Today we have a long term worker teaching us about the Shan Burmese people. Here's some of what they face.
They are 5-6 million Shan, persecuted heavily within Burma due to the fighting of the state of Shan against the Burmese military ruling junta. They want independance, and they were promised it years ago... But it hasn't come.
In the name of Burmese buddhism, a chedi was built in the area above Mae Hong Son, and 6 people including one little girl were incarcerated alive inside. Their screams could be heard for ages and the mother of the child has gone insane...
The Burmese army are using rape as a ethnic cleansing weapon against the Shan. Gang rape is so common.
The Shan are seen as even more Buddhist than Thai! Shan monks recieve a lot of respect. Social life revolves around the temple. Festivals are buddhist, becoming Christian means social ostracism.
Funeral rituals are extremely important to the Shan, a church has disintegrated because people left as they thought the church conducted funerals as if they were for animals. Christians need to work out how to do a good honoring funeral. A shan buddhist funeral has a cremation around noon in the forest, the guys have chopped wood, girls have made paper flowers, after the burning the drinking and gambling begins till late into the night. One of the first things a Shan person wants to know is what will happen to their physical body after they die.
They are buddhist fundamentally with an animistic overlay. For monks, the more precepts they follow, the more spiritual power they have. The spirit shamans say they get their power from Buddha.
The majority of people come to Christ after seeing a power confrontation between God and the animistic spirits- such as exorcism or healing. But after it, they still have Buddhist worldview at their core- so they may go to church to make merit now, instead of the temple.
The Shan believe suffering is life, a gospel without dealing with suffering would be of no interest to them.
They believe spirits are dead bad people wanting incarnation...interestingly they fear going out at night when a Shan dies unless they're Christian because they say the Christian has no spirit who will haunt them.
Effective sharing must be relational evangelism, if you argue apologetics and win publicly you have made them lose face and shamed them.
One pillar of Buddhism is detachment, you aim to have a cool heart always. You will become what you worship and if you worship a statue with eyes that can't see, hands that don't feel...the possibility of true relationship available in Christianity is attractive.
Pray for:
Protection for immature church plants
100,000 Shan of Chiang Mai- they are often illegal immigrants
Www.surehope.net
Www.shanland.com
They are 5-6 million Shan, persecuted heavily within Burma due to the fighting of the state of Shan against the Burmese military ruling junta. They want independance, and they were promised it years ago... But it hasn't come.
In the name of Burmese buddhism, a chedi was built in the area above Mae Hong Son, and 6 people including one little girl were incarcerated alive inside. Their screams could be heard for ages and the mother of the child has gone insane...
The Burmese army are using rape as a ethnic cleansing weapon against the Shan. Gang rape is so common.
The Shan are seen as even more Buddhist than Thai! Shan monks recieve a lot of respect. Social life revolves around the temple. Festivals are buddhist, becoming Christian means social ostracism.
Funeral rituals are extremely important to the Shan, a church has disintegrated because people left as they thought the church conducted funerals as if they were for animals. Christians need to work out how to do a good honoring funeral. A shan buddhist funeral has a cremation around noon in the forest, the guys have chopped wood, girls have made paper flowers, after the burning the drinking and gambling begins till late into the night. One of the first things a Shan person wants to know is what will happen to their physical body after they die.
They are buddhist fundamentally with an animistic overlay. For monks, the more precepts they follow, the more spiritual power they have. The spirit shamans say they get their power from Buddha.
The majority of people come to Christ after seeing a power confrontation between God and the animistic spirits- such as exorcism or healing. But after it, they still have Buddhist worldview at their core- so they may go to church to make merit now, instead of the temple.
The Shan believe suffering is life, a gospel without dealing with suffering would be of no interest to them.
They believe spirits are dead bad people wanting incarnation...interestingly they fear going out at night when a Shan dies unless they're Christian because they say the Christian has no spirit who will haunt them.
Effective sharing must be relational evangelism, if you argue apologetics and win publicly you have made them lose face and shamed them.
One pillar of Buddhism is detachment, you aim to have a cool heart always. You will become what you worship and if you worship a statue with eyes that can't see, hands that don't feel...the possibility of true relationship available in Christianity is attractive.
Pray for:
Protection for immature church plants
100,000 Shan of Chiang Mai- they are often illegal immigrants
Www.surehope.net
Www.shanland.com
