By John Keery

THEY CAME to Kelowna from Singapore 14 years ago, to retire.

But that didn’t last long, once William and Esther Chua became aware of the persecuted believers in other parts of Asia.

Someone invited them to go on a missions trip to Thailand. There, they became acquainted with Ethnos Asia – and learned how fellow Christians were suffering in many Asian countries. Ethnos Asia is the international headquarters of a ministry to Christians and churches in what the organization calls “access-restricted nations.”

“We saw what people were going through – how they were being put in prison and sometimes killed,” William Chua told BCCN. “God spoke to us about the need to be a voice for those people.”

Back in Kelowna, the Chuas went to small prayer and Bible study groups, and shared their vision. Then they organized trips themselves.

“As we shared, more people slowly became interested,” Chua said. “It cuts across all denominations. We want to reach the nations for Christ.” For two years, they ran Ethnos Ministries out of their basement; then they opened an office.  

Paul De Gagne is an Abbotsford school teacher who makes regular trips to Asia with Ethnos. “Every year, for the past seven years, I have been going to the main conference at Bangkok, where Ethnos Asia has its headquarters.”

At the conference, they receive reports from underground church leaders and get up-to-date information on the situations in various countries. But they have to be careful that church authorities  back in the various countries do not find out too much about what goes on at these gatherings.

“We don’t want what we do to be out there too much,” De Gagne. “It would be like telling them our secrets.”

Ethnos also has branches or representatives in Australia, England, Ireland, the Philippines and the United States.

“We raise awareness and funds in our individual countries,” De Gagne said.

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In conjunction with the trip to Bangkok, he goes to individual countries such as Burma, China, Laos, Nepal, Thailand or Vietnam. The groups he goes with help train pastors and bring practical aid to Christians.

Poverty is one of the biggest problems, and both De Gagne and Chua are firm believers in education as a way to help people better themselves. “If you teach the mothers to read,” De Gagne said, “they will teach the children.”

Chua emphasizes that the persecution is sometimes severe. “Sometimes a pastor will be put in jail, and his wife will take over the church and carry on. It is not uncommon for pastors to be physically assaulted – and in some cases, killed.” He knows of two pastors who have been killed, and two who have died of diseases over the last four years.

Laos considers Christianity to be the number one public enemy, he said. “We lost a pastor there two Christmases ago. They slashed his throat while he was on his way home.”

Another pastor was ambushed  by someone with a machine gun, while walking through a rice field with his daughter. The pastor was killed, but the daughter survived. Chua has a photo of her showing the wound, after a bullet went through the palm of her hand.

Ethnos supplies practical aid to help people improve their economic status. This includes lending them rice for seed, or animals for breeding. These loans have to be paid back with 10 percent ‘interest.’ So far, they haven’t moved into lending money; but that is being considered, Chua said.

One focus of their efforts is an ethnic group called the Karen people – who live mostly in Burma, and are persecuted there. A large group of them have been living for 20 years in a refugee camp just across the border in Thailand. Ethnos supports a Bible school in the camp. The people are usually stuck there, because they are not considered Thai residents – and are denied passports by Burma.

Two teenaged girls from the camp are currently living with the Welch family in Penticton, and going to school there. Nurse Twila Welch has written a book incorporating essays from students in the Mae La Refugee Camp on the Thai/Burma border. Titled Creative in Struggle, it documents the trials of the Karen ethnic group as they strive to survive.

Chua is organizing a two-week missions  trip to Cambodia and China this spring. These trips usually cost about $2,500 per person. Contact: ethnosministries.org.  

February 2008