Reaching the Boyu Tibetans

A week ago today, I had the opportunity to visit the Boyu Tibetans, a very small unreached people group that exists in a remote valley in northwest China. The total population for the group is only around 4,000 or so people. They live in a few scattered villages along a very rutted out road near the end of a 25 mile long valley.

 

My goal in visiting this small, almost unknown people group, was to try to find out if there are any Christians among them (or living in nearby towns) as well as to get an idea how the Boyu live and what language(s) they currently use at home and in their trade with surrounding (mostly Chinese) towns and counties. I was also determined to make the most of my visit by trying to share the Gospel with somebody!

 

Well, I am thankful to God to be able to report that although I did not locate or find any information about Christians among the Boyu, one Boyu man in particular did hear the Gospel and receive a Chinese New Testament (which he is able to read). A number of other people in the main Boyu village will also eventually read the tracts that we left behind for them to find after we had left.

 

I learned that the Boyu still speak their own unique dialect of Tibetan at home, but most are bilingual in the regional dialect of Mandarin Chinese as well. This is good news because it means people (that’s the biggest problem! who is going to spend any time there!!!???) can begin to share the Gospel immediately with the Boyu Tibetans using Chinese.

 

It’s hard to say precisely, but I think it would be very, very difficult for a missionary like myself to learn to speak the Boyu Tibetan dialect fluently at this stage, primarily because the Boyu have long been accustomed to speaking Chinese to any outsiders. There would be almost NO opportunities for someone to even begin to learn and practice speaking that dialect. I think that Chinese will most likely be the language that God uses to bring the first Boyu to Christ. Hopefully then that person would then be able to communicate the Gospel in the native language (heart language) to the rest of the Boyu people.

 

As a side note, we also discovered a nearby town that is almost entirely populated by Chinese Muslims. This was a surprise, because we didn’t know there were any Chinese Muslims in that region at all. As we drove through that town on our way out of the rural valley, we stopped for a few moments to talk to some Muslim guys on the side of the road. A short conversation ensued where I was able to explain the Gospel and give a Chinese New Testament to a young Muslim man who had just finished worshipping at the local mosque. Praise God for these kinds of divine appointments!

 

Please pray for the Boyu Tibetans as well as the Muslims of China (of which there are 10s of millions)! Pray that we would be bold as we share the Gospel and full of grace towards all men!

 

(I’m sorry that there are no actual pictures of the Boyu Tibetan valley at the moment. My friend took the pics with his camera and he’s currently travelling in another province! The pictures above are of another, more scenic, nearby valley that is also home to unreached Tibetans.)