Mennonite Weekly Review

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Pastor Kim Huong’s voice is rough. She is only beginning to be able to speak again after five years because of a medical problem in her throat. Yet Huong is a true evangelist. It is difficult to imagine her keeping silent.

Huong

Huong reaches out to women, particularly those women who are on the edges of Vietnamese society: older women, widows or single, and young women who work in the big clothing factories nearby. Her congregation is made up of these women, as well as a few men.

With the help of her son, who often speaks for her, Huong established the Vinh Cuu congregation in 2002 with five people. They began meeting in her small house, but soon the numbers grew. So they broke down the wall and made the house bigger. They have done this three times. Now they barely have room for the more than 50 people who meet there each week.

Over the years Huong has been arrested and detained by the local authorities and then released to get back to work. She is grateful that since the Vietnam Mennonite Church has been legally recognized, this tension with the authorities will end.

Huong’s plan for growth includes sending church members into the community, especially into the housing areas for young female factory employees. As new people come to the Lord, they are given discipleship training.

Huong knows that many of these young women will eventually return to their homes in villages and rural areas. She envisions sending them back as missionaries for Jesus.

This evangelistic work is undergirded by prayer. A room at the back of the house is set aside where at least one member of the congregation is on duty each day to pray.

“We will pray for you,” Huong told a Mennonite World Conference delegation. “Write down your name and your country. We have a globe and can see where your country is, and we will pray.”