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100 Million Chinese Suffer from Mental Illness
Posted by: | CommentsA recent report gives a somewhat rare look into an issue that doesn’t get talked about much, but an issue that should enter into our thinking when praying for all the diverse groups of people that make up Yueyang, China.
A senior mental health official says that at least 100 million Chinese people, or 7.7% of the population, suffer from mental illness, the Telegraph reports.
“This is a modest number,” Huang Yueqin, the director of the National Center for Mental Health, told the paper, noting that actual figures may be much higher. By her own estimate, Huang says a third of her university classmates have had some form of mental illness.
The WHO notes that mental illness has overtaken heart disease and cancer as the largest burden on China’s health care system. There are few mental health professionals working in China today, and Huang estimates that only 5% of China’s mentally ill seek treatment.
To be fair, “100 million” sounds like a HUGE number, but in relation to the total population of China, this is actually a lower percentage than what is reported in the USA.
If the percentage holds, there would be well over 100,000 mentally ill people in Yueyang city alone! A sobering realization. Please be in prayer for the people of Yueyang.
May Prayer Calendar
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The May Prayer Calendar for the people of Yueyang, China is available for viewing and download. Please take a minute to download this month’s calendar and to print it out and post somewhere where you will be reminded daily to pray for the people of Yueyang!
The beginning of May marks the “International Labor Day” celebration (国际劳动节) across China.
May Day is synonymous with International Workers’ Day, or Labour Day, which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labour movement. As a day of celebration the holiday has ancient origins, and it can relate to many customs that have survived into modern times. Many of these customs are due to May Day being a cross-quarter day, meaning that in the Northern Hemisphere it falls approximately halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
Unlike previous years in which Chinese were given a full week off of work to celebrate, this year workers and students only get a ‘long weekend’ with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off of work and school. Supposedly this is to ease the tremendous burden that would normally be caused by millions of people trying to return home to visit family, wives, husbands, children, parents.
It is very common for families to live apart as career ambitions take priority over family responsibility. With the May holiday cut so short this year, even more stress is placed on families that will not get a chance to be together when they otherwise would have. Please pray for hurting and struggling families in Yueyang. Ask that first and foremost, entire households would come to faith in Jesus Christ and then as that happens, that the priorities will shift away from materialism and will result in healthier and stronger families in our city.
If keeping track of the Pray4Yueyang blog is not very convenient for you, and you’d prefer to receive prayer updates delivered to your Email inbox, you can subscribe by giving us your Email address (use the box on the right hand column of this blog’s main page.) If you have any questions, just ask.
Prayer makes a difference. Will you be involved?
Cab Driver Strike
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There is a strike going on right now in Yueyang, it seems that cab drivers are unhappy about the amount of money they are making after they pay their parent company the fee required to drive for that company. While most protests that occur here in Yueyang are peaceful, this one has had a few moments of chaos over the weekend. Some drivers were even arrested;
Eleven persons were detained because of rioting amid a strike involving thousand taxi drivers in Yueyang City in central China’s Hunan Province, police said on Saturday.
The strike began on Friday when dozens of drivers parked their taxies in front of the Yueyang municipal government’s building, demanding to reduce the amount of money they should pay to their taxi companies monthly, police said.
More drivers joined the strike on Saturday, police said.
Some people rioted during the strike as they stopped some taxis and forced the drivers to join the strike, police said.
The rioters smashed some cabs and hit the drivers, police said.
Police detained eight rioters on Friday and three on Saturday.
A special investigation team had been founded by the municipal government to solve the problem, said Han Jianguo, vice mayor of Yueyang.
Please pray for the people of Yueyang. Most do not have much worldly wealth, but almost all are consumed in the pursuit of it! Pray that people all across the city will hear the Good News of Jesus’ FREE gift of salvation and that a movement of people sharing this simple truth will spread rapidly across the entire city and province!
April Prayer Calendar
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The April Prayer Calendar for the people of Yueyang, China is available for viewing and download. Please take a minute to download this month’s calendar and to print it out and post somewhere where you will be reminded daily to pray for the people of Yueyang!
The beginning of April marks the “Tomb Sweeping Day” holiday (清明节) in China.
For the Chinese, it is a day to remember and honor one’s ancestors at grave sites. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, (joss) paper accessories, and/or libation to the ancestors. The rites are very important to most Chinese and especially farmers. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming, or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They think that willow branches help ward off the evil ghosts that wander on Qingming. Also on Qingming, people go on family outings, start the spring plowing, sing, dance, and Qingming is a time where young couples start courting.
For Christians in Yueyang, holidays that involve ancestor worship and other animistic superstitions and practices present a difficult challenge. The pressure to show respect and love for one’s family without violating their Christian conviction to only worship the Most High God is intense. Please remember your brothers and sisters in Yueyang who are facing these challenges right now. Ask that this challenge might turn into an opportunity for the gospel to be proclaimed and for the Kingdom to grow!
If keeping track of the Pray4Yueyang blog is not very convenient for you, and you’d prefer to receive prayer updates delivered to your Email inbox, you can subscribe by giving us your Email address (use the box on the right hand column of this blog’s main page.) If you have any questions, just ask.
Prayer makes a difference. Will you be involved?
Economic Crisis Hitting the Heart of China
Posted by: | CommentsHunan for years has sent waves of migrant workers to the cities in search of a better life and an escape from tough farm labor.
But now there are as many as two million Hunanese searching for work, the majority laid off from seaboard factories as the impact of the global economic crisis creeps into China’s rural heartland.
Hunan province once sent a million new farmers a year to work in China’s booming cities. Now the financial crisis means it is scrabbling to keep two million unemployed off the streets, a senior official said.
Beijing fears joblessness could lead to destabilizing unrest and has ordered local governments to throw their energy into keeping their citizens in some kind of employment.
Please pray for the people of Yueyang, many of whom are feeling the effects of the global economic slowdown in much more tangible ways than those of us living in more ‘affluent’ countries. Pray that food and housing needs are met and that this crisis would create a new openness to hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
March Prayer Calendar
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The March Prayer Calendar for the people of Yueyang, China is available for viewing and download. Please take a minute to download this month’s calendar and to print it out and post somewhere where you will be reminded daily to pray for the people of Yueyang!
The Lottie Moon season is coming to a close and because of your generous and sacrificial giving to the 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering many people in Yueyang will receive the HOPE of Christ in 2009. Thank You!
If keeping track of the Pray4Yueyang blog is not very convenient for you, and you’d prefer to receive prayer updates delivered to your Email inbox, you can subscribe by giving us your Email address (use the box on the right hand column of this blog’s main page.) If you have any questions, just ask.
Prayer makes a difference. Will you be involved?
Kidnapping in Yueyang
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Police in Yueyang have broken up a gang that abducted children in Yueyang to sell in distant Chinese provinces, state media reports.
The children were mostly toddlers aged two or three years old. They were sold for between 860 yuan ($125) and 26,000 yuan ($3,800), according to news sources.
Five children had been rescued and 13 suspects arrested. The children were snatched in broad daylight by gang members on motorbikes.
Child trafficking is seen as a growing problem in China, despite government attempts to crack down on it.
Please pray for families in Yueyang who have experienced the tragedy of having their child kidnapped as well as families who live in fear of the schemes of evil ‘men.’
Pray that the gospel will go forth into all of Yueyang and that the society will be transformed as hate is replaced by love, greed is replaced by charity, and fear is replaced by peace.
Winter Solstice Festival (冬至 Dōng zhì)
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The Winter Solstice Festival (Chinese: 冬至 Pinyin: Dōng zhì), is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the dongzhi solar term when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest.
The origins of this festival can be traced back to the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in.
The philosophical significance of this is symbolized by the character 復 (fù – “Returning”). Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers is the making and eating of Tangyuan (湯圓, as pronounced in Mandarin Pinyin: Tāng Yuán) or balls of glutinous rice, which symbolize reunion.
I know that for most of you living in the West, today is not special in any way, it’s just another Monday. However, for the people of Yueyang, China, today has significance.
Much of today’s celebrations will be benign and harmless with no spiritual or demonic elements whatsoever. However, the philosophy behind today’s holiday reflect a flawed world view that blinds and confuses many Chinese who seek truth.
Would you remember the people of Yueyang today as they celebrate “Dōng zhì” today (December 22) Ask that as families get together to celebrate and to eat “Tang Yuan” that conversations will turn to eternal things. Pray for Christian family members to be courageous and bold to share the Good News with their families. Pray for those families with no witness, ask that someone will be obedient to share the gospel with them so that they might “return” to their creator who loves them and desperately desires to have a relationship with them!
Every two minutes
Posted by: | CommentsOn average, a Chinese person takes his or her own life every two minutes.
With between 250,000 and 300,000 suicides a year, China accounts for about a quarter of the global total, according to medical sources. China’s suicide rate is now among the highest in the world.
Even as China has moved to the spot of the world’s fourth-largest economy, filling many Chinese with pride, suicide has become the main cause of death in the age group between 15 and 34.
The Chinese are caught in the middle of the often conflicting demands of Communism, Confucianism and capitalism, and they do not know which one to turn to, experts say.
Please pray for the people of China and more specifically, the people of Yueyang. Pray that people who are lost in a rapidly shifting society will find HOPE in the Good News of Jesus Christ!
Persecution
Posted by: | CommentsPlease take a few minutes to pause what you are doing and spend a moment in prayer for the unregistered house churches in Yueyang.
It appears that community leaders across the city (and rural counties) are being asked to identify active Christians in their neighborhoods. That information is then being used to demand that house churches disband. When they don’t, the leadership face arrest and persecution.
This is just starting, no one knows how long this will last and how thorough an effort the authorities plan on investing in this ‘crack-down’. Please pray for safety, discernment and boldness.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”