In
1897, Dr. Albert Benjamin Simpson joint
two organizations he previously formed
in New York City and a new name, The
Christian and Missionary Alliance
(C&MA), was chosen. Dr. Simpson said,
“We are an alliance of Christians for
worldwide missionary work.”
In
1947, Rev. and Mrs. Ted Andrianoff
sailed from New York to Vietnam as
missionaries of the C&MA. During the
1948 annual Vietnam Field Conference,
they were assigned to work in Xieng
Khouang, Laos. They arrived in
Vientiane, the capital of Laos in August
and began language study immediately.
In January 1949, they left Vientiane to
Xieng Khouang.
In
the spring of 1950, they were able to
lead the first Hmong person in the town
of Xieng Khouang to accept Christ. This
new convert began to evangelize his own
people with the help of an evangelist
from the Khmu tribe, and people began
turning to Christ in a great number
which church growth specialists called
the “People Movement.” By July the
number of believers had reached 1,700
and by March of 1951, a total of 2,300
Hmong people had become Christians.
Four years later the number climbed to
5,000. A short term Bible school began
in January 1951. Many Hmong young men
were chosen from the villages to be
trained and sent back to evangelize,
teach, and preach in the remote
villages. In January 1961, in its tenth
year anniversary, the town of Xieng
Khouang fell to the Pathet Lao and the
Bible school was closed. It was
reopened in Vientiane at the end of the
year.
The
war spread rapidly throughout northern
Laos making it difficult to reach the
villages with the Gospel. Radio
broadcast became the most important
media for reaching the Hmong for
Christ. Gospel messages were recorded
in Vientiane and sent to the Philippines
to be broadcasted by the Far East
Broadcasting Company in Manila. Due to
the faithful ministry of the dynamic
young pastors, the radio broadcast, and
the energetic lay evangelists, the
number of Christians in Laos grew from
the first convert in 1950 to
approximately 20,000 members in 1975.
Of this number, 70 percent were Hmong.
When
Laos fell to the Pathet Lao in 1975, the
Americans evacuated two thousand Hmong
military leaders and their families out
of Laos to Thailand. This was followed
by thousands of other Hmong, crossing
the Mekong River from Laos to Thailand.
Many of them were Christians. At the
end of 1975, the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Services began to process
Hmong refugees in Thailand for
resettlement in the United States. Many
of them were Christians.
In
early 1978, the C&MA called
a meeting to be held at the Rolling
J Ranch in central California.
It was attended by twenty-five
Hmong pastors and lay leaders
coming from many parts of the
country. From this initial
meeting, the Hmong Field Conference
came to existence with 1,525 members.
The Field Director was elected
and Denver, Colorado, was chosen
for the main office. In
1985, the name was changed from
Hmong Field Conference to Hmong
District of The Christian and
Missionary Alliance. In
2003, the Hmong District celebrates
its twenty-fifth-year anniversary
with 81 churches scattered throughout
the United States with an inclusive
membership of 29,437 people.
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