Gospel. This radical teaching so gripped their hearts and convicted them that they decided they must make a decision to accept the Gospel or else to never listen to this teaching again. The leaders of all 18 villages gathered for a summit meeting. At the meeting they decided all of their people should become Christians! Not having any churches, evangelists or pastors to advise them, except for the radio preacher, the White Hmong decided they must obey whatever the radio told them to do. One day they heard a teaching about idolatry. The people immediately smashed their idols and tore down their ancestral altars that had been on the walls of their homes for countless centuries. God was moving among the White Hmong in a powerful way. Drug addicts were being delivered from their bondage, fragmented marriages were put back together, and wrongs were made right. Another time they heard a teaching about water baptism. The new believers, out of the simplicity and innocence of their hearts, dug pits in the ground, filled them with water from a nearby stream, and baptized each other. At this time FEBC did not know these events were taking place, but continued to faithfully broadcast the Gospel in the hope that God would use their efforts. One day a teaching came on the radio about the Lamb’s Book of Life. The White Hmong did not fully understand the teaching, but they knew they wanted to be in this Book! About six months later a large package arrived at the FEBC office in California. It came from China and had been sent by sea mail. Not knowing what it is, they opened it and found the names and signatures of some 10,000 White Hmong people. Attached was a cover letter saying, "Dear Sir, please include the following people in the Lamb’s Book of Life"!! Because this took place in Communist China, the government was not happy with this mass turning to Christ and soon stepped in to persecute the movement. All 18 leaders from the 18 villages were arrested. Most were released after paying fines and receiving severe warnings. Some of the other leaders were imprisoned. We received reports that the local police even burned down the houses of some of the White Hmong Christians in a bid to intimidate them. Starting in 1994, Asia Harvest has delivered several thousand White Hmong Bibles and teaching books to the believers in southern China. These have been received with great joy and thankfulness. However, the persecution has continued. In 1995, 100 White Hmong Christian families living in Jinping got fed up with the persecution from the local authorities and relocated themselves 200 km to Xishuangbanna Prefecture, where the officials are less harsh. Please pray for the White Hmong! Note: The above testimony occurred in China, but similar events took place across the border in northern Vietnam, where as many as 100,000 White Hmong have come to Christ in the past ten years, primarily as a result of the FEBC radio broadcasts. This true story is used with permission of
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