Burning Themselves to Death
In early October, we were joined in the foothills of Tibet by a large group of American friends who came to serve us for a few weeks. In God's providence, they were also in Nepal the same week I was there so I got to meet and greet them (and brief them on China ministry) before they even set foot in the country. This group of twenty or so 20-somethings were a great blessing to us.
Here's a quick list of some of the things that they did, in no particular order:
– prayer-walked many unreached Muslim and Buddhist strongholds
– painted our new apartment
– basketball friendship evangelism
– built furniture for our kids home classroom
– taught the Bible daily to a "thirsty" Buddhist monk
– helped us move LOTS of stuff
– helped home-school our three kids
– took lots of amazing pics & videos that we'll be able to use (props to my bro Johnfrank!)
– baby-sat when we were extremely busy
– talked to many other people about Jesus
One thing that happened during the final week that the team was with us (they only left on Friday) deserves more attention…
Two girls from one of the teams saw an older Tibetan man "self-immolate" (burn himself to death) on the street just a short ways down from our cafe. Horrifyingly, this is becoming a more common way for disenfranchised Tibetans to protest against the Communist government. Below you'll find a link to an article (graphic photo included) that explains more about what happened:
http://www.tibetsun.com/news/2012/10/24/another-tibetan-self-immolates-in-amdo-labrang
Please pray for the Tibetan people, that instead of literally killing themselves for a freedom that will never be realized on this earth, they would "die to themselves" by trusting their souls to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who alone gives life!
Fascinating details about your ministry in Tibet!