Our fist two weeks in Vietnam have been a very different experience than our time in India or Nepal. My team does not have a host or scheduled ministry this month. We have been given the sweet opportunity to ask the Lord where we can be used and follow his direction. For our first two weeks, that has kept us here in Ho Chi Minh City and we’ve seen how the Lord is already at work in a society that is virtually faithless.
Referring to this place as faithless is not to say that there are not religions here. However, the general population does not operate out of faith. Many people are devoted to caring for and admiring their ancestors; we’ve seen people burning money in the streets to send to their deceased family members. There is also a huge emphasis on honor, which is actually pretty beautiful to see displayed. Families live together for generations and strive to maintain their family’s honor. What an incredible reflection of what family in the kingdom looks like; bearing with one another in love, caring for one another, staying together, and fighting together. There are glimpses of kingdom, even in a place that God seems far off – a place where the Gospel is technically not allowed – he’s actually not far at all.
We met a local pastor who has a church and life skills center. Through this mission, they teach English to school kids, visit a local orphanage, and are starting other humanitarian outreaches in the area. One morning he was briefing us on what to do that day; essentially telling us how to be helpful while they organized a 40-kid rehearsal for a Christmas program. Not all of these kids are from Christian backgrounds, in fact only a few are. He told us to talk to them about what they like to do, how old they are, and just speak English with them. He told us there were about four Christian kids in the group and some of them wear cross necklaces. “You can compliment their necklaces. Even though it’s simple, it affirms their faith in a faithless society.”
I am from Lynchburg, Virginia, home of the worlds largest Christian university. There are huge churches in every area of the city and its surrounding counties, church services held in countless school gyms, and every restaurant is packed at noon on Sundays with the morning’s church-goers. I’ve never had to be affirmed in my faith by the people around me because everything around me already does that.
That is not the case here. Evangelizing is illegal. Churches have to have special documentation and authorization to exist. Foreigners that want to plant churches or be pastors have to jump through even more hoops. Even praying over meals in public could draw too much attention if we’re not careful. There are things I thought I took for granted back home, and there’s things I didn’t even know were privileges. Freedom of religion is one of those. I thought I understood it, but now I see how weighty that really is. It’s hard to imagine restrictions on what you can even profess to believe, but that is the reality here.
Something as simple as telling a 13 year old girl that I not only like her glasses but I also like her cross necklace, and I love the same Jesus could do so much more for her identity than I ever imagined. Our vision wherever we go is to spread kingdom. In Vietnam, sometimes that looks like being willing to have conversations in broken English with students in the park. It’s easy to speed through those and send the students on their way, but they are worthy of having someone look them in the eyes and be patient. Sometimes it looks like praying for divine appointments while part of the team is out drinking Sprite at bars just so they can have a conversation with a woman who would be selling her body to the next customer. Sometimes it looks like openly sharing our testimonies other believers to affirm that their story matters too, that our King is good to us and is good to them, and that they do not have to be ashamed or afraid to find their identity in a King that loves them. Sometimes it looks like telling a teenage girl that her cross necklace is beautiful and that she is beautiful the way she has been created.
Bringing light into this city is not new. Bringing light into dark places is what we’re called to. Even though it’s hard here, even though faith seems far away from this place, our God isn’t. My team is called to this nation for one month. We have no idea what plank we’re laying in this bridge, but we know we’re here to do just that; build upon what has already been done and be a part of what the Lord is doing here now.
I would like to call you to prayer for this nation. In the first week we were here I was convicted that I had been praying for what I was going to do here, or what my team would do here; I hadn’t even prayed for the nation as a whole. I hadn’t prayed that walls would be broken down and that laws would change so that people can worship their Lord freely. I hadn’t prayed that the barriers that hinder people from living freely would be destroyed. The Lord responds to prayer. He hears our requests and answers them. I don’t know long it will be before the people in this nation can sing worship music in the parks or invite their coworkers to church without fear of what the law says they can do. But I am confident that we are the generation that can play a role in that. We can visit this nation for one month and love people here for just that amount of time or we can be here for one month and leave with the mindset that we can intercede for this nation. We can pray that these children of God would receive the same freedoms here that we have back home.
We can pray that faith would be permitted in a virtually faithless place.
That is my prayer for this country. That is my prayer for the kids here that aren’t promised much passed elementary school. That is my prayer for the university students that place all their hope in learning English and going to a school that will get them “somewhere”. That is my prayer for the elderly homeless in the park that aren’t sure what is beyond their current state in life. Will you boldly pray for this nation with me?
