Beginning today, we will be posting daily on Chinese Muslims, our prayer highlight at the next Secret Church gathering on March 29th. Join us as we learn more about who these people are and begin to pray for God to make His name known among this people group.





Today in China, three people groups — the Hui, Salar, and Dongxiang — share a common characteristic distinct from the rest of China: they are Muslim. Though they trace different ancestry, speak different languages and often look like different ethnicities, they all carry the same weight of being minorities in their own country.

Moreover, these peoples also share another trait: they have been all but forgotten by the rest of society.

They are not radical Muslims, and they are rarely in the news, even inside of China. They may seem small in view of 1.3 billion Chinese, yet the vast majority of their 14 million have never heard the gospel. The Salar and Dongxiang do not yet have Bibles in their own languages, and out of the three groups combined, less than 1,000 follow Jesus and only a few small house churches exist.

Many people think there is no longer a need to send missionaries to China, with liberal estimates putting the Chinese church near 100 million strong. After all, Chinese believers are taking the gospel throughout Central Asia and the Middle East back to Jerusalem.

But with the Chinese believers’ zeal to reach the rest of the world with the gospel, it often seems they have forgotten the Muslims inside their own country. Or, perhaps, the racial barriers between the Han and the Muslim Hui, Salar and Dongxiang are too great.

We believe God is calling missionaries to China and that He can use them to build His church among the Hui, Salar and Dongxiang. Will you join us in praying for Muslims in China?

 

Please Pray

• Pray for God to open the eyes of the Hui, Salar and Dongxiang peoples to see and their ears to hear the gospel. Pray that they will repent and follow Jesus.

• Pray for God to send thousands of workers who will boldly proclaim the gospel into His harvest among the Hui, Salar and Dongxiang.

Did you know?

• Beginning in 1368 in the Ming dynasty, the word Hui (“Hway”) meant Muslim, so every Muslim in China was Hui. For example, the Salar were called Sala Hui.


• Many Salar or Dongxiang may say they are Hui, assuming a foreigner would never have heard of their people groups.


• Most ethnic Muslims have their own languages and possess ancestral lands. The Hui do not - they speak Mandarin and live all across China.


• Because of mixed ancestry, some Hui look Han while others look Turkish, Persian or even Mongolian.

 

This post was re-posted from Pray4Hui.com. For more information about and prayer requests for Chinese Muslims, visit Pray for the Hui and follow @pray4hui on Twitter.