Try to imagine being a member of a people group numbering over 7 million — and being the only Sabbath-keeping believer within it. Such is the case in China, and the reason Laymen Ministries is maintaining a work with the minority cultures there.

China, with 1.3 billion people, is the most populous nation on earth. Approximately 93 percent of China’s population is of the Han (hawn) majority. The remaining 7 percent is divided into 55 officially recognized minorities. The minority people themselves claim about 132 minority groups. These national minorities differ from the Han Chinese in one or more ways: language, customs, historical development, religion, and race.

Han Chinese live in every region, while the minorities are distributed over about 60 percent of the land, mostly in the border and frontier areas. China’s greatest natural resources—the mineral and oil deposits, forests, and grasslands—are also located in these border regions.

China has five Autonomous Regions for its minorities: Guangxi, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, although minorities are scattered throughout the provinces. Each region has a governing body made up of the ethnic groups within it, though all are led by Communist First Party Secretaries, who are Han Chinese, and directed by the central government in Beijing.

In the past few decades the Chinese government has encouraged ethnic groups to retain their heritage and language. Minorities have been largely exempt from the one child per family policy, especially those involved in agriculture. Children in the Autonomous Regions are no longer required to learn Mandarin, the official language of China, as their primary language. However, if they grow up speaking their native tongue, they are required to take a year of Chinese in the university before going on to general studies, falling a year behind classmates who grew up speaking Mandarin.

China’s people embrace many religions: Confucianist, Taoist, Islam, Buddhist, Shamanist, Animist, Catholic and Protestant—and many more. China now has a policy of religious freedom for those who are members of registered churches and religions, although no contact with churches outside the country is allowed. Close watch is kept on all religious groups, and those who advocate beliefs and practices deemed anti-government or revolutionary are banned, and its members are often harassed and imprisoned... or worse.

Understandably, much of the outreach for Christ in China is to the Han majority. They are the "Chinese culture." Although China does not have a cultural caste system such as India’s, there is a great deal of social, economic and cultural separation between the majority Han Chinese and many of the minorities. Especially in the Autonomous Regions, it is rare to find minority Christians worshipping in a Han congregation. They simply do not feel comfortable or welcome there, even if they understand the language. This is the case in the Hui and Uighur Muslim cultures, as well as others.

For some minorities there is very little of the Scriptures available in their written language. Other minorities have an extremely high illiteracy rate, or are very remote and difficult to mingle with. For some, believing in the atonement of Christ means, at best, being ostracized from family and friends—at worst it is a death sentence. To become an Adventist believer in any Chinese culture often means loss of livelihood because of Sabbath issues.

Laymen Ministries is supporting several minority lay workers. Some are dedicated to reaching their own people for Christ, and others are learning how to understand and reach some of the remote minority peoples. In universities, colleges, and secondary schools evangelizing is illegal, but Christian teachers may associate and gradually be able to share their faith with students and faculty. Five students from one Autonomous Region university were recently baptized as the result of the ongoing efforts of Missionaries X. For these students, commitment to Christ through baptism is an incredible leap of faith. They were well aware that their decision could have meant being forced to leave the school, being unable to finish their courses because of exams on Sabbath, losing opportunities for good jobs, and even being arrested. Through God’s grace, all of these students are now graduated, and are taking their faith in many directions as teachers in other universities and schools.

Another method of outreach has been through the medical field. Workers trained in various Chinese medical schools are able, through their differing practices, to teach patients and co-workers about the true principles of health and the importance of trust in God, leading to many hearts being changed.

For example, one such worker, in moving to a remote region, began worshipping with the small, local Han church. This worker gradually made friends with several minority people, and soon had a new congregation studying every Sabbath and during the week. This little underground church still continues to grow.

We are currently planning to help a dedicated worker set up a medical facility from which he will be able to make many contacts for Christ in a difficult region. At present, this trained medical practitioner is unable to find a paying job because of his faith, and is volunteering for menial hospital duties until all the details are in place for opening a private, licensed facility. If you would like to help establish this facility, or support any of the other ongoing work to the minority Chinese, earmark donations for "Missionary X."

Still other faithful workers are concentrating their efforts on translating the Bible into minority languages. One of the primary translators is gifted in languages, and could easily operate an English language school, except that the exams for obtaining the required license are given on Sabbath. This worker recently had the opportunity to gain a Master’s Degree overseas in English, which would fill the lawful requirement in China and allow him to be licensed, but turned down the chance in order to continue to focus all energy on the translation work.

Laymen Ministries helps provide training and outreach materials to many workers throughout the Autonomous Regions through a carefully established network. We also provide sponsorship for those who are working full time as Bible workers, or in translation and publishing, and help self-supporting missionaries get established in their chosen regions.

Most recently our workers have had to deal with the SARS epidemic, as has everyone in China. In Inner Mongolia, the virus was raging, schools closed, and no one was allowed to travel. Even in the countryside where no SARS cases were reported, police guarded the roads and halted travel. There were frequent outbreaks of mob panic and cruel killing of people's pets (there is a pervasive idea that pets cause SARS). Even in areas where no SARS cases were found, the same restrictions applied.

That put a stop, temporarily, to our workers’ language schools and medical training facilities. To the credit of these dedicated workers, though, they did not sit back idle and wait. Some set up a bakery and began marketing whole grain bread.

The SARS crisis, amazingly, caused an enormous change in the government policy on news reporting. In the past, any reporting unfavorable to the government was unheard of, but on TV and in the newspapers, at least for now, people are freely criticizing government policy, its lack of efficiency in dealing not only with the SARS epidemic, but even its handling of human rights issues!

We have been told that "the final movements will be rapid ones." For years it has been a mystery how atheistic China could ever be influenced by the Beast and his image, but now, in the aftermath of a public panic, it is easy to see how the change could come, and come quickly.

We wish we could share with you more details of the lives and struggles of these special children of God. Each one who is working in difficult and often dangerous circumstances needs your prayers, as do those who continue to meet Christ through the witness of these faithful ones. Most of us are blessed with an incredible amount of freedom to believe and practice as we are convicted, and to share Christ’s love without fear of harm. Please remember to pray for those who literally put their lives and livelihood on the line every day to reach one more soul for Christ’s kingdom.