The wise woman of means and the outcast servant girl
She turned up on my doorstep, weeping, at midnight. Her employer had been treating her cruelly and had thrown her out of the house. She was just a maid. Where could she go?

Told of this girl's plight and moved with Christian compassion, a wealthy woman quickly assumed control of the situation. This woman was well-respected and something of a matriarch in the community. She took the young girl in, telling the employer to reinstate this servant girl and to treat her fairly. The request was followed by an ultimatum: 'This is what you will do, or I will take her into my home, she will become my maid and you will have nothing to do with her ever again.'

Think and pray

• Who are the Christians of standing and influence in your community? How do they use their positions to promote the gospel and the kingdom of God?
• What are the different ways the Lord can raise up Christian people of influence?
  Christian first, then becoming people of influence? Or vice versa?
• Do people of influence act only as individuals - or as families or business partnerships?
• Vietnam needs Christians to influence society, at every level, in this time of change.

The education economy
Vietnamese are studying abroad in unprecedented numbers. Once this was the exclusive domain of postgraduates, but the new wealth of the middle class has brought increasing numbers of undergraduates and even high school students to be educated outside Vietnam. They are under tremendous pressure to achieve. Postgraduates may have left spouses and children in Vietnam.

Through friends at school and university, or house parents at boarding houses, some students come into contact with the gospel. Their new faith is nurtured within established churches, in communities where Christianity is generally well-regarded. Informal networks of Vietnamese Christian students can develop, where those from southern and northern Vietnam rub shoulders. On their annual holidays back home, many students find it difficult to integrate into the Vietnamese Christian community, particularly if their families are not believers. The style of teaching and worship may be very different, as may be the focus on 'church-building centred ministry', rather than cell groups in houses or on campus. It is easy for their faith to flounder.

Think and pray

• If you were in a strange country speaking a second language, studying, feeling homesick, would you prefer to spend time with people from your home country or 'foreigners'? If the people from your country aren't Christians, how will you hear the gospel?
• Who is responsible for making contact with these students, for the sake of the gospel?
• On returning to Vietnam, many students feel isolated in their faith. How could a network of Christian 'returnees' alleviate this?
• Might these students become people of influence in Vietnamese society and the Church?