Baptist worker seeks more holy mountain dancers in China
___Editor's note: The name of the Baptist worker in this story has been changed due to security concerns in the country where he lives and works.
___By Erich Bridges
___International Mission Board
___CHENGDU, China--It's a two-day bus ride into the mountains from Chengdu, China. Two hard days.
___"You need kneepads and a helmet for that ride," confides Timothy with a rueful grin--especially during the final hours of non-stop bouncing over muddy, rutted roads winding toward the remote clouds of the Himalayan plateau.
___"Lots of people get sick before it's over," adds the 25-year-old Southern Baptist worker. "'Show up and throw up,' we say."
___Not to worry. Timothy and his partner seize the opportunity to make friends with their queasy fellow passengers (many of whom are Tibetans) by bringing plenty of extra water to share. They call it "throw-up ministry."
___Necessity is the mother of invention.
___It's worth a little d
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TOMOTHY practices dancing in the style of the Jiarong people of China.
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iscomfort to reach the mountain villages--some as high as 12,000 feet above sea level--where the Jiarong (GEE-ah-rong) people live in China's Sichuan province. The Jiarong, who now number about 200,000, are historically related to the Tibetans. But they have lived for centuries in neighboring Sichuan, speak different languages and see themselves as a different people.
___Most are Tibetan Buddhists; their prayer flags and wheels snap and spin in the wind. But many also practice magic and shamanism. They revere the Dalai Lama but fear the gods of the mountains.
___Most of the Jiarong are farmers; most are illiterate. Their villages remain mostly closed to outsiders. They have no church, no Bible, no Christian radio broadcast. Known followers of Christ among the Jiarong number only one--a man who has moved out of the region.
___The only previous attempt to evangelize them (by American Baptists in the 1930s) resulted in a Jiarong translation of the book of Jonah, which was later lost or destroyed as war and communism swept Sichuan.
___Timothy hopes to bring the story of Jonah back to the Jiarong.
___Outsiders may wonder, Why Jonah? What do mountain people know about whales?
___Not much. But God's amazing grace displayed toward the Ninevites in the story of Jonah shows that God is the creator and redeemer of all peoples, not just the Israelites. That principle sets the stage for introducing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jiarong, Timothy explains.
___Everything seems to be made of rock in Jiarong country--the mountains, the houses, the Buddhist monasteries. So it is with the spiritual landscape, Timothy adds.
___He hopes to spur the translation and audio recording of Jonah and other key Bible stories in the main Jiarong dialect. Until then, he invites trekkers and "vision teams" to come and walk the steep roads and paths of the Jiarong--and to pray.
___He's also looking for "dancers"--admittedly not a traditional Baptist specialty. Young Jiarong love to dance in groups, and if anyone wants to befriend them, they have to dance too. Timothy already has stumbled through his share of clumsy steps to the friendly laughter of Jiarong onlookers.
___He doesn't mind. It's a small price to pay, along with the queasy bus rides to the mountains, and trading his beloved Taco Bell burritos and Krispy Kreme doughnuts for yak-meat soup.
___"We need people to come out here and dance," Timothy says. "Our vision is that one day the Jiarong will be standing at the top of the Himalaya mountains, dancing and praising God."
___
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