The rain was coming down as usual for a Thursday afternoon during rainy season in Vietnam. Rubie and I waited down in the lobby of the hotel for her to come. She had said 2:00, but by 2:30 we were wondering if she was going to make it. Sitting there, I wondered if there were any spies outside watching us. It’s common for the government to keep an eye on foreigners who come into their country, making sure they don’t do anything that threatens their power.
After a half an hour of waiting, we decided to head upstairs. “Lord, if it’s your will to meet with her, let her come…”
Twenty minutes later the soft knock came. I opened the door and the three of us headed down the street to the local cafe for coffee and a conversation the government would no doubt love to have an ear to.
I sat across from a woman who, by all outward appearances, was common and ordinary. A mom of one child, a faithful wife, and a hard worker. However, one look into her eyes and you know the truth – she’s a fierce fire-breather, filled with the Holy Spirit, confident in her God, and ready to go to battle doing anything it takes to take her country by storm with the truth of the gospel.
For protective purposes, we’ll call her Deborah. Put bluntly, Deborah knows her God in a way we just don’t in America. I remember a quote by someone that basically said, “The Western Church is committed. You go to church on Sunday and are faithful to your duties. The Eastern Church is surrendered. At any point your life could be taken because of faith in Jesus.” The church here in Vietnam isn’t messing around with their faith. Either you’re in it with everything that you are or you’re not; there isn’t a middle ground. Believing such a radical, all-encompassing, all-powerful God could result at any time in the loss of your life.
Drinking our coffees, Deborah began to share her story with us. With tears streaming down her face, she shared about her abusive father who she lived in constant fear of, never knowing when he would lose it and begin hitting her. She gave up schooling, despite loving to learn, because she’s a girl and it was more important for her brother to get an education. She became a Christian when she was 18 years old. A woman came to her small village and told her about Jesus. Her family was Buddhist and denied the claims of this woman, but Deborah boldly went against her entire family and received Jesus in her life. She met her husband at an underground church a few years later. He had gotten to the end of himself, owing too many people money he didn’t have, and ran away from his entire community. He decided he would become a monk and serve Buddha. He began the mandatory three month fruit and vegetable fast to cleanse his body. At the end of that time, he would shave his head and choose to serve Buddha for the rest of his life. At 2 months and 27 days, his friend invited him to church where he was swept up with the glory of the true God and gave his life away to find true life.
After getting married, they went back to Deborah’s village where they were the only Christians. Over a couple years time they planted the first church and discipled some people to continue overseeing the body of believers there before moving to the city.
Now their mission is to train the underground church leaders from all over their country, meaning they are some of the most threatening people to the government that currently live in Vietnam. As Deborah said, without training the leaders, you have a lot of people who don’t know what they are doing. Every month they call together everyone for a “celebration” and train them in an undisclosed place in the city. It’s quite a process of using public phones to communicate with the believers without the government tracing the calls and picking people up from the bus stations at the oddest times of night. They have moved seven times in the last seven years because of the government tracking them. They have seen brothers martyred for their faith and others deny Christ in the midst of such persecution from the government. They have sweat blood and wailed tears for the lost of their nation. And they’re not stopping, no matter the cost or how long it will take.
After two hours of sitting there she was off to resume mom duties by picking up her child from school. And Rubie and I were left fired up with so many thoughts and questions spinning through our heads.
Why is in that in a country where the government is using threats and force to ensure their people remain quiet, the followers of Christ are giving their lives to yell it from the streets that Jesus is Lord? And why is it that in America, where we are ensured absolute safety regardless of what we believe, we sit pleasantly and watch the lost and forgotten walk by us never hearing the truth of who He is? What will it take for us, as His Church, to begin to STAND UP boldly and proclaim that the Messiah has come, has risen, and is reigning? We know THE truth that saves, frees and gives life. Why not begin using our freedom in America to actively speak out the gospel, freeing the captives and prisoners from their life of bondage?
May we not wait until the freedom is taken and the persecution comes to begin shouting it, but I pray we may awaken to walk surrendered lives, fearlessly, unashamedly, and boldly proclaiming the mystery of the gospel.
