Vietnam: How a cow can change a life

Mai is a widow from the northern highlands of Vietnam. She is small and quietly spoken but a woman of brave faith. Mai has endured poverty and hardship all her life. Then, tragically, her husband died in an accident, leaving her to raise her two small sons alone.

“I was troubled,” Mai said, “How could my children and I survive?”

A local pastor visited, and Mai soon became a Christian. Her new faith and her church family gave her strength and hope. But her late husband’s family were furious.

Image: Mai’s home in Vietnam

“They persecuted me greatly,” Mai said. “They told me to stop going to church and praying to God.”

They even threatened Mai with arrest.

“I didn’t listen to them,” said Mai. “I never quit.”

Without the support of her family, Mai found it hard to support herself and her children.

Then she was given a cow, from a project set up by a local Open Doors partner.

It’s a simple, but life-changing project. Open Doors’ local partners give a pregnant cow to a family. The family keep the mother cow for farming or breeding but the calf is returned to the project and given away to others in need.

This type of microloan allows persecuted, vulnerable Christians to live independent lives, support their families financially and continue to share Jesus with their community.

Image: Mai tending to her cows.

“Without the project, we didn’t know how we could earn a living,” Mai said. “I ask God to bless the donors and sponsors of this project.”

The gift of the cow has changed Mai’s life. And when her in-laws saw her faith, their hearts began to change as well.

“I shared the blessings I have in Christ with my in-laws and invited them to church,” she said.

Now they are committed followers of Christ, too.

“Pray that my family will continue to love God and walk with Him. Pray that we would be living testimonies to the people we know, and to those we will meet in the future.”

*Name changed for security purposes.