I wanted to video it but we were new to them and i didn’t want that to be the first impression they had of us. Only a video could do justice to the setting, though.  A small church building on top of a mountain that was a field of opium poppies just twenty years ago.  Now the opium has given way to tea plantations as the Akha have given way to Jesus as Lord.  The building was packed, and I mean packed. The men had the rugged clothing of mountain farmers and their skin was like leather from the sun and the wind.  The women were resplendent in their carefully embroidered clothing, red, yellow and green needlework on black clothing, leggings, belts, vests and most importantly their amazing headdresses (think Sioux chief with eagle feather head dresses, only theirs is made of silver and beads).  Everyone had bare feet, nobby feet from using them as tools.  About 1/4 of the women had a baby bundled in a sling on their back.  Women sat on the left side of the building unless there wasn’t room. In that case they sat on the men’s side too. It was a community, a tribe at worship.  Not much organization to it. Children were everywhere and everyone was talking while someone was trying to lead a song or read a scripture.  But there were men equal to the women (something i have seldom seen in churches) and they had tons of youth.  They let them lead some songs before church and they, of course, used electric “fuzzed out” guitars and a drum.  In the main service the elderly church planter’s wife played hymns which didn’t go over that well but there were a dozen people involved on the stage doing something in one hour of service.  After the two hour service they eat together. The body of Christ is so beautiful! From where I sat I could see my three little cherubs sitting in the midst of a middle aged woman decked in silver work, a young mother and a grandmother figure correcting the mom for over-disciplining her son. All the women wore traditional Akha clothing.  All of them are one in Christ because of the piano player and her soldier husband who got born again and began preaching the Akha villages in the mountains.  Six churches met throughout this valley today because of 30 years of faithfulness from these lay preachers.  Akha who had never heard the name of Jesus and who lived in bondage to mountain spirits and superstitions are now a thriving community within the Kingdom of God.