Jesus in Vietnam Ministries

OUR PLANS – GOD’S PURPOSE

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

The children in our orphanage/love house are up at 5:30 am each morning before school for a time of prayer and Bible study. Plus, they all serve around the church, especially on Saturdays before/during Children’s Church. To reward them for their faithfulness, we took them to Dalat (about a 6 hour van drive from Binh Chau) after this summer’s VBS for a little rest and relaxation. Our van driver had our 2 1/2 days planned out to see many of the tourist’s sites in this mountainous resort town. One of them was a visit to a strawberry field where the children were able to pick their own berries (considered a delicacy here). As we headed back to Dalat from the fields, the narrow road was lined with similar shops to buy jelly, candy, drinks, etc made from the berries. We “randomly” picked one to stop at. To our surprise 2 people who worked in that shop were from Saigon. Both Kim and Dung, who accompanied us to help with the kids, knew them. They were working there for the summer. We talked about why we were in Dalat, about the church, and the children in the orphanage/love house. This opened the door for Mai to share the Gospel with them and also the shop owner during our visit (3 people in center of above picture). Praise God as all 3 prayed to ask Jesus into their heart as their Lord and Savior. What a “coincidence” we picked that one particular shop out of several to stop at. The good news was God still had one more exciting purpose for us on our trip. The next day as we headed back to Binh Chau we went through a series of small mountainous towns with fruit stand along the side of the road. They were all selling a popular fruit here called durian. We pulled over to several of them, but they all recognized us as tourists and were asking way too much for the fruit. Finally, the last stand we stopped at gave us a reasonable price and a guarantee we would love it. This fruit is really messy to eat, and by the time we were finished, the small plastic tables the 14 of us were sitting at were a mess also. The children started cleaning up the mess on the tables and putting the pits and peelings into a trash container. The owner of the stand asked us why they were doing this? She stated that she has never seen anyone who stopped there clean up their own mess. In fact, she said some tourists stop and throw their trash out for them to pick up. We were able to explain we are Christians and we teach our children to be faithful in the little things so God will trust us with bigger things to do. Mai used this opening to share the Gospel with the shop owner and her 11 year old daughter, who told us she had seen the “Jesus movie”. God had arranged another Divine appointment and both the mother and daughter asked Jesus into their heart (picture below). What an Awesome God we serve! The rest of the trip back to Binh Chau we couldn’t stop praising God as we were filled with so much joy in how God revealed to us He is present in our lives and wants us to be fruitful for His kingdom if we will listen for and obey the calling He has for us.

RESTAURANT EVANGELISM

On our way back from the Saigon amusement park with our VBS group (100 of us), we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. This was a huge open air popular tourist bus stop, seating about 200 (picture below). When we were all seated, Mai grabbed the megaphone we had used at the park and stood up to pray for our meal. Her prayer lasted about 10-15 minutes. As she sat back down I (Dennis) asked her if she had shared the Gospel to all the non-believers seated in the restaurant? Mai smiled and said that’s what the Holy Spirit told her to do : ) After we ate, 5 young employees came over to us and asked us what religion we were. We shared with them about the Binh Chau Presbyterian Church (about 1 ½ hours away) and if they were ever in Binh Chau to stop by and visit us. One young girl said she was Catholic and Mai said that was fine. Another said she was Buddhist. We told her all were welcomed at the Binh Chau Church. We thank God for all these opportunities to witness about His love, mercy, and grace through His Son Jesus.

PRAYER REQUESTS

“How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you.” 1 Thessalonians 3:9