Written by: FEBA South Africa
Article source: JOY! Magazine
The year is 1969. The country is Laos. Frank Gray, a young believer from Britain who will later become one of FEBA International’s directors, is serving as a volunteer at Lao National Radio. Though he is not yet involved with FEBA, he bears witness to its remarkable impact. People keep coming down from the mountains for help: they’ve been listening to FEBA’s broadcasts from Manila, and they’ve decided to become Christians. Is there anyone who can come and teach them how to do that? When missionaries and pastors visit those villages, they find families ready to receive Christ. Total transformation follows – villagers are healed of their opium addiction, and people start planting crops to sell. This is only one part of the Hmong’s miraculous story. But who are the Hmong?
Spread across the globe
The Hmong are an ethnic minority group with roots in China. The earliest written records place them in China as far back as 2700 BC. During the 19th century, some of the Hmong migrated to the mountainous areas of northern Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, where they continue to live. In the wake of the Vietnam War, many Hmong refugees settled in the US, Australia, France, and other countries. Today, the total Hmong population numbers about 12 million.
Living in the shadow of spirits
Animist and ancestor worship lies at the heart of the Hmong’s religious tradition. They believe that most physical things have spirits, and that the spiritual world coexists with the physical world, with the power to influence it. A shaman – a traditional spiritual healer – is a venerated figure in their society, for this person is believed to be chosen by spiritual forces and serves as a bridge between the worlds. The remoteness of the villages, scattered throughout the mountains, and their strong oral tradition (the written Hmong language only came into being around 1956), make it difficult for them to gain a wider worldview through exposure to different ways of thinking. Enter shortwave radio.
Chong (John) Lee, first Hmong broadcaster for FEBA, as a student at Bible school in Vientiane in 1973.
When the shadow lifts
FEBA started broadcasting Lao programmes in 1954, which the Hmong also listened to, until Hmong broadcasts became available in 1970. These were only broadcast by FEBA’s station in Manila. But in 1977, Frank Gray and John Lee, a Hmong refugee in the US who would later become a legend in FEBA broadcasting, began producing Hmong broadcasts. They were both passionate about broadcasts done by locals to their own people, in their own language. Lee had grown up in a Hmong village in Laos. He knew the culture and the stories, and he knew how to relate the Gospel in a way that would reach their hearts. The impact was much more dramatic than they had dreamt possible. “The Vietnam government [was] fearful of the many Hmong people who were becoming Christians,” Gray relates. “They produced a lot of publicity to discourage people from listening to the broadcasts. There were over 100 000 Hmong who had become Christian; what were they going to do about it?”
Lee told his listeners about the “Lamb’s Book of Life”, where your name was entered once you decided to accept Jesus as Saviour. One account tells how Lee showed up with a massive package of papers one day, containing about 300 000 names of Hmong listeners who wanted to make sure their names were written in the Book of Life! Pastor Lee served as FEBA’s Hmong broadcaster from 1977 to 2002, when he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Phairot, FEBA’s current Hmong broadcaster, gets up at dawn most mornings to broadcast the Good News.
The story continues…
“Please continue to share God’s Word,” a Hmong listener wrote recently. “Your messages give us hope and they’ve led thousands to the Lord. No missionary can reach us in the mountains, but FEBA can! Your programmes are very important. We wait for them daily.”
Phairot, FEBA’s current Hmong broadcaster, gets up before dawn to set up his sound and camera equipment. His hour-long programme is then livestreamed on social media channels. Each programme receives more than 100 000 views from around the world, and viewers try to contact Phairot and share their stories.
Mee, a middle-aged woman from the north of Thailand, watches FEBA’s programme on her phone. “Not everyone has power all the time in the villages,” she says, “but almost everyone has cell signal!” She and her friends listen to Phairot as part of their daily routine and discuss the programme afterwards. Her village only became acquainted with the Bible recently and people find it confusing to read. But for one hour every day, Phairot teaches them how to interpret God’s Word and make it part of their lives.
Reaching the lost
In a world as connected as ours, it is strange to think that there are still communities living in places so remote that outsiders rarely, if ever, reach them. Yet every soul in those mountains is precious to God. FEBA’s mission is to reach the unreached through radio and every available means, until all have heard God’s Word, which alone has the power to transform lives. The following letter from a listener to Pastor Lee gives a glimpse into this transformative experience:
“I’m so happy to write you. I just wanted to let you know that when my family and I were listening to your broadcast and heard about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we decided to accept Him as our Lord and personal Saviour. We listen to your broadcast every day … Keep on broadcasting, so we can learn more from the Word of God. And always pray that our faith will be able to grow and lead others to His Kingdom, and someday, we’ll meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face.”
To support FEBA’s global outreach, please visit www.febaradio.co.za.
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Date published: 01/01/2024
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