When I first met N, she was an earnest Buddhist. It took about two years before she started to open her heart to the gospel. She had a little cafe at home and every morning she had to work, including Sundays. I and my husband knew her financial situation and understood how difficult it was for her to stop working even on Sunday mornings. So we tried to find a suitable afternoon meeting for her. However, we couldn't find one. Finally she decided to take a day off on Sundays to attend the church we usually attend.

She kept coming and started to attend the Alpha course also. She started to know more about God and start thinking of inviting her husband to the church also.

However, they had difficulty in transportation. They had one very old motorbike and three children, 5, 7 and 10 years old. If both of them wanted to come, they had to bring their children also. They live in the remote area where there is no bus or bike taxi, so now that the children become bigger, they could not go out together all in one motorbike.

So the first thing they could think of was to take turns to attend the service and bring one or two kids. At the first Sunday the husband attended the service, the foundation class for new believers had started during the Sunday morning service, and everyone who wanted to attend the class was recommended to sign up for it. I asked if he and N wanted to sign up for the class, without knowing how they can. Surprisingly, he said he wanted to join and signed up his name and his wife's. They left some of their kids to the relatives and both of them started to come to church.

To my surprise, one day she told me she would bring three of her kids also. She said, “Now they all want to come to church, but if we don't bring them now because we can't, in the future when we can they may change their mind, interested in other things and not come to church. So they started to come to church all five of them on one old motorbike.

When she decided to come to church, we gave her a little money as we thought it would be financially very difficult for her and her family. And one month later, we tried to give some more money for her, but she said, "Thank you, but I don't need that money as God take care of me." She started to share how God has been good to her and helped her. There are so many that I can't share them all, but I will share with you some:
(1) After she started to come to church, she noticed God had been blessing her business at the little café. Before she was worried so much about her financial situation that she couldn't sleep. But now as she knows God will look after her, she can sleep very well at night.
(2) There had been some people who used to eat at her cafe many times and never paid and disappeared. She could meet two of them and they promised to pay her the money back monthly. And another man came to pay her back all the money he owed her.
(3) One morning, she had acute pain on her left arm and leg. She couldn't do anything but she had to work. Her husband suggested to pray. So they prayed together and the pain has gone in ten minutes or so and never came back. Now they start the day with praying to the Lord.
(4) One day on her way to the Bible study group, she was caught in the heavy traffic jam. (In Vietnam traffic jam is caused mainly by many motorbikes, and some cars and bicycles.) She only had ten more minutes before the study started when she was completely stuck in the traffic and couldn't move. She prayed, "Dear God, today I will study your Word. I don't want to be late, I want to study from the beginning." Somehow, she found a little space in front of her, and another little one, and another... She made it on time.

In November last year, both she and her husband were baptized. We heard so many of N's testimony but had never heard about the husband's testimony. So my husband asked N's husband why he decided to believe in Jesus. He shared his testimony. One time when both of them were in our house, the husband started to feel really sick and had to lie down for a while. We laid our hands on him and prayed. And he was healed.

That was long time ago, even before N started to come to church. As he didn't share immediately, we didn't know that he was healed after the prayer. He said that he realized that there is power and authority in the name of Jesus through that experience.

The day after their baptism, they invited us for lunch at their house and we visited their house for the first time. It was very far from the city centre and we were very surprised that they could come this far with their three kids on one motorbike. It would probably be about an hour's journey for them.

As soon as we arrived at the house, they brought a bag full of idols, lucky charms and tools for Buddhist ceremony, and asked us to pray together as they get rid of all these idols. We never told them to get rid of these stuff, but they themselves made decision to follow God alone.

We thank God for this couple and we would appreciate it if you can pray for this family also.