Vietnam Recap of 1/30-1/31

We arrived safely in Hanoi Saturday and spend the afternoon getting acquainted with our surroundings. We are in a very Asian, basic hotel (The Lucky Hotel) right near the city center. We found the familiar KFC and had lunch, then ate on the third-floor Highlands Coffee Shop for supper.

We had a great experience this morning. Breakfast was a pleasant surprise, with recognizable choices such as scrambled eggs, pancakes, and even hash browns. The rest was Vietnamese soups and such. The only challenge was the smoking in the little eating area downstairs. We have seen much more smoking here in the “north” than we did in the “south” of Vietnam.

Pastor Vinh picked us up at 8:30 in a taxi and we had about a 30-minute drive somewhere to an alleyway where the taxi stopped and we were instructed to quickly move inside the building. That is common for house-church in Vietnam. The government pretty much leaves the house churches alone unless they suspect they are getting involved in politics by swaying the church members to rebel against communism. Having two American women would be a definite “red flag.” We were escorted to the 3rd floor of the local Pastor’s house and there we found about 30 believers singing with a keyboard player, a song leader and a small sound system. When we walked in, they cheered. When I asked them who had never seen an American before, about ½ of them raised their hands. There were about 10 of them that were in my classes last year.

As they began to worship in their language again, I was awestruck by the grace of God that would bring me to this place where believers are persecuted by a very corrupt government. Even as communism goes, the government officials here in Hanoi are known around the world to be the most corrupt. Most of those in Pastor Ruth’s house church (her real name is not Ruth, but it is the Christian name she “earned” because she was arrested and persecuted by the police as one who propagates the Gospel) are young university students. Amazing! That is the hardest “people group” to reach in the U.S. and those have been the first here in this huge city. Then each student came to me after the message wanting me to lay hands on them and pray for them in their studies and for them to be strong in their faith and witness. Hmmmm, what ARE we doing wrong in the U.S?

The most exciting part of the morning was a young man stood up and introduced his “friend” that was there for the first time. I tried to imagine being a beautiful young college girl in a Christian house church singing praises to a Jesus I had only heard about from my friend. She listened closely as I preached about the Lukewarm church of Laodicea, and when the service was over, she came forward to declare before her friend that she wanted to receive Jesus as her Lord and make a commitment to learn about Him from the Holy Bible and serve Him by telling others about Him. When believers in Vietnam invite someone to their house church, they are always taking a risk that they are a spy for the government, or that they will leave and tell the wrong person of their experience. Wow, a risktaker…sounds like Paul, or Peter, or even Mary the mother of Jesus.
After praying with her, others in the crowd began telling how they heard about Jesus and how they were invited to this house church. Amazing! Their system is simple, just like the books of Acts, and the discipleship begins immediately as they gave her a Bible, a booklet to study, and told her they would pick her up for Bible Study once a week so she can learn about Jesus and His Word. Whew, one more “unreached” is now “reached.” There are millions more!

They cooked us lunch and we were joined by another pastor-friend of Pastor Vinh’s from Malaysia. The food was simple, rice, chicken, watermelon and papaya. No flavor, but filling. One thing is for sure, it is their very best and they are happy to serve the “servants of God.” Tomorrow we will be picked up again and I will teach on “The Authority of The Word, The Name, and The Blood” to pastors from house churches all around the city. Then tomorrow night Pastor Vinh invited the young students to come back and he will be teaching them on “Love, Sex, and Marriage.” On Tuesday we will do it all again in another part of the city for more pastors.