Solima Stories: April 2011

Team Pic

God is on the move in Asia! It was an incredible privilege to see what He is doing in the communist country of Vietnam. From a very young age children are taught that all religion is evil because it brings disunity and unrest to a society. The result of this world view is that anyone who practices any kind of faith is looked down upon. We surprisingly found quite a few spirit filled believers among the Vietnamese people.

So is there religious freedom? Well it depends who you ask. Largely because of globalization and foreign investment the government is trying to put a more tolerant face forward, so many Vietnamese people believe there is religious freedom. Yet the government keeps a close eye on any registered church and many international missions efforts have encountered serious consequences for their efforts.

Shine in Ancient University

One of the benefits for the body of Christ which has suffered serious persecution is that when a person becomes a believer the decision has not been made lightly. I have heard it said that in America if a person does not make a decision for Christ before the age of 18 the likelihood of it happening becomes very small. That is why one of my most treasured moments from this trip was witnessing a woman in her late 70's come to know the Lord. She began to weep and weep and when asked why, her response was that she had never in all of her years experienced peace like she was experiencing at that moment.

We landed in Vietnam not knowing how our days would be filled as it is illegal to do many of the "typical" outreach activities. What we discovered is that we serve a God who is faithful even in the details.

Cortney speaks sign language and one of our prayers was that she would be able to use this gift. We had not been in Vietnam for more than a few days when we met a woman who had been praying that God would send someone to lead bible studies for a company that hires deaf and disabled people! Cortney and Chris invested many hours in this ministry.

Cary, Tatum, Will & Andrea had the privilege of working in the #1 technical university in Vietnam. We were able to introduce over 100 students to the bible through the use of parables and biblegateway.com. Along side these daily activities we had the opportunity to teach and preach in the under ground church as well as lots of time spent in friendship evangelism. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that we were trusting the relationships we had made into the hands of local believers. We left Vietnam knowing that God was in our midst each step of the way.