Indochina: The Vision Revived
The Body of Christ is growing in Indochina particularly in Vietnam. Hundreds of churches have been planted even though they still go through times of persecution, dryness and discouragement. One of the key Vietnamese pastors told us, “Maybe you’ve heard about the persecution of Christians in Vietnam. We think of persecution as part of the ‘DNA’ of the church; when persecution comes, it does not destroy the church but it makes her stronger. When we have less persecution, we became weaker. Please pray for us.
Our church strategy is like the Apostle Paul’s: Pray and work because we do not know the future. Every day we kneel down, pray and ask God for guidance and step by step, the Lord helps us through difficult situations. We need to listen to God every hour and we have to be flexible and creative in the ministry. I want to share my experience. One day I was called to a village to baptize more than 200 people. When we arrived, an evangelist came and said, ‘It’s only five o’clock in the morning, but I saw many policemen at the station. They know we are here and they’ll be here in about 10 to 15 minutes.’ I silently prayed then I called all the people to come to the river. I quickly taught them about Water Baptism, which took three minutes. I said, ‘After I declare in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all of you have to dip yourselves into the water.’ Within three minutes we baptized more than 200 people! Then we dispersed. Praise God! Sometimes we have to adapt to situations like that.”
In 1999, the Indochina Prayer Conference was inaugurated to bring together, equip and encourage key church leaders from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. As a result, they were able to share their journeys together and they realized that they were not alone with brothers across the border whom they could call upon. They met regularly until 2008 but the meetings faltered. However, in 2014, this same pastor called and reported how churches were dying due to discouragements. It was like a Macedonian call, “Come over and help us” (Acts 16:9).
In 2015, the Indochina Prayer Conference was revived. This time it included five nations: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. The Holy Spirit moved in a special way at that meeting when the 5K movement was launched. These 5 nations were encouraged to rally 5000 churches to pray for harvest in this mainly Buddhist bloc. Pray for the Lord’s harvest in Indochina.
