No one person could achieve such a feat, and it will hopefully be encouraging as we see more and more people join. As we dedicate one hour a week to the Lord to wrestle for the Dong people in prayer, there is no way we will not see great progress of the gospel among the Dong.

For those of you who are interested, please feel free to visit the Dong Prayer Wall, see how it is set up, and contact us about joining up. You can always find the prayer wall by coming back here to the Prayer Journal and looking for the "advert" to the left.

May God be glorified among the Dong people!

Is it just me, or do you also become discouraged in prayer? Often, I feel like I am getting nothing done, and when that happens, I stop praying altogether. It becomes hard to pray for people near and dear to me, much less a mostly unknown people on the other side of the world.

Recently, I was reading a biography of Hudson Taylor and noticed a very similar mass discouragement in prayer for the people of China. A man named Gutzlaff had travelled extensively in Europe chiefly to raise up prayer for the Chinese people. Then, when his mission to reach the Chinese of the interior largely failed, most of those whose hearts had been stirred to pray were discouraged. Most stopped praying altogether.

Does God really hear our prayers? When we pray for a people we hardly know anything about, does God really answer and work? Maybe it is just me that feels this way, and even if this is all written just for me, I want to wade my way through and find the other side.

NatGeo evidently decided a month on China would not be well rounded without telling of the people in China's countryside, and they just happened to chose to focus on one people group...the Dong. Nice choice.

For those who have not read the article, DongTeam.org would like to highly suggest it, if you get a chance. Not only is it well written (by a very famous author of other China-related books) and have beautiful photography of the Dong people, but it really does paint a clear and accurate picture of life in a Dong village.

When we say we want to see an indigenous Dong church, what does that mean? Just recently, DongTeam was sent some thoughts by a fellow prayer warrior on that very topic, and we felt it would be helpful to share those thoughts with all of you.

In the Olympic spirit, DongTeam.org wants to share a couple of new computer desktop backgrounds to help encourage sports related prayer. Let's pray that sports will be a bridge of common interest through which the gospel can be heard.

We share these videos with you for the fun of it or just for some easy prayer update. As we pray, sometimes we just want to have some specific information or a deeper understanding of the people for whom we are praying. It makes sense, right? It is hard to pray for somebody you do not know. In these videos, we can look into one aspect of Dong life that Dong people themselves highly value: music.

This video is of a Dong man playing the lusheng (pronounced 'loo-shung'), an instrument used by many of the minorities of Southwest China. It is made out of bamboo; thus, its alternate name, bamboo pipes. Small metal reeds are at the head of each pipe and provide the vibration which makes the sound, and air can either be blown or sucked to create sound (as you will see in this video...he never stops for a breath). It is made with varying number of pipes, anywhere between one and more than two dozen.

So, first I ask: What is the essence of incarnational ministry? Our pleasure as Christians is to honor Jesus by joining in the world around us, to be a light in that darkness, so that other may know who he is and what he has done to redeem them from their sin. That may not sound like an answer to that particular question, but what is important is what is not in the answer.

Today's feature video is a well-known Dong song about the cuckoo ushering in Spring.

The first year was really rough. We saw little progress, and asked God for a certain number of people. And God gave those. Seeing his work, we felt we really should have prayed bigger!

In chapter 14, we saw Jesus dining with the Pharisees, which did not go so well. Whether they were trying to persuade Jesus over to their side or just to figure out where he stood, by chapter 15, they have a much better idea of what they think of him. Now, they are grumbling about his choice of friends.

J.O. Fraser served the Lord among the Lisu people of Yunnan Province and, in letters back home, wrote some incredible insights into how the work of God progresses among the unreached:

Then, out in the local barn, the savior is born. His family was not prestigious and the surroundings were far from grand. The triumphal announcement was even made known to a few random shepherds minding their own business in the fields. Jesus was quite a surprise.

As the celebration of his birth approaches, let us be in prayer for the Dong people. Even the knowledge of his birth is still coming to them; most still have not heard it. Let us pray that this Christmas season will be an opportunity for the gospel of his coming to reach hundreds of Dong people.

We all so easily lose sight of our loving Lord. We feel blessed when we have good clothes, a nice house, and a little extra stored away in savings. Those things are fine, but Jesus tells us here to store up our treasures above instead of here on earth.

"Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail...For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."