Grace and peace to you friends, brothers and sisters! This was the first year of our ministry in Vietnam. As we wrote to you, the Lord has blessed us with a missionary home and now we live in this house, host guests, hold meetings and services.
We are having the usual rainy season, and so it rained all night. In the morning I recorded a beautiful video of it from the balcony. And when I wanted to ride the moped on the street, a neighbor showed me that it wouldn’t go far. When looking around, I saw that everything around our house was flooded. We went to the back of the house, and everything was flooded there as well. The flood swept everything in its path away.
Many houses are flooded, destroyed, or washed away. Thank God our house remained untouched at all. It was impossible to get out because everything was under water. On this day, 19 people died! One family of four is still buried under their house that was destroyed by the landslide.
In the evening before, we visited the family that we regularly take care of. We brought them food, and the rain continued, then we visited them the other day and we found out that their home was also flooded, but without too much damage. We handed them clothes and were told that they had a need for school supplies for their granddaughter.
No matter how unafraid we were, but the Vietnamese tropical dengue fever caught on to us too! My wife, Irina, being here all the time, tried to protect herself from it. We have some friends who have had this disease. The fever didn’t pass by us unfortunately and my wife fell ill 2 days before I did. The fever rose to 38.5C, our bones were hurting, the lymph nodes were inflamed, and dizziness and eyes were hurting. This disease caused deaths before.
Our God allows us to become ill, and He gives healing. Irina called this time: “The baptism of fever”. Yes, of course, it’s easy to endure such trials with the Lord, because His burden is easy.
From the heart and soul, we thank you for your prayer and material support. We were moved to tears when we heard and felt how many other believers from different parts of the world were interested in our health and prayed for us!
To be united as believers all over the world is very important to us! May the Lord reward you and bless you for your open heart!
Ministry in Vietnam – Alexander Kulpin