My team and I were blessed to be one of the 2 teams who were allowed to go into Vietnam to do ministry this past month. My team leader Celeste Johnson had been to Ho Chi Minh City about 2 years ago and spent almost a year here as a missionary. Vietnam is a closed country so sending missionaries here is kind of a big deal. When we first arrived we sat down with our contacts and they briefed us on what we can expect and what dangers to avoid.
They began by telling us what their ministry was and what vision the Lord gave them about their country. The Lord has asked them to spread he Gospel to the villagers in the remote regions in Vietnam. He has asked them to be the Light amongst the Darkness of their country. In Vietnam evangelizing is oppressed by their military, people are thrown in jail for no other reason than they wanted to tell people about the God they serve. The oppression is so severe that most people wont dare tell someone that they are a church going Christian for fear of what the military will do. So many people have started underground churches so they can worship God in a corporate setting and have fellowship.
We were told not to write anything about our contacts nor anything about what we did or what we were going to do while we were in Vietnam because we feared the emails would be intercepted by the their police. Since I’am no longer there I will tell you about what my team got to do. We were given the opportunity to go to an Aids hospital and pray for those dying of this devastating disease. I’ll be honest and say that this was not my favorite thing to do, I had never shared the gospel with someone who is on their deathbed before. When we arrived at the hospital it deeply saddened me to see so many people writhing in pain from their open sores and body aches. Their families were at their bedside trying to comfort them and just be there for them in their last days/weeks. It felt very uncomfortable to walk up to a family who is watching their father, son, daughter, mom die and ask if we can talk to them about Christ. But God gave us favor and a boldness in speech, the families allowed us to spend some time witnessing and praying for their loved ones. One man in particular really got to me, he was only 37 years old and was dying of aids, when we asked him how he was feeling inside his response was “my insides are sooo cold”! He began to ask us why we were there and we told him a little about us and what we do and who we represent. He said he has heard of this man named Jesus Christ and asked us if we were catholic (there are alot of catholic churches in Vietnam). We told him no, that we were Christians and wanted to tell him a God who saves, a God that wants to be his comforter and healer. We asked him if he wanted to go to heaven, he responded “no” that he wanted to be reincarnated but feared that he would not be because he did not live a good life. We told him that nothing he could “do” would get him into heaven and that reincarnation was not something that God does. We told him the only way to the father is through the Son, and that he would have to repent of those things he had done in the past and accept what Christ had done for him on the cross. We expounded more on the subject and answered more of his questions. Sadly in the end of our conversation he could not get past his beliefs of Karma and reincarnation, he did not accept the gospel. Later I walked past his room and he was still lying there writhing in pain of his disease.
At first I felt defeated after this man had rejected the Gospel, but then remembered that the Christ said “not all who have ears will hear”. I was obedient with what God asked me to do and that is what matters in the end.
You may be wondering about how we were allowed in this hospital to evangelize in such a way… well technically we were not allowed we just kinda walked in and did our thing for those who wanted prayer and someone to talk to. We usually had to leave when the doctors would start to ask questions, its not like we could say we were family members visiting lol.
