Jesus in Vietnam Ministries

ANSWERED PRAYERS

For the last 3 years we have asked you to join us in praying for 2 very important issues concerning the ministry God has blessed us to serve Him in Vietnam for the last 22 years. God has blessed both of us with very good health and we pray we will be able to continue to travel back and forth to Vietnam for many years to come. However, at our age we know our health could change very suddenly. We wanted to be proactive in having a transition plan in place before that happens. So, the first prayer we have been praying for was to ask God to raise up a person or persons willing to continue God’s work through our ministry. The second prayer request was asking God to raise up additional people to be added to the deed to the church property. As foreigners, we are not allowed to own property in Vietnam. In 2006 when God opened the door for us to buy a small piece of land to build His church on, we put the deed in Kim’s name (Mai’s sister). At that time, only 1 person could be on the deed. Kim has 2 grown sons who have both asked Jesus into their lives, but don’t live a Christian life. Today, Kim has some health issues and if she goes home to be with her Lord and Savior, we are concerned her sons might contest the church being in control of the property.

As God blessed us over the following years, we were able to buy more land and build our kitchen, orphanage/love houses, classrooms, and pastor’s house. Today, the total church property is 33 meters wide by 100 meters long. All this land currently has Kim as the only name on the deed. In recent years, the rules have changed and now you can have more than 1 person on deeds. God answered both of these 2 long standing prayer requests as only He could before we left Vietnam in January. About 12 years ago, Mai’s sister Hiep attended the largest Evangelical Church of Vietnam (government recognized) in Saigon. We attended one Sunday and met the pastor (Pastor Hung) afterwards. We later had breakfast with him and his wife where we were able to share what God was allowing/blessing us to do in Binh Chau. We found Pastor Hung to be the humblest pastor we had met in Vietnam. Since that meeting, we have had no contact with Pastor Hung.

About 4 months ago our great-nephew Khanh (same one who has been preaching one Sunday a month in the Binh Chau church), who attends an ECV church in Saigon and is in his 2nd year of Theological Bible studies, gave us a booklet that listed all the ECV pastors and their phone numbers. The Holy Spirit prompted us to see if Pastor Hung was listed and he was. We then called Pastor Hung not expecting him to remember us, but he did and asked how things in Binh Chau were going. We stated we would like to come visit him and ask his advice on some issues concerning God’s work in Binh Chau. A couple of weeks later we met with Pastor Hung and his wife at his church in Saigon. We shared what God had allowed us to do through our ministry the last 12 years since we had last talked. We asked them to join us in praying for God’s guidance and provision in providing a pastor, a transition plan, and additional people to be added to our church property deed. A few weeks later Pastor Hung called with a suggestion to have the Binh Chau church join the Evangelical Church of Vietnam. They would provide a pastor and pay his salary.

We then invited Pastor Hung to come to Binh Chau to come to furtherdiscuss his proposal. When he arrived, he brought with him 3 other pastors, including the treasurer of ECV. We had a very fruitful discussion on JIV and ECV. The ECV evolved from the Christian and Missionary Alliance who introduced Protestantism to Vietnam around 1911. They currently have 2,800 churches throughout Vietnam. Pastor Hung oversees 186 churches in Saigon, which now includes the Binh Chau area. Pastor Hung, his wife, and 3 deacons from his church came to Binh Chau the last Sunday we were in Vietnam. Pastor Hung preached in the Binh Chau church that Sunday and told the congregation they were now part of Vietnam church history as this was the first time ECV had allowed one of their pastors to preach in a house church. Before we left Vietnam, we met in Saigon with the president and vice-president of ECV for further discussions. We share all the above to say this: The Binh Chau church has applied to be part of ECV. They will provide the church with a pastor andpay his salary. They will also maintain the church property and be responsible for any future repairs

What does this mean for JIV? We will continue to serve in Vietnam much as we have been doing these last 22 years. We will still be involved in scheduling our VBS Camps (including getting sponsors for the children) and Christmas Outreaches. The biggest difference for us will be more time to focus on our orphanage/love houses as we will still oversee our 2 orphanage/love houses to include financially supporting the children and housemother who live there. In addition, we will have more time to focus on our outreach to Suoi Bang and the Montagnard village about 2 hours from Binh Chau where 120 people have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior the last 3 years. The exciting thing is when the day comes we cannot travel to Vietnam due to health, God has provided ECV to continue and expand His work in Binh Chau going forward. Please join us in praising our Lord for His provision and answers to prayers.

NEW PASTOR AND WIFE

Pastor Hung has assigned Pastor Thien and his wife Bao Lien to the Binh Chau Church. Pastor Thien is a recent graduate of the ECV Theological Bible Seminary in Saigon. Pastor Thien and Bao Lien have been traveling to Binh Chau each Sunday so he can preach at Sunday Worship. ECV has filed paperwork with the authorities to make Pastor Thien the pastor of the Binh Chau Church. As soon as this paperwork is approved, Pastor Thien and Bao Lien will move to Binh Chau, staying at the pastor’s house on the church property. They have already been received very well by the congregation.

BAPTISMS AND WEDDINGS

We had several baptisms and 2 weddings the last couple of weeks we were in Binh Chau. What a blessing for us to baptize one of Mai’s sisters (Nam) and one of our niece’s. And then, our great-nephew Khanh brought his fiancé Tien to Binh Chau to meet us and to be baptized and for them to be married in the Binh Chau church.

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