VIETNAM: NEW HOME FOR NEW BELIEVERS

Vietnam is number 25 on the World Watch List, and Christians often face violent persecution – particularly converts who belong to the country’s ethnic communities, who are considered to have betrayed their traditional faith. In this, you’ll MEET GIA AN* AND HIS FAMILY WHO ARE facing IMMENSE PRESSURE – BUT ARE still choosing to take the risk to follow Jesus. Please pray for them.

When Gia An*, his wife and children and his sister became Christians, they didn’t want to hold back in their new faith. They sang hymns and worshipped the Jesus in their home, and invited people from their church to come and pray with them.

All sounds great, right. But, their wider family was not pleased and quickly became very angry.

“My parents believe that what we are doing is disturbing the souls of the dead people in our house, and this will bring a curse and bad luck to the family,” says Gia An. “They expelled us from their house.”

“We will not give up our faith; we believe that God will continue to reveal Himself to us.”

GIA AN, VIETNAM

When members of their church learned about the situation, they wanted to help the family by building a small house for them – but they didn’t have enough money to finish it. There was no roof, which made living in it almost impossible during Vietnam’s rainy season.

Relatives and neighbours mocked this family of believers, saying “Call out to your God; He will take care of you. Show us that your God is better than ours!” Despite these insults, Gia An and his family chose to remain faithful to God – and are committed to praying for their community. “We will not give up our faith; we believe that God will continue to reveal Himself to us and to these people,” says Gia An.

When Open Doors local partners heard about Gia An and his family, God used them to answer the believers’ prayers – they stepped in and supplied what was needed to finish their home. That’s only possible thanks to the prayers and gifts of Open Doors supporters. The neighbours had mocked them – but God did exactly what they suggested He couldn’t do: He took care of them.

‘They are not alone…’

“We want them to know that they are not alone,” says Athan*, a local Open Doors partner. “We are one family in Christ. So, aside from prayers, we provided enough funds for them to be able to finish constructing their house and buy food for the next three months.”

Please pray for Gia An and his family to continue to be firm in their faith, and thank God for His generous provision. The local church prays that they will be able to show God’s love to the whole community – please join them in this prayer.

*Names changed for security reasons