“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”-Matt.5:11
Happy New 2020 Year dear brothers and sisters! I would like to thank everyone who prayed for us and would like to share the testimony of our very last days before this new year.
We thank God for blessing us with almost ten months of hospital ministry on Sundays, where we gave sweets and Bible verse cards with Psalm 30:3 to patients and visitors. Yet, the last Sunday of this past year, a doctor came in and yanked the card out of a patient’s hand who just received it from us and she called us into her office. After questioning us she called the security who took us outside and called the religious police. As the police officials came we saw that they had a pack of our cards already which they have collected somewhere before and actually been watching us. They loaded us into the police jeep and took us to the police station. Praise God that though our hearts were beating fast, God still sent us total peace and joy and we were singing hymns while all this was happening “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”-Philip.4:7
At the police station, more government officials arrived, took photos of all four of us and began demanding that we hand over all of our Bible tracts or they will be forced to search us. Then came a Vietnamese government official, Mr. Juan, who spoke Russian and he was furiously yelling at our pastor, Alexander, during the interrogation. The rest of us started to pray that God gives these people a merciful heart. Then they all started inspecting the tracks we handed over which had written on them Bible verses; John 3:16, Psalm 30:3, Acts 16:31, and others in the Vietnamese, Russian, and English languages. There were about 15 officials in the room who read all those verses and Mr. Juan translated the Russian ones while they all listened closely (photo above). We were rejoicing that the word of God now reached the police department as well! Then we noticed how Mr. Juan began talking nicer to us and explained that we are not allowed to spread religious propaganda outside religious temples. We were told to write that we have been warned and won’t break the law again. They said if we get caught again, we will be deported from Vietnam. After we signed the documents, the religious police took those documents, and praise God we were let go! This was a great joy and blessing for us to have been persecuted for God’s word (Matt.5:12), as well as to see His work within the government officials.
Dear brothers and sisters, please continue praying that God gives us clear leadership of His Holy Spirit to further evangelize to the people of Vietnam.
Ministry in Vietnam – Tatyana Yevstratenko