Jesus in Vietnam Ministries

CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS OUTREACH

We held our Children’s Christmas Outreach (the first of our 3 outreaches) on December 17th. Since we arrived here the beginning of November, we had emphasized to the children who attend our weekly Children’s Church that they would play a key part in the success of this year’s outreach. We needed them to be proactive in inviting their non-Christian friends to attend our Christmas Outreach to hear the true meaning of Christmas. First, for them to pray who they should invite, and second, asking God to give them favor with them, and most importantly, for God to soften the hearts of those they invite and draw them to the church. The children followed our instructions and God answered their prayers. We had 71 children (plus about 20 adult volunteers) attend our Children’s Christmas Outreach with half of them non-Christians. Trang, Thien, and Quoc An had a total of 23 of their friends attend. Plus, Thien invited the lady who sells snacks/drinks outside the school and she attended too. Our children were so encouraged to see God answer their prayers.

The children arrived early and enjoyed a meal and then a time of fellowship and games before the service started. Once the service started, we had a time of prayer and worship. Then, 4 different choirs (made up of our Children’s Church kids based on age) performed. This was followed by Pastor Tu giving a message on why we Christians celebrate Christmas. As Pastor Tu gave the altar call, our hearts filled with joy as 33 children and the lady who sells snacks outside the school came forward to ask Jesus into their heart as their Lord and Savior. To God be the Glory!

Afterwards all the children received a Christmas gift. Thien, Trang, and Quoc An received an additional gift for being the top 3 children whose most invited friends attended. Before the evening ended, we gathered all of us together to shoot our Christmas card greeting to send to you. We hope you enjoyed it.

Please pray for God’s protection on these new believers against persecution that will come their way from non-Christian family members and friends. Please pray God will give them strength to stand firm in their new faith and use them to influence their family/friends for Christ. Please pray God will draw them closer to Him and give them the desire to attend church so they might grow in their walk with Him.

FAMILY CHRISTMAS OUTREACH

We held our Family Christmas Outreach on December 24th with around 70-75 attending. We presented the same program as with our Children’s Christmas Outreach with a couple of additions. Besides the 4 youth choirs, the Binh Chau Church adult choir sang. Pastor Tu gave a message of the true meaning of Christmas and our need for a Savior. We again rejoiced as 16 people came forward at the altar call to ask Jesus into their heart as their Lord and Savior. Chua La Toc Lanh! Muoi Luc Muoi Noi! (God is good! All the Time!)

Then just before the evening ended, I (Dennis) sang “In His Time” in Vietnamese. I’m not the best singer, but the people seemed to appreciate my effort. Every child in attendance received a Christmas gift. Plus, everyone received a gift bag as they left, which included Gospel tracts and discipleship books. God blessed us with another fruitful Christmas Outreach, but now let us share a “special gift” He gave us for our Family Christmas Outreach this year.

TANH LINH CHRISTMAS BLESSING

In previous newsletters we have shared with you about the Montagnard village of Tanh Linh located about 2 hours from Binh Chau. We visited some families in this village on our way back to Binh Chau from our trip to the central highlands. We also visited it twice since then to continue to build on the relationship opportunity God had given us to them. Like we noticed when we first came to Binh Chau in 2004, this village has a “ton” of children everywhere you look. We gave out backpacks, school supplies, and candy to the children we met. We shared about Jesus and invited them to attend our Christmas Outreach to hear more about why we celebrate His birthday at Christmas. We left with a list of 26 people (mostly children) who said they would like to come. We also encouraged them to ask others to come and we would send a bus to pick them up. We were so excited God had opened this new harvest field for us, given us favor with the people we met, and gave them the desire to learn more about Him by attending our Christmas Outreach. We knew God must have something special planned for this village. Not only did this village have no church, but most people we met there had not heard of Jesus. One week before our outreach we sent Pastor Tu, Quang, and Ngoc to visit them one more time to finalize details of the trip. This is when God confirmed to us He had plans to reveal Himself to this village as Satan had been hard at work to stop it. Caesar had heard of our visits and came to tell the people they were not to go anywhere. The rumors even spread we were going to kidnap their children and sell them. We had been praying for God to raise up one or two people in Tanh Linh that would help organize the group wanting to come to Binh Chau. God answered on prayers and raised up a young lady named Mai to be that person. The plan was to send a van to pick them up, but not by their homes. We would park a couple 100 yards up the street. Then Mai would have them come 2-3 at a time as not to draw attention. We would also arrive right after noon when most people are taking their afternoon nap. We had no idea how many, if any, Mai would bring with her. What a blessing when 12 brave souls (4 adults and 8 children) showed up at our van. They were quickly loaded in the van and the driver headed for Binh Chau. We thank God for Mai’s boldness and His protection on each of these precious souls.

The group from Tanh Linh arrived in Binh Chau around 3 pm. This gave us a time for fellowship and to share a meal together before our outreach that evening. We sat up front with them as they watched and really focused on the program. This was their first experience in a church, worshipping, hearing all the choirs sing, and then listening to Pastor Tu’s message. When the altar call was give all 12 came forward and asked Jesus into their heart! Thank you Jesus! (Cam on Chua!)

After the outreach the group spent the night sleeping on mats (as they do in their village). We had Ngoc spend the night with them in case they had any needs or questions during the night. The next morning Ngoc said they were so excited that they stayed awake talking most of the night. They all attended Sunday Worship with us. Mai had explained to them the importance of being baptized. They agreed and Pastor Tu baptized them all.

After all the excitement of Sunday Worship, we had another time of sweet fellowship and shared lunch together. Afterwards, while us adults talked, the boys even got in a soccer game with the boys in our orphanage. The more we taught them about Jesus the more they wanted to know. Praise God!

Before they left for Tanh Linh Sunday afternoon we gave each of the children another Christmas gift (stuffed animals for the girls and hot wheel cars for the boys). They were so excited to receive them. Plus, we gave the adults some clothes. We also gave them some over the counter medications and vitamins to take home with them. Plus, on this trip to Vietnam we took several boxes of used clothing with us. We gave Mai (from Tanh Linh) some of this clothing to take back with her and distribute to those in need in her village.

While Mai was talking to the ladies she noticed that one of them had a voodoo necklace. This lady was an original Montagnard and voodoo is a part of their religious beliefs. Mai was able to share with her, according to Scripture, why she should remove the necklace now that she had become a believer in Jesus. God gave Mai favor with her and she agreed to remove the necklace. We thank God for giving her understanding that He is the only one true living God and worthy of all her worship.

As the time came for them to return to Tanh Linh, they couldn’t stop thanking us for showing and sharing the love of Jesus with them. They were already talking about returning in the summer for our VBS camp. The week after they returned home we received a call from Mai. She told us everyone was sharing with their family and neighbors what a wonderful time they had and how well they were treated by the church. Mai said she had a lot more people that wanted to come visit the church the next time she did. We praise God for using these people to be a witness of His love, mercy, and grace to others in the village. And, to dispel the negative rumors about the intentions of the church to take their children. We do want them, but only for Jesus! Please pray many more children from this village will attend our VBS Camp this summer.

SUOI BANG CHRISTMAS OUTREACH

We held our 3rd and last outreach for this year in Suoi Bang the afternoon of December 25th. We had almost 50 people in attendance, but most were Binh Chau church members or pastors and their families invited by Mr. Hien. We praise God as 2 people came forward at our altar call to ask Jesus into their heart as their Lord and Savior.

EVANGELISM TRAINING

After 2 years of not being able to attend Children’s Church, these last few months have been challenging to get our children back to church. We thank God that He has drawn 35-40 children who now attend each Saturday. This is close to the same number we had before covid arrived. Our challenge now is to grow those numbers so more children accept Jesus and start attending Children’s Church each week in order to grow in their walk with the Lord. How do we accomplish this? We are re-implementing a program with our children we did a few years ago that proved fruitful. Our youth leadership, our orphanage children, and any other youth who want to will meet at the church Sunday afternoons at 2 pm. For the first hour, they will be trained (many retrained) on how to share the Gospel. This includes time to practice sharing with each other under the guidance of their team leader.

Then for 2 hours they will go out into the neighborhoods around the church in teams of 3 looking for children to interact with. They will be seeking to establish relationships in order to share the Gospel, then or at a later date. They will also invite the children they meet to come to the church later that afternoon for a time of fellowship and games. After returning to the church, each team will give a report on their visits. The first Sunday was a training session only. We were excited to have enough children attend to fill 5 teams. Plus, we had 4 children too young to go out, but we are teaching them to share the Gospel too (never too early to start). Please pray God will give these youth evangelism teams favor with the children He leads them to who have “open hearts” to hear and understand the Gospel and bring many to saving faith in Jesus.

EVANGELISM/DISCIPLESHIP

We thank God for all the people He gave us the privilege of leading to the Lord this Christmas season in Vietnam. The challenge we now have as a church is to disciple these new believers so they might grow in their walk with the Lord by understanding more deeply God’s Word. Part of this is for Pastor Tu and us to develop an effective discipleship program for these new believers and then being flexible in how we implement it. This could range from holding group Bible studies at the church for them to meeting one on one with them in their homes (or anything in between). But, we need more than a “discipleship program”. We need to instill in every member of the congregation that Jesus calls all of us to evangelism and discipleship, not just the pastor or church leadership. If they live close to a new believer(s), be a good witness for Jesus in how they live their lives, build a relationship with the new believer(s) and help guide them to trust and follow Jesus and obey all His teachings. Then, we will grow individually and as a church as we grow closer to fulfilling the Great Commission in Matthew 28 “to go make disciples and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”.

PRAISE REPORT

We thank each of you who gave financially and/or prayed for God to provide the funds for a new van for the church and orphanage. We were able to purchase (on order) a new vehicle, which should arrive later in January. We’ll have the details/pictures in our January newsletter.
What an Awesome God we serve!
We have arrived safely back in Tucson after a blessed 2 ½ months serving our Lord in Vietnam. More details on our trip to follow in our next newsletter.

PRAYER REQUESTS

We had 52 people accept Jesus at our Christmas Outreaches (plus a few others in the past 2 months) who need to be discipled. Please pray for God’s wisdom and guidance s we work with Pastor Tu to develop a discipleship program for, not only these new believers, but everyone in the Binh Chau Church.

Please pray for Divine appointments for our adult witnessing team as they go out each Thursday afternoon. Please pray for God to raise up more people in the church with a heart to serve so we might have more than one team going out. Please pray for wisdom for Pastor Tu to develop a program to make the witnessing team(s) more effective.

Please pray for God’s protection on Mai from Tanh Linh and her family (her Mother, Aunt, and Uncle all received Jesus and were baptized), that they would continue to be strong witnesses for Jesus, and God will use our connection with her to bring many more to Christ from her very poor village.

Please pray God will give us wisdom and discernment as we seek God’s will on how to come along side Pastor Ze in evangelizing the other villages in his area.

Please pray for Quang and Nhu Y as they serve as house parents to our orphanage/love house children; for God to give them wisdom beyond their years (both 24 years old) and the grace to be patient with these children.

We have 2 contractors working up bids for an additional building for our orphanage/love house. Please pray God will give us favor with these men and they will give us a fair and as accurate as possible cost for labor/materials.

“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