VIETNAM: MASSIVE EVANGELISM SERVICE
More than 15,000 worshippers attended a service of evangelism at a stadium in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on Tuesday,
April 21.
An Quoc Nguyen, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Ho Chi Minh City, described the event as “a Spiritual Tsunami,” with
inspirational worship, preaching, prayer and healing. “About 1,500 people were converted or healed,” Nguyen said.
The event, which involved the participation of about 50 largely unregistered house churches from various church
denominations, including Baptists, was part of the Easter celebration of Christians in the country.
The worship service at the Tao Dan Stadium was described as a rare event in Vietnam. “The only other such event
granted to unregistered groups was an open-air meeting during Christmas of 2007,” the Compass Direct website reported.
PHOTO: Some of the more than 15,000 worshippers who attended an evangelism service in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
in April
SRI LANKA: BAPTISTS VISIT IDP CAMP IN SRI LANKA, ASSIST 500 FAMILIES
Baptist leaders of Sri Lankan Baptist Sangamaya (SLBS) visited a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the
South Asian country in the wake of the war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
or Tamil Tigers.
The visit to temporary shelters in Vavuniya, a town in Northern Province, occurred on May 11 and 12, and included the
distribution of supplies to approximately 500 families by the SLBS. These supplies, which included water, milk and footwear,
were purchased with a grant of US$5,000 from Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World
Alliance.
E.K.Yasaratne, General Secretary of SLBS, who joined other religious leaders on the tour of the camp, informed the BWA
that the relief coordinator for the IDP camp requested additional supplies such as gripe water, soap, towels, disinfectors, milk
bottles and mosquito nets that are “useful for baby care, as many children were handicapped.” An attempt is being made
“to find a mechanism to supply the above items requested by the coordinating officer” as soon as possible to be sent to the
camp, he said, and appeals are being made to “churches and well-wishers” for further assistance.
More than 270,000 IDPs, mainly Tamil, are in camps in Northern Province following the escalation of the civil war in the
country between the LTTE and the government over the past few months. The civil war first erupted in 1983 as the Tamils,
who accuse the Sinhalese government of discrimination, fought for an independent state in the north and east of the island.
Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 80,000 persons have been killed. An estimated 7,000 civilians have been killed
and approximately 17,000 have been wounded since January 2009.
Reports are that the LTTE forces have been defeated, and that founder and leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who founded
the rebel group in 1976, was killed on May 18.
Yasaratne said, “We pray that the Good Lord will take care of the refugees and settle them in permanent shelters to begin
a new life free from terrorism.”
PHOTOS: A mother walks with her children as other civilians stand in line to receive food at the Manik Farm refugee
camp located on the outskirts of the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya (REUTERS/David Gray/Courtesy of www.alertnet.
org; A Tamil man walks past tents in the Vavuniya refugee camp (REUTERS/Stringer/Courtesy of www.alertnet.org)
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