The fields are white for the harvest in Vietnam, and through the gospel, the Holy Spirit is bringing many to faith.
Jonathan Bare as told to himby Wasa Lau
Translated by Bounkeo Lor
Pastor Wasa Lau is one of 60 Hmong Fellowship Church (HFC) leaders who are receiving theological training in Hanoi, Vietnam, from Bounkeo Lor, Hmong Asia ministry coordinator, and members of the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI). Lau serves Immanuel 1997 church in Laichao province.
Here is more of his story of faith as told to Jonathan Bare, PSI team member, and Lor:
People in my area started becoming Christian already in 1993 when we heard radio broadcastings about Christianity. From 1993 to 1997, Christianity spread very quickly in our area. We heard that if you believed, you would be released from Shamanism and Satan—so within a short amount of time, the whole area believed. I believed in1997.
Persecution
One of my uncles served in the army. When he found out that we had become Christians, he was so angry. He brought many guns to our house, and he wanted to kill us. He also brought a big pot and was going to build a big fire and boil our whole family one by one for being Christian. But he drank a glass of alcohol and fell asleep at the table. Early in the morning, he woke up and left. So our family was spared.
In the end, they arrested the whole village. The local government forced us to make bricks, cut plants, and build houses. For one week we did hard labor for the government in our area. They brought us all together, and the local officials would point a gun at the leaders of the church. “If you don’t renounce your faith, we will kill you,” they threatened. But no one would renounce their faith. Since no one would renounce their faith, the government couldn’t do anything. They just put them in prison or sent them to do hard labor. I was a leader already at that time, but I wasn’t teaching the Bible yet so they didn’t point a gun at my head. But I did get sent with the other leaders to do hard labor.
After they released all of us believers, we went back to our village. But the local government officials didn’t allow us to worship. So I remember we woke up at 1:00 in the morning to worship God. We couldn’t turn on any lights; we just used some oil lamps. We did that from1997 to 2000.
Education
In 2005, I received some theological training from the Vietnamese Fellowship Church, and I passed my test in 2011. In 2011, they called me to serve Immanuel 1997 as pastor. There were some good things we learned in the training, but it was difficult because Vietnamese [the language they taught in] is not my first language. There were six courses we needed to study. They covered basics of salvation, faith, baptism, and how to administer the church. Once you pass the test, you can be called as a pastor in the church.
But I needed more. I started receiving training from Pastor Lor in 2013. The first few years I still had a lot of confusion because the training I had received in the past was too limited. But in 2016, I finally understood Lutheran doctrine. Since that time, I have grown in my ability to pass it on to my members and local leaders.
Currently, in my church, I serve 220 members. I also oversee 7 pastors and 37 leaders who serve a total membership of 1,179. Our relationship was a struggle at first. Before the training from the Lutheran church, each of us had received training from other churches. Now, though, we have a very stable relationship because we all have the same training and doctrine. Now we don’t allow other churches from the outside to provide training to our leaders or our churches. After I get back from the training session in Hanoi, two other students and I work together to provide training to all of our local leaders. We call together over 100 local leaders for three 3-day training sessions to share the training we received in Hanoi.
One blessing is that in class we receive textbooks that we use to study the course with the professor. The textbook is in Hmong, so we can take it back and print more to use with the pastors and leaders we are training.
I had dreamed for such training for a long time. Many members would come and ask me to share the Word of God with them, but I didn’t know howto do it. Since receiving training, I have grown in my confidence in what I believe and in sharing God’s Word. I am certain of this: If the Lutheran church did not come to do the training, the Hmong congregations throughout Vietnam would have continued to suffer a lot due to theological differences.
My own ability is limited. I am not an educated person. But through the training we are receiving, we have materials that we can review. Also, when we attend class, we can listen to the professors in person and ask questions about what we are learning. This has given me a lot more confidence. This has been a big change for me and for the congregations under my leadership. We’ve stopped searching for theological answers and materials from other churches. We know we have the truth now, and we know where to find it!
Prayers
The Hmong Fellowship Church currently has more than 300 congregations, but we still lack many things—especially training for all of the leaders of these congregations. We need more training from the Lutheran church. That is what we are looking for now: for generation after generation to grow in the proper understanding of Scripture. That’s what WELS can do for us.
I also ask that you pray for us. My congregation has a small building for worship. In the past, we had cut down a bunch of trees from the jungle for building a larger space, but someone came and burned all the wood. We’re starting to go back to cut more wood to expand our building, but this project will take a lot of work and we don’t have much money. Pray that the Lord will motivate our members to support it with their offerings so that we can expand the church in the future.
And more important, in my area many people are believers, but surrounding our area many are not Christian. We don’t have the financial backing or a plan for reaching them. Some are donating money to send evangelists. Please pray that more of my members will support this effort so that we can continue to do more outreach in our area.
Jonathan Bare, part of the Pastoral Studies Institute team, is a member at Christ Alone, Thiensville, Wisconsin. This article was first printed in Forward in Christ. https://wels.net/pastor-lau/
For more stories from other students, visit https://wels.net/pastor-ham/ , https://wels.net/pastor-vue/; and https://wels.net/pastor-vang/.
Since WELS began providing training to these leaders in 2013, the HFC has grown from 55,000 to100,000 members and has formed hundreds of new churches.The communist government now is offering WELS an opportunity to build a permanent facility in Hanoi for theological training. Learn more in this month’s WELS Connection https://vimeo.com/286383063 and visit wels.net/vietnamhmongoutreach.
