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Pacific Rim Prayer Emphasis – The Lu people of Myanmar and Laos

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” Psalm 46:4, NIV.

The homeland of the Lu is “Sipsongpanna” or “12 thousand rice fields” in the Yunnan Province of China. Over 550,000 Lu still live in that area. Another 200,000 Lu live in Myanmar, 119,000 in Laos, and 70,000 in Thailand. They have their own manuscript and speak the Tai language. Their primary religion is Theravada Buddhism with a mixture of Animism and Ancestor Worship. There are less than 1% of the Lu who knows Jesus as Lord and Savior.

One early missionary who visited the Lu had this mixed report: “The Lu impressed me as less civilized than any Tai people I had ever met. They are less polite and deferential, more talkative, even rude in their manners. But they are less timid, more sturdy, more hospitable, [and] more receptive.”

Multitudes of tourists flock to witness the colorful Lu festivals, of which Songkran is the most famous. People splash water over each other, believing it cleanses the sins of the past year. Most of the Lu are rice farmers. They have little educational opportunities and low literacy rates. They are one of the peoples who live along the Mekong River that runs between several countries including Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. For more information about the Lu, visit the People Teams web page at: http://www.infomekong.com/tai_lue_secondary.htm.

Pray that:

Oral and visual methods of sharing the gospel with the Lu will be developed.

God will raise up intercessors to pray and fast for the salvation of the Lu people.

God will call workers to plant their lives among the Lu people so that they may experience an incarnational witness.

God will turn the hearts of leaders to change policies that keep the Lu people from having the opportunity to hear the gospel.

Lu believers from China will become burdened to reach out to their relatives in Myanmar and Laos.

God will call Lu evangelists to proclaim the gospel in the hard to reach Lu villages.

God will remove the spiritual and physical barriers that keep the Lu from responding to the gospel.

For the March Prayer Calendar page for Pacific Rim: click here.