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Our Vietnamese Friends
We have been working in Vietnam for over six years. We have found ourselves in the presence of greatness at the universities of Hanoi and amongst the many folks we have met around the country.We have some very dear friends staying with us right now. They have just returned from the camps in Hong Kong. I am so surprised to find out what the Vietnamese in the camps thought about coming back to Vietnam. You see, I was asked to run a reparation clinic for the returning Vietnamese some years ago and am now finding out how little I knew about their reinsertion into their own communities.
Lap (pronounced Lup), Mai (pronounced My) and Dung (pronounced Zung), were together for some time in the camps in Hong Kong. Both Mai and Lap have very interesting stories and I will share some of them with you as time goes by.
Lap and Mai have returned to Vietnam because they have been labeled as "economic migrants" and not as political or conflict refugees. As economic migrants, they were not afforded any comfort or assistance when they caught their boat to Hong Kong. They were not offered assistance or given any education that would be of value either in Vietnam or in the Host country, if they were to obtain immigrant status.
When they arrived back in Vietnam, they were given 200.00 USD by the UNHCR to assist them in finding a place to stay and something to do for work.
Lap is 33 and had been in the camps of Hong Kong for the past 13 years. He was 20 when he left and he left because though he had high grades in college, his family were not Communist party members and therefore afforded no assistance in getting a job. He had no way to help his parents so he took a chance, bought a ticket and headed for Hong Kong on a bamboo raft.
Mai was 10 years old when her father and mother took their savings and invested in a boat to Hong Kong. They were so poor that they each had one set of clothes they could wear and nothing else but a smile and a hope of finding work.
Mai and Lap got married in the camps and enjoyed their honeymoon in a dorm with 500 other detaniees within arms reach. Life in the camps was, as Mr. Lap often calls it, a "Civilized Hell."
Lap and Mai are now working for us. I am training them in the art of office skills and maintenance as well as business. They are now staying with us and their 18 month old son, Dung is such a wonderful little guy.
Our Friends
Since the laws of Vietnam are a very serious hindrance to talking about anything, let alone Christ, we need to work around their desire to keep the people controlled, uninformed and without choice. The advent of CNN and the e-mail system has opened the door for us in ways that were never possible before. Though CNN talks of and trains people in every holiday, they are intensely informative about Christmas. This leads to questions and an eventual opening where there was none before.
Please pray with us that we will be a good witness to the staff, that they might have open hearts, and come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Nguyen Thi Hat
Hat has worked for us the longest. She is 50 and she started to work for us when we first moved into our house. We have had to be very careful about what we do and what we talk about because to teach about Jesus is morally wrong in Vietnam. In the past, she has had visits from the police, asking her what we have talked about and we have now passed the test. We can do what we want, when we want and to date, we have not been visited by the police for a year and a half. That is quite a relief for us as we can be told to move without notice. Hat speaks little English, but our kids are fluent in Vietnamese and have been attending a Vietnamese church, so they are aloud to preach the gospel now. Duc has started to pray with the kids.
Nguyen Thi Minh Duc
Duc is the sister of Hat, she started working for us as a maid and to my surprise, she was trained as an Engineer in Russia. She is now being trained for computer engineering at our house. She is quite a lady and though she speaks no English at all, she is learning quickly.
Yen
This is the third Yen we have worked with. The first became a Christian and is now working with another group of foreigners, the second received awards and a scholarship and is now working with another company and this Yen, the third has just come to us. Yen is a girl from the villages surrounding Hanoi and is quite a girl. Though she wants to do everything everyone tells her, the implements of the West are strange indeed to this girl. We have our work cut out for us...
Ha
Ha is the latest of the secretaries that have come here to learn English and learn how to be a secretary. She is the latest of a long list of girls that have come our way and she is learning fast. Ha is 22 and her parents are from a village just north of Hanoi. Her parents are very poor and they have asked us to help her find a job. There are 8 million people on our doorstep and most of them are very poor. Wish we could do more, but we need to do the best with what we have. We train secretaries to work with other businesses and other companies. This gives us the opportunity to work with Vietnamese all through the house and on occasion... we get to see eternal results.
Huyen
Huyen is a strange girl. She came to us through a friend, Madam Lieu. Madam Lieu is the head cook at the Swedish Embassy. A wonderful woman and she loves to help the poor. Huyen was one of our latest students from Madam Lieu. When we visited her father, he cried when he asked us to help her find a good job. Huyen is the baby of the family and is a bit stubborn. We have been training her to work on computers and shoot videos. Our idea is to train her so she can get a job where she will not need to work late in the evenings or on the weekend at nights. These kind of jobs are available for the girls, but they often lead to life in a more seedy area. Many of the girls from the villages end up prostitutes or marrying men for the sake of their money. We want to help Huyen as much as possible.
What are we at Somerhaven International doing?
We provide them with housing and food as well as training in computer, business and English.
What can you pray for?
Pray for guidance for us as we continue in our assistance to them. The Government of Vietnam is not very helpful and sometimes quite difficult with returnees, and Vietnamese from outside the country as well. We have an open door to their families through their camp contacts and may well be able to plant churches amongst them. Most of the returnees have subsequently become Christians and the work of the Lord can go forward if we are obedient
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