This month, we have been living and working with Hmong refugees (from Vietnam). In the mornings, we teach preschool, and in the evenings we either teach English for the teenagers or do home visits. Entire families live in one or two room apartments. Sometimes the floors are tiled; more often they are simply concrete. The walls are usually gray, but you will often see childen’s coloring pages and worksheets hanging on them. I have seen a mattress in one apartment – most of the families sleep in hammocks or on pallets on the floor.
During a home visit, we usually sit with the family, cross-legged in a circle on the floor. Our translator is 15-year-old “SL.” We ask about the children’s names and ages, the parent’s names and ages, how long they have been in Thailand, if they have refugee status (which allows them to legally work), why they left Vietnam, how they came to know Jesus. Most of the families have been here for 2-4 years. They left Vietnam because they are Christians trying to escape religious persecution.
How they came to know Jesus is always an interesting question. A surprising number of families spoke of hearing a Christian pastor on the radio. One man talked about an American pastor who came and started his church in Vietnam. The pastor was forced to leave, and the congregation was scattered.
Many of the parents speak about leaving Vietnam because the police were trying to catch them. One family showed us blurry pictures of police officers destroying their home. Some were imprisoned.
One such man is “Mr. H,” SL’s father. We are living with Mr. H and his family this month. Mr. H’s parents heard a radio program from America about Jesus nineteen years ago, and that is how they came to know Him. Mr. H then learned about Jesus from his parents. He told us that there was one Bible that the Christians in the village shared. They kept it hidden in the forest so it wouldn’t be discovered by authorities. They would also pass it on to neighboring villages. He and his family came to Thailand from Vietnam 4 years ago to escape religious persecution. He had been imprisoned in Vietnam for 6 months because of his Christian faith (Christianity is viewed by authorities as a Western or American religion, and so it is not favored). During this time, he “passed the electric test”..meaning he was tortured by electrocution.
Another story that breaks your heart is that of M, who lives with her husband and two youngest children here in Thailand. For some reason, they had to leave their 8 and 10 year old children behind in Vietnam with M’s father. Our understanding is that they need $1500 USD to bring their two children over and reunite their family. We’re working on getting more information about that family…I will keep you posted.
Nearly all of the families we’ve talked to are asylum seekers, waiting to be granted refugee status by the UN. I also learned that the UN determines where the families must go from Thailand, and when. One family knows that they are to go to Canada, but don’t know when. Being a refugee means you are in a constant state of limbo.
Despite all of their hardships, these people emanate peace and joy. They have also been an amazing example of what it means to be a community. Everyone seems to know everyone; kids flit from one apartment to the next, playing with their friends. When a young couple (from Laos and Vietnam) with a 3-year-old and a sickly one-year-old recently arrived, everyone gave what they could to help the family get settled – a bag of rice, a fan, some clothes.
I’ve been reading “The Insanity of Obedience” by Nik Ripken. It’s about persecution and how it’s to be an expected part of life for all Christians. Ripken goes so far as to claim that “the hope that we can somehow be obedient and avoid persecution is a naive and misplaced hope.” He focuses a lot on Matthew 10, the passage about being “sheep among wolves.” I’m still reading and processing that book, but one thing he said that I’ve seen to be true is that people from hostile countries will simply be confused when we who have never been persecuted try to tell them how much we admire and respect them. To them, persecution is an expected fact of life in a world filled with wolves.
So, what do we do? The Catholic priest who translated Mr. H’s story for us encouraged us not to forget about people from other countries who are in America. You may not realize how many of your neighbors have stories similar to those of my new friends. Seek them out. Learn their stories.
Share your faith. Ripken points out that the main goal of persecution is to stop the spread of the Gospel. Our silence in sharing our faith with our friends and family members achieves the same goal. It is shocking to think that “the persecutor’s use of violence to inhibit the faith and the believer’s refusal to speak openly of Jesus yield the same result. In both cases, people are denied access to Jesus…On the other hand, when we share our faith boldly and refuse to silence our witness, we are powerfully identifying with believers in persecution.”
And pray for the global church, for your brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing persecution. Some face a hostile government; others, a hostile family. Pray that they have the courage to remain obedient even in the midst of suffering.
Pray the same thing for yourself.
Ripken, Nik. The Insanity of Obedience. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group. 2014.
