One of our goals is it to reach out to children from ethnic minorities. Vietnam has 54 tribes and nationalities. Some of them are so far away from infrastructure and civilization that they have no schools, and this leaves them undereducated.
In some areas of the mountains, people are living very primitive because electricity doesn’t exist there.
This is the reason for the boarding school that has been founded by the government. We were able to establish a friendly relationship with them and now are spreading Gods Word in those schools. Recently we visited with a group of missionaries and we were preaching, testifying and glorified Jesus with singing. We also played games and blessed them with toys that they won’t forget and brought them bread, something they also needed.
This boarding school is around 25 miles away from us has 40 girls and 25 boys, we have a friendly relationship with them and when we visit, we use mopeds to get there.
After their graduation, we as a church, want to stay in contact with them and participate in their lives further. In order to do this, we are renting a house for our ministry work and have also a place for guests to stay. We believe by helping these young children practically, we are able to point out the truth of Jesus Christ to them.
May the Lord help us. Please support us in prayers, together we can do more.
“City in the cemetery” – displays the realities of a part of the population in Vietnam. These people have no choice but to settle between graves. People built their houses there, and in some cases, the graves are inside the homes itself. But here they have peace. The children play quietly, sleep, people who love to sing – sing. We know five families there, so we packed food for them and went there. When we bless the needy, we saw that there are no obstacles to preaching!
We prayed and planned to hold an evangelistic service and a playground in this place. After we arrived, we began to play games with children, set up biblical sketches, stories, and sang hymns. Parents began to approach. Some were listening carefully.
One young lady, her name is Nguyen, turned to the Lord in a prayer and repented. We exchanged our contact information with her. Her father has constant demands, her husband is an alcoholic. Her mother recently died, for the family, this is another reason to drink. She is tired.
We explained to her how the Lord saved her, and she prayed to receive Christ, hallelujah. The children were blessed, and we gave them sweets and souvenirs. We also distributed the Gospel in the Vietnamese language. Thank God.
With all my heart and soul, we thank you for your prayers and financial assistance.
We wish you peace our brothers and sisters. We continue to sow of the Word of God, in teens and to children with disabilities. We are talking about Christ to the poor, tourists, and also, with the help of an interpreter, to the locals.
We organize Sunday meetings in a cafe where my wife Irina is working. We started meeting there around 2 months ago. On August 12, we invited several people to join us in prayer and people came: Pavel, who enjoys yoga, lives here with his wife and son. He is a former drug addict and also Vera, she is an alcoholic after her husband died, she started to numb her pain with drinking. We also had five other people present, our brother Shawn, our interpreter, with his brother and his family, as well as another minister from a local Protestant church. We prayed and praised God and talked about our Lord Jesus Christ.
We always have different people come to join us in our Sunday meetings. Sometimes we have up to 10 people come and join us. Sometimes it is only my wife and I who are present on Sundays. Yesterday, it was only us two there, we began to sing “Amazing Grace” and when we finished singing, we were nine people. Thank God for His mercy.
Every 3 months we need to travel to a neighboring country to extend the Vietnamese visa. This costs us at least $200 but we could just get a visa for a year which costs around $700. We also need help in paying for a medical examination in order to obtain a driver’s license, it costs $200. If you could help us with prayers and financially, we would be very grateful. Thank you for participating in our ministry!
Thank you before the Lord for your prayers, your sacrifices, and your open hearts.
We live in Nha Trang that has a population of 500,000 people. My wife and I are now meeting with a mother, (Huanhan, 41) and her daughter (Hihua, 17) on a daily base. It is 35°C/95°F, we are sitting on a bench and it is clear that they have nowhere to go.
My wife Irina started to serve them food. The next time met with them at the market and saw their broken shoes so we bought them a new pair. One month passed and we still kept praying for them. We continued meeting and blessing them and finally asked if we could visit. With our brother Shawn, an interpreter, we came to their family and told that God Himself had brought us to their house.
They live in a village 160 miles away from Nyachang. Their life is very hard, it is hard to survive. When the Hihua was 3 years old, her father left the home, and their life became even more difficult. Hihua did not visit a school, because there was no possibility.
She suffers from pain in her liver, but due to the fact that they don’t have money, she can’t seek treatment. After a while, she began to smile a little during meetings with us. Today, on behalf of Christ, we once again blessed them with items for living, and most importantly we gave them a bible.
Thank you for your compassionate heart. May God bless you.
We are worried that because of our low budget, we are missing the main thing –to tell people about Christ. We urgently need a driver’s license, which costs $150. We are also looking for opportunities to buy health insurance. We are here on a tourist visa that’s why we have to leave the country every 3 months, the annual visa costs $250 per person.
I was given an opportunity to share Gods word with people suffering from leper. But, unfortunately, it did not happen due to lack of finances. We can always participate in helping the needy with daily bread, like in orphanages, but this requires a monthly budget of at least $150 – $200. Dear brothers and sisters, we write about the experience and we understand that the opportunities for serving Him in Vietnam will grow day by day, but without your support, we will miss one opportunity after another.
From May 13 – 30, we are going to visit the Thai prisons. We want to bless the prisoners who are eager to meet with Russian speakers. We currently have four contacts, but we plan to expand to 15 people. We will work with women who are in rehabilitation after prostitution.
We would also like to help refugees from Pakistan. There is a fire for God’s love, but there is not enough firewood. Please support us with prayers with all our worries. Thank you very much for your participation in our work.
After two months of our ministry in Vietnam, we made some observations about the people, their habits, and practices. One thing we noticed that they pay a lot of attention to their families. At 4 am, they go as a family to the gym and devote between 30-60 min to physical exercise, which includes games. At 7 am they are already at work, and those who don’t work go to coffee shops that are located along the streets and eat breakfast and socialize there. They are very patient and can sit for hours and just watch the life on the streets.
Something else is standing out, the way they are driving on the streets looks quite chaotic from the side (the laws are not always followed). They mostly ride mini-bikes, from small to large, and once I saw five people at once one bike. In any given situation, when we think it’s appropriate to express emotions, they don’t do it, they just look neutral and calm at all things. Not a single muscle moves in their faces. But at the same time, they are very sympathetic when you embrace them, hug them or smile at them.
Like we write before, 80% of the country are Buddhists. Our friend Nyam, who owns a tourist business, has an altar in her office. To the questions what this is, she said: “This is Buddha, we have him everywhere. He sees everything so that everything would be good. He guards us and protects us.”
Theft happens quite often here. They drive on the streets and quickly cut off a bag with a blade or sharp knife and drive off. They usually say, either they will never find the thief or the police doesn’t look for them at all. We had $100 stolen from our suitcase, there was a total of $400. To make it not noticeable they only took two $50 notes from the pile. When we found out and started to investigate where the money went and wanted to call the police we were told that we have to pay for the police investigation. We prayed about it and turned it all over into Gods hands.
When I saw a girl crying I came up to her and asked her if I can help her, she yes and started telling me:” When I was walking with my husband and two children, somebody drove by from the back and pulled off the backpack off my shoulders and left.”
In another situation, just as surprising, friends came to visit us. We went out to eat dinner and after we were done I wiped my hands with a napkin and did not notice how my gold ring slipped off my finger. When we came home I noticed how it is missing. After already being used to the loss we returned back to the same restaurant and I asked the owner if they found any ring here. She seemed full of joy like she was looking for me, called her husband and he came and took the ring from his hand and gave it back to me without any charge. Here are the Vietnamese, unclear to us.
From 11 Am to 2 Pm the Vietnamese have an afternoon nap, called the “Siesta”. At this time, it is better not to bother them. In the evening they get more coffee and sing, play and socialize. We continue to pray for the people here and for an awakening. Thank you very much for your prayers and sacrificial hearts in the ministry of the Lord, turning people to Christ.
