Ministry in Vietnam looked like teaching English in cafes and in people’s homes. Teaching English is a popular thing in Vietnam, whether it be in a formal or informal setting. Unfortunately, the language barrier wasn’t the only thing that made it difficult to share the Gospel in Vietnam.
Most of our teaching was informal, we would sit down at a cafe and practice conversation with whoever showed up. Anyone could show up at anytime, so we often had a mixture of people: adults, college students, high school students, younger kids, parents… It was usually a lot of fun and we had the freedom to talk about anything. So naturally we would try to steer the topic towards Jesus.
It became apparent pretty quickly that Vietnamese culture is secular and more focused on achievement and status rather than religion. Normally we would talk about their job, their major in college, their favorite school subject, the Avengers, other popular movies, relationships, fashion, travel, hobbies, the weather… but whenever we talked about religion we received blank stares. Most of them seemed to have no idea what a Christian was, even when we translated it into Vietnamese.
One of our friends who spoke good English, Hai, seemed excited when we mentioned Jesus. Turns out he did a presentation on Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper in college. He got 10 points for the presentation. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Tom and I didn’t think so either, but the others around the table were like “Whoa no way! You got 10 points?! Wow!” Some of the guys had this look on their face like “Alright buddy, stop trying to impress the ladies, we’re trying to look good, too.” Apparently that’s the most points you can get.
I asked Hai if he knew the story of the Last Supper, and I whipped out my Bible to Mark 14. I told him a bit about the actual story rather than the painting and encouraged him to read it more on his own. He’d read the Bible a bit before, so I got somewhat of a nod but mostly just another blank stare. Then the conversation went back to how we typically use a scoring scale of 100 rather than 10 back in America. I won’t lie, it was hard seeing others more interested in a good grade rather than the deeper truth we were trying to show them.
Our “students” learned a lot while we were there, and we made a lot of friends and shared a lot of laughs, but it was hard to not get disheartened. I was there teaching them how to describe their jobs, dreams, hobbies, and culture while I wanted to teach them how to describe their love for Jesus (sounds cheesy, I know).
Here’s my takeaways from this experience. It’s difficult to compare cultures. I grew up a Pastor’s kid and I live in a culture where God and religion is important. They come from a culture where it’s illegal to evangelize. Of course it will be difficult to explain in a language foreign to them who God is and further yet how that develops into a relationship with Christ. It’s similar to how difficult it is to teach English. Their language is very different from ours, and with how much slang we use it’s amazing they can understand us. I often had to be conscious of what I was saying and rephrase my sentences so the students could understand.
Clashing cultures and languages will always make it difficult to truly share the Gospel, but that doesn’t mean we should shy away from them. It’s our job to build bridges so that others can understand. Usually it’s not easy, and it can be disheartening at times. Thankfully I was reading through 1 Corinthians earlier this month and something that stuck with me is in chapter 3 verses 6 through 9. The great hope we have in God is the faith that he provides growth for what is planted and watered. Who knows what may happen in our “students” future, even by sitting with them and teaching English we were showing them love. Maybe in the future they’ll hear the Gospel and understand it because of what we taught them.
