“AMAZING GRACE” IN VIETNAM

Words cannot express my gratitude for those who prayed and encouraged us along this “journey of amazing grace.” Four of us experienced a powerful work of the Sword of the Spirit to expand and establish His Church for His Glory in Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia and Vietnam.  I believe the seed fell on fertile ground.Please pray that the Lord of the harvest would raise up many godly workers like Paul, who will allow Christ to live through them. It would only take one person with a philosophy of ministry like Paul to reach all of Vietnam and the rest of Asia.

Two of us departed Phnom Penh, Cambodia for Vietnam to launch the newly revised edition of the Vietnamese government approved CPM. While we felt freedom to boldly use the CPM in North Vietnam, we still had to stay under the radar during our travels. Outside of the tourist areas, we had to travel and minister separately and stay in different locations each night. This was not so much for our safety as it was for the safety of the dear local saints.

The two conferences lasted about three days each. The first morning we introduced the CPM, then made assignments in Acts. In the afternoon they shared their findings.Afterwards, we made assignments for the different roles in the family and the family of families; the church. The second morning, we introduced how Paul strengthened and established the newly founded churches and how he would go back to place these churches in Biblical order. In the afternoon, they taught lessons pertaining to the different family and church roles, having completed their study the night before. This would take most of the afternoon and maybe half of the next day. Their hunger for God’s Word and the Holy Spirit’s teaching was a great inspiration to us and to the other saints. This was the result of much fervent prayer. One local lady shared with us that she had been up every morning at 4:00 a.m. praying for us.

The testimonies were similar to what we so often heard throughout this work of grace. Many greatly appreciated the emphasis on the sufficiency of Scripture and the simplicity of focusing on the “one thing” that is necessary: walking in intimacy with Christ. We need to be like Mary and not get distracted, like Martha, by all the “good things”. The second testimony was their understanding of the importance of marriage and the roles of husband and wife in the context of ministry and leadership.Many were challenged by Paul’s passion to complete the task of preaching the gospel throughout Asia Minor in just ten years. Many were wondering why it is taking so long today. So, we were all faced with the reality that the ‘same old, same old’ is not going to reach all people groups with the gospel. I could go on but the bottom line is this; I am fervently thankful for prayers for this mission trip and trust that as we push forward to KNOW Christ and make Him known among all the nations, we will see the day when all nations will worship our Savior – “then the end will come.”