SE ASIA ETHNIC MINORITY MISSION INC

SEEM's efforts are focused on supporting the ministry of Rev. Louis Julian. A native of Vietnam, Rev. Julian has worked in Christian evangelism for minority groups in Vietnam since the early 1970s. The mission work has not been easy, because there has historically been serious persecution of minority tribespeople who are Christian. The hill tribespeople (often called "Montagnards") are actually composed of several dozen distinct tribes such as the Jeh, Jarai, Bahnar, Bru, and Rhade. The tribes are often of very different ethnical backgrounds. For example, the Jarai are of Malayan-Polynesian heritage. Other tribes are more closely related to groups from India, or from China. But they are quite different from ethnic Vietnamese, Laotians, or Cambodians - culturally, ethnically, and with language.