Hmong Mission Society

Winter Newsletter

Psalm 34:1

“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips..”

As the sun shines less, as the weather grows colder, our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ may seem to grow less. We have fears, troubles, and pains which hunt our dreams and our thoughts and we no longer remember to praise his name.

Psalm 34:1 implies, we should always praise his name all the days of our life, regardless of the situations in our life.

This winter, as you make plans for the New Year and resolve any situations of the past, remember to praise the Lord for all things he has given you. For all good things comes from heaven… even the winter season for it will bring life in the spring.

Welcome by the editor

Greeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is with great pleasure that I once again write to you, who is gracious in doing the Lord’s work for and on behalf of the Hmong Ministries in the United States and throughout the world.

You have contributed much to the work of the Lord among the Hmong people. Regardless if you are a Pastor serving a Ministry, Sunday school teacher who teaches children every Sunday about the love of Jesus Christ, or the clean-up person who cleans the kitchen after a church event. I thank you and praise you in the name of our Lord for your stead fast contributions to the Hmong Ministry.

The Hmong Ministry has grown in so many ways; in faith and in numbers. And as our faith grows so does our responsibilities to the Lord and the work he has for us.

For example, when I was younger, teaching Sunday school gave me great joy and comfort. I knew that each child taught in Sunday school was comforted by Jesus’ love. In my late 20’s, planning a fundraising for our woman’s group gave me great peace and rejoice knowing that the fund raised will be use for the Lord’s work.

Now as the editor of this newsletter, my hope for you is that this will open your heart and mind to reach out to the Hmong families and individuals who have not known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. How he died for all of us, including them.

Please keep our Hmong Mission Society in your thoughts and prayers as we take the next steps to go forward and expand the Lord work among the Hmong communities.

LCMS Hmong Ministries

Pastor Yia Vang

President of Hmong Mission Society

The LCMS Hmong ministries in St. Paul, MN and in Lansing, MI have been reaching out the Gospel to the Hmong people for almost twenty years. These two ministries are still going strong and growing by the grace of God. With these two ministries as the mother Churches and the foundation, in 1995, leaders from these two ministries began talking with leaders from the various Districts and Synod about the expansion of Hmong ministries in North America. A task form was formed and the expansion has begun. Today the Lord has blessed the LCMS Hmong ministries with twenty ministries and fourteen spiritual leaders. Three of the ministries are chartered congregations and six of the leaders are ordained pastors in the LCMS. The Hmong ministries continued its outreach to other Hmong communities in North America to share the Gospel and the Lutheran ministries. The Hmong Mission Society had helped some of these ministries with Bibles and hymnals and other materials for Bible classes and Sunday school. We hope to do more! The Society hopes to raise more funds to support some of the existing and new ministries so that their ministries can continue and also to partner with the Districts and local congregations to continue planting new missions among the Hmong people. The majority of the Hmong people in North America are not Christian, and the Society wants to encourage the Hmong ministries to continue their outreach to these people and the Districts to reaching out to the Hmong people in their Districts with the Good News as well. The Hmong Mission Society is available to come to your Church and organization to share its ministry and the growing LCMS Hmong ministries with you. Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support for the society. May God richly bless you for your kindness.

Thailand Trip

By Daniel Vang

The Thailand trip was one which was essential for my development in life. There are literally thousands of words that would describe how I felt about this trip: Happiness, sadness, pride, shame, beauty, complex, simple, peaceful etc. I’m not saying that each day I felt different, no. It was that I felt all these emotions and feelings everyday, they ran through my head constantly and I was always thinking. For instance, I wasn’t sad because of how the Hmong people lived or because they were poor. They were instead joyous and happy, content, if I may say. They lived like as if it were paradise. What made me sad was myself. I’m rather a disappointment. It seemed to me that they will have more than what I will ever gain. It wasn’t culture that made me feel this way, although I will say that I must have more culture in my life, but if you looked in their eyes, you could see determination, you could see the trust and confidence they had in their eyes. And that is what made me feel worthless or less than they were. I did some self-searching to see what kind of virtues that I held up high. I couldn’t think of one. I have faith and love to share but what good are they if I do not have the will to act? Rather it is a disease to me that I have mold. It will consume me until I act. I’m saying that how dare I say I have such a faith and love to share if I cannot act. That faith and love will tear me apart because of my hypocrisy. The day my faith will act and express love the way Jesus taught us, is that day when this curse will be lifted.

Culturally, I think it was hard for me to take-in. Lifestyle and the language was the barriers. During the whole trip, I probably understood about 60% of the conversations that took place. My Hmong wasn’t too consistent too. The reason is because I didn’t know as much as I should’ve known, and what I do know just wasn’t enough. I would mix up the two dialects that I knew but that didn’t’ hold back the kids there my age to get to know me. I felt like a real missionary then and there. The Hmong people culturally are the same. You could easily compare the two and see some strong similarities. It’s a beautiful thing to have in life, to have customs and occasional parties. It’s practically the same things except the only difference is that we have to drive to the person’s house because we don’t live in a small village full of Hmong people. Slowly but surely I know that I am growing culturally. My father would always say, “Make the best of both worlds.”

Overall my trip was worth the two weeks. Not only did I learn culture but I’m more appreciative of my Hmong heritage. One day I hope that I maybe able to represent the Hmong people in the music industry like how Kenny Choi is representing the Koreans or how Brenda Song is a Hmong/Thai actress on national TV. I cannot promise anyone that I’ll be a doctor or a physician and return to the villages teaching them what I know. I believe that God did not bless me with those talents and skills. He has something else set aside for me that involve my strengths and His absolute plan. God has blessed me in creating art and music. Just as Christ poured out his love into words and shared with others, I hope to do the same thing. When I write a meaningful song or create magnificent art, I want people to know that all I’ve done is to glorify God.

LCMS Hmong Hymnal

By XF Kou Thao

INTRODUCTION

The essence of Christian (Lutheran) worship is Word and Sacrament. The grace of God comes to us through these means. God’s people have been responding with thanksgiving throughout the ages. The Hmong people have been blessed to be a part of this rich worship tradition in the past two decades. With a new Hmong hymnal, God’s people from the Hmong heritage will be able to cultivate the rich tradition of Christian worship. They will enjoy the presence of God in a new meaningful way that is explicitly grounded in scriptures. And also, it will enrich the future worship life of the church expressing it through the Hmong language.

WHY A NEW HYMNAL?

A new Hmong Lutheran hymnal is necessary at this juncture of Hmong Ministry. The first and present hymnal is inadequate in many ways. It does not encompassing the full spectrum of Christian liturgical worship the way it ought to be. It did serve the incipient days of Hmong ministry because there were no other resources. The time has come for a new hymnal that will include the full range of Hmong Christian vocabularies and theological themes that have emerged and developed in the last three decades in the Hmong context. The first hymnal did not have any musical notation making it very difficult to use with the new generation. The new hymnal will consist of all the necessary musical notations that will make it possible for a wider usage of the hymn.

WHAT IS THE COST?

The cost of this hymnal project is estimated to be $200,000 with the following breakdowns:

• Printing (5,000 copies)

$150,000

• Print Setting

$ 10,000

• Committee Expenses

$ 20,000

• Multimedia Development

$ 5,000

• Website/Copyright/Communication, etc

$ 15,000

WHO IS DOING IT?

This hymnal project involves many people from all level of Hmong ministry such as ordained pastors, deacons/vicars, laity, and special experts in various areas of worship including non-Hmong individuals. This project has an executive committee that ensures its overall development. Furthermore, there are several subcommittees that are working on the actual writings, translations, compilations, arrangements, copyright, fundraising, communication, etc. The field testing phase will involve many Hmong congregations throughout United States of America and the world.

WHAT IS THE TIMELINE?

• 2004 Preliminary Discussions and Organization.
• 2005 Research, Writings, Translation, Fundraising, etc.
• 2006 Copyrights and First Drafts.
• 2007 Field Testing and Revisions.
• 2008 (December) Dedication of the New Hymnal.

LCMS

Hmong Women-Heart to Heart

By Kalia Lo

Greeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Hmong women who participated in Heart to Heart sisters are pleased to provide the following up date on the work of the Hmong sisters since returning from the Convention. It has been exciting and inspiring since the Hmong sisters returned from Tampa, Florida and many new opportunities have open up for the Hmong sisters.

Though it seems like long ago when the Hmong sisters where among the 40 ethnic women who participated in the Tampa Convention, I can still hear the laughter and the tears of the Hmong sisters who shared their life with other ethnic women for the first time. The gathering was truly a heavenly experience for the Hmong women.

Since returning, the followings have taken place:

1 The development of the Hmong women Heart to Heart DVD

2 The sharing of the Tampa Convention with the Hmong Churches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan

3 Wisconsin North District has invited Susan Vang to share information about the Hmong culture in the Y2006 District convention

4 The Minnesota Hmong women have invited Gloria Kenow to come to the Twin Cities and speak to 17 Hmong women about the LWML in November

5 The Wisconsin Hmong women have met to review the Tampa Convention in Sheboygan

6 Grace Lutheran Hmong Ministry has started to raised funds to support a least 5 Hmong women from the ministries to attend the next convention through making egg roll for sale

7 In October, Kalia Lo had the opportunities to go to Northwestern Arkansas and met with Hmong women from the Hmong ministry to promote the LWML convention

8 Kalia Lo was also asked to share about the Heart to Heart sisters gathering in Tampa at the zone riley in the Twin Cities in October.

“See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord” Colossians 4:17.

Through Heart to Heart the Hmong women in the Hmong ministries have been blessed with opportunities to complete the work that our Lord Jesus Christ has installed upon our hearts since leaving Tampa.

God blessing to you all and have a wonderful Christmas…

Hmong Mission Facilitator Report

By Dr. Fungchatou Lo

On November 21^st to the 28^th, the Thailand Hmong Mission was invited to attend the first Asia Ablaze Summit in Hong Kong. With the support from Hmong Mission Society and the Thailand Hmong Mission, I attended the summit with my wife. It was truly a blessed conference for both of us. There were about 300 attendees from 16 countries. The focus of the conference was to encourage all the Lutheran missionaries and churches in Asia to act on the Ablaze movement to share the gospel to one million people by the year 2017, which will be the 500 anniversary of the Reformation.

The breakout sessions dealt with the questions of “What does it mean to live a life Ablaze in Asia? What’s possible—word and deed? What recommendations are to be made to the International Lutheran Council?

The most interesting part about the summit was the opportunities to meet with LCMS missionaries and leaders from other countries. We learned that most of the LCMS World Mission missionaries deployed from the United States are mostly engaging on teaching ESL as a way of sharing the gospel. Others involved in human cares and social ministries. This means that most of their works are done from the procedure of “deed and word”, because most countries do not allow Christian organizations to share the gospel right upfront—“word first and then deed”. In some countries, it is dangerous task to share the gospel. Therefore, the method of “deed and word” becomes the primary way of sharing the gospel.

One of the draw backs of the conference was that all of the key-note speakers were Americans from the United States. It would have been more blessed if we had some key-note speakers from other countries to share with the attendees on the mission work they have done. However, being that it was the first Asia Ablaze Summit, the people organized the conference did a superb job on putting everything together. I thank God for the opportunity to attend the summit and recommended that the Hmong Mission Society and the Thailand Hmong Mission continue to get involve with the LCMS World Mission. We cannot just focus our mission work with the Hmong people in the United States alone. There are many Hmong people in the World that need to hear the Good News and if we don’t become part of this exciting Ablaze movement, we will be missing out of knowing what God has in stored for us in the mission field. The word of the Apostle Paul resonated loudly in my heart as I immersed myself with others during the summit; “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” (Philemon 1:6, NIV). So, with that, I encourage all of us to actively sharing our faith with whomever we meet in our daily lives and become part of the LCMS World Mission team and Ablaze movement.

Thank you for your support of the Hmong Mission Society

Hmong Mission Society, 956 Meadow Avenue, Shoreview, MN 55126

“My soul will boast in the Lord…” Psalm 34:2