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Oppressed and Blessed

Sixteen-year old Huy* happened to tune into the Peace & Happiness radio program. The message about Jesus, the King of Kings, coming to this world as a human to save sinners intrigued him and he became a faithful listener. With excitement, he shared the program with his friends and soon a group of teenagers gathered each evening to listen to the broadcast.
One night, the local authorities broke up their get-together. They followed up with home visits, ordering the parents to forbid their children from gathering. Most of the parents (who speak Hmong and limited Vietnamese) grew suspect of the radio program and felt afraid of the officers’ stern mandate. Many threatened their youth saying, “If you continue this activity, we will disown you.”

Most of the youth obeyed and stopped listening to Pr. Isah’s sermons, but Huy knew he could not stop. The radio messages brought him peace for the first time in his life. Each morning before the roosters crowed, he slipped the radio into his jacket and crept out of the house, past the village chief’s home and into the dark woods. He was able to catch a weak radio signal that radiated messages of Light into his heart.
 
One day, his friend said, “Hey Huy, I’m going into the city. Do you want me to pick you up anything?” “Yes,” Huy seriously said. “Try to find the Peace and Happiness radio station and get some CDs of the sermons I’ve been listening to.” His friend did not find the radio station, however, with a sparkle in his eyes, he said “I found the radio program website and downloaded two mega-bytes of programs for you on my cell phone SIM card!” Huy carefully handled it as if it was made of precious diamonds.

Shortly after this, Huy’s life turned upside down. “Quick! We have to pack everything up!” Huy’s mom frantically said as she raced around the one-room hut, stuffing their limited belongings in a bag. Huy could hear the military soldiers barking orders out near the center of the village over a loudspeaker. “You have until 5 pm this evening to leave the village!” Huy’s heart sank. “This place was just starting to feel like home,” he mused. Images of the long grueling trip from the North just months before filled his memory. “Heavenly Father, please give us the strength and the peace we need. Please protect all our people,” Huy prayed silently. Huy and his family joined the masses of villagers as they carefully made their exodus deep into the forest.  The villagers toiled together to carve out a new home in the forest.

Good came out of the government’s oppression. As Huy clung to God through trials, his faith grew and he was blessed in return. He yearned for others to believe as he did and shared God’s truth with everyone who would listen. Eventually, a group of young men and women started worshipping God each Sabbath. God even opened up the hearts of some of their parents, who joined the worships but, because of their limited knowledge of the Vietnamese language, the meetings were translated. They quickly ran out of sermons and radio reception was poor, so the members saved their money until they had 3.5 million dong, enough to buy a laptop. Two believers made the lengthy trip to the city to purchase it. What a joyous celebration the church family had when they discovered and listened to the many sermons, songs, and radio broadcasts that were downloaded onto that little black box!

Now Huy is leading two groups in his area. His prayer, along with other young tribal leaders is that the DVD sermons will be translated into their tribal language so that their parents and grandparents can hear messages of truth first-hand. You can help make that happen. ASAP plans to translate Pastor Isah’s 12-set sermons on Last Day Events into Hmong, Gia Rai, Halang and Cantonese. Each language translation project costs $2,000. Right now, it takes only $1 to get three DVDs duplicated and distributed in Vietnam. We pray each member can receive a set of the Last Day Events DVDs to listen to and share (this will take $150,000). Just think of the impact this will make! The gospel will spread like wildfire through the ethnic villages of Vietnam.

*Name has been changed for the safety of God’s servant.

DID YOU KNOW?

More than 50,000 Seventh-dayAdventist believers in the highlands of Vietnam, belonging to 28 tribes (which speak 28 different languages) worship faithfully each Sabbath despite persecution and harassment. ASAP supports the most workers among the Hmong, Gia Rai, Ra Glai, Xtieng and Halang (Sedang) tribes. This month, ASAP national missionaries shared the gospel to two new tribal groups. Please pray that all 8 million tribal people in Vietnam will accept God’s mercy and truth.