Praise God! Eight years after the first Church of God presence in South Vietnam, the fast-growing church has now reached out to the north, to Hanoi. The phrase “God works in mysterious ways” holds true. God has not just brought two people together through an arranged marriage but also North and South Vietnam.

K.T. Tan, one of the early members of our Singapore congregation, was introduced to a northern Vietnamese lady named Thi Loan through an online marriage agency. They were married early this year and in April went with Singapore’s founding pastor and missionary Neville Tan and his wife Anne to Saigon to the wedding of a South Vietnamese pastor’s son. K. T. had also invited his wife’s parents to come to Saigon to meet the South Vietnamese pastors. Within six days of their meeting, Thi Loan and her parents had received the Lord and were immediately discipled and baptized at the end of the week.

Thi Loan’s parents were ancestor worshipers and practiced spirit worship. After their conversion, they invited the South Vietnamese pastors to their home in the north, Hai Phong, to have their altars and charms removed and burnt. The visit was arranged and the South Vietnamese pastors visited their home the following week. Not only did they remove the altars, charms, and amulets, but they were able to lead the whole family to the Lord. Thi Loan’s eighty-four-year-old grandmother, who was almost blind and deaf, was healed after her conversion. Amid wonder, miracles, and healing, Thi Loan’s parents offered their home to start the first Church of God congregation in North Vietnam.

On August 20, Neville and Anne were invited to witness the baptism of the first believers in North Vietnam. The first Church of God congregation in North Vietnam now has eleven baptized believers and a congregation of about twenty Christians. Praise the Lord!