We are all co-workers of Christ. While spreading the Gospel in Vietnam, we come across people with different nationalities, and even from Buryatia. We wrote to you about the baptism of Lisa’s sister, and just recently, how she was forced to return to Russia in order to undergo surgery. She was diagnosed with cancer. After praying with the church, we blessed Lisa and her children on their way. Even though they are far now, we communicate, support, and encourage her.
The operation and all procedures related to treatment were carried out according to plan. While being sick, Lisa learned to develop a close relationship with God, constantly prays, and reads the Word. The other day she called, all in tears of joy and tells me:
I constantly read the New Testament, and a woman came up to me, who is also being treated for cancer, and asks, “What are you reading? ” I answered her – “The Bible, the Word of God, I am a believer.” She says: “I am also a believer, I have been going to the church for many years, but I have never read the Bible.” I gave her the New Testament to read. She read for three days, and it was clear how the Word of God touched her heart. She came up to me and so delightfully started talking about Jesus. It was evident from her radiant face that she had met the Savior. Tears of joy overwhelmed me.
Despite being in quarantine, we continue to pray and serve the Lord. The inconvenience is that due to the epidemic, the borders are closed, and we cannot leave the country to serve in Laos or Cambodia.
Thank you for the work of faith and your work of love before the Lord. “Beloved, be firm, unshakable, always succeed in the work of the Lord, knowing that your work is not in vain in the presence of the Lord.” 1 Cor. 15:58.
As you remember, we were detained and arrested 2 months ago in a hospital for preaching the Gospel. And here we are again in this hospital. Our friend Igor – a homeless person got here with an injury. He lives on the seashore with his Vietnamese girlfriend Tu. For about a year now we have been praying for them and helping them out.
Igor was hit by a motorcycle; he doesn’t remember anything because the accident was too great. Someone called an ambulance and he ended up in a hospital bed. His head was fractured, he had multiple bruises, and the motorcycle driver disappeared. During prayer walks along the beach, we met him. Having met his girlfriend Tu, we bought food, clothes and went to the hospital. Igor lies under a dropper, already conscious, barely recognizing me. Seeing us, a girl in a white coat came to his bed right away with a bill for his hospital stay. The total of 50,000,000 dong is written on a paper, which is around $2,200. When telling her that he is our friend, that we do not have that kind of money, she left. We prayed and talked. The next day, we visited him again, brought glasses and the Gideon Gospel.
A day later, walking along the beach, I see Tu from far away, waving her hand, she comes to me, and Igor gets out of the bushes and says: “As soon as the doctors in the hospital saw that I was recovering and could walk, somebody else took my bed in the hospital.” His treatment ended abruptly. Igor has been homeless for about 5 years, nobody needs him. He collects cans and cardboard, turns it in for recycling, that’s how he is making his living.
Sometimes, the place where they sleep is cold, and we think how to help them. Please support us in prayer, we have not only Igor in need, but other families with children who live on the street. Thank you for participating in the lives of these people.
For the third year now, we have been celebrating Christmas in Vietnam, and each time in a new, special way. Special prayers, special preparation, special inspiration. This year we made the Christmas card design themselves and printed Bible verses, then we presented these verses with gifts for both adults and children. We did Christmas crafts together with the children with whom we regularly conduct Christian classes and learn Bible verses.
This year we made gifts more purposefully. We handed out 45 gifts to people for whom we pray, in which we see some response to the Word of God.
The holiday coincided with the birthday of one girl whom we have been visiting for almost 2 years. We gave her a makeup set, she turned 14 years, her name is Khan. She is a very modest girl and from a very poor family. When she was handed the gift, she turned away, cried and tried to hold back her tears. We gave it to her carefully so that no one would see, because everyone had the same gifts, but since it was her birthday, we handed her the special gift unnoticed by others.
After that, she went home, on the way we saw her aunt who was also very happy for her.
The main place where we gave the gifts was “The city in the Cemetery”, that’s what we call the village where people suffering from leprosy and their relatives live, and also those who illegally came and build here to live since no one will drive them out of the cemetery.
While preparing a letter for you, the team and I were detained by the police for spreading the Word of God. They took the passports, but, by the way, this is another story. Pray for us, believe in the power of prayer!
Grace and peace to you beloved friends, brothers and sisters! We want to inform you about the events developing in the work of God in Southeast Asia. Lisa, born in Buryatia – Russia, decided to move to Vietnam with her children. She met one of our sister Eugene online, and they began to communicate frequently. Eugene invited Lisa to a meeting where she heard about a loving God and turned to Him, accepting by faith that God the Father had given Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for her.
She told one of the congregations that she wanted to receive water baptism and came to this wonderful holiday for our church. At the end of November, in one of the cafes, there is a baptistery (pool), there are no people there on ordinary days, and we were delighted, thinking in silence to hold a baptism among our own. We agreed to come there on Saturday. They prayed for this baptism all week because they invited unbelievers and believers so that the Lord himself would touch their hearts.
When we arrived at the cafe, to our surprise, absolutely all the tables were occupied. There were about 50 people in the cafe, and we are another 15 people. Thank God we quickly found a place near the pool, we prayed, sang praising Jesus, told the reason for our holiday and read from the Gospel. 6 people of unbelievers came to the baptism and heard about the New Testament from us. Glory to God, through the Holy Spirit, He rules for His glory.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers, for your sacrificial support in the work of the Lord, which we are doing together, proclaiming the good news about our Lord!
God’s commission says: “go and teach … “. We had scheduled meetings in the Lamdong province, this is 87 miles away from us. We drove on mopeds. On our way, the electricity of one the mopeds failed. At the speed of 12 mph, one spare part fell off and hit the rear wheel. Our sisters fell off and a large truck, that was driving behind them, barely managed to drive around them. We instantly prayed for our sisters. The first sat on the road with bruises and torn hands, and the other lay on the ground for about a minute and didn’t move. We prayed, that she began to recover, we made an arm bracer from improvised materials and returned to the hotel. The first sister has two forearm cracks. The moped was sent as luggage home, and the sisters drove on the bus home.
A team from California arrived 2 days later. They lost 6 of their suitcases and they contained tools for a fruitful service. God created such weather conditions that it was impossible to drive to the planned places where we wanted to go, and then we used our Plan B. Apparently for Him it was always the main plan for our ministry to join the team from California.
We served together in the hospital. They handed out food packages to the poor, organized playgrounds and they also held joint services at which one woman turned to the Lord and repented. Praise be to Him!
Beloved brothers and sisters, we thank from the bottom of our hearts for our joint work. May God reward you with an endless abundance of His grace.
For about 4 months we prayed to serve in Laos. We searched for Scriptures that we would be able to distribute in different places, among different key people. When we found the New Testament that we wanted, the price was beyond our reach. Then, having prayed, we decided to print one main verse in Lao – John 3:16
We went to the print shop that we used to print Bible quotes for our ministry before. My sister and I went to the manager to place an order, and she asked us, “what is written here?”, We started telling her about Jesus Christ. We asked her, “did you hear about Christ?”, She answered “no,” we continued to talk about God with her. It was evident that the Word touched her, she took out the money and said, “my husband told me to return the money to you.” We began to pray with her and thanked God. When we open our eyes, we saw the joy on her face, she took out the money that we already paid her for a new order and returned it to us as well. Inspired by such a blessing, we took the bus to Laos. And here the Lord blessed us even more, not knowing the language, not having an interpreter, God Himself did everything, we only were the tools in His hands. We saw how people took the Word of God, read, listened, how they trembled before the Word and how their faces changed.
We met a blind man at the bus station, a family passed by seeing how we shared the Gospel and they started to read to him; he listened and with hom all the other passengers. Then we gave him alms from the Lord, and everybody rejoiced because they saw the work of God. We continued our trip on mopeds and drove about 310 miles. There were many amazing meetings and opportunities to share the Word with the local population. We sincerely thank you, for your prayers, for your contribution to evangelizing this people.
