DaNang, Vietnam
July 15-17, 2019
He was thrown into prison, beaten, his life repeatedly threatened and at least once they tried to kill him! In spite of all this, he started a church in prison that is still going strong to this day. He spent three years building that church, and today he returns for a week every month to continue teaching the Bible.
This dear brother smiled with joy as he told me stories of his time in prison. He also told me that now he can basically do as he pleases in this communist country. The government seems to have given up on him. He will go to a village to preach the gospel, and when the police are called out to arrest him, they find out who he is and simply tell him that he can keep on preaching the gospel!!
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The older brother on the left sat in the front every session and wanted to learn as much as the youth around him. He is the brother mentioned above.
This MTM youth conference was hosted by this dear brother’s son (June 15-17). The youth conference was conducted in a hidden & secluded inner room of a public (open for business) coffee shop, all for security reasons. I have great respect for his son because although his father can preach the gospel without fear of the authorities, he cannot. He, and many young people like him, have to be extremely careful in sharing the gospel and yet at the same time, I’m amazed at how bold they are in sharing Christ. They understand that it’s a risk, however, they have counted the cost, are willing to pay it and will not compromise!!
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The MTM Team
In the three days of the conference, I (Josh Slabaugh) taught on living a Holy Life in the absence of compromising. Raymond taught on Pursuing the Heart of God, from the life of David. The youth that attended were very attentive and ready to receive God’s Word into their hearts. Ages ranged from 14 to upper 20s, about half being under 20 years old. Out of the 115 people groups in Vietnam, five were represented at the conference. Vietnam is only 2% Christian, with a total population of 100 million.
Pray for our dear brothers & sisters of Vietnam who are continually counting the cost for being bold in their GOD!
Editor’s note: The above article was written by Josh Slabaugh, who is the MTM IT assistant. His work consists mostly of putting together and sending the MTM prayer alerts and updates and updating the website. He also goes on some MTM trips (mostly youth conferences) to help teach or support the teachers. MTM is his primary work and focus, but he also teaches English as a Second Language in a Thai government school under English for Life (EFL). Teaching English also provides him a visa to live long term in Thailand.
