MYANMAR – THE WORD MISSION’s outreach – Inh people.

THE WORD MISSION’s outreach to unreached areas – Inh people

In recent months Pastor J, leader of The Word Mission and President of the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar, has led teams of students from their college to areas of their country unreached with the Gospel. Following are his report and comments about one of those trips – to the Inh people – together with some of the many pictures which accompanied his report:

“Praise the Lord with us.

We reached 2 villages in this month of April with the salvation of Jesus Christ, covering 25 houses in one village and 36 houses in another village. The population is 78 in one village and 95 people in another village. We do evangelism house-to-house and share about the salvation of Jesus Christ at night. We pray for those who need healing, freedom from alcohol, saving from demonic forces.

77 Inh people have confessed that JESUS is their Savior and their Lord, and have accepted Him as their personal Savior. It was our living God who opened the hearts of the Inh people as it is so hard to get these Inh people into Christ. We provided 30 Bibles to the Inh people.”

Prayer requests:

• Pray for new converts of Inh people in this month. They still need help in many ways for their family, their spiritual life, as well as their physical well-being.
• Pray for social life, and their children for future education.
• Pray for the children of Inh. Most Inh children are not in school. They get married between the ages of 12-13 years.
• Pray for more outreach to do among the people of Inh.
• Pray for us for reaching the Inh people – next year in 2016 we are planning to reach 20 villages of Inh people with the salvation of Jesus Christ. Pray that the lord will open the way for us and bring many Inh souls to God.
• Pray for 150,000 people of Inh for their salvation to eternal life. Much evangelistic and literary work is yet to be done. There are still many groups in the Golden triangle to be reached more effectively by the power of the Gospel. To make the motto “Golden Triangle for The Word (Christ)” a reality, full consecration will be required.
• Pray for Bibles – the need is 300 Bibles.

Our vision and prayer is that the Inh people will be saved.
Ambassador to Unreached people,
J”

Pastor J provided the following information about the Inh people…

“Inh land is located in the areas of Shan state. They live in East Shan State and the border of Laos and Thailand.
Population: Over 100,000 Inh live in the Golden Triangle. Sometimes called “The forgotten peoples”.
The Inh belong to the mongoloid stock of the Tibeto-Burman family. They are an independent, ethnic people group by themselves.
Languages: The Inh people speak the Inh language and some can speak Shan language.
Literacy: 0% There is no literacy, they only have spoken languages.

Inh spend their lives looking after cattle. The cattle are their wealth, and are precious to them.
Some poor Inh have no cattle and little cultivation. Most Inh people are farmers and work hard and get little human resources.
Most Inh grow crops of grain and vegetables. Sowing takes place after the first rains in April, and harvest comes in October at the end of the rainy season.

Inh homes are made of bamboo and thatch, some kinds of leaf, with grass roofs. Each family has a few pots and house utensils. The houses are uncomfortable.
Drink: The Inh drink is a rice beer called Ayem. This was the origin of alcohol, which plays so large a part in all village feasts and merrymaking. They said that their god (Nat-Demon) likes alcohol so much.
Tobacco: All Inh are smokers, both men and women. When other people visit an Inh village, they provide alcohol and tobacco as hospitality to them.
Animals: cows, pigs, dogs, and chicken were the domestic animals reared by the Inh.
Food: The Inh grow all their food and made their own clothes. Rice was the main crop, followed by tobacco and cotton.
Marriage: Marriage was either arranged or they steal. They get married between the ages of 12 or 13 years.

Their beliefs: The Inh believe that their god does not like “Education”. In order to obey their god, Inh people live far away from Education. The parents do not allow their children to get education or go to school.
Education: There is no development in education. They cannot read nor write. Most live in jungle villages where there is no school.
The reason the lack of education hinders, is that sometimes it’s not easy to share about Christ to them.
Whatever we do for outreach there must be an interpreter, for most people will not even talk to us.

Transportation: Little development is there. Transportation systems are done by human strength, some of them walk on foot when they travel from village to village.
To reach an Inh village, we take two or three days by foot.
Working Children: Mission to village people takes on many forms and shapes. Working children are children who work full-time and therefore are not in school.
Most Inh children are not in school. Many times, even when we persuade them not to move by granting primary school for their children, in ignorance for their children’s future they will still deny it in fear of laboring for the school.
They need the One who can help and care for their education, showing the way to Christ.

The chief is the head of the village; he is the leader in every situation of his people, the owner of the village lands, the protector.
Chiefs have full power of control over their village

There are over 73 Inh villages in East of Shan state. Many villages in Shan state are located in deep jungles, with hills, valleys and mountains where malaria is rampant.
It is difficult for evangelists to go and preach the gospel to them.
The Inh people in Shan State have never had the Bible in their own dialect.
They are very poor people. Poor in spiritual life, poor in domestic life, poor in social life, poor in education. They are poor in poor.

Beliefs of the Inh about god: The Inh practice demonism, animism and witchcraft.
The demonic altar kept in each home is well maintained. The Inh believe a demon is really their god.
Ways of worship: The Inh believe that life and health are controlled by good demons and bad demons.
They do not know what happens after death.
They believe that good demons provide good things and bad demons provide bad things. They seek these things by prayer and sacrifice.

Way of sacrifice: The Inh offer sacrifices for a variety of reasons, for example:

• For the coming of rain in the spring-time
• For recovery from illness
• For protection of the people

The shaman: At the heart of shamanism is the belief that there is communion between gods and men.
The Inh believe the shaman are their priests who can perform on behalf of them.
The shaman holds various kinds of ceremonies in the spring, in order to pray that evil fortune may be eliminated for the year, and that an abundant harvest be given.
All the villagers gather together at and around the time of the first moon, to perform the rituals of treading on the earth god, or to prevent misfortune.
That time they all drink their alcohol and become drunk.”