Celebrating 75 Years of the Gospel Among the Hmong
“We walked into a room filled with thousands of Hmong believers and felt overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness. What began decades ago in remote villages is now reaching the world.”
An Invitation Filled With History
Six months ago my siblings and I received an invitation to a special celebration of 75 years of the Gospel coming to the Hmong people, many of whom subsequently fled their villages to escape the war in Laos. The woman who had tracked us all down to invite us happened to be the daughter of Rev. Yong Seng Yang, who was our Dad's best friend.
My parents, Wayne and Minnie Persons, started their missionary journey in Tibet in 1948, and after evacuating from there, went to Thailand and then eventually to Laos to minister to thousands of Hmong tribespeople who were coming to Christ. Even in retirement, Mom and Dad traveled to the Hmong district headquarters in Colorado so Dad could help with the translation of the whole Bible into the Hmong language.
A Celebration Worth Traveling For
John and I and two of my siblings (Larry, Debbie) traveled to Milwaukee for the celebration in a huge convention center. An estimated 6000 Hmong believers gathered to joyfully celebrate the anniversary of the very first Hmong turning to Christ in 1950 in a remarkable people movement on the Plain of Jars in Northern Laos.
As we entered the convention center, we were in tears. The concourse of the complex had been meticulously decorated with yards and yards of old photos of missionaries and their ministries to the Hmong in Laos. We were early, but music drifted from the doorways into the convention hall as the worship team was doing a sound check. Powerful emotions swept over us as we heard the song “The Blessing” being sung in the mother tongue of the Hmong.
A Vision That Continues
The celebration began with a surge of triumphant music to accompany a steady stream of hundreds of Hmong marching up and down the aisles waving flags of the nations of the world. Another poignant moment ambushed us as the hall went dark and grew quiet. A video began in silence with one simple sentence appearing against a black screen: “Seventy-five years ago we had no pathway to the gospel.”
All these decades later, Hmong Christians are carrying on God's work to reach all peoples of the world with the message of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.
Truly, God is faithful! We were so very honored to be at this historic gathering to see how the Hmong people, who loved our parents and whom our parents loved, are carrying the torch to the whole world.
-Joy Cutts
