Vietnam Mission Trip Testimonies.
Written by Elder John Leong:
This is our 6th year to Vietnam for mission trip and the 5th year to conduct the VBS at Phuly Church, which is about 2½ hours’ drive from Ho Chi Ming city. Thank the Lord for the privilege to serve Him and also for enabling 6 of us to go for this mission trip. Every mission trip is a trip by faith, trusting in the Lord to provide and use us for His glory. We never fail to see the goodness of God and to experience the all-sufficiency of His grace in every mission trip. Every member of the team can testify that without the Lord, we can do nothing.
We arrived in Vietnam on 28 July (Tue) and are thankful to God for journey mercies in the flight and land transport to the village church. The Lord is good to provide us a better guesthouse this year to stay in the village. We reached the guesthouse around 8pm and had a few hours to prepare for the VBS to start the next day.
The 3-day VBS was held from Wed to Fri 9am to 5pm. Thank God that about 90 to 100 students came. We taught 5 lessons from the life of Joseph in 4 classes according to their age range. I taught the oldest class of youths. As we had come to Phuly Church 5 times, we saw some children growing up each year in the VBS. Sadly for my class, a number of the youths are no longer around as they have left the village to the city. I pray that they will not forget the Word of God that they heard in the VBS. We sow the seed of God’s Word and pray that many will come to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is indeed a lack of God’s Word being properly taught to the children. Our teaching of 3 days a year in the VBS is not sufficient. May the Lord be pleased to send His labourers to faithfully teach His Word to the children here.
It was tiring to run the 3-day VBS, but thank God that every night we had time and strength to prepare for the next day’s lessons and activities. 3 days passed very quickly and we bided goodbye to the children on Friday evening. We departed to Ho Chi Ming city to stay a night there before coming back to Singapore on Saturday, 1 August. The Lord be praised for this trip!
Written by sister Nyssha Tan:
I thank God for the wonderful privilege to be able to serve Him and be used for His glory during the Vietnam VBS. Initially, I was nervous as it was my first mission trip. I thank God for His exceeding grace and strength to assist sister Tammy in teaching the pre-primary children.
This year, Phuly Church adopted 32 orphans from the Hmong tribe. Thank God for His provision of a church where these children can grow up in the Lord and abound in their faith and knowledge of God.
The children were from a mountainous region and most of them fell into the pre-primary age group. They grew up learning the Hmong language and could not understand Vietnamese very well. As the lessons were being inter-preted in Vietnamese, some of the children could not fully comprehend the lessons but by God’s grace, they were able to recite the memory verses. Their zeal and desire to learn God’s Word despite the language barrier was a great encouragement to the mission team. Truly, the Lord is sovereign and has promised in His Holy Word that He will give wisdom liberally to them that seek Him in spirit and truth. Luke 24:45, “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”
The 3-day VBS was a humbling experience and it showed me that God will definitely provide and enable those He calleth. God moved the heart of the pastor in Phuly Church to train up the orphans and “bring them up in the nur-ture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4b). If He has placed the children under his charge, He will unfailingly provide for their daily needs and sustain them in all their ways. 2 Corinthians 9:10, “Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”
It is my humble plea that God will continue to bless the ministry in Phuly Church richly and that the children will truly be saved, grow in the knowledge of the Lord and continue to trust in God’s all-sufficient provision! 2 Corithians 6:10, “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
Written by sister Tammy Ho:
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20). Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission to all who have received salvation grace from Him to preach and teach this same message which saved us. Thank the Lord for this opportunity in which I was able to go to Vietnam to serve God, for it is an honour to be able to serve Him.
Thank God for the blessings, provision and safekeeping over the mission team. In retrospect, we can only re-echo what the Psalmist says, that we must “…give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good.” (Psalm 118:1b)
What was different about this mission trip was the fact that there are 32 orphans who are residing in the village Church in PhuLy, which we were ministering to. Most of them attended my class which was the Pre-Primary level. It was heart-breaking to hear of how they were abandoned, but the Lord in His mercies has enabled the Pastor of this Church to take them in, and that they are able to receive the Word of God and to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it came to the teaching of God’s Word, it was a challenge even in the process of delivery to the children, and that is because the attention span of the children were fairly short,. In addition, most of the children (especially the orphans) could not understand the Vietnamese language though there was translation provided because they were used to their own dialect. However, thank God for His enabling, that though some of the children would doze off in the middle of the lessons, there were still some attentive ones who listened to the message till the end. Through this, I was reminded that the Lord is always faithful and that salvation comes from Him, even though the children were too tired to withstand through the whole message, for “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:1).
And although there was a language barrier between us and the Vietnamese children, there was still warm interaction through friendly smiles, body language and simple conversation. When the song, “He’s the Lord of the Sunshine” was introduced to them, at first there was little expectation that they might be able to catch the song. However, in just 3 days of teaching the song to them, they were able to remember the words and to articulate words such as “mountain”, “music”, and “sunshine”, as well as trying their utmost effort to sing along with us.
As the day of departure drew closer, there was a sense of reluctance in leav-ing, as we had grown closer to the children and the Vietnamese brethren had been very hospitable to us and took good care of us while we were there.
Do commit these children and their salvation in your prayers and let us heed the Great Commission by praying, giving and going. “Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things He hath done for you.” (1 Samuel 12:24)
Written by sister Zealyn Heng (member of Jesus Saves Mission Church):
I look forward to embarking on a mission trip every year as each trip is a refreshing experience, teaching me many meaningful life lessons and most importantly the joy that comes with serving the Lord. A trip this year almost seemed impossible with an internship during the university summer holidays and the commencement of my final year research project. I thank God for a prayer being answered, giving me this precious opportunity – a much needed spiritual retreat away from the various secular commitments I had in Singapore.
This trip was a unique one as I was greatly humbled by several encounters:
Firstly, Rachel had been a really wonderful teaching partner. She is definitely a much more experienced and patient teacher than me, being able to effectively link the Bible story of Joseph and key messages, bringing them across to the children in a simple manner with constant reinforcements. On the other hand, I was more concerned over losing the attention of the children, such that I kept the bible story and messages shorter which might have been less effective.
Secondly, Janet, an interpreter attached to my class was an inspiration to many of us seen from her enthusiasm in serving the Lord. Having a good command of English, she was able to translate the messages accurately, accompanied with hand actions and facial expressions that made the Bible stories more appealing to the children. In addition, she used the break time to share with the gospel to the children on a one-to-one basis to ascertain their faith. As soon as the VBS ended she was off for another mission trip. Certainly, she never leaves out an opportunity to bring others to Christ!
Thirdly, I was impressed by the children at the orphanage who were able to recite several chapters of the Psalms at a young age – something that I could not and wish I could. These children were among the most well-behaved during the VBS and some were given the “best student” award. After the VBS, these children worked together to clean up the church premises without being asked. The pastor and his family have raised these children up well, and that they are grateful for the love and care they had received.
These humbling encounters were a motivation for me to improve my teach-ing skills, have continued zeal in sharing the gospel, and a greater love for God’s Word. As Paul puts it in Philippians 3:14, let us “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling for God in Christ Jesus”.
Though the mission trip was a brief one, let us keep the Vietnamese Church in our prayers, that God will work in the hearts of the children through the Bible messages taught in the VBS.