DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #28

News from Switzerland, Vietnam

God fulfils secret wishes

A young Swiss pastor secretly wanted to go see the world-famous events in Toronto for himself. One of the church workers, who knew nothing of the pastor's desire, called four hours after the pastor and his wife prayed for the necessary but missing finances, saying that he would like to pay for the pastor to fly to Toronto.

At first, the pastor was happy, but then decided that he would only go if his wife could come with him, so they prayed again for financial help. The following day, the wife went to a glass recycling depot and was surprised to find a 1000-Franc note in an overflowing container. That was just the amount needed for the second ticket. The couple called the local police station to announce their find, and received the sobering reply "Bring it in, and come back in a year," so they took the banknote in. When they arrived, though, the officers discussed the unusual case and decided that they could keep the money. A few days later, they received more money, enough this time to pay for the hotel. It was then clear to them: God fulfils secret wishes.

Source: Reinhold Scharnowski, Fax (41) 33-377364
More from Switzerland

Potential liberalisation in Vietnam

Even though Christians are still being persecuted and jailed in Vietnam, the house-churches continue to grow. Over 100 Indo- Chinese church leaders met a few weeks ago in the US to discuss their vision to reach their home countries with the gospel. Vietnam alone has 75 million inhabitants. Dr. Duc, a pastoral father-figure for the Vietnamese churches, explained the aim as being "to plant a living Christian witness, in whatever form, in each village and quarter." With around one living church per 100,000 inhabitants, Vietnam is probably the least churched country in Asia. Nguyen Van Ngoc, Director of Vietnam's National Religious Committee, recently informed church leaders in Ho-Chi- Minh City (formerly Saigon) that the government plans to relax the religious laws as part of a wider liberalisation. The government's new attitude was also reported in the (communist) daily paper "Saigon Giai Phong". Experts believe it is possible that the churches will gain room to move, and that the persecution will soon stop

Source: various. Names and addresses withheld.
More from Vietnam

Vietnam: young man wins 5 villages

A young man from the Vietnamese "Tai Dang" tribe was sent to jail for no reason, according to pastor Ai, who was in jail at the same time because of his faith. After seeing that many of the other prisoners were saved after speaking with pastor Ai, the young man also decided to become a Christian. He was released from jail two months after pastor Ai, and immediately went to visit him in Ho-Chi-Minh City. Ai sent him to a local Bible School, at which the training is divided into 4 grades. The first is "Caleb-grade": after a month of training, the students must win 5 others for Christ "to demonstrate that their calling is real." After a 3-month-long "Joshua" phase, they are expected to bring another 15 people to Christ and to lead a Christian house group. In the final "Andrew" and "Moses" phases, they are trained to be pastors. After a month in action, the young man called pastor Ai, asking him to send a trained pastor to baptise the new converts. Astonished, Ai asked why he should send a pastor to baptise 5 converts. The reply: "Pastor Ai, I have not won 5 people but 5 villages - 753 people." The pastor who was immediately sent performed the baptisms and started a seminar to teach the new Christians.

Source: Pastor Ai, Vietnam, Offene Grenzen

Women pray for Switzerland

There are now over 500 women taking part in a prayer-chain for Switzerland. The chain lasts for 24 hours every Wednesday. During their time slot, they pray at home or in groups for revival, churches and their leaders, young people, the Swiss government, families etc.

Source and info: Deyse Schumperli, Muhleholzstr.51, 3800 Unterseen Tel/FAX (41) 36-235258

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