Jesus in Vietnam Ministries

CHRISTMAS 2023 PREPARATIONS

Preparations for our Christmas Evangelistic Outreaches this year are well under way. We have held our planning meetings and scheduled 2 outreaches this year. Our Children’s Christmas Outreach will be held on Saturday evening, December 23rd and our Family Christmas Outreach will be on Sunday evening, December 24th. Our normal Sunday Worship Service will be held on Sunday morning also. The different choirs are now practicing their songs to perform and church volunteers are ready to start putting up all the Christmas decorations, inside and outside the church. Families will come to the church to see our light display during the month of December.

The children did a great job inviting their classmates to our Children’s Outreach last year and we are encouraging them to be very active in this again this year. Plus, the congregation is being asked to bring at least one non-Christian family with them to our Family Christmas Outreach. Excitement is in the air as we prepare to celebrate the reason for the season: the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We also continue our monthly outreach to Tanh Linh. Last year we had 12 from this Montagnard village attend our Christmas Outreach and then 25 attend our VBS Camp this summer. Based on those numbers and the positive feedback we received from our bike give away to the children there, we are hoping to rent a bus to pick up 35-40 to attend our Christmas Outreaches this year. They would stay the whole weekend at the church attending both Christmas Outreaches and Sunday Worship. What a blessing this would be to saturate them with the Word of God so they might return to Tanh Linh stronger in their walk with the Lord. And, excited to tell others of God’s love, mercy, and grace for them. We will be providing Christmas gifts for all the children attending and mercy food boxes for the poor families in need.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

As many false religions spread across Vietnam the country is tightening its enforcement of laws to restrict teaching to inside the church. Please pray for God to give us continued favor with the local officials as our witnessing teams go out each week to share the Gospel (especially our children who are drawing the attention of teachers and maintenance people at the school on Sundays).

Please pray for God’s favor and protection on our witnessing team going to Tanh Linh each month. May God give them many Divine appointments and shield them from the local officials. Please join us in praying God will raise up a Vietnamese missionary (or couple) to move to Tanh Linh to serve Him in telling others about Jesus.

Please pray God will open the door for us to publish Mai’s Eternal Way Gospel message on our next trip to Vietnam by providing someone in Vietnam to edit her presentation in Vietnamese.

YEAR END GIVING

As we enter December and you begin to plan your year-end giving (above your local church), we would ask you to prayerfully consider donating to Jesus in Vietnam Ministries to help us with our year end needs. (1) The cost of putting on our 2 Christmas Outreaches this year will cost approximately $2,000, which includes all the children’s gifts, the fellowship meals for each service, the mercy food boxes for needy families, and the cost to rent a bus to transport the Tanh Linh group to/back from the Binh Chau church. (2) We praise God and thank you for allowing us to reach our yearly budget for each of the last 14 years. However, this year we are in need of additional funds in December to meet our 2023 budget. Please join us in praying that God will provide these needed funds. And, if God puts it in your heart to give, please donate online at jesusinvietnam.com.

2024 BUILDING CAMPAIGN

From our very first trip to Binh Chau God put it in our heart to focus on the children. One of the first things we established was a Wednesday night Bible study for children. A church family opened their small house for it and we had no idea how many children would show up (due to persecution at that time). What joy we had when 40 children came, crowded shoulder to shoulder on the floor to hear about Jesus. This response led us to start holding our Children’s Church each Saturday night. More joy when the children started showing up at 4 or 5 hours early to play games and fellowship before church even started. This was followed by us holding our very first VBS Camp in 2008. Then as we learned of the numerous children who came from broken homes where the single parent of grandparent couldn’t provide for them, God put a vision in our heart to build our orphanage/love house in 2015. At that time, we wanted to construct a building to be able to take in up to 30-40 children. However, we were told by local officials we couldn’t build that large of a building. But, God had a plan. We were able to construct a 3 bedroom house on the church property. God brought 3 children immediately to live there. Today we have 11 children in our orphanage/love house with many now 13-16 years old. We are praying for God to provide the funds to build another house to separate the boys from the girls and to be able to take in many more children. Unfortunately, we have had to turn down requests to take in more children due to being out of room for them. What a blessing to be able to jump start this campaign with some of your year end giving to help us reach more children for Jesus.

PAST VISION RENEWED

Early in our ministry we would travel through the town of Bung Reign about 7 miles from Binh Chau. We asked Pastor Quy if he had a church in this town and he said no. In fact, he said he considered this a “dead town” as the local officials were strongly against Christians and they would never allow a church here. We (Mai and I) thought isn’t this where God would want us to go? So, we began praying for God to open the door for us to share Jesus in this “dead town”. In 2007 (2 years later) we met a pastor from Saigon who was not currently serving in a church. He was also a barber. We shared our desire for Bung Reign with him and asked Pastor Chinh if he would be willing to go to Bung Reign if we set him up as a barber there. Pastor Chinh said he definitely would be willing to go. We then rented him a small shop on the main street of Bung Reign, bought 2 barber chairs, and Pastor Chinh was in business. In the next 4 months Pastor Chinh led 10-12 families to the Lord. Local officials called him into their offices more than once to question him about his reason for being there. They even came to his shop to get a haircut while they questioned him. Then in December of 2007 when Pastor Quy split from the Binh Chau church, Pastor Chinh became our new pastor. Focusing on building the Binh Chau church back up took our focus off Bung Reign. In later years, God opened the door for us to go into Suoi Bang and Tan Thang. However, we always prayed for Bung Reign. With still no Christian church in Bung Reign, Binh and Lang Anh, visited some house churches in nearby towns. Then, they drove by our church, saw our sign/cross, and attended our Sunday Worship service. After the service they told Pastor Tu they were excited to find a church where the Holy Spirit was present and the truth of God’s Word was being preached. They also liked the fact that, even though we are considered a house church by the government, our service was conducted in an orderly fashion. Since their first visit a few weeks ago, Binh and Lang Anh have been faithfully attending Sunday Worship, Prayer Night, and Friday Night Bible Studies. Plus, Binh has joined the Witnessing Team that goes out each week to share the Gospel. In addition, they both love children and are always bringing food for our children in our orphanage/love house.