Frontiers, nations and religions: Thank God for raining to church

Because I live in a multi-ethnic area, the part I am most curious about is actually the relationship between foreign religions, such as Christianity, and ethnic minorities in Yunnan.

I have learned from last year that in my hometown, Christian believers are mainly Hmong people from high mountain areas. Aside from a church in the country that my friend from high school happened to mention to me, I was surprised to find one in our city center. Later, I asked my mother, and she said she didn't know either, but she seemed to have seen it somewhere, right next to the unknown temple where porridge was served during the Chinese New Year. And I reluctantly remembered that when I was in junior high school, some girls in my class went there to borrow romance novels to read.

But why do we just ignore it, if I'm not curious, maybe I'll never know there's a church here for the rest of my life. My mom even thought my question was weird, how could I even think of asking the church. Fear of religion has always surrounded her, surrounded all Chinese.

Even after I began to consciously pay attention to churches in some places, in Kunming, I only knew the Catholic church that was destined to be demolished, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. I heard that the stained glass windows were brought back from France and cost three million to rebuild and another three million to demolish.

Not far from the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, there is also an old-fashioned Christian church with a very inconspicuous appearance. The front of the church was covered with weeds, and the corners of the walls were already dark. It felt like a building from the last century. There was no trace of renovation, and it was unknown whether it was still in use.

After arriving in Tengchong, I tried to search for "church" on the map, but I actually found one: Tengyue Christian Church. (Later, the preacher of this church told me that every time he went to a place, he also searched the local church on the map.)

I remember that last year, when I searched for keywords on WeChat, I could still find some texts written by tourists and believers from other places about recording this church. But this year, when I was on a whim and wanted to see if there would be any church activities, I found that this keyword seemed to have been blocked, and no results were displayed. It just prompted me to change the search term.

Anyway, I've been there once last year and I know it exists. The local Tengchong I met by taxi at that time asked me carefully if I was going to church, and I said I just wanted to go see it. But he seemed relieved and started chatting more with me, including church opening hours. I look back now, as if I, as a tourist rather than a devotee, wanted to make him feel safe.

So this time I plan to take the bus, so that others will only know where I got off the bus, and will not directly think of where I am going, and then speculate on who I am. In fact, it is not intentional to hide it, but it is wrong to be wrong. And after staying in Tengchong for more than half a year, I have gradually become familiar with some places, and I also remember the simple bus route, which is very convenient.

But I found that I still overestimated myself. The bus routes in Tengchong seem to be agreed by passengers and drivers. The one found on the map is wrong, and the one posted on the bus stop is also wrong. Only the passengers and drivers know it well. , or if you are not sure, get in the car and confirm with the driver. It is conceivable that the place I am going to is definitely not written on the first two sets of routes.

The map originally showed that I only needed to sit in the Shanyuan community and walk a few hundred meters to get to Tengyue Christian Church, but in fact the bus only drove to the foot of the mountain, and the driver let me off. The church is on the mountain, and it has to go through a long steep slope.

The mobile phone navigation pointed to a road through the residential alley, but the first one was blocked due to road construction, and the end of the second and third alleys had no way to go, as if it was some kind of religion and reality. metaphor. But luckily that day, I finally found the way to the church, passing through some last century-style houses, winding forward, and finally suddenly opened up, only a short section of the wide steep slope remained, leading directly to the church.

But a very strange thing happened again. If you can't see the "Glory to God and Benefit People" written on the narrow door on the right, you will almost miss this church. It is surrounded by many new, old, and even abandoned government departments, and right next to it there is a party branch activity center that is taller and more spacious than him. And I once mistakenly thought that a bungalow (inside the church) that was integrated with the church turned out to be a government nursing home.

There is only a simple building left in the real Tengyue Christian Church, which consists of the main church and the kitchen. However, because the expansion funds have not been in place, the main church has been expanded from a space that only accommodates 70 or 80 people to its current appearance. It is only separated from the kitchen by a wall, and the kitchen is no longer inconvenient to use. The preacher lived on the second floor with his wife and children.

Just like all religious activity areas in China, as well as Buddhist temples, mosques, and Tengyue Christian Church are also covered with the same religious regulations, as well as very strict epidemic prevention and control policies. On the surrounding walls, you must first love the party and patriotism, and then you can love the education in the last line.

I don't know why, but luck was really good that day. When we climbed the steep slope of the church gate, we saw the preacher cleaning by the side. But at first we didn't know who he was, because he looked like an ordinary young man, maybe working for the government here - a kind of conditioned reflex that subconsciously associates with it.

He asked where we were from, and I didn't know how to answer for a while. But I think he also asks this way every day, mainly for Christians, maybe the other party will answer him, where he is from the church. But I didn't have such an answer, I was stunned for a while, and after thinking about it, I even told him where I lived. He also reacted and knew that I was not a Christian, so he just started chatting with me.

Later, he took the initiative to open the door and lead us in for a visit. He was a little embarrassed, but added that the Christian church is like this, and it is relatively simple. I also just remembered that the beautiful churches with stained glass windows that we were impressed by were actually Catholic churches, which were different from the one in front of me.

The words I turned at home, the stories of the missionaries after they arrived in Yunnan, seemed to be writing the Bible, but they were all forgotten in front of him.

He told me that missionaries entered the Nujiang River from Tengchong, where Christianity blossomed and fruited, so they called the Nujiang River "Gospel Valley". I also remembered that the Tibetans in Nujiang would take names like Mary and Maria, and then call out their names in Tibetan; in fact, the most religious people are actually the Lisu people. The preacher who generously shared with me is the local Lisu people in Tengchong. He first studied at Yunnan Theological Seminary, then went to Sichuan Theological Seminary, and came to Tengyue Christian Church in 2009. He stayed there for more than ten years.

The Miao people in my hometown, the Lisu people in the Nujiang River, and the Yi people in the surrounding areas of Kunming quickly flashed in my mind, but the preacher told me with a smile that belief transcends nationality and ethnicity, and it is the common belief that makes people come Together. I felt ashamed for a while.

Due to the epidemic prevention requirements, all church activities have been canceled, and everyone can only do it online. I imagined what they could say, maybe not God, the Bible, just talk about each other's shortcoming, silence, end.

I came to the church for the first time last year and saw several handwritten notices posted on the door (probably handwritten by the preacher), indicating that the church has been without income during the epidemic, but occasionally helped the congregation. In addition to the living expenses of the preachers, the church also has a fixed expenditure, which is a regular payment of a certain amount to an organization called the "Patriotic Association". My impression was 3,500, but when I looked through the photos I took out of curiosity at the time, I found out that it was " 3,000 yuan from the church's income to be handed over to the Patriotic Association ."

I stood at the door of the church and looked at it, and found that the interior was similar to the photo shown in an article written in 2019. Some of the words on the wall had peeled off, and it could be seen that they were newly added and crooked. Sunlight comes in from the window on the right, over there is the kitchen. In that article, some of their members donated 100 yuan at the time, and they invited everyone to eat thin bean powder bait silk. It rained that day, he said, thanking God for raining to church.

I didn't understand it at the time, just regarded it as an ordinary rain. Because I just came to Tengchong not long ago, it was the dry season, and the sky was clear every day, so I imagined that it should be like this in Tengchong. But since May this year, it has been raining for days in Tengchong, and I keep thinking of this sentence in my mind: Thank God for the rain to come to the church. As if driven by these words, I want to visit Tengyue Christian Church again.

Sure enough, the harder the rainy season is, the more luck we seem to have.

In the materials I read, it is recorded, " Due to the rain almost every day in the Nujiang area from June to August every summer, it makes it difficult for the preachers to go out to preach. Moreover, this period is also the busy season for farming, and most of the villagers go out to work during the day. There was no time to listen to the sermons, so the church chose this period to conduct intensive training for preachers, which is also the origin of the name "Rainy Season Bible School". " It can also be regarded as a unique one after Christianity landed in the Gospel Valley.

Today, what people call "Nujiang area" has become a narrower concept, referring more to Nujiang Prefecture. But in the past, I guessed that some places around Tengchong where religious people lived could barely be regarded as the "Nujiang area", even in terms of climate.

We were chatting while standing in front of the cabinet with Bibles at the door, just as the preacher’s wife and children came downstairs with a piano score under their arm, I wasn’t sure at first. As they walked down the steps, the preacher introduced me that this was his wife and son, who were going to play the piano. He said that his wife could also play, but he didn't understand the second half of the sentence, probably because of his past experience of playing the piano in church. She was wearing a red plaid shirt and a mask, and all I could see was a pair of smiling, somewhat shy eyes, but in my imagination she must be beautiful.

In the center of the cabinet was a handwritten note: Common Bible, return after use. The preacher took the worn-out Bible on the top of the cabinet and showed it to me. He said that after some old people passed away, his family sent the Bible here. Some versions are relatively old and were published in the last century. The next row is the Jingpo scripture and the Lisu scripture respectively. The preacher is a little embarrassed, saying that although he is of the Lisu nationality, he is not as proficient in reading the Lisu scripture as his wife who is a Han nationality.

When we parted, he asked me if I wanted to bring a Bible back to read, and I said yes, so he found a not badly damaged one with hymns for me. It was the size of a palm and was easy to carry.

The preacher also instructed me to visit the church in the countryside after the epidemic is over. He mentioned many churches in Yunnan, which I had never heard of before, so I wrote down their names one by one, hoping to have the opportunity to visit them again in the future. The most surprising thing is that there is a village on both sides of the road, with a Catholic church and a Christian church, just opposite each other. He smiled and said that when he was in seminary, he would skip classes with his classmates to go to church. I imagine that time should be very precious.

On the way home, my mind was empty, but I finally had the opportunity to review the experience of missionaries in Yunnan and Tibet, and it still felt like I was writing a bible:

The evangelization of the Lisu people in the Nujiang River from the mainland initially entered Tengyue (now Tengchong) in Yunnan through Bhamo, Myanmar, and then developed northward to the Nujiang Valley area. The task of accomplishing this difficult mission was the British missionary Fu Nengren, known as the "Lisu Apostle".

The Lisu people must learn from the beginning that they must serve God from extreme poverty.

If they can't afford oil and run out of pine branches, they sing and pray in the dark.

If Cameron tried to get in, he would be stopped. Looking across the border, where Tibetan houses can be seen, Cameron sighed, " As I stare at it, I wonder when the messengers of Jesus will be free to enter it. It will open its doors one day. "

...he thought the end was near, but his heart was completely at peace.

It was an ordinary afternoon in late May, thank God for the rain to come to church.

write on the back

This is the second article in the "Frontiers, Peoples and Religions" series. I originally only had one story, which was related to the Church of Christ. But when I started to think back to my childhood religious experiences, I brought up some unanswerable questions, inextricably linked.

So I intend to put all my relevant experiences and thoughts here, hoping to form some kind of contrast. Thanks for reading.

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My Religious Experience as a Child