Jesus in Vietnam Ministries

GREETINGS FROM VIETNAM

We praise our Lord and thank you for praying for travel mercies for us to Vietnam. All our flights were on time with smooth flying. And, all 8 pieces of our luggage arrived with us. When arrived in Binh Chau we were so excited to see everyone, especially the children living in our orphanage/love house. What a joyous day!

We do have some concerning news and ask you to pray for Mai’s sister Kim. She has been a faithful servant of the Lord with the Binh Chau church now for almost 20 years. Kim is involved in every aspect of the church and church property, except for preaching. In addition, she oversees our housemother and children in our orphanage. Kim has lived in Binh Chau her entire life and in the same house for over 30 years. A few years ago her house was literally falling down and had to be torn down and rebuilt. JIV and some of you, including us, gave funds for this. Now, unfortunately, the street Kim’s house sits on is being expanded and she will lose 49 feet of her property, including over 1/3 of her house. What remains is not a livable space for Kim and her 2 grown sons. Kim’s oldest son Van does most of the maintenance work on the church property too. Kim has no land behind her current home so the only option is to add a 2nd story to it for a couple of bedrooms. Sadly, the government only paid Kim a small portion of the market value of her home. This amount, plus a gift from JIV ministries and us personally, still leaves Kim very short of the lowest bid she received to rebuild her house. Her neighbors have already started demolishing their properties to comply with the date mandated by the government so they can salvage as much material from their old home as possible. If they don’t meet the date, then the government will start demolition for them (not a good scenario). Kim has not started any demolition yet for lacking the funds to complete the rebuild. Kim is strong in her faith and trusting in God to work everything out for her and her family for His good, but this has to be a very stressful situation for her. We ask you to prayerfully consider helping Kim, a precious servant of the Lord.

If God puts it in your heart to bless Kim, please donate online through our website jesusinvietnam.com. or mail your check to our home address. If you do send a check, please email us the amount given so we can encourage Kim by showing your love for her in helping God meet her need.

SHINING FOR JESUS

Quoc Anh first came to live in our orphanage about 6 years ago at the age of 8. He lived in another orphanage, but they labeled him as unteachable. A pastor who knew of us asked if we could take Quoc Anh in? Of course, we said yes. There were a few challenges at first, but Quoc Anh came around as he adjusted to his new home. As you teach these children, you can see how God is working in them, but sometimes wonder how they act outside the church surrounded here by non-believers. Recently, a high-ranking local authority came to the church and asked Kim if we had a boy here by the name of Quoc Anh? He then stated Quoc Anh had attended his daughter’s birthday party and he had never seen a young boy so polite, so humble, and so well-mannered as Quoc Anh. God is at work in His children!

VBS CAMP 2024 UPDATE

We thank each of you again for praying for our upcoming VBS Camp that God would give us 70 children signed up to attend. As of now, we have 87 children signed up to attend. Cam on Chua (Thank you Jesus)! We praise God and thank each of you who has sponsored a child or children to attend this year’s VBS Camp as 80 of the 87 children are now sponsored. We only need sponsors for the last 7 children (all non-believers) who recently signed up. Of the 87 children signed up to attend, 48 are non-believers with 22 of them from the Montagnard village of Tanh Linh (about a 2 hour drive from Binh Chau). This will be our largest group of non-believers since pre-covid. We are so excited to be able to teach them how much God loves them for the 4 days they’ll be staying at the church (both day and night). This give us about 15 hours each day (6 am to 9 pm) to show and share the love of Jesus to these precious children.

If God puts it in your heart to sponsor one of the 7 remaining children in need of a sponsor, please let us know. You may donate online through our website jesusinvietnam.com. or mail your check to our home address. Thank you again for all you do that enables us to reach these children for Jesus.

GOD’S HEALING POWER

The day we arrived in Binh Chau, Mr. Ba Phuoc, an elder in the church, suffered a critical medical emergency. Pastor Tu drove him to the hospital in Ba Ria, 45 minutes from Binh Chau. The doctors discovered he had a blood clot in one of his heart arteries. They were surprised he was still alive as most times these clots are fatal. They said he had to be transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Saigon (another 2 hour drive). Due to his condition they sent a doctor to provide medical assistance to Mr. Ba Phuoc in the ambulance. After Pastor Tu returned to Binh Chau that evening, he stated the doctor didn’t believe Mr. Ba Phuoc would survive. However, we knew the doctors didn’t have the final say. Many prayers for Mr. Ba Phuoc went up to our Heavenly Father. And, God answered our prayers as only He could. Mr. Ba Phuoc regained consciousness, the blood clot was dissolved without surgery, and he was able to return home after a little over a week in the hospital. We went to visit and pray for Mr. Ba Phuoc. He was a little weak, but in very good spirits praising God for healing him. We encouraged him to stay home and get plenty of rest. However, 4 days later Mr. Ba Phuoc showed up at church for Sunday Worship and to fulfill his duty of helping serve communion. We were able to talk him in to relaxing and letting the deacons serve communion.

PRAYER REQUESTS

We currently have 87 children signed up to attend our VBS Camp to be held on June 17-20. Please pray God’s protection on each child signed up from attacks of the enemy, provide the many adult volunteers needed to serve the children, and every child attending will experience the love of Jesus to make this a successful VBS Camp. Please pray God will draw the many non-believers signed up to attend our VBS to Him, give them understanding of the Gospel, and open the eyes of their heart to ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior.

We are so excited to have 22 children signed up to attend our VBS Camp from the Montagnard village of Tanh Linh. This is new ground for us. Please pray for God’s protection on their families and He will give them the strength to stand firm against any persecution that the enemy might use to discourage them from attending.

A few years ago, we met Pastor Hai from Da Lat, a city in the central highlands of Vietnam. Pastor Hai is also a music teacher, both in song and instruments. In 2018 he brought several of the youth from his church to lead worship at our VBS Camp. Pastor Hai and his group will be returning again this year to serve at our VBS Camp. We have 3 Worship sessions each day at VBS Camp, morning, afternoon, and evening. Please pray, as Pastor Hai and his youth lead us in worship, every one will experience what is written in Psalm 34:3 “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His Name together.”

Break out sessions at this year’s VBS Camp will be taught by Pastor Tu (non-believers), Pastor Tu’s wife Thuong (children 7 years and under), and Pastor Hai (believers 8 years and older). Please pray each teacher will be led by the Holy Spirit in a way each child will understand the truth of the Gospel and be drawn closer to God.

We held our meeting to ask for volunteers to help during our VBS Camp. Praise God as every position was taken, except no one volunteered to clean the restrooms. So, we volunteered to do it. Plus, we’ll oversee any area that needs help. Please pray for strength and endurance for us as during VBS we get up at 4 am and in bed at 10 pm.

We praise God and thank each of you who have given to our building fund to build a 2nd orphanage/love house to be able to separate the boys from the girls as many are entering their teenage years. Plus, this will give us the room to take in many more children. Please pray God will provide the remaining funds needed so we might start construction after our VBS Camp is over.

Please keep Mr. Ba Phuoc in your prayers that God would continue to strengthen him and protect him from developing any more blood clots in the future.

Please pray also for Mai’s sister, Nga, who shared with Mai she has a large lump on one of her breasts. Nga is very fearful of going to the doctor. God gave us favor with Nga and she agreed to go to Saigon to get checked out. Please pray God will comfort Nga and she will not have cancer.

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.

Over the years God has drawn people to the church through our VBS Camps, Christmas Evangelistic Outreaches, School Program, Mercy Ministry, and weekly witnessing teams. We are always looking for new ways to attract people to the church. As we discussed this in a recent meeting, we discussed 2 possibilities. First, would be an expansion of our mercy food box program. We would give members of the congregation a card/invitation to give out to any family they know who is struggling to put food on the family table. They would let this family know they can take this card to the church to exchange for a mercy food box. Second idea was to hold a community outreach once a month or once a quarter where families could come to receive clothing and household items. One of our nephews in Saigon has a connection with an organization that sells bags of clothing at a very cheap price. We want to explore this connection more as a possible way to provide clothing to needy families in Binh Chau. Please pray God will grant us wisdom and discernment in any decision making as we look into these 2 ways to draw people to the church to meet a physical need, but also have the opportunity to show them the love of Jesus while they are here. And, most importantly, our Lord would provide many opportunities for us to tell them about His love, mercy, and grace for them.

Please pray God will bring a person to Binh Chau with plumbing skills to resolve our ongoing water issues.

We did meet with a land attorney upon our arrival in Saigon who gave us some good information concerning adding 2 more people to the church property deed. Please pray God will give us wisdom and guidance as we further explore our options concerning this important issue.

SO THANKFUL TO GOD FOR YOU

This morning during our prayer time, tears streamed down our faces as we thanked God for all the wonderful things He has allowed us to be a part of here with JIV. We came in 2004 not knowing what we were doing (still true today), but He did. His plan was to raise up people like each of you along the way to equip us, to pray for us, to encourage us, to love on us, to financially support us so God’s Word could be established here in Binh Chau, Vietnam so people might know of the one true living God and His love, mercy, and grace for them through His Son Jesus. We praise God and humbly thank each of you for partnering with us.