As many of you all know, Vietnam is a communist country caused by a long history of war within their own country and against other nations, like the USA. Even with the economic reforms and restoration of diplomatic ties, human rights are limited in Vietnam – especially freedom of religion. So here is my recap of my first week, as I get to be present and experience life today in the beautiful Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam.
I had tears in my eyes as I went to church this Sunday. The church I went to this past Sunday has a history of persecution just because they believe in a God named Jesus. Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. Persecution could be abuse, harassment, and even death. In this case, the government persecutes those in Ho Chi Minh City who follow Jesus by sending them to jail, interrogating them for any potential motives they fear may be at work against the government (even though that is not at all the intention of the church), and then the government makes the persecuted pay a lot of money. This church has a history of going to jail weekly for 10 years. The police would interrogate and harass them, until eventually letting them go since they cannot keep an entire congregation of people at the jail and since they cannot find any evidence that they are about to rebel against the government. However, they continued arresting this group of people every week, and every week these people continued surrendering to jail. They did get charged with fines they cannot afford to pay, but they didn’t always pay them. Nowadays, the government allows this specific church to continue being an organization as long as the church sends a report on what they are doing every week, and as long as they don’t invite new people to the church.
It’s incredible. There are people here, in Vietnam, who love God so much that they are willing to risk their entire lives to hold an underground church, attend it, and get to know Him more. Underground church doesn’t necessarily mean legit underground (sometimes it does), but it mainly means a secret church. There are people who have been persecuted many times just for claiming they believe in Jesus – and there are many whose experience of persecution have far worse results than how I described the experience of this church. Other people experienced abuse, or prison or death. Americans from the United States and in many other countries, have the luxury and freedom to worship and believe in, or not believe in, any God or religion their heart desires. But people in countries like Vietnam do not have that freedom. Doesn’t it make you wonder, “What is so worthy about this God that you’d actually give your life up for Him?” They give so much of their faith, their time, their energy, their life, and entire all to the God they call Jesus. They risk everything. I had the honor to attend attend this church, and even though there was a language barrier, I saw the passion in their facial expressions through their prayer, I heard the authentic joy when they worshipped, and I felt the heart behind the meaning of their message when they translated their words. I had tears in my eyes. Everything was so authentic and so beautiful.
(A picture of the Underground “secret” Persecuted Church I went to)
I asked my host, what did the church experience that makes their faith so strong to accept persecution?
He says, “When you are faced with such a critical and devastating situation in your life: whether it be some kind of heartbreak, survival, or horror- you have one choice: trust God or don’t. After trusting God, and experiencing his miracles and the ways he has came through in our lives, because he loves us, being persecuted is not an issue. Your faith is so strong that life or death is nothing to be afraid of.”
Wow, what a response! I know many people who hear about Jesus, but really do not understand how He can legit work in our lives now. My host family has an incredible story, and I am grateful to partner alongside them to help in anyway possible. In Vietnam, it is illegal for anyone to be a missionary or to show other people about Christianity for fear that they will use their religion to rebel against the communist government. Therefore, this includes those who live in Vietnam and those coming from other countries. Hence, why it is important I password protect this blog even though I am not trying to rebel against the government. We password protect this blog – just in case. Yes, being on the world race can categorize me as a “missionary,” but I think people back home have these misconceptions that I’ll be going around the world forcing some kind of religion to people who don’t know God. That is not true. There are so many negative connotations, stereotypes, about the word “missionary.” It’s not anything like the musical “The book of Mormon.” Honestly, all I have been seeing in the countries I’ve been to so far are people who desire and love God. This was true in Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It is the same in Vietnam.
World Race partners with people who have a personal relationship with Jesus in different countries, who has a heart like Him, and who share His love to anyone – no matter what background they come from. The partners, long term missionaries, accepts everyone – no matter how hurt they are or how much they hurt others. The church is a hospital and a home for the broken, not a building for the great or who think they are perfect. And by no means do the people from this church or our partners believe they are perfect. So we partner with long term missionaries who live in these countries and we support them in any way they want us to. I shared all the ways I helped those in Belize, Honduras, and in El Salvador in my past blogs. Vietnam is not that very different, only we don’t say we are a missionary here. Our ministry this month is serving alongside a family with an amazing story who has a heart for children. Vietnam has a past of tension and brokenness due to the war leaving many people poor and in poverty. This led many children on the streets to take care of themselves. Parents would work whatever job they could get, and if they can’t allow children in the workplace, older kids would have to watch younger siblings. Our ministry host has a heart so big for the children that he took in all the kids on the streets and provided them a safe place to go to, his home. Because of his close relationship with God, he found a way to make this happen. Nowadays, the government forces kids to go to school, but if a family has younger children and they cannot afford daycare, then the older kids will still leave school to take care of younger siblings. To prevent that from happening, our host opened a daycare in his home, funds come from his pocket and from the church to pay for the resources and tools of to take care of the kids and it pays for the salaries of teachers. Also, many miraculous unexplainable blessings occurred along the way to support this vision. He voluntarily teaches the children English in the day time for the preschoolers and he opens an after-school program for elementary, high schoolers and adults to learn English for free. He asks for nothing in return. He believes that knowing the English language is a tool to success in life, and he wanted to offer this tool to those whose parents work in factories on low/poor income. He also builds strong relationships with each child, to build trust and to let them know someone loves them and cares about them. We thankfully get to partner with this family as we support them and the staff by teaching these children English. They work tirelessly every day since school is from Monday-Saturday, and they serve a lot at their local church. This month we will be giving he, his family and staff relief, fresh ideas and tools to teach, as well as other various ways to be supporting them during their missionary work.
I’m so excited to see how God will reveal himself this month as well as how He will use me and my team. So far, teaching English is a lot of fun, and my students are very smart. Please pray for us as we finish this last month as a team together before we switch teams in February. Please also pray that I meet my total fundraising deadline by the end of January. I still have about $4,500 to go. Thank you so much for those who have read this and for those who supported me so far. Please let me know if there are any ways I can be praying for you. Thank you!! 🙂
I get to wear a uniform every day when I teach. 🙂
One of my preschool students and I eating breakfast! 🙂
