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A Shaman Told My Mom to Be a Christian

Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2018

A shaman came to our house and told my mom to be a Christian. Let me explain.

The past 2 ½ weeks has been interesting, in a good way. My mom’s brother and his wife are visiting from Chiang Kham district of Phayao Province, northeastern Thailand. They have been staying with us for the past 2 ½ weeks and they will be here with us until August. It was such a joy to finally get to meet my uncle from Thailand that my mom has always told us about since we were little. 

One of the cool things that happened with my uncle and aunt being here, is that since the Hmong language has very minimal words to describe/explain certain things, I’ve been able to practice Thai with them by using words I’ve learned from my own personal Thai studies here in the states, and of course I learned new Thai words from them as well. Let me just say that knowing how to speak the Hmong language has been a huge advantage for me to learn Thai, since both languages have similar tones.

I learned quick that my uncle is a shaman. In fact, according to my aunt my uncle is the only shaman in the Hmong village of Chiang Kham who knows and understands how to perform all the rituals and ceremonies. Hmong Americans from neighboring cities of where we live have heard of my uncle, the good shaman from Thailand, and have called to ask him to perform their rituals. My uncle is a revered man among the Hmong community, but he is a revered man because he is a shaman. 

In most eastern cultures, people (especially elders) tend to ask for other’s family name, age, education, occupation, and marital status; it’s a normal thing to do for us. I obviously went through all those questions with my uncle and aunt; because of that they know that I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. My uncle is a devout shaman, so I thought that I was going to have to sit through an entire day’s (or more) worth of lecture about how I’m a shame and disappointment to our whole clan. But to my surprise, after I told him, he turned to my mom and said, “Sister, since our relatives here don’t care about you anymore, you go believe in God and go to church too.” Then, he looked at me and said, “How come you don’t take your mom to church with you too?” I was completely taken away. Maybe a little bit confused too but kind of not really. I can see that my uncle really loves my mom. He’s told us many times already that after my parent’s divorce, my mom went through so much just so that we (her kids) can be where we are now; we ought to love and care for her and give her all that she needs so that she doesn’t have to work so much.

What my uncle said to my mom gave me so much hope. Two years ago, I had such a hard time with the whole idea of leaving my family to serve overseas and almost left this missionary calling because of it. I thought that if I leave, there would be no one to be the example of Christ to my family and they would have no idea how great the love of the Lord is. I thought that I was the only person who could reach my family, but God has been telling me that I’m not. With or without me, the ministry in my family will still go on; the Lord has been revealing this to me for the past three months of being back at home with my family. There were so many little, but big, things that happened in my family that I know are not coincidences (I don’t believe in coincidence), and has affirmed for me that God is here with my family, seeds have been planted, and those seeds will sprout and bloom in faith according to His will and good timing.

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