Spent My Strength for Nothing?                
“Last month a monk threatened E and the Christians. He has now reported E to the government Religious Affairs Bureau. She has been warned that it is illegal for her to go anywhere to hold religious meetings. Last night E's husband was drunk again and beat her. In the morning when sober he beat her some more. He brandished a knife and threatened to kill her to see if she would rise like Jesus did after three days. His motive was a groundless suspicion that E was sending his savings to her parents or spending it on other things. His drunken rages have been increasing in frequency and ferocity.

• Please pray that E and her son will be protected safe in the Lord's arms.
• That her husband would truly repent of his sin and come to a real faith in Christ. He is a baptised believer, but shows little evidence of this having been a sincere decision
• That Christians there would now how to handle this situation.
• That Satan's dark plans would be frustrated and God's glory and love would triumph.

A number of people in L village left God and we are sad to report that the only three believers in N village have now left the faith. Two could not take the pressure of standing apart from the Buddhist crowd, and the other has plunged into wild living.”

 

• Pray for Mekong workers and their ministries among Mekong’s unreached people groups (like the one above) who are in situations where it looks like they have spent their strength in vain. (Is. 49:4)

 

Kinh – Vietnamese
A Mekong worker writes, “Hue, the former capital city, is packed with beautiful old palaces and temples. Its population of 300,000 have about 300 Buddhist temples but just one small, struggling evangelical church. The people of Hue and area have the reputation of being very hard soil.

The Vietnamese word ‘choi’ is the verb to play. Vietnamese of all ages love to choi, which is really to do anything fun which isn’t work – anything from touring the country to just having a chat with a friend. In the west friends come round for “coffee” and in Vietnam they come round to choi. I continue to be thankful for my nice home where friends like to come to choi.

I started meeting with N for language learning. She expressed a desire to know more about God so I’ve started a series of 3 evangelistic Bible studies in Vietnamese! We started just about a month ago and she seemed really interested. Lately, she has been too busy to study again but we hope to find time soon.”

 

• Praise - Rev. Quang was released from prison on August 30th. Ask God for the complete healing of his body, soul and spirit, and for eternal fruit from his time in prison.
• Praise - Brother Than Van Truong has been kept in a psychiatric hospital for 10 months. They say he has schizophrenia because he believes God is the Creator. They drug him daily with very bad side effects. Praise God that Than Van Truong was recently united with his family again after being released from a psychiatric hospital. Pray that the medicines used on him will have no adverse effect.

Karen
The villagers chased the Pwo Karen evangelist away because some of the villagers wanted to believe in Jesus. Due to the pressure from the spirit headman and the harassment from other villagers, no one has dared to follow Jesus yet. Please keep praying for a spiritual break through in this village.

 

This evangelist now lives in another village with the vision to reach the Pwo Karen. He lives in his own house and has a plot of land to raise pigs. His wife has opportunities for evangelism through friendships with other moms while the evangelist goes out in the neighbourhood on the motorbike. He uses pictures of the Old Testament to teach that God is the Creator and has the right to be worshiped. He explains the need for sacrifice - in the Old Testament the sacrifices of animals was required but now the Lord Jesus has made the perfect sacrifice with His own blood.

 

• Pray – God’s Spirit will break through where Pwo Karen people are very much being influenced by Buddhism.
• Pray - For the evangelist couple and their daughter and their ministry.