Monday, August 28, 2006

The Sinicized Miaos

Now we return to our regular programming, with the following section known as the UPG of the Week. UPG stands for Unreached People Group, and we will be posting one every week, for your prayer.

This week we ask you to pray for the Sinicized Miaos.
According to Dictionary.com, Sinicized means to make Chinese in character, or to change and modify by Chinese influence. These Miaos have apparently been heavily affected by the Chinese, and in this way have adopted much of their practices and religion.

Of their population of 250 000, 0.10% of them are Christians. Compared to many of the other people groups in their area of China and Guizhou, this is quite high, though it is indeed a minimal amount. There are workers there right now.

Please pray that the Sinicized Miaos would be open to the gospel, and would leave off of their Chinese influences and embrace Jesus as their saviour.

Summer in B.C.

Hey, this is Evan, the eldest son of the Yeongs. I'm here to update you on our little 'vacation' that we so joyfully experienced these past two months.

Mainly, this post is about our time in B.C., in which we were able to spend time with our extended family, the Pulsifers, in the small town of Salmon Arm, a mere 9-hour drive from the Vancouver International Airport. We flew to Vancouver from Toronto, accompanied by our cousin, Jordan. He visited with us to get away from the busy city life, and to visit the Pulsifers, which consist of Tito (uncle) Craig, Tita (auntie) Lib, their eldest and only son Christopher, and their four daughters, Leslie, Lia (Murphy), Lindsay, and Leilani.

Shown below is a picture taken by my Tito Craig, a skilled photographer and journalist. It was taken at one of the many beaches we visited. We remember this beach in particular for its seaweed covered bottom, and its frigid waters. Regardless of these aspects, we managed to have a pretty good time just getting to know our cousins again.

Much of our time was spent in the water, inner tubing, swimming, or just plain relaxing. Jordan and I were also able to meet a few of Chris' friends, and get to walk around Salmon Arm's 'down town', which was very interesting.

One of my most memorable moments about that time would probably have to be sitting by the street on a bench, with Jordan, Chris, and Chris (my cousin's friend). One thing that must be known about Salmon Arm is that it's not known for it's immense asian population. All jokes aside, we literally doubled the asian population while we were there. Carrying on, we were sitting there on the bench, and we were getting the weirdest looks from passing drivers. It's as if they had never seen two asian kids hanging out with two white kids before. Some of their looks were just so ridiculous that we had to laugh at them, it was hilarious.

All in all, we were really able to start anew with the Pulsifers, catch up where we left off, and really enjoy their company. One thing we enjoyed in particular was Tita Lib's cooking, and family games late at night. We all thank God that, since this detour was not scheduled originally, we were able to take a visit down to Salmon Arm. We also pray blessings over the Pulsifers, for letting us live in their house, eat their food, and play with their children.