Pray for the Hui of China

When you think of Islam, your mind normally goes to countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. However, there are over 25 million Muslims in China blended throughout the country. One of these Islamic minority groups is the Hui (pronounced Hway).

The Hui are the second largest minority group in China behind the Han and Zhuang. The Hui people number around 13 million and have grown at a steady pace for the last 30 years. Their ancestors came from Persia and Central Asia many years ago along the Silk Road and settled down to start farms and businesses marrying Chinese women.

Despite being in the minority in China, the Hui are generally treated well and are given the freedom to worship and observe their Islamic faith as they see fit. Many Hui in the cities have loosened some of the strict Islamic laws and many smoke, drink, and even eat pork when away from home. And there are Mosques led by female Imams in almost every major city. It just shows that the culture is infiltrating the Islamic religion more than Islam is affecting the Atheistic and traditional religion of China.

Since the time of Mao Zedong in the 1960s and 70s there has been a rebirth of religion in China. In China as a whole, there are around 31 million Christians. All churches must be registered by the government, but there are hundreds of thousands of unofficial house churches made up of underground believers who are not willing to announce in public that they are Christians for fear of persecution, mistreatment, and ostracization. It is estimated that there are probably only about 1000 Christians living among the Hui.

Pray for the Hui from Pray4Hui.com on Vimeo.

Pray that the Hui people will understand that they can follow Jesus while maintaining their cultural uniqueness. Pray that the Han Chinese believers reaching out to the Huis will see a harvest of souls turning to Christ. Pray that God would work from within the hearts of the Hui people to make them dissatisfied with their worship of Allah and would turn to Jesus as he is fully revealed in the Bible. Pray for dreams and visions of Jesus to stir Hui households with a hunger to study the Bible together and obey what they learn. Pray not only for a gospel movement among the Hui, but for the Hui to birth gospel movements among many other Chinese minorities.