Last year a new local church for an ethnic minority was completed in Xiangshi Village, Yezhong Town, Shuicheng County, Guizhou.
One of the church staff tells CCD that the church construction cost more than 200,000 CNY, including a debt of over 70,000 CNY. Three years ago when the church had been founded for thirty or forty years, the congregation were unable to build a church building due to the backward local economy and gathered in a shabby house.
Then the church staff decided to build a church while they only had about 3000 yuan. They published the construction news online and received a total fund of 10,000 yuan from Chinese Christians. The construction started on September 16, 2013, and was completed two years later. The first-ever church building was dedicated in November 2015.
Xiaoanshan Church serves A-Hmao believers, the majority of whom are White Hmong or Bai Miao. Its Sunday attendance stays between 20 to 50 and reaches 100 at most.Most of the congregation are the elderly. The young generation migrates to cities for jobs and return here during the Spring Festival. There are five or six co-workers who also serve in another gathering place in Guobuge Town in the church. It is estimated that there are twelve gathering places in the two towns, Yezhong and Guobuge.
(A-Hmao (Big Flowery Miao) are an ethnic group in China. They are from Yunnan and Sichuan. They also live in Guizhou. The number of persons within this group likely exceeds 400,000. Their language belongs to the Hmong family.)
