Our ministry up North in Vietnam was worth the couple all night bus and
train rides to get there because we brought hope to a youth group and joy to a
congregation. Including two people excepting Christ with us after church! But
once again God seemed to do his best work through me when I least expected it.
We left the church in a trearful goodbye around 9am on
Monday morning and headed for the train. We entered the train with the
understanding that we would not be stepping off it for at least 24 hours. The
nice solid wooden benches and smell of smoke welcomed us to our new home. We were in the “Middle Class” coach. If we walked
forward to the next coach it was nicer. It had the bus style padded seats and
air conditioning. Continuing on you enter the 6 person a room sleeper car and
finally the 4 person a room sleeper car (but that is not where missionaries get
to sleep). Going the other direction it became more “economical” with the same
wooden benches we had but no A/C and more smoke. As you went further back the
amount of people seemed to become exponentially more. Where we were 4 to a
bench it suddenly became 6 then 8+ with people sprawled all over the floor and
below the benches. Then you hit the final car which is the food car.
On one visit to the bathroom I ran into a nice man holding
his 9 month old baby whose name meant Revelation in English. The man turned out
to be a very strong Christian. He was a Pastor of an underground church. His
congregation has grown over the past year from 10 to 60 members. He was a man of God that had is priorities
straight. He was a huge encouragement to me as he talked about his job. His
wife desired him to go get a job for a company where he would make more money.
His desire was to go “get better finances” as he said and work for a company
too but he could not until God called him to. Until God rises up a new leader
and tells him he can go he will stay and serve in this way.
He was standing there next to the bathroom holding his
baby boy because they did not have enough seats for all the passengers on the
train. He introduced me to his wife and 3 year old baby girl, who were sitting in the very small closet next to
the bathroom.
I knew he wouldn’t agree to it for long but I had to do
something. I went back to my seat and talked to Melina. When I told her about
the family I just met she was more than happy to give up her seat as well. We
walked back and told the family that they had some new seats. It took some time
to convince them but finally they agreed to sit and rest for a couple hours.
Since I no longer had a seat I headed for the food car. It
took some time to traverse the 3 cars between ours and the food car, stepping
over people and rocking back and forth as I walked. I sat down to eat and
almost instantly a man approached me. He started a conversation asking where I
was from and what I was doing. Conversations like this are extremely common
on the Race but rarely last more than a couple minutes. This conversation was
an exception. I felt God telling me to ask
him about his religion and beliefs. He was Buddhist. I asked him what he
thought happened after you died. He said he believed in a Heaven and Hell.
Although this belief is not Buddhist it is not uncommon for the people in this
area of the world to mix Buddhist beliefs with other religions. Most often
people will worship both Buddhist and Hindu Gods.
I asked him if he believed he was going to Heaven. He got
this worried look on his face and said “I don’t know, you have to be pretty
good to go to heaven. You have to go to the Pagoda a lot” and do something else that I couldn’t understand.
My response came subconsciously “Want to know something cool? I am sure I am
going to Heaven. My God tells me so right here” pointing to the Bible I had set
on the table. “My God says if you believe in heart and except me as
God. Confess your sins to me I will forgive you and you will have eternal life
in heaven.” He was very excited. I
continued on telling him about “My God” for about 4 hours. He was very curious
and asked many questions. He asked about the book (The Bible) I had pointed to
and asked where he could get one. I told him he could keep mine. He was so
excited he opened it up right away. He read it slow, “The H-o-l-y Bib-al.” What
does it mean? I was able to explain what The Holy Bible meant and talked about
what it was as a whole. I took him through some of my favorite verses and
pointed to a couple good books to read first.
It was an incredible
experience getting to introduce the Gospel to someone that has never heard it.
It felt so good to give him hope for his life and beyond.
After several hours of talking I asked him if he would like
to dedicate his life to “My God” Jesus Christ. He said “yes!” I was able to
pray the prayer with him and he accepted Christ into his heart. After the
prayer he asked me “So did you just introduce me to your God?” Yes, “My God” knows you, loves you, and wants
to talk to you! You can talk to him
anywhere! You can thank him for
all he does for you! You can ask him for anything and he will provide!
My God, Jesus Christ, is your God and HE
LOVES YOU!
